Developing intercultural competence among Chinese school students through Russian language textbooks

Abstract

The article examines the problem of developing intercultural competence among Chinese school students through the use of a Russian language textbook. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to move from the acquisition of linguistic knowledge to the development of students’ ability to understand culturally conditioned meanings, compare phenomena of their native and target cultures, and use Russian in situations of intercultural communication. The article defines intercultural competence as an integrative personal quality that includes cognitive, communicative-pragmatic, axiological, and comparative-reflective components. Special attention is paid to the intercultural potential of the Russian language textbook, which is realized through textual, lexical-semantic, dialogic, visual, culture-related, and exercise-based materials. The article substantiates the methodological principles of working with the textbook: dialogue of cultures, comparison of Russian and Chinese cultures, communicative orientation, age and language accessibility, and the connection between cultural information and speech practice. It is concluded that the textbook can serve as an effective tool of interculturally oriented instruction, provided that students’ communicative, comparative, and reflective activities are purposefully organized.