METHODS OF TEACHING THE DISCIPLINE “INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION”

Abstract

Introduction. The article defines that “Intercultural communication” being an educational component is aimed at forming the skills of future teachers of the English language and literature to communicate productively in an unfamiliar cultural environment, maintain a tolerant attitude towards other cultures and their representatives; comprehend the models of verbal and non-verbal communication in order to operate freely with the learned material in professional activities.

The purpose of the “Intercultural Communication” course is to prepare students for effective contacts at the level of everyday interpersonal communication, intercultural communication, and formation of motivation for using acquired knowledge in professional activities.

Methods. In the process of teaching an academic discipline, in order to activate the educational and cognitive activity of students, the use of active and interactive educational methods has been provided, n particular: problem-based lectures, dialogue-lectures, presentation-lectures, work with reference, informational and methodological sources, presentation of the results of completed practical tasks, role-playing games.

Results. It has been defined that “Intercultural communication” is a basic educational component of the students’ professional training. The program of the “Intercultural Communication” course is designed for 120 hours, including lecture classes – 10 hours (full-time department) and 4 hours (correspondence department), practical classes – 30 hours (full-time department) and 8 hours (correspondence department) respectively. 64 (full-time department) and 86 (correspondence department) hours are allotted for independent work of applicants. Individual work involves – 16 (day department) and 22 hours (correspondence department). The structure of the academic discipline includes four substantive modules. The final form of control over the study of the course is the assessment in the form of a credit.

Originality. It has been distinguished that in order to study the academic discipline “Intercultural Communication”, students have to master the knowledge of the academic disciplines: “Practice of oral and written communication (main foreign language)”, “Intonation of the English discourse”,“Theory of language communication”. The working curriculum is designed for students who study in the educational and professional training program of the second (Master’s) level of higher education in specialty 014 “Secondary Education (Language and Literature (English))”. There have been first implemented various multifaceted practical tasks, discussion-contests, as well as lectures-presentations, lectures-dialogues, seminars-workshops, seminars-performances, master-classes etc.

Conclusion. It has been emphasized that the program is built according to the requirements of the credit-module system for organizing the educational process in higher educational institutions, recommended by the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). Mastering the “Intercultural Communication” educational discipline by future specialists greatly contributed to increasing their professional competence in today’s realia.