STUDENTS' MOTIVATION TO CROSS-CULTURAL INTERACTION IN HIGH MEDICAL SCHOOL

The article deals with the questions of motivation to cross-cultural interaction in the professional sphere of high medical school students. The need of training medical practitioners for cross-cultural communication is dictated by modern conditions of society development, namely, by the intensification of integration processes in the field of medicine which demand special skills of communication with representatives of different lingual environment. The paper presents the criteria of students' readiness for cross-cultural interaction among which knowledge of a foreign language plays a special role as language serves as a mediator or acommunication channel between representatives of different cultures. As a result of the conducted research it was revealed that students realize the importance of learning a foreign language and the need of cross-cultural interaction, but at the same time the insufficient level of motivation to knowledge acquisition is observed. The link between the level of students' motivation and the level of foreign language knowledge is found. Thus the conclusion was drawn that there is a need to create the conditions for broadening students' cultural outlook, developing their skills of fruitful cross-cultural interaction in the professional sphere. A number of measures was offered to elevate the students' motivation to knowledge acquisition, to develop skills in the field of cross-cultural interaction in the foreign language classroom in high medical school, in particular, to train the ability to construct a dialogue, to come into contact with colleagues, to find the correct solution and to choose a treatment method together. It is important to acquaint the students with speech etiquee and some features of cross-cultural communication in the medical environment, to pay more aention to nonverbal and paraverbal manifestations of speech behavior of foreign language speakers. At the same time the use of authentic audio-and video records and application of active and interactive training methods and technologies is of great necessity.