Межкультурное взаимодействие как инновационный метод обучения иностранному языку

Цаулян М.В.

УДК 378.147

Бельцкий государственный университет им. Алеку Руссо

канд. пед. наук, доцент кафедры английской и немецкой филологии Цаулян М.В.

Молдова, г. Бельцы, +373-69674455 e-mail: mtaulean@yahoo.com

Alecu Russo Balti State University

The chair of English and German philology

PhD, associate professor Taulean M.V.

Moldova, Balti, +373-69674455 e-mail: mtaulean@yahoo.com

М.В. Цаулян

МЕЖКУЛЬТУРНОЕ ВЗАИМОДЕЙСТВИЕ КАК ИННОВАЦИОННЫЙ МЕТОД ОБУЧЕНИЯ ИНОСТРАННОМУ ЯЗЫКУ

В статье оценивается несколько инновационных методов обучения иностранному языку. Практические потребности изучения межкультурной коммуникации возникли вследствие бурного экономического развития многих стран и регионов, революционных изменений в технологии и связанной с этим глобализации экономической деятельности. Равноправный диалог представителей разных культур предполагает не только достаточный уровень владения английским языком, но и сформированность межкультурной компетенции собеседников. Поскольку класс иностранных языков является идеальным местом для выражения такого рода образовательного вмешательства, хорошее владение иностранным языком означает не только понимание и знание того, как использовать его грамматические структуры, но также понимание культуры, в которой используется язык, и навыки взаимодействия разных культур. Автор статьи подчеркивает мысль о том, что любые коммуникационные методы, которые не разрушают цель, можно рассматривать как инновационные методы обучения. Цель статьи - показать пути сокращения барьеров межкультурной коммуникации, которые способствуют сознательному освоению иностранного языка и развитию навыков межкультурной коммуникации студентов. Автор статьи акцентирует внимание на необходимости обсуждения актуальных проблем межкультурной коммуникации, а также опыта межкультурного общения студентов на занятиях английского языка на университетском уровне и считает необходимым использовать элементы тренинга межкультурного общения, в котором студенты получают возможность испытать те чувства и эмоции, которые возникают в реальной ситуации межкультурной коммуникации, обсудить и проанализировать свое поведение и поведение коллег.

Ключевые слова: компетенция, интерактивные методы, межкультурная компетенция, межкультурный диалог, инновационные методы обучения

M.V. Taulean

INTERCULTURAL INTERACTION AS AN INNOVATIVE METHOD OF TEACHING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

The paper evaluates several innovative methods of teaching a foreign language. Practical needs of studying intercultural communication emerged due to the rapid economic development of many countries and regions, the revolutionary changes in technology, the related globalization of economic activity. Equal dialogue of representatives of different cultures implies not only a sufficient level knowledge of English, but also the formation of intercultural competence of interlocutors. As the foreign language classroom is the ideal place to express this type of educational intervention, to have a good command of a language does not mean only under-

Цаулян М.В., 2018

standing and knowing how to use its grammatical structures but also understanding the culture in which the language is used and learning how to place one culture in contact with the other. The author of the article highlights the idea that any communication methods that do not destroy the objective could be considered as innovative methods of teaching. The purpose of the article is to show the ways of reducing barriers of intercultural communication that contribute to the conscious mastering of a foreign language and developing students' intercultural communication skills. The author of the article focuses on the need to discuss up-to-day problems of intercultural communication, as well as the students' experience of intercultural communication at English classes at the university level, and considers that it is necessary to use the elements of the training of intercultural communication, where students have the opportunity to experience the feelings and emotions that arise in the real situation of intercultural communication, to discuss and analyze their behaviour and the behaviour of their colleagues.

Key words: competence, interactive methods, intercultural competence, intercultural dialogue, innovative methods of teaching

In the context of globalization which has covered virtually all areas of our life, an effective interaction with other cultures is getting urgent. Intercultural communication is one of the most dynamic new sciences. At the same time, as noted by many researchers (Hall and Dodd, Ter-Minasova and Golovleva, Spencer-Oatey and Franklin) conflicts and misunderstandings occurring between people from different cultures are not connected with an insufficient knowledge of the language but with a lack of cultural knowledge. Knowing the language gives an appearance of understanding people of different cultures but does not give a sufficient knowledge about the foreign culture.

Initially for describing intercultural communication the researchers used the classical culture as more or less stable system of conscious and unconscious rules, norms, values, structures, and artifacts, i.e. national or ethnic culture. It is believed that this concept was introduced in the 1950s by American cultural anthropologist Edward T. Hall in the framework of the adaptation programs for American diplomats and businessmen in other countries. From the Foreign Service Institute, Intercultural Communication teaching and training spread to the universities and other organizations. University courses were given and academic textbooks in Intercultural Communication started to appear in the USA in a larger scale in the 1970s. In Europe, the first university courses in Intercultural Communication took place in the 1980s. Intercultural communication is one of progressively developing trends in modern society. Of particular interest is the study of communication barriers representatives of different socio-cultural systems. The main barriers that reduce the effectiveness of interactions were different in cognitive schemes used by different cultures (especially language and nonverbal systems, elements of social consciousness). As the world is becoming more complicated and pluralistic in culture, the importance of themes related to intercultural communication is growing. The ability to communicate, regardless of the cultural barriers, influences our lives not only at work or at school, but also at home, in the family and in the gaming environment. Intercultural communication has a number of features that make it more complex, demanding and difficult than intra or interpersonal communication.

The society in which we live is, and has been, multicultural although the present cultural diversity has certain characteristics which are different to other times and historical moments. Mixing, communicating and living with people from different cultures involves a certain amount of preparation and competence. In this demand, the foreign language classroom is an ideal place to express this type of educational intervention. To have a good command of a language does not mean only understanding and knowing how to use its grammatical structures but also understanding the culture in which the language is used and learning how to place one culture in contact with the other. Consequently, students must continually develop more efficient intercultural communication skills.

Nowadays all the state standards of higher education highlight the learning competencies. According to Clouet, competence is "the ability to do anything well or efficiently", "the ability to perform specific work functions" [1; p.12]. A communicative skill is completed with

a linguistic skill allowing students to interact not only in the classroom but also in the daily life activities of the second language. ESL/EFL classroom teachers are requested to not only provide linguistic tools (e.g., grammar rules, vocabulary, phonics), but also the communicative tools needed to improve accuracy in students' speaking abilities. Teachers must search for ways to perform tasks in a second language similar to those they would use in their mother tongue. That is, strategies from the former language can certainly support aspects of these strategies in the second language. We understand by "competence" the combination of training, skills, experience and knowledge that a person has and his ability to apply them to perform a task safely. It goes without saying, that active and interactive forms of teaching methods play a significant role in EFL teaching. As Gisselle & Martin-Kneip state, with the active training the student acts various activities, while passive learning, enters into a dialogue with the teacher, participating in the cognitive process, doing creative search or problematic tasks [3; p. 23].

Active learning methods can successfully form:

- the ability to adapt in the group;

- the ability to establish personal contacts and exchange of information;

- willingness to accept responsibility for group activities;

- the ability to initiate and formulate ideas and projects;

- willingness to take calculated risks and adopt innovative solutions;

- the ability to clearly and convincingly to express their thoughts,

- the ability to effectively manage its activities, the time and the organization of their studies.

According to Dodd, interactive training is "a) learning, built on the interaction of the learner with the learning environment, the purpose of which is to acquire experience; b) training, which is based on the psychology of human relationships and interactions; c) training, understood as a collaborative process of knowledge, where knowledge of the mined-in joint activities through dialogue ormonologue" [4; p. 7].

To have a good command of a language does not only mean understanding and knowing how to use its grammatical structures but also understanding the culture in which the language is used and learning how to place one culture in contact with the other. Consequently, students must continually develop intercultural communication skills. Among the difficulties the foreign language teacher may encounter in the classroom when teaching these skills there may be two in particular. Firstly, the possible uneasiness of the teacher who, on many occasions, feels that he/she is not up-to-date with the latest methods or does not have sufficient knowledge in the area. Secondly, we should mention the attitude of the student when we face some foreign culture. In relation to the attitude of the students, teachers continually state that the difficulties originate from one or more of the following: insufficient sociocultural competence or, often, from a lack of linguistic competence, sometimes from a lack of understanding, a bad interpretation or simply from misunderstanding. The methods used for correction and learning try to remedy these problems but, more often than not, this does not happen or it seems that the short and medium term results are unsatisfactory. The situation described leads us to consider the need to develop intercultural competences that favour intercultural communication and dialogue.

At the lessons of "Intercultural communication" course we used the following methods of teaching that we consider innovative ones:

Discussion (from latin - consideration, research) - a free public discussion or verbal exchange of knowledge, opinions, ideas or opinions on any problem. Its essential features are: the combination of mutually complementary dialogue and debate, dispute, clash of the different viewpoints. Discussion has several advantages: the students are actively involved into the process of discussion and cooperation. And it provides the feedback from the students.

For example after studying the topic "Cultural differences" the students should discuss the following questions:

•What has surprised you when you've met people from other countries?

•Would you ever consider marrying or dating someone from another culture?

•What does it mean to be polite in your culture?

•What is considered rude in your culture?

•Do you think "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" is always good advice? Why or why not?

Another innovative method is case-technology ("case" from the English "accident" or "event". It also comes from the Latin "casus" - "cadere" meaning "to fall"). Case - study is a form of training and activation of teaching-learning process that successfully allows to develop communicative competence in solving of the problems. The student must

- demonstrate the ability to think logically, clearly and consistently, as well as to understand the meaning of the original data and the assumption of decisions;

- develop the ability to select the additional information needed to clarify the initial situation, i.e., to formulate correctly the questions "for development and understanding";

- acquire skills for clear and accurate presentation of his own point of view orally or in written forms;

- develop necessary skills to make presentations, i.e., to present convincingly, justifying and defending his point of view [4; p. 8].

Among case-technology we can mention the following techniques:

- situational analysis method;

- analysis of specific situations (case studies);

- game design;

- the method of situational role-playing games [4; p. 46].

In the process of resolving a particular situation, the students use their experience and knowledge that have been acquired by them at the previous lessons of the course and by proper experience.

For example, the students were to read several scenarios involving various forms of cultural "misunderstandings". The examples of "Intercultural Incidents" were created by David Steel (from Lancaster University) and were used by us at our practical lessons of the course.

"Roman age"

Steve is on an 8-month work-placement in Italy. He gets on well with his colleagues and they go out_ for a drink in the evening. Getting to know one another they begin to talk o f themselves. Steve explains he comes_ from a typical British_ family. His_ father works in an office and his mother is a housewife. His sister goes to a comprehensive school. They all live together in a semi-detached house. He mentions that his grandparents are in an old people's home. Suddenly there are _ funny looks and the conversation seems to run into the buffers.

The students were to think what had happened and to comment the situation. These intercultural incidents are to enable students to identify causes of cultural misunderstandings; to demonstrate the need for observing others in interaction and for critically analysing culturally defined situations; to foster greater sensitivity towards "otherness" and to raise students' levels of intercultural knowledge and awareness, ranging from role plays to structured discussion and creative writing.

Another innovative method is role playing and scenario analysis based teaching. Drama and dramatic techniques provide an opportunity for a person to express himself through verbal expressions and gestures using his imagination and memory. Maley and Duff pointed that drama releases someone's imagination and energy and this could be considered as an educational objective. Fernandez and Coil supported the previous idea adding that drama encourages students to exercise their sensitivity and imagination and thus makes learning more realistic and meaningful. From educational point of view of Dougili, Early & Tarling-

ton, Maley & Duff, drama fosters the social, intellectual and the linguistic development of the child and it centers on language development, personal awareness, group co-operation, sensory awareness, and imaginative growth. The change in attitude towards the use of drama and drama techniques in language teaching came about due to a greater emphasis on meaningful communicative activities instead of mechanical drills. According to Golovleva, drama and dramatization can be considered useful for clarifying intercultural misunderstandings. We can say that drama involves language students in a role-play and simulation as well as encourages them to position themselves in the role of a member of the other culture.

The role-play activity "In our block" (adapted from "Educational Pack", 1995) tries to analise conflicts between people from different cultures and to find the ways to solve these conflicts in a positive way. This activity is addressed to the analysis of the conflict and the way students deal with it depends on their social and cultural background. The students should role-play a situation that could happen in anyone's daily life. The teacher reads or gives everyone the following text:

"In our block'

"There is an apartment block near where you live. One of the apartments is rented to a group of foreign students who often have visitors from home staying and who also frequently organise parties. Some neighbours, especially those living in the apartments closest to the students, are annoyed and complain that the students and their friends make lots of noise, don't let them sleep and don't take care of the building. The neighbours have called a meeting to try to solve this problem."_

The teacher gives the personal cards with roles to the actors (volunteers):

Young foreigner

You speak and understand the language of the host country very well but do not understand why your neighbours are upset. In your opinion, both you and your student friends behave perfectly normally. You will not leave the apartment under any circumstance._

Leader of the residents committee

Your apartment is far away from the one the foreign students live in. Personally they cause you no bother. But you do not like foreigners and you don't want them living in your building._

Young woman (25-30 years old)

You live alone and are afraid of the young students because they seem very strange and different from you._

Young person

You are also a student. You do not have any clear opinion about the problem but you would like to move into the apartment where the foreign students live._

Refugee

You are also a foreigner, although from a different country than the students. You and your family do not have much to do with other people in the block. You have never had any problems with anyone despite the fact that you feel rather isolated._

Elderly couple (this role should be played by two people)

You are both aware of the problems that force many people to leave their home country and try another life elsewhere. You support an organisation which provides aid to developing countries._

Unemployed neighbour

You strongly disagree with policies that allow foreigners to come to live and work in

your country. You think that foreigners should only be allowed in as tourists._

_The owner of the building_

The young foreigners always paid their rent punctually and you don't want to lose the income from that apartment. But you don't very much like foreign people and you see this conflict as a possible opportunity to raise the rent for the foreign students. On the other hand, you also have the possibility of renting them another apartment on the outskirts of town._

Some students will be volunteers and will play the roles of the neighbours and another act as observers. The teacher shares out the role cards between the volunteers and gives the observers each a copy of the "Observers notes". The players have to come up with a solution to the problem then start the role-play. The observers should note if the players respect each other's turn to speak or do some people but in or does everyone try to speak at once or do one or two people try to impose their point of view; should note if anyone tries to take a lead and to facilitate the meeting; what kinds of arguments players used; should note if there were any change in the attitude and behaviour of the players after they received the "clues for finding a solution".

Debriefing and evaluation can be done in the following way - the actors (volunteers) and observers get together in a large group for the discussion, which should be divided into two parts: talking about what happened in the role-play answering questions for actors and for the observers.

Questions to the actors:

1. How did you (the actors) feel about it?

2. Was it difficult to get into the role you were given?

3. What did you find the hardest and the easiest?

4. What kinds of arguments were put forward and were they based on fact, reason or emotion?

5. Was it easier to find arguments for or against the students?

6. Was the problem resolved and was everyone happy with the outcome?

The other effective teaching method is portfolio (from French "porter" meaning"wear" + Latin "in folio" meaning "in the sheet size"). According to Gisselle and Martin-Kneip portfolio is a collection of students' work that exhibits the student's efforts, progress and achievements in one or more areas or as Davis at al. said that portfolio is a collection of papers and other forms of evidence that has taken place in the process of learning. We consider that the use of portfolios for students' assessment enables students and teachers to engage in a process of learning through assessment. This implies that the assessment procedure not only measures and reinforces the desired learning outcomes but rather enhances the development of strategies, attitudes, skills and cognitive processes essential for lifelong learning.It helps the students to organize their own educational activity, the development of self-learning skills, to assess the prospects for professional growth, to determine the dynamics of teaching and learning activities.

In conclusion we should say that the primary aim of innovative teaching methods and educational technologies is to improve the self-activity of the students and to motivate them to educational and professional activities. They allow students to pass from passive acquisition of knowledge to using it actively in real-life situations, which certainly improves the quality of teaching future specialists.

Библиографический список

1. Clouet, Richard. Studying the role of intercultural competence in language teaching in upper secondary education in the Canary Islands, Spain, OnOmazein 26 (2012/2). 450 p.

2. Golovleva E. L. Introduction to intercultural communication. Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 2008. 367 p.

3. Gisselle, O. & Martin-Kneip. Becoming a Better Teacher. ASCD, Alexandria, Virginia, USA, 2000. 174 p.

4. Dodd, C. H. Dynamics of Intercultural Communication (5thed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Fernandez, L. & Coil, A. Drama in the classroom. Practical Teaching 6:3, p.18-21. 1996. 467 p.

5. Maley, A. & Duff, A. Drama Techniques in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978. 368 p.

6. Spencer-Oatey, H., Franklin, P. Intercultural interaction: A multidisciplinary approach to intercultural communication. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 386 p.

7. Ter-Minasova S. G. Language and intercultural communication. Moscow: Slovo, 2000. 624 p.

8. Interactive Techniques in Thomas A. Angelo/K. Patricia Cross, Classroom Assessment Techniques, URL: www.fctl.ucf.edu/teachingandlearningresources/CourseDesig

9. Richard, Clouet. Understanding and assessing intercultural competence in an online environment: a case study of transnational education programme delivery between college students in LPGC, Spain, and ICES, France, URL: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/4597562.pdf

References

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