Intercultural communication and students’ stereotyped images of a typical American

The need to find effective methods for destroying negative ethnic stereotypes specifies the relevance of the study. The subject of the study was the consideration of ethnic stereotypes about a typical American among university youth and the identification of the influence of factors of language education and direct interethnic communication on this process. The authors substantiate the choice of the semantic differential method for studying the ethnic stereotype. In the course of a selective survey of students and cadets of Ryazan higher educational institutions, the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the stereotype about Americans were determined. The use of the semantic differential technique to study the consequences of the emergence of an inductive stereotype among students of higher education is the theoretical significance of the study. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the analysis of the education factor that influences the formation of an ethnic stereotype. The main ideas and conclusions of this study can be used in research and pedagogical work.