The rationale of the problem under study is conditioned by the fact that the compulsory study of a second foreign language at school is a new, but by all means positive phenomenon, as the introduction of a second foreign language in the secondary school curriculum has become a practical step on the way to polycultural education, to the formation of a polylingual personality. The introduction of the compulsory study of two foreign languages has aggravated such problems as the absence of the unifying concept of teaching a second foreign language, the absence of requirements for a second foreign language proficiency level in the State Educational Standard, the absence of various and effective teaching resources. This article is aimed at the analysis of the background and prospects of schoolchildren’s polylingual education in the context of new Federal State Educational Standards (FSES). The leading approaches in the research of the problem under study are competence-based and contrastive ones as they let us fully consider the phenomenon of polylingualism which gives an opportunity to use several language systems in communication. The article reveals the background of polylingualism, defines the purposes, content and main principles of teaching several foreign languages, justifies the application of competence-based and contrastive approaches in teaching a second foreign language in the modern school, develops the model of the foreign language communicative competence formation for a second foreign language in the context of studying two foreign languages (English and German). The materials of the article can be useful for foreign language teachers in order to upgrade their skills and make the teaching-learning process a learner-centered one

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