Application of "dialogue of cultures" approach in the course of intercultural competence development among military students of higher military educational institutions

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APPLICATION OF "DIALOGUE OF CULTURES" APPROACH IN THE COURSE OF INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT AMONG MILITARY STUDENTS OF HIGHER MILITARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

V.A. Kovalchuk, N.L. Nechyporuk

Annotation

The relevance of the article is substantiated by the development of intercultural competence which is assumed to be the required quality for military personnel nowadays.

The article considers the analysis of features and prospects of "dialogue of cultures" educational approach application through the intercultural competence development among military students of higher military educational institutions in the course of foreign language training. The concept of dialogue and its role in the development of foreign language and intercultural competence is defined. The necessity to develop the dialogic speech competence with the use of other cultures interaction is substantiated.

The article analyzes the basic principles of "dialogue of cultures" approach, which were established in the late 20th century based on the ideas of dialogue of cultures school by the philosopher B. Bibler. The article elicits a number of modern teaching approaches, which in combination with the technology of "dialogue of cultures" will help to form the necessary competencies of cadets of higher military educational institutions for professional communication. The algorithm of introduction of technology of "dialogue of cultures" provided in four stages is offered: diagnostics of readiness of cadets for communication, search of motivating factors, application of system of exercises for communicative interaction between cadets in the form of dialogue, providing feedback.

It was found that the use of "dialogue of cultures" approach promotes developing a number of key competencies, i.e. the development of speech skills and critical thinking, the ability to search for information and use it in the speech, the enhancement of teamwork skills, and training through dialogue. Such competencies development is the condition to form intercultural competence, which enables servicemen to solve their professional tasks, as they affect the formation of cultural policy during international communication with representatives of various strata of society.

Key words: "dialogue of cultures" approach; intercultural competence; professional competence; educational approaches; blended learning approach; project work; communicative activities; educational and professional program of a military specialist.

Анотація

ЗАСТОСУВАННЯ ТЕХНОЛОГІЇ "ДІАЛОГУ КУЛЬТУР" ПІД ЧАС ФОРМУВАННЯ МІЖКУЛЬТУРНОЇ КОМПЕТЕНТНОСТІ КУРСАНТІВ ВИЩИХ ВІЙСЬКОВИХ НАВЧАЛЬНИХ ЗАКЛАДІВ

В.А. Ковальчук, Н.Л. Нечипорук

У статті розглянуто аналіз особливостей та перспективи використання технології "діалогу культур" у процесі формування міжкультурної компетентності курсантів вищих військових навчальних закладів під час іншомовної підготовки. Визначено поняття діалогу та його ролі у розвитку іншомовної та міжкультурної компетентності. Обґрунтовано необхідність розвитку компетентності діалогічного мовлення з використанням іншого культурного досвіду.

У статті проаналізовано основні принципи технології "діалогу культур", що були сформовані наприкінці ХХ століття на основі ідей школи діалогу культур філософа В. Біблера. У статті було проаналізовано ряд сучасних технології навчання, які у поєднанні із технологією "діалогу культур" допоможуть сформувати необхідні компетентності у курсантів вищих військових навчальних закладів для здійснення професійного спілкування. Запропоновано алгоритм впровадження технології "діалогу культур", що відбувається у чотири етапи: діагностика готовності курсантів до спілкування, пошук мотивуючих факторів, застосування системи вправ для комунікативної взаємодії між курсантами у формі діалогу, забезпечення зворотнього зв'язку.

Було з'ясовано, що застосування технології "діалогу культур" допомагає сформувати ряд ключових компетенцій: розвиток навичок мовлення, критичного мислення, вміння шукати інформацію і використовувати її у власному мовленні, формування навичок командної роботи, співпраці в умовах взаємодії з носіями інших культур. Розвиток таких компетенцій є передумовою формування міжкультурної компетентності, яка надає можливість військовослужбовцям вирішувати професійні задачі, адже має вплив на формуванням культурної політики в цілому під час міжнаціонального спілкування з представниками різних соціальних груп суспільства.

Ключові слова: технологія "діалогу культур"; міжкультурна компетентність; професійна компетентність; технології навчання; технології змішаного навчання; проектні технології; комунікативні вправи; освітньо-професійна програма військового фахівця.

Introduction of the issue

Military education is an integral part of public education. The set of requirements facing a modern serviceman is constantly increasing and transforming being a reflection of current events. The aspect of intercultural competence is added to the motivational resources of learning a foreign language. After all, a modern serviceman must not only comprehend and spread information, he must have a set of skills for analysis, synthesis and interpretation of data.

The motivational component of learning a foreign language by servicemen is perennially updated. The main factor that creates such trends is the set of tasks performed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the field of international military cooperation. Thus, in order to successfully conduct international operations as part of a UN force, to participate in a common European Union Security and Defence system, joint military exercises with NATO forces, it is necessary to know foreign languages in such a way as to facilitate interethnic understanding. Therefore, a perfect command of both native and foreign languages is a necessary background for the professional and personal development of a military specialist [7].

One of the most significant tasks prescribed to a serviceman is the ability to communicate during dialogue with representatives of other countries. Reaching a consensus in military dialogue is a priority, as current relations between Ukraine and NATO member states are a key area for resolving military-political issues and maintaining peace in the world.

I. Stavytska notes that a special role in the process of cultural identification, setting values and creative selffulfillment belongs to foreign languages, which ensure the interaction of native and foreign culture through the dialogue [5].

Dialogue is a form of social interaction of communication participants. Consequently, the professional and communicative tasks that servicemen have to solve while implementing their duties are social per se and are related to "dialogue of cultures” approach application.

Thus, cadets of higher military educational institutions during their training practice, participation in international seminars or during joint operations learn relevant information for their area of expertise, exchange experiences through immersion in the atmosphere of intercultural communication. The approach of "dialogue of cultures" works as a transfer of typical situations of sociocultural and professional reality, as a simulator program that will provide facilitation in the development of speech competencies among cadets, and is often used in combination with such modern approaches as problem- based learning or case-study.

Current state of the issue

The dialogue of cultures model has been researched from different realms. In philosophy it was studied by E. Levinas and M. Bakhtin, L. Vygotsky provided his research in the frame of psychology, historical background of the issue was given by A. Toynbee, D. Antonovich, and P. Tolochko, Cultural Studies expert in the area is A. Huseynov, and finally pedagogical views were elicited by V. Bibler et.al.

Outline of the unresolved issues brought up in the article

Although the problem specified has been studied by the scientists, still the issues of organizing foreign language training for cadets of higher military educational institutions in order to develop intercultural competences determined by the standards of higher military education require more attention.

The aim of research is to examine the peculiarities and ways of implementation of "dialogue of cultures" approach as an optimal tool to develop intercultural competence of cadets of higher military educational institutions.

Results and discussion

According to V. Bibler and S. Kurganov, "dialogue of cultures" is not so much a learning tool as a concept of learning, where the internal dialogue of the individual allows to analyze the acquired knowledge, fill the internal content of the individual with positive motives, be an active participant of the educational process, set the learning objectives. It is the "dialogue of cultures" that can be seen as a rejection of scholastic principles and a precondition for the transition to a subject relation between teacher and student [1].

According to I. Dychkivska, the "dialogue of cultures" is a reflection of different historical periods on the process of personality formation and is defined as free communication of representatives of different generations. Such a dialogue, according to the author, will have results only when the contradictions are constantly based on the internal dialogue of the individual [2].

The basic principles of the model of dialogue of cultures school were established in the late 20th century based on the ideas of the philosopher V. Bibler. The objective of this model was to transform an "educated person” into a "cultural person" capable of respecting other cultures and aiming for dialogue between nations. Considering the current state of sociopolitical relations, namely the existence of international geopolitical and military conflicts, the relevance of "dialogue of cultures" acquires new significance. The main link involved in resolving such conflicts is the military, whose range of competencies is being constantly updated by current demands. Such a range is especially important as a mandatory component of professional competence of cadets of higher military educational institutions as a determinant of self-development and self-improvement of a military specialist.

Moreover, the need to apply the approach of "dialogue of cultures" for cadets is due to global trends of respect for national culture, dialogue between nations, peoples, states, and individuals. The most important in the process of applying such an approach is the immersion in another culture for the formation of personal picture of the world, the development and preservation of personal logic, creative imagination of students and teachers. Such a culture is formed together with the culture of the subject being studied, the culture of another person, the culture of the text. This psychological theory is characterized by the understanding of age as a special culture that is not replaced by another one and does not disappear during next age period, and which, like historical cultures, is preserved forever and enters the human mind in communication with other age cultures [4].

In recent years, the categories of competencies and competences have been used in the educational environment to determine the content of education and the results of professional training. The process of learning a foreign language is no exception. Thus, the purpose of studying the academic subject of Foreign language is the development of foreign language and intercultural competences. Among the competencies that form the basis of the educational and professional program of a military specialist are the ability to motivate people and move towards a common goal, the ability to communicate in a foreign language, the ability to identify and describe models of armaments and military equipment of NATO member states and other countries, methods of their actions, the ability to solve specialized problems in the field of professional activity, the ability to assess performance characteristics of armaments and military equipment of the armies of NATO member states and other countries, and methods of their actions.

The competencies mentioned above are correlated with the relevant learning outcomes, namely: to communicate in a foreign language for professional purposes; communicate and work in a team with representatives of other professional groups of different levels, with servicemen from other countries, taking into account different terminology, basic knowledge and understanding of their colleagues on certain tasks; to define and describe performance characteristics of armaments and military equipment of the armies of NATO member states and other states.

Having analyzed the aforementioned competencies and learning outcomes we can conclude that communication on professional topics with representatives of other countries by means of English language becomes the core that will serve to successfully solve the tasks prescribed to military specialists. Furthermore, such a set of objectives is the formation of intercultural competence, a communicative component of professional competence takes a significant part. The analysis of methods of diagnostic assessment of communicative skills of cadets has indicated to the advantage of competencies and learning outcomes is a necessary background for the formation of intercultural competence.

Considering that each of the components of professional competence, as well as intercultural competence, is formed through learning strategies and research approaches, the question arises in the choice of an approach that would most productively and quickly foster the formation of the necessary competencies.

The current state of development of science and technology leads to the emergence of new learning strategies and approaches, such as e-learning technologies, including distance or distributed learning, MOOC technology (mass open online courses), blended learning approach, flipped classroom, active, interactive and mutual learning, problem-based learning, project work, critical thinking development techniques, mobile learning technologies (BYOD), "dialogue of cultures” approach, etc.

Distance education approaches have been supplementing the standard modes of providing educational services for quite a long time. There are currently many platforms and software products that provide millions of people with an online education. Military education in Ukraine provides a distance component of public education, mostly on the basis of the Learning content management system MOODLE.

MOOC technologies, which are currently being studied and developed in detail, have become online platforms that support the goals of distance education, as they are scalable, providing a large number of simultaneous client connections. Blended learning technologies are an intermediate option between distance and synchronous learning.

Such modes of study complement each other, allow the teacher to choose the method of providing educational services, focusing on the opportunities of students. Approaches of flipped classroom, active, interactive and mutual learning, problem-based learning, project work, critical thinking development techniques, as well as "dialogue of cultures" approach are multipurpose due to the possibility to be used both during online and offline learning.

In order to form intercultural competence of cadets, we have developed an algorithm for implementing the "dialogue of cultures" approach. At the initial stage, the diagnostic assessment of cadets' readiness to communicate in pairs and groups is carried out, the level of basic speech knowledge, communicative experience, readiness to perceive information by listening and reading as well as express one's own point of view are studied.

Thus, if one the key learning dominance of intellectual and speech skills. When determining the levels of communicative competence formation, it should be noted that each level is characterized by the conditions of the tasks responsible for certain learning outcomes formation, as well as the degree of habits to solve certain problems being developed.

As a basis for assessing the level of communicative competence, a scale to define Language Proficiency Levels (LPL 1, 2) according to NATO standard STANAG 6001 was taken. Thus, the diagnostics is made by assessing the main types of speech activity, namely: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Language testing is conducted within LPL 1 (survival level) and LPL 2 (functional level), as well as transitional levels of LPL 0 + (learned minimum) and LPL 1+ (survival +). The test materials include cross-selection, multiple-choice, open-ended tasks, etc [6].

The next stage is the search for motivating factors, determining the range of issues and communicative tasks that would encourage cadets to language interaction. To solve this task, we investigated the motivational component of intercultural competence using Gardner's method, during which the cadets were assessing the attitude to the proposed situation through the prism of six criteria [3]. In addition, a questionnaire method was used to determine the range of questions and tasks that will be offered to cadets in the future.

To develop intercultural competence, it is important to have a level of internal motivation, focused on the process and result, integrated with external motivation as an opportunity to succeed or achieve, to be rewarded, encouraged or gain authority. Thus, such integration leads the increase of common motivation to become a highly qualified military specialist ready to solve tasks at the operational and strategic level.

For this purpose, we conducted a survey of cadets of Korolov Zhytomyr Military Institute by the method of questionnaires to define the level of formation of positive motivation to learn a foreign language as a means of professional development of a serviceman. Cadets of 1-3 years of study took part in a survey.

The number of respondents was 75 participants, who were asked to distribute points from 1 to 7 according to the degree of importance of learning a foreign language, where 1 is the least important criterion, and 7 is the most important one. In the questionnaire we formulated 7 criteria.

According to the survey, 40% of participants chose the most important criterion to be able to obtain financial stability; 30% - the desire to get a promotion; 7% - the possibility of military business trips abroad; 6% - the desire to avoid criticism and reprimand from commanders, colleagues, family; 2% - the need to achieve social prestige and respect from others; 7% - the opportunity to increase self-esteem and self-fulfillment in military service; 8% is a factor influencing current academic credentials.

Analysis of the survey results showed that for most of the respondents external positive motivation prevails over internal. This fact indicates the growing prestige of the military profession, but there is an urgent need to find methods to increase intrinsic motivation as a condition for individual and professional growth and the formation of a fully-developed personality to enable cadets to understand the need and importance of intercultural competence development as an integral part of professional competence.

After that, the teacher adapts the teaching material to the system of problem-conflict tasks and problems that are beneficial for the critical thinking development, various options for the development of story lines of a dialogue are studied. The important step for now is to design the ways of interaction for participants in the course of discussion, their possible roles, hypothetical identification of zones of improvisation, i.e. such situations of dialogue for which it is difficult to predict the behavior of its participants (brainstorming, warm up activities, cases, game situations, discussions, etc.). An example of such kind of activity is watching video episodes that allow you to observe a group of individuals in everyday life. For example, cadets study the behavior of people who place orders at a local coffee shop or the military who meet when they arrive for international training. It should be noted that the degree of teacher intervention in the process of studying and discussing the situation should be minimized in order to promote the deepest possible immersion of cadets in the atmosphere of communication between them. Thus, the communication tasks implementation takes place in three stages: 1) immersion, when cadets have a vague idea of the speech situation; 2) research, which aims to analyze the texts, study the peculiarities of the use of lexical units and grammatical patterns; 3) communicative interaction between cadets in the form of a dialogue.

The final stage is feedback, which aims to find out how well the training material was selected, how effective were the forms and methods of presentation and practice of target information, how natural was the speech behavior of cadets during communication, etc. Due to the fact that modern educational strategies focus on a student-centered approach, a cadet is an active element to ensure the productivity of educational activities. There are many modern techniques of providing feedback, such as chain notes, electronic mail or messenger feedback, teacher-designed feedback forms, the muddiest point technique, etc.

Let us briefly describe each of these techniques. The technique of "chain notes” involves students answering one question, which the teacher prepared in advance and put it in an envelope. Students are given index cards. Each student, having received an envelope with a question, has up to one minute to write an answer and put a card with his answer in the envelope. This technique allows a teacher to self- analyze certain stages of the class or methods have been used. Techniques "electronic mail or messenger feedback" are similar and are carried out by BYOD approach (bring your own device). As for the previous technique, a teacher formulates the question and sends it by e-mail or messenger program. Students have the opportunity to give a more detailed answer about the class. This technique gives an opportunity to a teacher for self-analysis, as well as develops students' analytical skills. The method of "teacher-designed feedback forms" aims to survey students in the form of questionnaires in order to determine the level of speech activities conducted in the classroom. For example, to the question "How clear and comprehensible was the explanation of grammatical material for you?" answer options are given: totally unclear \ sometwhat unclear \ mostly clear \ very clear \ extremely clear. Thus, in addition to self-analysis, the teacher will be able to diagnose the level of assimilation of educational material by students for further correction. The technique of "muddiest point" is based on an open-ended task, where the student must describe the most incomprehensible and unclear moments that arose during the class. Studying the results of such a survey will allow the teacher to successfully select the appropriate content and optimal methods of communicative interaction to improve the effectiveness of learning the material. The presented analysis indicates to the necessity of the use of techniques for feedback, as they are not time consuming and enable a teacher quickly assess the effectiveness of their teaching skills, as well as select the corrective techniques beforehand.

Conclusions and research perspectives

Thus, to apply the "dialogue of cultures" approach a teacher uses a number of techniques that allow to objectively assess the levels of speech skills and develop the sets of tasks, especially including communicative exercises, anticipation exercises, vocabulary review tasks, comprehension exercises, speech exercises, ability to give opinions, exercises to develop audiolingual skills, situational modeling exercises, exercises for processing discussion questions, project work, etc. Such approach is also a significant component to be applied during all stages of the class, as in addition to the diagnostic and training stages, it can serve as a means of developing the necessary speech skills.

Therefore, the technology of "dialogue of cultures” in combination with appropriate and developed systems of exercises aimed at communication and a clearly defined algorithm for the application of learning technologies will help to form the necessary competencies that will develop the basis of intercultural competence.

Perspectives of further research include modern learning strategies research to be used to enhance intercultural competence as a key component for military personnel to successfully cope with professional tasks.

References

1. Bibler, V., Kurhanov, S. Zahalni ideyi tekhnolohiyi "dialoh kultur" [The general ideas of technology of "dialogue of cultures"]. Retrieved from https: //stud.com.ua/46436/pedagogik a [in Ukrainian].

2. Dychkivska, I. (2004). Innovatsiyni pedahohichni tekhnolohiyi [Innovative pedagogical technologies] [in Ukrainian].

3. Gardner, R.C. (1985). Attitude/motivation test battery [in English].

4. Mashkina, L. (2012). Teoretychni zasady pedahohichnoyi tekhnolohiyi "Shkola dialohu kultur" [Theoretical principles of pedagogical technology "School of dialogue of cultures"] [in Ukrainian].

5. Stavytska, I. Lecturer, NTUU "KPI" Retrieved from http: //confesp.fl.kpi.ua/ru/node/988 [in Ukrainian].

6. Tannenbaum, R.J., Baron, P.A. (2010). Mapping TOEIC® Test Scores to the STANAG 6001 Language Proficiency Levels. Retrieved from https: //www.ets.org/Media/Research/ pdf/RM-10- 11.pdf [in English].

7. Yefimova, O. Udoskonalennya systemy movnoyi pidhotovky kursantiv vyshchykh viys'kovykh navchal'nykh zakladiv [Improving the system of language training of cadets of higher military educational institutions]. Retrieved from http: //confesp.fl.kpi.ua/ru/node/118.

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