The influence of intercultural communication on the formation of professional competence among higher school students in Russia

Статья принята к публикации: 13.04.2023.

The problem of actual development of students' professional competence in higher educational institutions is one of the main problems at the present stage, since the need to train highly qualified specialists who are able to perform their work in new and constantly changing economic and cultural conditions, in response to changes in the labor market and international relations, is growing from year to year.

The current level of training of qualified specialists in the system of higher professional education and professional training against the background of constantly complicating the goals, tools, tasks and structure of cognitive activity requires adaptation of the educational process in order to improve the skills and competencies of students and develop their creative abilities. Creative potential and a certain flexibility of thinking are necessary to make graduates more adaptable to the rapidly changing situation in the field of professional activity.

Modern standards governing the goals of educational activities in higher education place high demands on future specialists, in particular, they need strong professional knowledge and skills, adaptability, initiative, and sociability. In modern conditions of labor market development, special attention is paid to the adaptability of specialists - their ability to master huge information flows, update information as quickly as possible, and their willingness to constantly develop [1]. An indisputable task of Higher Education at present is to lay the foundation for further independent development of the future specialist, which implies not only teaching the basics and providing fundamental knowledge, but also improving self-improvement skills and the level of professional motivation of each student.

At the moment, graduates of Higher Education demonstrate a rather low level of motivation for selfimprovement in the acquired specialty. This is expressed in uncertainty in the chosen professional direction and, accordingly, hinders the development of professional competence of the future specialist. Thus, the possibility of developing the abilities of a future specialist to apply and develop their creative potential to find ways to solve professional problems and tasks is reduced, which, in turn, starts a chain reaction and reduces the effectiveness of the entire economic and labor system of Russia as a whole.

The main purpose of this article is not to study the problem of developing professional competence in general, since this should be provided by all components of professional education, but to analyze the problems of learning a foreign language as one of the main components of the formation of professional competence.

In the modern world, where almost all information is provided in the form of materials in a foreign language, and the generally recognized language of business communication is English, knowledge of a second language is an integral part of the requirements for a future specialist in the labor market.

At the same time, the requirements for foreign language proficiency are growing from year to year in all areas of professional activity. Practical skills - the ability to speak and write a foreign business language and use it in a professional context-are of paramount importance in the labor market. The purpose of the foreign language course is integrative, but the content is interdisciplinary. Learning foreign languages is one of the most important tasks in training future specialists, in the process of their socialization and in preparing them for life in a multinational and multicultural world. An important function of a foreign language is the expansion and intensification of language activity, which contributes to the acquisition of knowledge from outside.

Widely used teaching materials on listening, oral messages from educators, authentic materials from the Internet resources, films, reading texts from textbooks, books, newspapers in a foreign language enrich students with new knowledge about various areas of foreign experience, human life and activities, including professional ones. Learning a foreign language helps students consolidate and expand their knowledge and skills in the field of future professional activities, get acquainted with the best foreign experience and deepen their knowledge in related disciplines.

However, the potential of this subject for the development of professional competence of social specialists is not sufficiently used in non-linguistic higher educational institutions. Non-linguistic faculties train specialists who understand specific subjects, while the professional sphere has broader requirements for graduates.

It is well known that professional orientation of foreign language teaching in non-linguistic universities is an important component of training future specialists with the necessary competencies. The professional orientation of the subject is reflected in the content of professional education, primarily by teaching the theoretical foundations of one or more professions. The main functions of the principle of professional orientation are methodological and regulatory. The methodological function of the principle of professional orientation provides educational "liberation" from the social contradiction between the modern division of labor and the resulting strong specialization of human activity.

The regulatory function of the principle determines the structure, content, methods, forms and means of training, taking into account professional and personal orientation, individual academic discipline and creating conditions for high-quality professional education.

The main ideas and practical application of the principles of career guidance can be expressed as follows:

• 1)    A system of general theoretical concepts, humanities disciplines and forms of cognition. The activities must be linked to a system of specialized knowledge and skills, which includes a specialized field;

• 2)    Students must have a science-based conception of vocational activities. They are prepared and aware of the interdependence of laws, principles and rules along with the science of this specialty;

• 3)    The interaction between the fields of general education, languages and specialized education must be oriented towards the development of students’ future professional life [1].

The conditions for successful implementation of professional orientation principle are as follows:

• -    ensuring that the planning and management of vocational education and training of young people is focused on the end results (profession, specialty);

• -    continuity of professional education in close interaction with the humanities, general theoretical and professional disciplines;

• -    personal orientation of students to continuous general development and education, the formation of research skills, creative activity in the process of participation in the ongoing educational activities.

The requirements for effective implementation of the guideline are as follows:

• -    the focus of planning and management of professional education and training of young people on the ultimate outcome (profession, discipline)

• -    sustainability of vocational education in close interplay with humanities, general theoretical and professional disciplines;

• -    continuous general development and personal orientation of students towards education, development of research skills, creative activity in participatory learning activities.

The guiding principle of professional education implies compliance with certain rules:

• -    The facts, examples and illustrations on which the concept in this or that subject is based should come from the students' future professional field of activity;

• -    knowledge acquired in the humanities, languages and general education should be used and developed in the development of concepts in general vocational disciplines;

• -    the need to stimulate the desire to solve practical professional problems by involving students in activities related to their future profession [5].

This describes the nature of the vocational learning principle, applicable to all disciplines, including foreign languages. From this we can conclude that when choosing an approach to teaching a foreign language to university students who do not speak foreign languages, the educator should be guided by the main goal: the development of students' vocational proficiency.

Professional competence as a quality of personality is formed and developed in human activity [2]. That is why this paper considers and highlights the personal-activity approach as a key way to respond to the needs of modern society.

According to the founders of the personal-activity theory L. S. Vygotsky, L. N. Leontiev, S. L. Rubin-

stein, understanding of the psyche occurs through activity, which indicates its social character, its unity with external, practical activity. The above statements form the basis of modern educational psychology, namely activity theory. Following this theory, an activity is considered as a unit of operation. Theories of the origin of mental actions suggest that internal psychological processes are mental actions that arise as a reflection of external, material actions and acquire their final form through successive changes. Consistent formation of actions leading to their transformation from external, material actions into internal, non-material actions is the main content of the educational process, and a certain specific organization of extracurricular activities of students that makes this transformation possible is the main principle of rational control of the learning process [4].

Applying the theory of activity and the theory of step-by-step formation of intellectual actions in the process of learning a foreign language, we can draw the following conclusions. foreign language proficiency is the gradual acquisition of a foreign language speech activity that has no time or spatial boundaries. Since a foreign language itself is an applied subject, the above laws also apply to its assimilation, i.e., to the process of mastering foreign language speech activity.

Since there is no psychological approach to learning that covers all aspects of language learning at the same time, it is necessary to apply different psychological theories depending on the type of learning activity and the stage of language learning. One of these basic guidelines is the general theory of speech act, which has an increasing influence on the methodology of language teaching. The development of questions in the field of general theory of speech acts, that is, in the field of psycholinguistics, can be particularly important and a definite advantage for the methodology of teaching foreign languages in close connection with what needs to be learned.

In this context, it is advisable to consider the psycholinguistic model of language production developed by I. A. Zimnaya and A. N. Leontiev. Describing the language activity, I. A. Zimnyaya and A. N. Leontiev distinguish the following features:

• -    the three-way division of activity characteristic of a mental act into the orientation and planning phase, the execution or implementation phase, and the control phase,

• -    a hierarchical activity pattern consisting of sequential operations, i.e. parts of the activity that are characterized by an intermediate goal,

• -    purposefulness and motivation of the activity; each activity or each of its parts is marked with a specific goal and is controlled by a specific incentive [11].

The last feature of successful language practice is of great importance for adjusting language teaching to modern conditions. The necessary development prerequisites for the development of communicative activity in a foreign language and related cognitive activity are mental, linguistic and, above all, facilitated learning activity by the pedagogue.

The origin of this type of learning process is professional activity, which reinforces the motivational foundations of the learning process: the learner's perception of the corresponding goals, needs, interests and motives.

According to the personal-activity approach, the student himself, his motives, goals, unique psychological inclinations, i.e. the student as a personality, is in the center of learning. The essential characteristic of activity is its motivation, and first of all, attention is paid to the root cause of activity - the internal motive, which is part of the structure of the activity itself.

In addition to internal motives, there are also external, social or personal motives. For example, the motivation for acquiring foreign language skills for successful orientation in the labor market lies beyond the student's academic activity itself. This external motive, although in principle a strong incentive, does not in itself guarantee that the student will engage in language learning. Internal, cognitive motivations should also be involved in this process.

Not so long ago, for many students, the motivation to learn a foreign language was exclusively personal, but today, in the society of developing information technologies, there is a growing need for professionals and citizens who can independently establish social, economic and cultural contacts at the international level, actively act, make decisions, quickly adapt to change living conditions, and independently receive information about foreign languages. information on the Internet. The vector of motivation to learn a foreign language has been changed.

It is known that if the object of an activity is what the activity is aimed at, then determining the motive is the answer to the question of why this activity is carried out. In the light of these considerations the approach to teaching a foreign language should motivate students to actively master the object of study and answer questions: "Why is the learning object being studied? What is its professional significance?". One of the characteristics of human activity is purpose or motivation. The purpose of an activity or related activity is its unifying and guiding principle. In general methodology, an object is a mental prediction of the result of an action and how it will be achieved in one way or another. From a psychological point of view, the goal is related to the object of action, since awareness of the meaning of action is achieved by thinking about the object as a conscious goal.

Based on the above, an important aspect of the personal-activity approach necessary for applying in the process of teaching a foreign language to students of non-linguistic universities is primarily the use of up-to-date authentic materials from the professional sphere of students ' activities. Traditional teaching materials may not reflect the current state of a particular field of activity in a timely manner. In other words, foreign lexemes listed in textbooks five or ten years ago may not only be outdated, but also have changed their meaning, which, in turn, misinforms students and creates a gap between the theoretical and applied components of a foreign language. Such authentic materials are widely available on the Internet. Rybak M.V. and Krylova T.V. claim, that the possession of professional authentic terminology, maintenance of the communicative process on professional topics, the ability to understand texts on the chosen specialty, knowledge of the values and qualities of representatives of a foreign speaking society is part of the professional competence of a future specialist. [7] Thus, the educator's activity is transformed from strict adherence to approved materials and programs to monthly creation of new educational materials and tasks based on the found authentic content.

Updating the original concepts of the theory of activity allows the author to indicate that the learning process is interpreted as the pedagogical activity of the subject (student) to master the language actions of a foreign language (listening, speaking, reading, writing, translation) with the help of the foreign language being studied in the context of a personal-activity approach. This implies not only the active activity of the educator aimed at finding and updating materials from the professional field of future specialists, but also the student's participation in the search for such materials. Tasks for searching and linguistic analysis of information on the topic become relevant. The widespread use of Internet technologies not only provides wide access to information, but also allows you to communicate with representatives of the profession around the world using a foreign language as a communication tool.

In this approach, the student acts as an active and conscious subject. In the most general case, a personal approach to learning means that the student understands this process as an independent learning activity in the general context of their own activities, orientation, interests and life plans, and also understands the importance of learning for the development of their creative potential.

The concept of a personal-activity approach in teaching a foreign language assumes that the educator knows the individual typological characteristics of students and takes them into account in their practical activities. These include, first of all, the type of temperament as an indicator of the predominance of arousal and inhibition, which determine the individual's behavioral reactions, the intensity of attention, the speed of nervous processes, disinhibition and reproduction, and the speed of mental operations. All of these indicators are reflected in how students process information and in the cognitive strategies they use. And this, in turn, finds its complex expression in individual language acquisition strategies.

Individual typological characteristics of the individual also include predispositions and language abilities based on them. If your language skills are highly developed in your native language, they should also be displayed in a foreign language. Many scientists are engaged in the scientific definition of the term "ability".

An analysis of the literature on this topic shows that the most important theoretical task in the field of psychology of abilities at present is to determine their

nature, patterns of development and method of formation. Studying the views of Russian psychologists on the nature of abilities, we can distinguish two types of works: one analyzes the problem of abilities in theoretical and methodological terms, the other examines the specific structure of special and individual abilities in the field of language activity.

The main factor that allows to reveal the abilities to a foreign language is the methodology of teaching, which is constantly improving, narrowing the range of "innate abilities". The educator 's choice of teaching methods and techniques depends on which component in the ability structure of a particular student is stronger. A new way of learning a foreign language can arise when appropriate teaching methods overcome the difficulties created by physical and external conditions. A distinguishing attribute of the personalactivity approach to foreign language teaching is that it involves a change in the object of learning [2].

Within the framework of this approach, the object of mastering a foreign language should be a language activity (and not just linguistic operations) in the forms of listening, speaking, reading and writing, and not a language system that, when interpreted in this way, simply serves as an agent for the practical application of this activity. Or, in other words, language activity, like any other activity, depends on the student's communicative and cognitive need to express their thoughts and receive a verbal communication message in another language. It is an integral part of the student's overall motivation system.

The foreign language educator is thus faced with a pedagogical and psychological dilemma: should they first establish, shape or support the learners' individual demands for communicating in a foreign language and experiencing a personally meaningful reality in that language? The key here is not only to develop the communicative and cognitive demands of the learner towards his/her interactions with the educator, with the development of appropriate learning needs for mastering common teaching methods and techniques, acquiring new knowledge, developing elaborated language skills in all kinds of verbal interaction practices.

The approach also implies that the educator concretely arranges the object of the speech activity, i.e. the thought, the language semantic substance of the expressed or received utterance. If the communicative and cognitive requirements of the learner, which arise under the practical conditions of solving the predetermined task, are captured in the respective object of the speaking activity and become the internal motive of the speaking activity, it would appear that the personal, subjective and concretely active side of the concept of 'subject' is brought together here. Herein lies the enormous potential of the active personal approach to language teaching, which is far from being exhausted.

A change in the nature of the educational process and subject matter in foreign language teaching, the personal-activity approach, which dictates the change in the basic pattern of educator-learner interaction, signifies a modification in the basic pattern of educator-learner interaction. It introduces, instead of the traditional model in which the educator is the sole subject of pedagogical influence and direction and the learner is the object of that influence, a model of pedagogical cooperation between educator and learner in addressing mutually determined pedagogical, communicative and, above all, professional tasks. The emphasis on the learner as the "subject" of learning does not ultimately mean that the learner is not alienated from the learning process, that the learner is not reduced from a goal to a means, that learning does not lose its meaning for the learner or that knowledge does not exist outside the learner's real life.

Thus, the application and implementation of personality-centered approach is able to significantly increase the level of foreign language acquisition of students of non-linguistic university, positively influence the motivational background of the educational process and form basic adaptability skills of future specialists.

However, the application of the personal-activity approach alone cannot fully satisfy modern requirements for the level of foreign language acquisition in the context of professional skills training. The learner's personality and its typological characteristics, which were mentioned above, play an important role in training a specialist who meets modern requirements. Therefore, it seems possible to integrate and combine the personal-activity approach with the methods of personality-centered approach.

Substantive part of personality-centered learning is focused on meeting the existential aspirations of the individual. It assumes the formulation of the following aspects: axiological, cognitive, activity-creative and personal.

In this case, personal component is a systemic link in the content of personality-centered education. Educational content triggers personal activity of a learner provided that it is implemented in the educational reality expressed in the form of a meaningful task for a learner. Considering the personal component in the context of forming the student's professional competence, we can establish that this task can and should also refer to the student's professional activity and professional development.

Foreign language learning primarily consists of the development of students' verbal and oral skills, mental processes that are the basis of language acquisition (intelligence, attention, memory), affective and motivation domains of personality, and the development of interest in learning, cognitive and self-educational activities.

The content of the course is not predetermined, but arises from the interaction between the participants. It is a transition of explanation to understanding, of monologue to dialogue, of social control to evolution, of supervision to autonomy of management.

The evaluation criteria also change. It is not only about students' background knowledge, competences and abilities, but also about competence development, value orientation and meaning, and culture in general. In this case, the issue of person-centered research on students' learning achievements is confronted, which requires the establishment of specific technologies and methods for assessment, for the evaluation of learning, the prediction of learning outcomes and their significance.

For personalized education, the subjective experience of the learner is crucial [9]. Anything can be learned. Being educated, however, requires each individual to be a learner, by organizing their own activities according to their personal preferences, personal tastes, interests and objectives, applying their own individual learning styles and personal approach.

Theoretical information is acquired by students on the basis of individual experience, and then converted into applied knowledge. By transmitting scientific knowledge, the educator also expresses, through his subjective experience, his subjective stance towards the content. Knowledge is shared and coordinated between the two transmitters of knowledge, the learner and the educator. Knowledge and socio-cultural patterns of behavior are compulsory for all and constitute the content of learning. In the course of the learning process, learning occurs as an individual cognitive activity.

Thus, a person-centered approach to education means that each student, their creative personality, is really taken into account and has implications for building the educational process. The success of such an approach to learning is determined by the specifics of the immediate tasks of students, the correct structure of the educational process, the correct choice of subject, the flexibility of the methods and techniques used, as well as the level of professionalism of educators.

The application of a personality-centered and personal-activity approaches implies that the didactic methodology created by each educator in teaching a foreign language is adapted in accordance with the goals set. Thus, an educator can form an individual pedagogical system contributing to the development of professional competence of non-linguistic university students. Such a framework should aim to create an environment that reconciles the personal interests and needs of the learner, well aware of the requirements and demands for practical language skills, particularly in his/her professional life, together with the society's expectations and interests. An important point to note is that purpose is an essential part of any pedagogical system.

The information background, especially the social position of a foreign language specialist, comprising the field of professional activity, interests and personal needs of the learner, are the characteristics of the pedagogical process of teaching practical skills of language communication as a component of professional competence of future specialists. University foreign language teaching focuses on the professional training and comprehensive development of future specialists. Serving as a vocational training, it helps to acquire a professional qualification. However, the educational process of acquiring practical skills in a foreign language is vocational in nature. The profession

is the foundation on which and within which it is necessary to build the educational process in any discipline, including a foreign language.

With an active and extensive application of personal-oriented and activity-based approaches an educator is able to create an educational environment that significantly increases the level of foreign language acquisition by students of non-linguistic universities, positively affects the motivational background of the learning process and forms the basic adaptability of future specialists.