Cultural Elements in Developing the Intercultural Competence of Students of Russian as a Foreign Language

Abstract

Language and culture, together, form the identity of each member of a particular social community. Contemporary teaching is aimed at the student and provides students with practical preparation to meet and coexist with different people in different social and cultural contexts. In fact, little attention is devoted to intercultural competence when teaching foreign languages. To investigate this, the cultural content of the textbook Doroga v Rossiiu (Way to Russia) has been analysed in this work, since it is the textbook used for university teaching of Russian as a foreign language. It is obvious that a great deal of cultural context does not guarantee the development of intercultural competence. To be intercultural implies far more than accumulating factual knowledge about Russian culture. Such content needs to be complemented and expanded with contemporary themes, in accordance with the needs and interests of the targeted audience (in this case, students). The lifelong education of teachers is very important here. They need to invest in their own intercultural education on a daily basis, since, quite often, they aren’t sufficiently educated to convey intercultural attitudes and values to their students. There is a need to raise awareness on the importance of incorporating cultural themes into teaching that will not only serve as a basis for the processing of language content, but also as a way of thinking that will contribute to the personal development of each individual student.