Intercultural training as a means of solving the psychological and pedagogical problem of a person’s readiness for intercultural communication

Abstract

Introduction. The relevance of the problem is determined by the importance of resolving the contradiction between the need to form readiness for intercultural communication and the lack of practical studies. The purpose of the article is to provide a theoretical justification and implement the practical application of intercultural communication trainings for students of the Department of Foreign Languages. Materials and methods. The experiment involved 108 full-time students of the Department of Foreign Languages of the South Ural State Humanitarian Pedagogical University (Russian Federation). Methods: a technique for studying the formation of psychological readiness for intercultural communication (V.I. Dolgova, E.A. Vasilenko, A.S. Baronenko); mental states self-assessment test (H.J. Eysenck). Statistical methods of data processing: methods of descriptive statistics; Student’s t-test, Wilcoxon’s t-test, SPSS Statistics 22.0 software package. Results. The ascertaining experiment revealed an insufficient level of formation of the emotional and behavioral components. After the formative stage (implementation of the cycle of intercultural trainings “Communicative Attractiveness”: “Psycho-Projection of Communication”, “Attractive Communication” and “Self-Reflection of Communication”) the indicators for these components tripled. The cumulative results of the mental states self-assessment test (H.J. Eysenck) showed a decrease in the influence of negative mental states. Using the Wilcoxon test, statistically significant shifts in the sociocultural component (z = -2.059; p = 0.039), conceptual component (z = -2.593; p = 0.010), emotional component (z = -3.431; p = 0.001) and behavioral component (z = -4.119; p = 0.000) were revealed. Conclusion. Based on the results of the study, a technological map was developed for introducing a cycle of intercultural trainings into the practice of universities and recommendations were worked out for students, teachers and parents on the formation of psychological readiness for intercultural interaction.