The Role of Intercultural Communication in the Process of Learning Foreign Languages

This article with a general methodological orientation was to present the specific nature of forming foreign competence in teaching foreign languages to the students of humanitarian specialties of higher educational institutions. To this end, the results of teaching a foreign language based on the cultural concept was presented. This approach in the language mastering system dictates a teacher to select materials for study in accordance with socio-cultural, linguistic-cultural, and intercultural information relevant to professional interests of students of a particular specialty. The definition of not so much linguistic but the personal traits of the trainee as an area of proximal development also contribute to the formation of a specialist adapted and capable of implementing their professional competences regardless of geographical barriers. The novelty of the proposed approach is to integrate the earliest forms of language mastering with the extracurricular form of work at university. It includes the work on attracting students to communicate with native speakers or with representatives of a different culture through their unifying language in natural communication situations (meetings, scientific debates, and student exchange programs). A purposeful implementation of this approach also allows developing professional, social, and intercultural competencies of students in their inseparable trinity.