This article is devoted to the issues of effective organization of medical students’ independent work in the process of development of a professional foreign language communicative competence, which is a complex and multifold pedagogical task. The authors consider the independent extracurricular work of medical students as an integral part of the process of development of a professional foreign language communicative competence. Particular attention is paid to the importance of independent work in the professional training of a future specialist in the field of medicine. When considering the principles of organizing independent extracurricular work of students while teaching the disciplines "Foreign language" and "Foreign language in professional communication of a physician / pediatrician / dentist", the authors were guided by personality-oriented, professionally oriented and competence-based approaches. The types, forms, content of students’ independent work are described in detail, the examples of the organization of students’ independent work in the process of development of a professional foreign language communicative competence while using such pedagogical technologies as the project method and the scenario method are given in the paper. The authors base this research on the personal experience of teaching a foreign language at the department of foreign languages with a course of Russian language at Ryazan state medical university named after academician I.P. Pavlov.