Intercultural Competence in teaching

However, if studying two foreign languages at European schools is considered usual, the process of mastering foreign languages in Russia is not so good. But carrying out the provisions of the Bologna Declaration, as one of the results, Russia can set 12 years of schooling, with increased period of studying some foreign language.

The international organization of the Council of Europe has taken the task of assisting the European countries to agree on the goals and content of foreign language teaching. Russia's entry into the Council of Europe has identified the need to harmonize educational standards in Russia with general European ones.

There has been developed a system of levels of language proficiency and the system of description of these levels using the standard categories. These two complexes provide a network of concepts, which can be used to describe any certification system and any training program in a standard language, starting with setting goals and ending attainable resulted competencies [18].

The developed specifications for the foreign language teaching are based on the main principles which are level approach to the presenting linguistic-didactic items and communicative-oriented approach to the selection of educational material content. The process of the formation of the text at the level of sentences, that is grammar and vocabulary, is considered not as an educational goal but as means for communication purposes.

The study and use of a foreign language include human's actions developing a number of competences: General competence and Communicative language competence. The competence is referred as the amount of knowledge, skills and personal qualities that allow a person to perform different actions.

General competences include: ability to learn; existential competence; declarative knowledge; skills and know-how. General competences are not linguistic ones, they mean any activity, including communicative one.

Communicative language competence includes: linguistic components (lexical, phonological, syntactical knowledge and skills); social-linguistic component; pragmatic component (knowledge, existencial competence and skills and know-how relating to the linguistic system and its sociolinguistic variation) and allows to carry out activities with the use of linguistic resources.

There are following components of communicative competence:

1) Grammatical or formal competence or linguistic competence is systematic knowledge of grammar, vocabulary and phonetics units, which convert the lexical items into a statement.

2) Social-linguistic competence is the ability to select and use appropriate language forms and tools depending on the purpose and the situation of communication, social roles of participants of the communication process.

3) The Discursive competence (discourse competence) is the ability to build integrated, coherent and logical expressions of different functional styles in speech and writing, based on understanding the different kinds of texts for reading and listening, involves the choice of linguistic means, depending on the type of utterance.

4) Social-cultural competence is knowledge of the cultural characteristics of native speakers, their habits, traditions, ethics and etiquette and the ability to understand and use them properly in the process of communication. The formation of social competence involves the integration of personality in the worldwide and national cultures.

There have been two main approaches in the history of foreign language teaching: a) the study of language based on the rules, and b) the study of language-based communication.

The first approach is conducted with the help of grammar-translation system in the process of foreign languages teaching. According to it, the process of teaching is based on the study of grammar and vocabulary with the next generation of the transition to the formation and decoding of the speech (reading and understanding spoken speech). Using the rules and vocabulary of the language, students must re-create (generate) a new language. The way of learning the language was passing through a huge number of errors that reduced any interest in its study. Experience has shown that this approach is not very effective.

The second approach is performed through communication. It is considered more effective, although contains a number of disadvantages. Lack of awareness of the foreign language rules both extends the process of study and reduces the quality of the foreign-language speech.

As a result, there has been a convergence of these two approaches of teaching a foreign language. That is, the unity of language rules and actions has been experimentally proved. The main action being developed with the help of a foreign language is a communication process, or speech communication. In the process of communication there is not only an exchange of views and feelings, but also the development of linguistic resources. Language rules perform an auxiliary function showing the use of linguistic phenomena in speech.

Thus, a foreign language can be considered as a means of developing communicative competence. This means the ability to adequately clothe communication goals and strategies of their achievement into proper language forms, as well as the ability to use the rules of speech etiquette and social behavior in the situations of intercultural communication, where updated knowledge of the situational and social-cultural contexts is actual.

Conclusion

The idea of teaching culture is nothing new to second language teachers. In many cases, teaching culture has meant focusing a few lessons on holidays, customary clothing, folk songs, and food. While these topics may be useful, without a broader context or frame they offer little in the way of enriching linguistic or social insight - especially if a goal of language instruction is to enable students to function effectively in another language and society. Understanding the cultural context of day-to-day conversational conventions such as greetings, farewells, forms of address, thanking, making requests, and giving or receiving compliments means more than just being able to produce grammatical sentences. It means knowing what is appropriate to say to whom, and in what situations, and it means understanding the beliefs and values represented by the various forms and usages of the language.

Culture must be fully incorporated as a vital component of language learning. Second language teachers should identify key cultural items in every aspect of the language that they teach. Students can be successful in speaking a second language only if cultural issues are an inherent part of the curriculum.

List of references

1. Brown H.D. (1986). Learning a Second Culture In Valdez (1986).

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4. Chen & Starosta. Model of Intercultural Sensevity Scale. 1996.

5. Chen. Intercultural Communication competence. 1990

6. Byram, M. & Risager, K. (1999). Language Teachers, Politics and Cultures. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

7. Lovelyday, L., 1982. The Sociolinguistics of Learning and Using a Non-native Language.UK: Pergamon Press.

8. Irving, 1986. Communicating with Asia.Understanding people and Customs. Australia: Allen &UnwinPty Ltd.

9. Hall, E. T., 1991. The Silent Language. New York: Doubleday.

10. Fantini. Developing Intercultural Competence. 1997

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12. Myron W. Intercultural Competence. 2012

13. David O McKay. Introducing language and Intercultural communication. 2010

14. Stempleski S, Tomalin B. Video in Action. Prentice Hall. 1990 173-p.

15. Byram M. Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. 1997.

16. Kramsch C. Language and Culture. 1998

17. Hollo, D. & Lazar, I. (2000). The neglected element - Teaching culture in the EFL classroom. NovELTy, 7/1.

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