The research object is the activity-based learning theory. The purpose of the study is to prove the assumption that the subject-object approach as a direction of the learning theory is the most effective one in the context of development of modern paradigms of linguistic education. The authors believe that the main content of the learning activity should be the learning of generalized modes of action in the field of scientific concepts and the qualitative changes in the intellectual and psychological development of the student that occur on this basis. The design of the academic subject as an object of learning activity should put the student into an active position based on the principle of combination of theory and practice. The study investigates the essential difference of the learning problem from other problems, which lies in the fact that its goal and result is to change the acting subject, rather than the objects with which the learning subject interacts. The authors present a theoretical and conceptual model of developing linguistic competence, which is based on the subject-object approach as a direction of the activity-based learning theory.