An Interdisciplinary Approach to Training Teaching Skills for Intercultural Communicative Competence

Abstract

AbstractAlthough intercultural interaction permeates the entire educational system, the introduction of intercultural education at all educational levels is a slow and complex process. Particularly, the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) development among preschool and primary school children requires peculiar teachers’ knowledge and skills to form pupils’ ICC. The purpose of this article is to analyze the process of developing undergraduates’ ICC, and their methodological knowledge and skills in ICC formation in preschool and primary school children. The methodological basis of the work consists in axiological, interdisciplinary, and communicative approaches. The common goal of the research is to develop intercultural skills of future teachers who are ready, on the one hand, to deal with children from interculturally diverse back-grounds, and on the other hand, to prepare children to act in multiculturally diverse society. The study involved 167 students enrolled in the Bachelor programs of Pskov State University. The empirical research included three stages of the experiment. The content of the examination included complexes of interactive methods, with the help of which it was supposed to strengthen the formation of the ICC of bachelors, the ability to work in a team and the development of a set of instrumental competencies together with the development of the methods of teaching ICC to schoolchildren. The practical result of the study is a set of business games facilitating the undergraduates’ intercultural communicative competence development as well as their ability to develop the ICC in preschoolers.KeywordsIntercultural competenceInterdisciplinary approachProfessional developmentProfessional and pedagogical cultureTeaching skills