Aspects Of Intercultural Communication Research Articles

Promowanie różnorodności językowej i kulturowej w kształceniu nauczycieli języków obcych – dobre praktyki i skuteczne rozwiązania

The aim of the article is to present good practices and effective solutions adopted in the plurilingual and multicultural education, integrated language didactics and virtual exchange courses at the Centre for Foreign Language Teacher Training and European Education of the University of Warsaw. During classes students become familiar with pluralistic approaches to languages and cultures, language didactics for tertiary education, and different aspects of intercultural communication. The classes help the students to develop plurilingual and intercultural competence, including the skill of linguistic and intercultural mediation. The students also learn how to plan and organize project work and how to promote linguistic and cultural diversity during a foreign language lesson at school. The article discusses methods and tools used during these classes and gives examples of tasks carried out by the students. These are, among others, an intercultural project, which consists in carrying out and recording interviews with foreigners living in Poland and integrated didactic tasks, during which students learn to notice and analyse relations between languages. The integrated didactic tasks concentrate on relations between the students’ mother tongue, the first foreign language (English) and additional languages which, in the case of the students of the Centre and their future learners, are German and French. The article also shows the way in which a tool for comparing national cultures (available at hofstede-insights.com), related to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, can be used. The examples of tools and tasks presented in the article are intended to show how to effectively promote cultural and linguistic diversity and how to help the students, who are future teachers of foreign languages develop plurilingual and intercultural competences.

PRINCIPLES OF FUTURE INTERPRETERS’ COMMUNICATIVE CULTURE DEVELOPMENT

This article explores the principles underlying the development of communicative culture in future interpreters. The effectiveness of translation activities is not solely dependent on the ability to translate linguistic constructions; it also requires a profound understanding of context and the skill to interact successfully with individuals from diverse cultures. The study analyses contemporary approaches and principles shaping the communicative culture of prospective translators. The primary goal and task of this research were to analyse and systematize the works of national and global scholars dedicated to the principles of developing interpreters’ communicative culture. To achieve this goal, the method of literary analysis was employed, involving the study of relevant literature and scientific sources related to the researched issue. This research method allowed the author to systematize existing theoretical approaches and identify perspectives for further study. The identified principles encompass multiculturalism (developing future interpreters’ abilities to comprehend the national peculiarities of individuals from different nations, the skill to understand ethnosociocultural features of interlocutors, and identifying the cultural subtext of messages), communicativeness (immersing learners in an environment that closely resembles the conditions of their future professional activity; engaging future interpreters in discussions, debates, dialogues, and other forms of communication during the course), interactivity (creating conditions for various ways and forms of interaction among students, e. i. working in pairs, mini and small groups, teams, etc. and with the instructor), non-linearity (a comprehensive approach to form a multicultural language personality capable of effective bilingual mediation between representatives of various nations), systematicity and consistency (formation of the communicative culture of future interpreters based on the logical presentation, sequence, and hierarchy of material in the educational process), professional personal orientation (selecting educational and methodological materials, forms and methods of conducting classes, tasks for independent preparation, which fully correspond to the general strategy of professionalization of academic vocational training), independence (redistribution of time between individual and classroom work in favour of the individual one, which will contribute to the development of student independence, autonomy, the formation of self-organization skills within the framework of preparation and execution of assigned tasks, activation of the use of information technologies, and, as a result, the transformation of the educational information environment into an open system that is constantly enriched by external sources of information), tutoring (shift of emphasis from the teacher to the student and their personal responsibility for the course and results of learning), empathy and tolerance (understanding the experiences, emotions and feelings of the interlocutor that arise during bilingual intercultural communication). The research underscores the necessity of a comprehensive approach, considering various aspects of intercultural communication and leveraging modern pedagogical technologies. Special emphasis is placed on fostering empathy, tolerance and cultural empathy among interpreters. Key findings highlight the need for a harmonious blend of internal psychological approaches and external educational conditions for advanced results in forming the communicative culture of future interpreters. The rapid development of multimedia technologies significantly influences translation education, opening new perspectives for innovative tools in honing the communicative skills of budding translators. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of considering these principles in the ongoing development of pedagogical strategies and programs aimed at enhancing the communicative culture of future interpreters. The insights provided in this study contribute to a nuanced understanding of the evolving dynamics in interpreters’ training, offering a foundation for continued pedagogical research and program design in this domain.

Понимание текста как феномен межкультурной коммуникации

The article examines the specifics of understanding a literary text in the aspect of intercultural communication. The purpose of the article is to show national characteristics in strategies for understanding a literary text. The results of an experiment conducted by the counter-text method, developed in the works of A. Novikov, are presented. The material for the experiment was the text “Before Dawn” by M. Prishvin, to each sentence of which respondents had to write down the first reaction that arose in their minds. The experiment involved 20 native speakers of Russian and Chinese, who are students of South Ural State University. Before the start of the experiment, foreign respondents confirmed their knowledge of Russian as a foreign language by passing the standardized test TRKI-1. Analysis of the experiment results showed that in the group of native Russian speakers the most frequent reaction is the PROGNOZ type, which is an assumption about how the text will unfold further. The respondents of this group actively engaged in dialogue with the author, and even argued with him. In the group of native Chinese speakers, the most frequent reaction was GENERALIZATION, which is a reduction of the meaning of a phrase to a more general statement. The identified differences allow us to speak about the existence of understanding strategies determined by the characteristics of national culture, including stereotypes of perception of certain phenomena that have developed during socialization. The article suggests the possible influence of the stereotype ‘Russians are a fighting nation’ on the understanding of M. Prishvin’s text by Chinese respondents. The article concludes that the knowledge, beliefs and expectations of an individual, formed under the influence of their native culture, form the basis for the interpretation of the text they perceive. In conclusion, the conditions for optimizing text understanding in intercultural communication are outlined.

Diminutive forms in the aspect of intercultural communication

The article represents the essential features of diminutives in the Russian and English languages and their impact on intercultural communication. We analyze the types of diminutives in English and Russian, the specifics of their perception and interpretation by representatives of the two cultures, as well as their influence on the communication of speakers of different languages. The article contains examples of diminutive forms’ functions in speech, which demonstrate how these forms affect the perception and understanding of information. The article defines such key concepts as “intercultural communication”, “diminutive forms” and presents the characteristics of the forms in English and Russian in their lexical and grammatical aspects, illustrated by examples. The article considers cases of intercultural communicative failures associated with ignorance of the specifics of the word-formative forms’ functions, diminutives in particular, and their cultural context. Diminutive forms are a kind of special emotionality indicators inherent in the nature of the Russian people, therefore, when teaching Russian as a foreign language, it is necessary to pay special attention to the word-building forms that have additional connotations. The results of our research can be used by linguists, teachers of foreign languages and anyone interested in the issues of intercultural communication.

Interkulturele probleme in beeldkommunikasie

This paper focuses on only three of the many aspects of intercultural communication which are relevant to pictorial communication. (i) Stereotyping and the one-sided view which is created by one cultural and/or ethnic group of another; (ii) the misconception of the picture as universal language; (iii) the acknowledge ment of heterogeneity within a specific cultural and/or ethnic group and the consequent necessity to plan the media supply in accordance with the variety of different cultural tastes within a society. What is said, is that this paper must be seen as an introduction. Neither time nor space allows for a more intensive look at the theoretical principles on which the study of these three aspects or problems are based. Before these three aspects are discussed, a synopsis is given of the status of entertainment in the mass media and the model function of film through which it becomes a socialising and ideologizing instrument.

Analyse der Wiedergabe von Kulturspezifika des politischen Mediendiskurses von angehenden Diplomaten und Journalisten

The paper focuses on certain aspects of intercultural communication in professional political contexts. With this aim the authors seek to analyze culture-bound elements in German political media discourse, determine their specific role and place in the language system as well as point out the eventual pitfalls on the way to translating them into Russian. Another important point of discussion in the paper is the importance of translation skills for international relations experts: journalists and diplomats. By following the relatively new academic trend of analyzing the use of language in professional contexts, the authors hope to cover a somewhat uncharted territory with this work. The study was aimed at identifying the difficulties that future diplomats and journalists face in solving practical problems, in particular in the process of translating professionally oriented texts. The methods employed include analysis of scientific literature, description, polling and questionnaires, quantitative data assessment and systematization. The primary experiment was conducted under participation of 57 Russian-speaking master students of MGIMO University: future diplomats (65 %) and journalists (35 %). The students were tasked with translating six German texts into Russian in writing, the text in question originating from various German media outlets such as Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Welt, Der Spiegel, Deutsche Welle as well as mitmischen.de, the German parliament’s web site for the younger people. The resulting Russian texts were primarily evaluated based on the translation of the 56 German realia (mostly represented in the original text by proper nouns, such as personal names, toponyms, names of political offices, etc.). In accordance with the classification of Ch. Nord the mistakes were divided into pragmatic, cultural and formal groups. The quantitative analysis discovered that cultural mistakes constituted the majority of them. The reason is the lack of correlated denotations in both cultures and of sufficient lexicographic sources. A possible solution to overcome the emerging difficulties is the creation of a digital guide of culture-bound elements of political discourse.

How is the translation of English fairy tales born in the aspect of intercultural communication

The relevance of the research topic is due to the increased interest in fairy tales within various directions and approaches, which is associated with the loss of low-quality stigma in children's literature compared to works intended for adults. Within the framework of translation theory, the main attention is paid to the peculiarities of the transfer of linguistic and stylistic features of children's literature and other translation difficulties. The purpose of the study is to identify patterns of transmission of national and cultural identity in the translation of fairy tales. Fairy tales from the collections "Pack from the Magic Hills" and "Gifts of fairies" by R. Kipling are considered. A linguistic and cultural analysis is carried out, the used translation transformations are highlighted.The subject of the study is the general trends in the treatment of elements of foreign culture when translating English fairy tales into Russian. В The scientific novelty lies in the analysis of translation from the position of adaptation of culturally colored elements for children. It is revealed that cultural adaptation is often made, which is not required for adult works. The results of the study demonstrate that in the process of translating English fairy tales, a balance is being sought between introducing children to another culture and the need to adapt the material for ease of perception by the audience. When translating for children, translation transformations are actively used, bringing culturally colored elements closer to familiar ones or simplifying their understanding, which is not always required for an adult audience. The way of handling labeled elements depends on their plot and ideological significance, cultural value and level of fame, the context of use, the chosen translation strategy and other factors.

Специфика лингвоэкологического дискурса в пространстве педагогической антропологии

This article is devoted to the study and description of the features of linguistic and ecological discourse in the professional speech activity of a teacher. The problem under consideration is relevant due to the need for a comprehensive study of the linguistic specifics of the speech of participants in the educational process. Establishing the relationship between the goals of communication and the organization of effective learning is the focus of pedagogical anthropology. The stated topic involves addressing the multifactorial aspects of intercultural communication that are relevant for the teacher–student dyad. The purpose of the work is to determine the specifics of linguistic and ecological discourse in the space of pedagogical anthropology. In the linguistic part of the work, when studying factual material, methods of situational analysis of the speech activity of participants in the educational process and quantitative data processing are used. The didactic component of the study is based on the basic principles of pedagogical anthropology, which puts forward certain requirements for the teacher’s speech and allows to identify the conditions for the organization of a safe speech environment. As a result of the conducted research, latent problems of interpersonal relations in the communication process were identified. The criterion apparatus developed in the process of empirical work will allow modeling a comfortable educational space.

ЭКЗИСТЕНЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ СМЫСЛ КОНЦЕПТА «ТОСКА» В РУССКОЙ ЯЗЫКОВОЙ КАРТИНЕ МИРА

This study is devoted to one of the most important concepts of Russian culture, which reveals the characteristic features of the Russian mentality. The relevance of the appeal to the concept “anguish” is due to its significance in Russian culture and the interest aroused by the study of the spiritual dominants of Russian culture in the aspect of intercultural communication. The author describes in detail the etymology of the word “anguish”. Based on the analysis of explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language, the definition of anguish is given, its internal form is considered, paradigmatic and syntagmatic connections are revealed. Folklore and literature are a deep reflection of the psychological meaning of the concept “anguish” in the linguistic picture of the world. A study of the subjective semantics of anguish in the works of A.S. Pushkin, A.P. Platonov, I.F. Annensky, M.I. Tsvetaeva, V.S. Vysotsky, etc. was conducted. The system of meanings that a person receives from previous generations, including those which were got through literature, not only organizes the perception and memory of a person, not only ensures the process of assimilation of human experience, but also creates conditions for the perception of the world and the picture of the world.

Interdisciplinary integration in teaching foreign languages and culture for Master’s Degree Programme of “Economics” and “Management”

We consider the issue of interdisciplinary integration in teaching at Master’s Degree Programme of “Economics” and “Management”. It explains the important role of foreign languages and culture as the central element of the model of interdisciplinary integration at universities nowadays. It further proves that culture is a key to interdisciplinary integration in language learning of future Master’s Degree Student. Currently, a graduate of Master’s Degree Programme implies both being able to speak a modern language and use the knowledge of languages in working with up-to-date communication technologies when tackling professional tasks and collaborating with colleagues from other countries. Modern federal state education standard for Economics and Management require that Master’s Degree Programmes graduates are competent in the aspect of intercultural communication and know a foreign language at a high level. We suggest a Model of interdisciplinary integration in language teaching at Master’s Degree Programme, which includes target, content, organizational-methodic and perfomance-assessment components. This model implements the main language, culture, humane, innovation, environmental, axiological, valeological, acmeological, aesthetic and other orientations; principles integration and differentiation, continuity and consistency of education. The main purpose of interdisciplinary integration in foreing language teaching at Master’s Degree Programme is to form a well-founded, culturally full-fledged person able to speak a foreign language and operate modern communication technologies. Implementation of interdisciplinary integration in language teaching at Master’s Degree Programme demands coordinated actions of language teachers as well as major disciplines educators.

NEW MEDIA DAN KOMUNIKASI ANTARBUDAYA

The rapid development of new media has been the main force accelerating the trend of globalization in human society in recent decades. New media has brought human interaction and society to a highly interconnected and complex level, but at the same time challenges the very existence of intercultural communication in its traditional sense. It is under this circumstance that we see more and more scholars becoming involved in the investigation of the relationship between new media and intercultural communication. Emerging topical areas in this line of research mainly include three categories: (1) the impact of national/ethnic culture on the development of new media, (2) the impact of new media on cultural/social identity, and (3) the impact of new media (especially social media) on different aspects of intercultural communication (e.g., intercultural relationships, intercultural adaptation, and intercultural conflict). This paper discusses this trend of research on the relationship between new media and intercultural communication.

Intercultural Communication, Cultural Code-Switching, Gender and Food

The aim of this paper is to present a part of an ongoing research into the roles food plays in the present-day communication. It provides an interdisciplinary insight into those aspects of intercultural communication that occupy significant role in the changing relationship between public and private spheres. These spheres represent spaces where the aspects of gender become more visible if combined with the elements of food. The author tries to argue that women and food act as ones of the most intriguing features in the ‘Circuit of Culture’ and their participation in intercultural communication is very complex and worth more detailed investigation. The concept of code-switching is often viewed as the one applied in the situations where multilingual communication takes place. The discussion in this paper focuses on those cultural communication contexts in which the cultural code-switching is used as a response to various gender facets in both public and private spheres. Food, that has become one of the most visible parts of both public and private domains of the human existence in the 21st century enters all aspects of the intercultural communication that is performed in smaller and larger social groups and its existence, production, distribution, consumption and representation are directly linked with gender perspectives.

Enjambement in the Mounted Lyrical Poetry: the Untranslatable Translated?

The article is aimed at studying some features of translation strategies used to convey the expressive potential of a poetic text with elements of mounting techniques, viewed through the prism of the rhythmic-syntactic level of organisation of the poetic text. The subject of analysis is enjambement, or verse (poetic) transference, which is a “dissonance” between the rhythmic division of poetic speech into poetic lines and the syntactic division of verbal material into syntagmas in verse, thereby affecting the rhythmic structure of the text. The poem by H.M. Enzensberger (born in 1929), “verteidigung der wölfe gegen die lämmer”, as well as the translation of the specified poem into Russian (“Protection of wolves from sheep”) made by Lev Ginzburg (1921-1980), are used as the factual material. The original poem is written in free rhythms and includes elements of mounting techniques. To achieve this goal, a complex methodology has been applied, which, in addition to structural-descriptive and comparative analyses, also involves elements of linguopoetic and linguo-stylistic approaches. The relevance of the presented work is primarily due to the translation perspective of the study, which required the involvement of the main provisions of the theory of dynamic equivalence by E. Nida, secondly, – to the fact that translation strategies are considered in terms of intercultural interaction, i.e. taking into account the culturally specific characteristics of the bearers of the source and target languages. Based on the results of the analysis, a conclusion has been made about the special role of verse transferences in the mounted lyrical poetry of H.M. Enzensberger, which are engaged in the creation of the “defamiliarisation” effect at the appropriate micro-level of the lyrical work. A comparative analysis of the texts in the source language and the target language indicates that the application of the main provisions of the theory of dynamic equivalence, as well as the relevant linguistic aspects of intercultural communication when translating poetic works, contributes to a most accurate preservation of the aesthetic effect and of the expressive potential inherent in the original poetic text with elements of mounting techniques.

DEVELOPING INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCES AND CREATIVITY: THE FOUNDATION FOR SUCCESSFUL INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Although various aspects of intercultural communication have been examined in the works of various authors, there is still a lack of more in-depth research to analyse effective intercultural interaction in the context of combining intercultural competences and creativity competences. A number of works on intercultural communication identify only the barriers to effective communication and provide ways to overcome them; they insufficiently focus on the importance of competence development, in particular the role of creativity in ensuring effective intercultural communication. Meanwhile, the role of creativity as a process of generating new ideas and solving problems in intercultural communication is undeniable. There is no doubt that in order to ensure effective intercultural communication, it is necessary to combine intercultural competences with creativity competences. The object of this study is the development of intercultural competencies and creativity competencies in the context of intercultural interaction. The aim of this article is to examine the development of intercultural competencies and creativity as a basis for successful intercultural communication. Through the works of various scholars, the article describes the aspects of intercultural competences and creativity competence development in the context of intercultural interaction, and emphasises the importance of combining these competencies in order to achieve effective intercultural communication. The following methods are applied in the work: analysis and synthesis of scientific literature.

ПЕРЕДАЧА КОННОТАТИВНЫХ ЗНАЧЕНИЙ В ПЕРЕВОДЕ

The article is devoted to the problem of conveying connotative meanings in the process of intercultural communication when translating from English into Russian. The choice of the topic of this article is due to the recent increased interest in socioculturally determined patterns of language, the account of which essential for high quality translation. The question of the transfer of the figurative originality of the original text during translation not only does not lose its relevance, but also gainsincreasing importance. The relevance of this problem lies in the need to study connotation, in particular figurative connotation, in the aspect of intercultural communication, its implementation and translation from one language to another.

New trends in cross-cultural research and publication activity of scientists: International scientific interdisciplinary conference “Functional aspects of intercultural communication. Translation and interpreting issues”, November 2020

This paper gives a brief summary of the work of the 7 th International Scientific Interdisciplinary Conference on Research and Methodology “Functional Aspects of Intercultural Communication. Translation and Interpreting Issues” held by RUDN University on November 20, 2020. Representatives of different countries took part in the conference: Russia, the UK, the USA, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, Paraguay, and Tunisia. The conference aims to reveal the diversity of functional aspects of intercultural communication within the process of world education integration, focusing on translation and interpreting issues in today’s society. The theoretical and applied problems raised at the conference are pressing and relevant to the study of modern professional cross-cultural discourse.

National Stereotypes of Communicative Behavior in Virtual Business Communication

The article is devoted to cross-cultural issues of virtual business communication. The urgency of this research is in finding out the causes of failures in virtual business communication between Russian and Vietnamese business partners. In the aspect of intercultural communication, national stereotypes of communicative behavior (hereinafter NSCB) that impede the effective business communication of Russian and Vietnamese speakers have been identified. In the aspect of virtual communication, based on linguistic and cultural analysis, the specifics of electronic business letters in Russian, English and Vietnamese is revealed. The results of the study indicated the following reasons of failures in virtual intercultural business communication: lack of direct interactions between business partners – speakers of different languages; representation of communicative intentions in written form; peculiarities in NSCBs, reflected in the national language; cultural differences in NSCBs of business partners; each language has its own means of verbalizing the communicative intentions associated with the NSCBs of the native speaker of that language. The study resulted in distinguishing the types of speech and etiquette violation in virtual business communication between Russian and Vietnamese partners, which might help in lessening communicative misunderstanding and achieving extra-linguistic goals of communication.

ВПЛИВ КУЛЬТУРНИХ КОНТЕКСТІВ НА ФОРМУВАННЯ АНГЛОМОВНОЇ ПРОФЕСІЙНО ОРІЄНТОВАНОЇ КОМПЕТЕНТНОСТІ В ГОВОРІННІ МАЙБУТНІХ ЛІКАРІВ У ПОЛІНАЦІОНАЛЬНИХ ГРУПАХ

Introduction. The article is devoted to the specification and argumentation of the influence of cultural contexts on the formation of English professionally oriented competence in speech of future doctors who study in polynational groups. Analysis of relevant research has revealed that while most scientific publications consider some aspects of intercultural communication in the context of professional activity or features of language training of students in multinational groups, the issues of English professionally oriented competence formation in polynational groups remain unresolved. Aim of the Study. The purpose of the article is to explain the causes of difficulties in the process of performing professionally oriented communicative tasks in English and outline ways to establish pair and group work of students in polynational groups in order to increase their learning productivity. The stated purpose of the study has led to the choice of the following research methods: 1) theoretical analysis of the scientific sources to define the meaning of the concept of “cultural contexts” and establish the features of polynational groups of students; 2) comparative analysis of verbal and nonverbal behaviour of representatives of high-context and low-context cultures; 3) scientific observation of the course of English professionally oriented speech training of students in polynational groups. Results. It has been determined that the reason for frequent misunderstandings among students of polynational groups while performing pair and group tasks on professionally oriented speech is the division of cultures into high-context and low-context ones. Three levels of behaviour that differ among high-context and low-context cultures and therefore cause misunderstandings among students of polynational groups when performing English professionally oriented communicative tasks have been identified. Conclusions. Ways to optimize the formation of English professionally oriented competence in speech of students in polynational groups, taking into account their cultural differences, have been suggested.

EFFECTIVE CREATIVE INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN THE CONTEXT OF BUSINESS INTERACTION: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL ASPECTS

Although various aspects of intercultural communication have been addressed in the works of various authors, there is still a lack of works that describe intercultural communication from the new viewpoint – in terms of effective intercultural business interaction, theoretical analysis of models of the classification of cultures, and combination of theoretical and practical insights in overcoming the obstacles of intercultural interaction. There is also a lack of works that highlight creativity as an integral part of cross-cultural business communication. In the belief of the author of the article, without a close synthesis of these aspects, it is impossible to understand in detail the meaning of effective intercultural business interaction. Purpose of the article – to analyse theoretical and practical aspects of effective cross-cultural business communication based on creativity. In the article, through the use of the models of the classification of cultures of various researchers from around the world (Richard R. Gesteland, Edward T. Hall, Richard D. Lewis, Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede, Michael Minkov, Shalom H. Schwartz), the aspects of multiculturalism in the context of intercultural business interaction are highlighted. The work analyses creativity as an integral part of effective cross-cultural business communication. The publication also describes the barriers in the intercultural interaction and ways to overcome it. Research methods used in the work: systematic, comparative, logical analysis and synthesis of scientific literature.

Conflating culture with COVID-19: Xenophobic repercussions of a global pandemic.

This commentary aims to deconstruct xenophobia and its worldwide impact, particularly on people of Asian descent, amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. The commentary begins with an overview of COVID-19’s impact on the United States economy and educational landscape, continues with a discussion about the global history of pandemic-prompted xenophobia and its relationship to sensationalized media discourse, and concludes with recommendations to reconsider various aspects of intercultural communication in relation to public health issues.