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Andreyeva O.A., Ganyukova A.A., Tuleubayeva Sh.K.
The Karaganda state university named after E.A. Buketov
TO THE QUESTION OF POLYCULTURAL EDUCATION OF STUDENTS
Summary
In this article authors made an attempt to consideration of the question of polycultural education of students proceeding from the concept of polycultural competence. The review of the main aspects of the communicative competence defined as possession by the personality of speech means system which assimilation provides communicative activity in various situations of communication was made. Authors come to the conclusion that training in the context of polycultural paradigm possesses the high personal developing potential.
Keywords: polycultural education, polycultural competence, polycultural adaptation, communicative behaviour, cross-cultural communication.
Basic changes in the field of education increased the interest of Kazakhstan citizens in learning foreign languages, in particular English. Foreign languages are necessary for use in different spheres of life of society as real means on a global scale today.
In this regard there is urgent need in application of such concept as polycultural education as polycultural competence and tolerance is in a row of the main pedagogical principles today. It is caused by the aggravation of a number of contradictions of both social and economic, and cultural and moral character. We see the sharpest manifestations of intolerance of people in the international sphere where the whole people and even civilizations are quite often involved in the conflicts. The economic contradictions which are the cornerstone of the majority of the interethnic conflicts are very dangerous.
Kazakhstan can be called as one of bright examples of mutual consent and peace between nationalities and religions where in peace more than 130 nationalities there live for tens of years. In our country special importance is gained by factors of skill to communicate and tolerance. Multiculturalism calls for preservation and development of cultural and language identity of the nations and ethnoses.
Polycultural competence is a knowledge and acceptance by the person of cultural diversity of the world, the benevolent, open and impartial attitude towards any culture and its carriers.
Polycultural competence of the personality means the following:
- each culture has own context and logic;
- no culture is better than another, as each possesses its own system of the interacting elements;
- any culture is viable until it is functioning and developing.
Polycultural competence means knowledge and acceptance by the person of cultural diversity of the world, the benevolent, open and impartial attitude towards any culture and its carriers.
The culture is a basis of formation of polycultural competence of students and it is understood as a lifestyle, customs, traditions and beliefs in their diachronism and synchronism, as cultural and historical background, the spiritual and material wealth which is saved up by each people separately and all peoples in total.
Here it is important to note the influence of three aspects: pragmatical, cognitive and pedagogical. The first aspect - pragmatical that is connected with formation of students' communicative competence defined as possession of the personality of speech means system which assimilation provides communicative activity in various situations of communication. The second -cognitive - testifies to adequate use of language, features of culture as the tool of knowledge of
© Andreyeva O.A., Ganyukova A.A., Tuleubayeva Sh.K., 2016 r.
other culture and, therefore, development tools of cross-cultural competence and the personality in general. In turn, the pedagogical aspect is urged to define the mode of extralinguistic existence bi/polycultural personality. Independence, activity, empathy refer to extralinguistic qualities of the personality capable successfully to communicate in situations of cross-cultural interaction. Experience of the emotional and estimated relation of the individual to ethnocultural interaction, manifestation of tolerance to other viewpoints, other position of the partner in communication, ability and readynesss to understand various, special and the general, universal in cultures, in attitude [1, 24] is the cornerstone of empathy.
Polycultural adaptation is a form of social adaptation of the personality. And therefore it is necessary to develop abilities of students to cross-cultural life as this area from the very beginning focuses the person to success in the conditions of multicultural community.
Scientists distinguish four stages of polycultural adaptation:
- assimilation (full or partial loss of primordial state);
- acculturation (mutual likening and adaptation of various cultures and separate phenomena of these cultures);
- consolidation (addition of new, larger unity on the basis of a number of small related communities);
- rapprochement (interpenetration of cultural features of various cultural communities at preservation of the main features of the specifics by them).
Kostikova L.P. considers polycultural competence from the point of view of "dialogue approach" which acts as synthesis of philosophy of multiculturalism, pedagogics and cultural science [2, 17]. In the field of dialogue approach there can be the analysis and reconsideration of current trends of development of pedagogics of the high school, directed to education, conditions and mechanisms of self-determination of the personality. The essence of dialogue approach to education consists here in its representation as cross-cultural, as way of familiarizing of students to various cultures for the purpose of formation of the all-planetary consciousness allowing to interact closely with representatives of various countries and peoples. The author understands communication of people with people of other cultures, perception of system of their values, integration of new experience in own culture and therefore, this concept, naturally, is closely connected with teaching of foreign languages as polycultural education.
There are no identical national cultures, moreover, there are no the identical images of consciousness displaying identical or even the same cultural subject. If even the cultural subject was transferred from one national culture to another, therefore, the sensual image would have to be identical, but it does not occur since for its formation not only the perceptual data obtained at sensory perception of this subject are used, but also aprioristic knowledge (perceptual standards) containing conceptual cultural by the nature, knowledge. The intellectual image of this subject (transferred from one culture to another) always bears in itself elements of national and cultural specifics [3, 19].
Influence of national specifics of mentality of this or that lingua cultural community on processes of education and functioning of lexicon cannot be diminished. Thus research has to have contrastive character when the thinking and communication of ethnos, native for the researcher, is compared with someone else's ethnos which language is being studied or described. Identification and the description of concrete distinctions will also give us material for research. As it was already specified by us, formation of lexicon is influenced by national culture of this ethnos, in particular, important value has communicative behavior of the people. In the most general view it is offered to understand the rules realized in communication and traditions of communication of this or that lingua cultural community as communicative behavior. We quite agree with opinion of I.A.Sternin who says about communicative behavior of a lingua cultural community as in general, and some group of the native speakers united on this or that sign, and also the certain individual and also that the communicative behavior has national and specific character and acts as aspect of manifestation in communication of the language personality. The inadequate perception of communicative behavior of one people by another creates "misunderstanding zone", breaks communication and
even can lead to emergence of the interpersonal and interethnic conflicts. The communicative behavior is characterized by certain norms which allow to characterize concrete communicative behavior. It is possible to speak about norms of communicative behavior in three aspects: common cultural norms, situational norms, individual norms [4].
From the told above we can conclude that being teachers of foreign languages follows from everything, we first of all have to along with training of the main grammatical and lexical skills, expand the individual picture of the world of trainees due to familiarizing with a foreign culture picture of the world (development processes); to explain and acquire others, foreign culture way of life and inherent in it behavioural models (knowledge processes); to use linguistic and extralinguistic (nonverbal) means in authentic situations of cross-cultural communication (process of formation of skills and abilities). Thus, training in the context of the polycultural paradigm possesses the high personal developing potential.
Literature
1. Polycultural competence as a factor of development of tolerance of students. B.A. Takhokhov, N.A. Bogatykh//the Higher Education №3, 2008, p. 24.
2. Multipliced vision of culture as tendency of development of education. L.P. Kostikova//the Higher education №3, 2008, p. 17
3. Tarassov E.F. Cross-cultural communication as new ontology of the analysis of language consciousness//Ethnocultural specifics of language consciousness. - M.: Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of linguistics, 2000. - P. 19.
4. Sternin I.A. Communicative behaviour in structure of national culture//Ethnocultural specifics of language consciousness. - M.: Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of linguistics, 2000. - P. 97.
