SOCIO-CULTURAL APPROACH IN TEACHING FOREIGN STUDENTS TO RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: TRADITIONS AND INNOVATIONS

Abstract

Permanent modernization of higher education determines the need for new methods, technologies and teaching aids that ensure the formation of professional and communicative competence of specialists. In teaching of foreign students, this means profile language studies in their specific subject area - in our case, in the area of Russian business communication. At the same time, along with mastering the language of the specialty, the main attention is paid to the development of the sociocultural competence of students, which provides them with the ability to survive and interact professionally in a multicultural and multipolar world, taking into account national peculiarities of the social and business sphere. On the one hand, it is necessary to develop a student’s self-consciousness, as a representative of his socium, and on the other hand, as a subject of the dialogue of cultures, which uses the Russian language as a means of intercultural professional communication. The objective of the article is to consider the problem of the formation of the sociocultural competence of foreign students in the field of business communication at different stages of teaching Russian. The search of the most productive pedagogical tools for implementing a sociocultural approach in teaching foreign students Russian business communication turns us to the question of the relationship between educational traditions and innovations. In this regard, the application of the sociocultural approach is interpreted in two aspects: as a traditional component of the structure of the Russian business course, and also as an innovative component of the lesson using authentic feature films and television series containing thematically relevant and socially significant material for developing linguistic and communicative skills in business communication. An example of a traditional pedagogical approach is the work with a textbook by T.E Akishina and T.P. Skorikova Business contacts: Russian language course (Russian language. Courses Publ. Moscow, 2013). The language material of this textbook is presented as a set of situational intentions, and grammar as a means of their realization in business communication: telephone conversations, interviews, talks, correspondence, etc. The book has audio supplement with audio version of dialogues (on CD), contains typical speech models and samples of business documents, exercises and texts for the development of speech skills. Among innovative teaching tools, authentic feature films and TV series are most popular, introducing foreign students to the culture of speakers of the studied language and typical speech models in situations of social and business communication. Systematic work with audiovisual resources develops the skills of analytical processing of information and its speech design. Our methodological studies have shown that students welcome using at the lesson audio and video materials and understand their educational value. The best effect in applying the sociocultural approach to teaching foreign students business communication is achieved by a reasonable combination of traditional and audiovisual means, taking into account various pedagogical conditions of the educational process. The variative educational models ensure the successful formation of the necessary socio-cultural component of foreign students’ communicative competence in the sphere of Russian business communication.