Masters of pedagogical sciences

Bakirova. Zh.M, Oskina M.S

Arkalyk state pedagogical institute, Kazakhstan

Intercultural Communication in Teaching Foreign language

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the cultural dimension of foreign language education, and teachers today are expected to promote the acquisition of intercultural competence in their learners.

A main concept in the sphere of applied intercultural communication is intercultural sensitivity. Its increase in the conditions of multipliable variety, uncertainty, ambiguity and changes, that characterize the society, is becoming a significant component of a professional qualification of a specialist. For this purpose there are a big number of educational and training literature and trainings on intercultural communication. Different kinds of handbooks and manuals on how to efficiently deal (teach, bargain, work, etc.) with the representatives from different countries, give certain knowledge about the peculiarities of this or that culture in the spheres of professional, social and, in particular, interpersonal communication. They can be oriented on two or more comparative cultures. The information, contained in it, expands the knowledge about another culture, but does not enable the increase of intercultural sensitivity. This can be done by cross-cultural trainings, based on the idea that it is not sufficient just to give the participants certain information about this or that culture. This knowledge should be assumed in the way that can change some communicative and cultural presumptions and by this influence on the behavior of people in the situations of intercultural communication. When discussing intercultural communicative differences it is sometimes necessary to generalize as individual peculiarities of a speaker or a concrete communicative situation may not be settled in a certain cultural stereotype.

Intercultural competence is the collection of knowledge and ideas which are formed through skills that provide successful communication system with the representatives of other cultures, arrangements and behavior models [6,18]. It presents competence in the course of mutual relations with the representatives of other cultures. In this article we discuss knowledge and skills related to intercultural competence and the processes of successful communication.

In social psychology it is formed in socio-perceptive, communicative, and interactive aspects of communication. Intercultural competence has three forms: perceptive, communicative and interactive [3,48]. These three components are closely interconnected and the development of one of them results in the development of the other two aspects.

First of all, we must pay attention to cognitive-attributive processes within the range of socio-perceptive competence. These processes are stereotyping and social causal attribution. Social perception has wider range than other aspects of communication, and plays the main role in the formation of social settings. While studying this aspect, the program of intercultural competence is implemented and there is a serious approach to the formation of settings. In the process of working out these methods, the models that can influence on settings are created and with the help of them the dynamics of the attitude towards the language and customs of the representatives of “foreign” cultures are analyzed.

The researchers study three aspects as the main stages of acquiring the skills of ethno- cultural competence. They are: cultural awareness, self - awareness, cross-cultural awareness [8, 64].

In our opinion, on the basis of studying the above mentioned aspects, the necessity of the third stage appears. This stage is the formation of aims among the groups. And then it is necessary to pass to the next stage, which is the formation of the person according to them. It would be the fourth stage of the formation of ethno- cultural competence of the person.

The principles of intercultural communicative competence are interconnected and constitute the basis for development of methodology of intercultural English-speaking strategies formation. The aim of intercultural strategies is to teach students to communicate with the English-speaking native Speakers, taking into account personal needs and requirements of modern society, and the process of their formation consists of four levels. To achieve this goal in formation of intercultural English speaking communicative competence one has to follow the following strategies: the use of lectures to explore foreign cultures, communication with native speakers, listening to audio recordings interviews, video-record interviews and reading of authentic texts. These intercultural communicative strategies, which enable to depart from the standard pattern of the English language teaching, will make training more effective and help to succeed in intercultural communication.

On the basis of domestic and foreign researcher’s works critical review, as well as a thorough analysis of the practical material, we can say that the choice of learning content, organization and presentation of training materials should be accomplished taking into account students’ interests which appear in the process of study. It has been found that the most appropriate and most effective activities for teaching intercultural communication in higher forms are cultural assimilations, cultural capsules, mini-dramas, role-plays, social and cultural tasks, the use of media, training, comparative and project technology.

We have determined that for the formation of students’ intercultural communicative competence it is necessary to choose such means of assessment as tests, portfolios, observation, interviews, summary of material analysis in diaries, report of the foreign/own culture monitoring means. They will help quickly and objectively identify the level of knowledge and formation skills of readiness for the intercultural interaction. The carried out investigation suggests that the developed methodology of intercultural English-speaking communicative strategies formation in students is effective. On the basis of our research guidelines for intercultural communication training have been formulated. We consider it appropriate to emphasize the fact that intercultural communication training promotes expansion of worldviews, strengthening the motivation for language learning, developing intercultural communication skills, content of foreign language studies, optimization and updating traditional teaching languages with information and methodology and providing training to use foreign language in any environment.

Literature:

1. Alptekin C. Towards intercultural communicative competence in ELT. ELT Journal, 2002, 56 (1), Р. 46–54.

2. Anderson C. Phillipson’s children. Language and intercultural communication, 3(1), 2003, Р.81-94.

4. Brumfit C. British Studies: an educational perspective. In: S. Bassnett (Ed.), Studying British Cultures. An Introduction. – London: Routledge, 1997. – Р. 39–53.

5. Buttjes D. Culture in German foreign language teaching: making use of an ambiguous past. In D. Buttjes and M. Byram (Eds.), Mediating languages and cultures. – Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1990. – Р. 3–16.

6. Byram M., Flemming M. Language learning in intercultural perspective. – Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. – 236 p.