Structure of quasi-intercultural training sessions as a part of psychological and pedagogical support for students developing multicultural interaction skills

The paper considers the relevance of using quasi-intercultural training sessions as a part of psychological and pedagogical support for students developing multicultural interaction skills. This is dictated by the need to form students’ ability and readiness to communicate with native speakers and to develop a multicultural personality of a university graduate. Aim. The paper aims to substantiate the need for quasi-intercultural training sessions as a part of psychological and pedagogical support for university students acquiring multicultural interaction skills and to develop an approximate structure of a cycle of such training sessions for foreign language students. Materials and methods. The following theoretical methods were used in the study: a content analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature, information synthesis, information generalization, and abstraction. The empirical methods included the ascertaining experiment with a questionnaire for the assessment of psychological readiness for intercultural communication (by V.I. Dolgova, E.A. Vasilenko, A.S. Baronenko). Statistical data processing included the calculation of the sample average value. Results. The results obtained showed the need for a cycle of quasi-intercultural training sessions as a part of psychological and pedagogical support for students acquiring multicultural interaction skills. This allows developing their ability and readiness to interact with native speakers and to overcome psychological barriers that may arise in multicultural interaction. An approximate structure of the cycle of quasi-intercultural training sessions has been developed and proposed. Conclusion. The survey showed clearly that students did not have sufficient psychological readiness for intercultural communication in terms of emotional and behavioral aspects. Therefore, quasi-intercultural training sessions (“Attractive communication”) were developed for foreign language students.