Identity is regarded as the central semantic element of personality that has cognitive-affective nature, which affects the value-sense sphere, thinking and The peculiarities of formation of professional communicative competence of foreign students are regarded in the article. The problems that foreign students of different ethnic groups face in the process of communication on non-native language in the learning process are analyzed, the views of various researchers of the noted problem are considered. It is found out that overcoming of difficulties in professional communication is possible by reducing socio-cultural distance between the representatives of different cultures and formation of communicative competence on the propaedeutic stage will intensify the process of formation of professional and communicative competence on the main stage. The feasibility of contextual learning of language of the country of studying as a mean of professional and communicative competence is proved. It is concluded that the process of the formation of professional and communicative competence of foreign students in higher technical educational establishments has two stages and is a complicated phenomenon that manifests itself in an optimal and comprehensive combination of subjective and objective factors.