LEARNING WITH A LANGUAGE PARTNER AS A WAY TO FORM INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE

Abstract

The article discusses the component composition of intercultural communicative competence and the conditions for the formation of the "subject of intercultural communication" personality. It is believed that intercultural communication contributes to the acquisition of the ICC. The purpose of the article is to trace the relationship between the frequency of interaction with representatives of another culture and the improvement of language and communication skills, as well as to analyze the data of a pilot experiment. The practical and scientific significance of the work  lies in the proposed teaching methodology, which promotes natural language environment immersion, ICC formation, and overcoming the difficulties in intercultural communication. The article presents the results of a sociological survey. In total, 235 people from Kazakhstan, and countries near and far abroad took part in the study. The purpose of the survey was to determine 1) how often respondents interact with native speakers and how confident they feel when communicating in a foreign language and 2) how the practice/study of a foreign language with a language partner (native speaker) affects the formation of ICC. The results of the study revealed the existing problem in the foreign language education of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the CIS countries. Most of the respondents have never had the experience of communicating with native speakers, or communicate extremely rarely and, if necessary, experience a language barrier, fear and uncertainty. Those respondents who practiced with a language partner (native speaker) felt confident and improved their language skills and knowledge of culture. The opinions of respondents about the benefits of studying with a language partner were also analyzed and presented in the article.