Key words: foreign language, foreign language teaching, globalization, language study, cross cultural communication, international labor market, foreign language curriculum, foreign language instruction, religious affiliation, creativity, culture, international students exchange, target culture, interdisciplinary perspectives
English, the official language of the entire world is a very tricky language to teach. In fact every language varies to teach. English is a very old language and has undergone many forms changes from Proto English derived from the Latin and the German culture to the Modern English which was established after in the post Renaissance period. Each version was simpler than it’s previous. Present day English is the simplest adaptation of a very old Language and yet it is still difficult to teach this language effectively especially to those who speak English as a second language.
The world we live in is changing dramatically and to develop students’ unique creativities is an important and worthwhile educational goal. The globalization of the engineering profession requires the graduates’ good skills in cross-cultural communication. European activities in internationalization of education and particularly international students’ exchange help to develop needed skills and abilities.
In the time of the worldwide communication industry and trade, firms have become international organizations. Thus, they need specialists not only equipped with professional knowledge, but also with other qualities indispensable for proper operation in modern society. A graduate for today needs additional skills: must be able to establish contacts easily, have negotiation, and be prepared for acting on international labor market.
The education system must take into consideration the development of international contacts same time preserving their traditions as well as their national distinction. In order to fulfill these various and cultures.
Communication within a common culture, or intercultural communication, cavers communication between people who share a commonality of experience, knowledge, and values. Intercultural relation are founded on such factors as shared heritage, gender association, religious affiliation, class distinction, and the like. People in this group may see the world in highly similar ways and may share a common value system. Within the confines of a shared, general culture, communication has the greatest probability for success, if success is defined as a message being understood in the manner in which it was intending.
Success in modern academic and professional careers is unarguably and closely related to individual’s foreign language competence. Moreover, with the introduction of Bologna Declaration and creation of a common European space for higher education, foreign language studies gained greater importance and became an inevitable necessity for an individual. Simultaneously, the status of the foreign language is undergoing changes: instead of a narrow specific linguistic study object, it turns into a tool for other non-linguistic subject studies, an instrument for communication in foreign language environment. It stands obvious that foreign language mastery leads to and results in successful socialization of a person living and studying at home or away, gives a positive impact on the life quality and integration into European society individually and as a community.
In addition, the frequent use of English in intellectual, economical, commercial, and cultural aspects of life round the world cannot be overrated. It is the language of international organisations, pop culture, international tourism, publishing, info communications, and finally, education.
In an educational setting, the desire for effective communication at regional and global levels must arise first from the desire for the hearts and minds and choices of individual administrators, individual teachers and individual students.
Intercultural communication is a form of communication that aims to share information across different cultures and social groups. It is used to describe the wide range of communication processes and problems that naturally appear within an organization or social context made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic and educational backgrounds. Intercultural communication is sometimes used synonymously with cross-cultural communication. This term used to describe the characteristic problems, management techniques and the academic study focused on the interactions between people from different cultures. Various aspects of intercultural communication such as linguistic differences, diverging stereotypes, social roles and belief systems lead to misunderstanding and conflicts and are thus examined with the aim of facilitating resolution.
Common problems inherent in intercultural communication are present in many human activities and pursuits such as education, business and diplomacy. Solution to intercultural communication problems are interdisciplinary in nature and require a good understanding of the cultural factors involved.
However, the term may also be applied more generally to include non-verbal interaction, as well as other forms of communication via the man-made physical environment or through media.
The main thrust of understanding about culture information. Cultural problem solving is yet another way to provide cultural information. In this case, learners are presented with some information but they are on the horns of a dilemma, so to speak. For example, in analyzing, a TV conversation or reading a narrative on marriage ceremonies, they are expected to assess manners and customs or inappropriate behavior, and to employ various problem-solving techniques.
Cultural competence, i.e., the knowledge of the conventions, customs, beliefs, and systems of meaning of another country, indisputably an integral part of foreign language learning, and many teachers have seen it as their goal to incorporate the teaching of culture into the foreign language curriculum. There is a relationship between language and culture.
Foreign language learning is comprised of several components, including grammatical competence, communicative competence, language proficiency as well as a change in attitudes one’s own or another culture.
Alongside linguistic knowledge, students should also familiarize themselves with various forms of non-verbal communication, such as gesture and facial expression, typical in the target culture. Language is, or should be, understood as cultural practice, then ineluctably we must also grapple with notion of culture in relation to language.
Language study also lends itself to creativity as it can be seen to embrace other disciplines with endless scope for doing so in new ways.
In relation to the discipline of foreign language teaching and learning, everything potentially embodies creativity. Language teaching is very open and flexible area where creativity can be easily embedded in both the teaching activities as well as in curriculum.
Thus creativity lies in the ability to construct meaningful language from the building-blocks available and to express ideas using the resources available; learner can often be in control of resources, rather than subject to their limits and restrictions. On another level, creativity also means the scope to play with language and ideas for their own sake.
Higher education must help students to develop their potential as possible within the context and prepare them for a life time of learning, problem working, changing and coping with change, encourage students to plan for, manage and reflect on their own learning development, then help students to understand the role of creativity in their learning and their experiences of learning. Creativity process may contain a set of interconnected activities, experiences and relationships, for example: 1) thinking ahead and planning what to do-analyzing tasks, identifying goals, creating strategies to achieve; 2)doing things in line with planned intentions; 3) thinking about what was done and what was achieved in order on learn (reflecting, reviewing and evaluating; making sense of experience); 4) self- observing and recording –thoughts, ideas, experiences, actions and their effects, experiences to develop a record of learning; 5) participating in activities (thinking about identity and integrity); 6) communicating constantly (developing communicative abilities).
Meaning of creativity on foreign language encourages teachers to be innovative and to experiment. When we user the world “creativity” in connection with foreign language teaching, let us call it “teaching individuality ” and be very sure that we judge creativity in the classroom by what the teacher makes it possible for the student to do. Then creativity will be much than a pronunciation exercise.
As a concept intercultural communication is linked with a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives and fields of study including management science, linguistics, negotiation theory, game theory and political theory. Important associated notions include cross-cultural adaptation, which is the ability to adapt to living in another culture, and social evolution- the study of how society evolve over time. International English maintains specific relations with the cultural reference material for studies and the very studies are different from the ones typical to the traditional ethno-cultural language teaching principle. International English is a language, which bears no similarities to an elite lingua franca, and is used in communication of people representing various cultures and social groups. So, in spite of this fact, the cultural context cannot be limited to the studies of one or a few English speaking countries social and cultural life. Hence, the cultural discourse implemented in the international language studies should suggest the information of three types at equal proportions:
‒ Source or native cultural material;
‒ Cultural material of the target language speaking country;
‒ Cultural material of world countries speaking non-target language or speaking bilingually.
On the other hand, the cultural discourse stands inseparable in teaching and learning an international language as it carries a double function — semantic, suggesting meaningful information, and motivating, supplying language use processes with a stimulus. Consequently, the cultural material selection can be accompanied by certain danger such as globalisation of world cultures and changes in the national identity. Multicultural, multiethnic modern British society experiencing life style homogenisation processes in various spheres cannot be longer related to the traditional stereotypes of British cuisine of tea, cucumber scones, roast beef, or fat puddings because of the information invalidity. Instead of stereotypical interpretation of the world culture, a number of new common values and burning issues have come onto the stage: tolerance to those who are different, movement against global terrorism, ecological agriculture, global climate warming, hazardous genetically modified food products, cloning of a human being, etc.
As cultural discourse is the major language learning reference source, in the process of studying it becomes a two-way action. If this process is narrowed in scope to the analysis of one target language speaking country life, it would be a step back towards the principle of Anglo-centric cultural approach.
The process of an international language studying goes in two directions: 1) the analysis and interpretation of other culture material and 2) reflecting one’s own culture via comparison of similarities and varieties of both phenomena. This two-way action is of a paramount importance, as culture discourse based studies with sustainable approach to cultural diversities are supposed to achieve the following aims:
‒ Creating an intercultural sphere via relating suggested study material to the source culture;
‒ Creating the sphere of intercultural pluralism via suggested assumption that even the target language culture is not monolithic as it covers ethnic varieties; and the latter can be more logically generalized by the criteria of age, gender, region, ethnic or social background.
Different sociologists have differently define the term “Culture”: Taylor: “Culture is the complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs and habits and any capabilities acquired by man as a member of society”.
So, the intercultural communication competence may be defined as the learner’s ability to perceive various cultures and relate them to the native one. No matter in how much globalised world a modern individual lived, whether distances were measured in kilometres or flight hours, how eagerly one could wish to identify oneself with the cosmopolitan culture, still, nowadays people exhibit firstly their family, region, nation, country, or culture affiliation and information messages. Without sustainable awareness of one’s cultural roots, a person is incapable to understand other national cultures.
References:
- Norman Jackson. Developing and Valuing Student’s Creativity; A New Role for Personal Development Planning? http:// www.heacademy.ac.uk/ creativity.htm.
- Махкамова Г. Лингвокультурная компетенция и методы её формирования. Ташкент. 2013.
- Гинзбург Р. С. Значение слова и методика компонентного анализа // ИЯШ. 1978.
- International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. — N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1992.
- Ducrot O., Todorov T. Encyclopedic dictionary of the Sciences of Language / Trans. by Catherine Porter. — Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972.
