Intercultural component of teaching Spanish as a foreign language: strategies of intercultural instruction

• Main Author: F. Martín-Loeches Morales
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Kyiv National Linguistic University 2016-11-01
• Series: Іноземні мови
• Subjects: міжкультурна компетентність; культура; вивчення іспанської мови як іноземної; стратегії міжкультурного спілкування
• Online Access: http://fl.knlu.edu.ua/article/view/122545
• ISSN: 1817-8510; 2616-776X

Concepts of teaching foreign languages haven’t cleared up the misunderstanding and difficulties which appeared because of the unsufficient level of the development of pupils’ sociocultural competence. These difficulties were closely connected with linguistic misunderstanding, striking difference in national characters, peculiarities of foreign cultures. Nowadays, while studying a foreign language, pupils realize that they should master not only a foreign language and get acquainted with other culture but get to know the other way of living. So the necessity of developing the intercultural competence alongside with the communicative one has appeared. Purpose . To give a short historical analysis of teaching within the intercultural approach, to show the connection between intercultural and communicative competences. Approaches to teaching and stages of sociocultural learning and its content are regarded. Intercultural context of teaching based on the sociocultural aspect of teaching a foreign language is described. The most important feature of such teaching is the role of a pupil and his necessity of dealing with a foreign culture. The main problems within intercultural communication are closely connected with a linguistic (language) shock (when the pupils’ level of the language competence is rather low), a cultural shock (when the problem solving strategies peculiar to the culture of the mother tongue do not hold) and the cultural stress may occur. It is connected with the change of a new social status in another culture. There are two another approaches towards skills development in intercultural teaching: The Social Skills Approach and The Holistic Approach. The scholars define three stages of intercultural competence development: monocultural (at this level a pupil watches and evaluates another culture on the grounds of his own one); intercultural (a pupil holds the position between two cultures and can compare them), and transcultural – a pupil acts as a mediator between two cultures. Different exercises and tasks for developing main strategies of an intercultural conflict resolution – to watch, understand and compare, interpret, act and interact are given.