ENHANCING INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE THROUGH PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES

• Main Author: Anna Horňáková
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: University of Oradea 2014-03-01
• Series: Journal of Languages for Specific Purposes
• Subjects: healthcare professionals; intercultural competence; professional communication in foreign languages; education
• Online Access: http://jlsp.steconomiceuoradea.ro/archives/001/jlsp-i1-6.pdf

Nowadays, contacts between people from diverse cultural backgrounds are becoming more frequent and much closer. Highly developed skills in intercultural communication have a significant bearing on the quality of relationships between people from different cultures and nationalities. A recent rapid development in multicultural relationships therefore puts new demands also on university graduates. They need to be adequately prepared for new social situations and future job opportunities in their home country and also abroad. Achievement of communication competence is the principal objective in foreign language teaching and therefore intercultural competence is incorporated into the university curriculum. The findings of our survey Implementation of Modern Technologies in Professional Language Teaching (a part of a research project funded by the Kultúrna a edukačná grantová agentúra (KEGA) of the Slovak Ministry of Education, no. 049PU4/2012) highlighted the importance of professional communication teaching and emphasized intercultural competence as one of the key priorities in the university education. We used a specially designed questionnaire to find out if our respondents (students in the Faculty of Health Sciences, the University of Prešov, Slovakia) are sufficiently prepared to provide a proper care to clients/patients from different cultures. Our study showed that the language most used in professional practice was English, and that most respondents did not have any difficulty in communication with clients from different cultures. Sixty percent of the respondents also used non-verbal communication if verbal communication failed, and respected the cultural differences and individuality of patients; a small number of the respondents did not respect these factors. However, our findings also showed that there are still some language barriers between future healthcare professionals and clients/patients from diverse cultures, and that more practice in professional communication has to become an essential part of the foreign language teaching. It is also necessary to include more intercultural aspects into the foreign language teaching for healthcare professionals to be able to respect the individuality of people from different cultures. Hence, the professional language teaching at universities needs to place a greater emphasis on students’ knowledge of different cultures in order to enhance their intercultural competence. Our study provides some recommendations for improving interactions between future healthcare professionals and clients/patients from different cultures.