The Use of the Multifunctional Nature of the Educational Text in the Process of Forming Intercultural Competence

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problems of teaching a foreign language, including Russian as a foreign language, in a higher educational institution at the present stage. The primary task of the training system for foreign students is the need to form intercultural competence as an indicator of the ability to successfully contact representatives of other cultures. Intercultural communication can be successful if communicants mutually observe certain conditions for which they must be prepared. The educational text, which is an important means of the learning process, has a multifunctional character, it accumulates the features of not only the language, but also of the culture. Purposeful appeal to the educational text expands the range of its application in RAFL classes, allows one to turn to it not only for the purpose of teaching the language, but also for the development of the qualities necessary for intercultural communication in foreign students. The author outlines the ways of using the text in the process of forming intercultural competence, referring to her own textbook and experience of working with various contingents of foreign students.