Development of constructive intercultural communication skills among future foreign language teachers

Statement of the problem. The interactional model of intercultural communication implies the implementation by communicants of contacts in the field of intercultural communication, the problem of the formation and development of which remains poorly understood both in Russian and foreign methodological theory and practice. The authors of the article offer their own definition of the scientific concept of ‘language and cultural contacts’: interactional communicative interaction of subjects, taking into account the socio-cultural conditions of the situation, ensuring mutual understanding and, as a result, consistency in the actions of contacting persons at the linguistic (speech) and ethno-cultural levels. The article deals with the structure-forming components and descriptors of this concept. The purpose of the article is to reveal the concept of ‘language and cultural contacts’ derived by the authors through the definition of its structure-forming components in the process of comparative interdisciplinary analysis and to present a description of the training to develop the skills of constructive intercultural communication of a future foreign language teacher. The research methodology is based on the concept of teaching the use of contact as a means of overcoming communicative destruction in building constructive intercultural communication (G.N. Tiguntseva, O.A. Bilan, N.P. Koptseva, M.G. Smolina, K.V. Reznikova, V. A. Razumovskaya, S. Winkler); theoretical and methodological foundations of the organization of teaching a foreign language with the predominant use of pragmatic aspects (A.A. Belyaeva, I.V. Belyaeva, A.F. Dolgopolova, V.A. Zhukova, E.N. Gavrilenko, A. Cooke); practice-oriented technologies for the implementation of communication strategies and practices, including those that implement the process of constructive intercultural communication (E.A. Baronenko, T.L. Gornostai, E.Yu. Kislyakova, J. Hoffmann, C. Foldes). Research results. An interdisciplinary comparative analysis of the concept field ‘contact’ made it possible to derive the authors’ definition of the concept of ‘language and cultural contacts’ in relation to the context of training a future teacher of a foreign language. Training for the development of constructive intercultural communication skills of a future foreign language teacher, developed by the authors of the study, includes preparatory-speech, problempractical, preparatory-analytical and creative stages; testing of the training demonstrates its effectiveness. Conclusion. The use of intercultural training for the development of constructive communication skills contributes to the formation of the student’s ability for linguistic and cultural contacts, which has been proven in the course of working with texts of linguo-cultural discourse during the phased implementation of the training in practical classes in the German language at the university.