Emotional intelligence strategies as the ways of improving English speakers’ performance in the process of intercultural communication

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Emotional intelligence strategies as the ways of improving English speakers' performance in the process of intercultural communication

Olena Iaburova, Candidate of pedagogical sciences Associate Professor of the Department of Theory and Practice of Primary Education SHEE «Donbas state pedagogical university»

Abstract

The article reveals the questions of using the emotional intelligence strategies as the ways to improve English speakers' performance. The author of the article pays attention to the phenomenon of emotional intelligence in the context of intercultural communication as one of the most important factors influencing the constructive cooperation in the professional English speaking surrounding.

The author also points out that the development of students' linguistic skills is based on their positive, emotionally valuable attitude to the peculiarities of different structures, the ability to interact in international surrounding, the skills to overcome the emotional state of discomfort.

The aspects mentioned in the article could be regarded as the main ones to bring up the citizen of the world ready for effective intercultural communication thanks to the implementation of the set of special training exercises developed and implemented by the article author. These exercises include the development of basic competencies such as emotional self- awareness, accurate self-assessment and self-confidence, motivation and social skills and accompanied with some tips and recommendations to be taken into account. Students are advised to keep a record of their behaviour when face stressful situation, to make a list of their language strength, to adjust their behavioural patterns, to examine on a regular base how students' speech affects others, to do self-evaluation, to practise giving feedback to everybody's speech, to observe how they react to other people performance. Basing on the research results the following conclusions can be formulated. The phenomenon of emotional intelligence is regarded as the precondition of constructive interaction in the professional surrounding. The development of linguistic skills is based on students' positive acceptance of different cultures, their ability to differentiate social behaviour from their personal one, not to rush to judgement before knowing all the facts.

Key words: emotional intelligence; international communication; self-awareness; selfassessment; self-control; emotional-intelligence strategies.

Анотація

Стаття висвітлює використання стратегій емоційного інтелекту як способів удосконалення англомовної комунікації. Автор статті приділяє особливу увагу явищу емоційного інтелекту в контексті міжкультурної комунікації як одного з основних факторів, що впливають на конструктивну взаємодію в професійному іншомовному середовищі.

Автор статті також підкреслює, що розвиток лінгвістичних навичок студентів в більшій мірі обумовлено їх позитивним емоційно-ціннісним ставленням до особливостей різних культур, умінням взаємодіяти в міжкультурному середовищі, подоланням емоційного стану дискомфорту.

Окреслені в статті аспекти виховання майбутнього фахівця, як громадянина світу, здатного до ефективної міжкультурної комунікації здійснюється завдяки імплементації в процес навчальної та позаурочної діяльності низки спеціальних тренувальних вправ, розроблених і апробованих автором статті.

Ключові слова: емоційний інтелект; міжнародна комунікація; самосвідомість; самооцінка; самоконтроль; стратегії емоційно-розумової діяльності.

Аннотация

Статья освещает использование стратегий эмоционального интеллекта как способов усовершенствования англоязычной коммуникации. Автор статьи уделяет особое внимание явлению эмоционального интеллекта в контексте межкультурной коммуникации как одному из основных факторов, влияющих на конструктивное взаимодействие в профессиональной иноязычной среде.

Автор статьи также подчеркивает, что развитие лингвистических навыков студентов в большей мере обусловлено их позитивным эмоционально-ценностным отношением к особенностям разных культур, умением взаимодействовать в межкультурной среде, преодолением эмоционального состояния дискомфорта.

Обозначенные в статье аспекты воспитания будущего специалиста, как гражданина мира, способного к эффективной межкультурной коммуникации осуществляются благодаря имплементации в процесс учебной и внеурочной деятельности ряд специальных тренировочных упражнений, разработанных и апробированных автором статьи/

Ключевые слова: эмоциональный интеллект; международное общение; самосознание; самооценка; самоконтроль; стратегии эмоционального интеллекта.

Setting up the general problem. Modern period of the world pedagogical science development reveals the relevant tendency of policultural education, which has different but great cultural customs and traditions, associated with various ethnic components of the nowadays society. It is natural that solving this current scientific problem is regarded to be impossible without effective gaining the knowledge of foreign languages by the participants of the process as the means of intercultural communication and social and economic cooperation. Thus, the necessity of revealing the main theoretical and methodological, educational and methodical conditions of learning foreign languages while studying at higher educational establishments and obtaining the basic skills of multivector intercultural cooperation is arisen.

The analysis of the latest research works and publications. According to S. Derevianko, the peculiarities of emotional intelligence influence are revealed in cognitive (regarding oneself and others), emotional (emotional self-expression), behavioral (communicative behaviour) spheres of social and psychological adaptation of a personality to the student surrounding. In the interpersonal sphere the level of emotional intelligence influences how the student regards himself/herself and others (students with high level of emotional intelligence are characterized with more congruent system of regarding in comparison with the students whose level of emotional intelligence is much lower); in the sphere of emotional self-expression emotional intelligence plays the role of a regulator (during stressful periods of studying or communicating students with high level of emotional intelligence are characterized with more comfortable emotional states); in the sphere of communicative behaviour the influence of emotional intelligence leads to more respectable social positions of any personality in the group, stability of the system of interpersonal choices) [2].

According to the results of the experimental research work by T. Kravchyna focused on understanding how a foreign text influences the success of humanitarian students' education and professional activity, the author comes to the conclusion that the culture of understanding and interpreting foreign texts includes three levels as its consistuent parts: scientific, emotionally sensitive and creative - the highest level of understanding. Consequently, the components of the structure of understanding a foreign text involves emotional intelligence (the level of its development can be regarded as the foundation for understanding the text; an emotional and empathical component (emotions and feelings of empathy are the basic parts of the process of understanding); a creative component (creativity empowers the formation of the whole image of interpreted information), a motivational component (the given component characterizes the reasons of understanding and using the information) and a cultural and historical component (the component is under the influence of cultural and historical peculiarities of the surrounding where the interpreter lives) [5].

From O. Myloslavska's point of view, the high level of emotional intelligence corresponds to a personality's ability of constructive interaction in the academic or professional surrounding; easiness to contact with other participants of the process of communication; understanding inner personal feelings; the ability to demonstrate positive features, to make positive impressions, to act according to a partner's communication expectations. Besides, according to the author's point of view, the level of emotional intelligence is connected to the tendency of a personality to demonstrate tolerance and awareness, the level of prognostic abilities as for interpersonal situations, interpretation of information and behaviour, readiness to social interaction and decision making, ability to keep personal emotions under control, to verbalise the emotional state. [6].

A. Kozak considers the phenomenon of intercultural communication as an important sphere of modern pedagogical science influence, and the readiness to intercultural communication in the context of specialists' professional training as a complex, integrative, and professional feature of an individual which is characterized by focusing on international communication, high level of knowledge in the sphere of international cooperation, emotionally positive attitude to peculiarities of different cultures, the ability to interact with the representatives of the different cultures at different levels [4].

I. Holub reveals the content of the phenomenon of intercultural shock and, also, its psychological mechanism as “the state of losing the orientation and emotional excitement which arises when a person immediately occurs in the foreign culture surrounding and operates there (not as a guest or a tourist) for a long time. The mechanism of this psychological phenomenon could be regarded as the following one: while communicating in the native culture a person creates the stable picture of the surrounding world, forms the way of living, mentality, and unconsciously the person reckons these views of the world as the only possible ones [1]”.

Communicating beyond the borders of the native culture is considered to be the meeting of foreign cultures representatives who are the carriers of the different mentality and understand the world structure and social order in another way. Meanwhile, keeping evaluation and consideration of the foreign culture on the base of the native one, the person unexpectedly begins to feel discomfort and rejection of the new surrounding that leads to the inner conflict between the person's understanding the native and foreign culture.

Taking into account the content of the cultural shock, its peculiarities and mechanism in the interaction with separate cultural formations, K. Oberg considers the following particular stages of the cultural shock development:

- euphoria stage, when the person's attitude to the new foreign surrounding is positive and full of joy and happiness until he takes any notice of cultural difference existence. Even being limited in his contacts with the representatives of a foreign culture he doesn't feel any discomfort;

- the stage of feeling separation (sudden barriers between cultures, problems in interpersonal communication, feelings of contradictions between the cultures);

- the phase of pressure escalation (negative feelings become unbearable, negative psychological acceptance of intercultural communication sharpens). The culture in which the person interacts considers to be a strange one while the native one tends to be idealised. At the same time the person begins to avoid intercultural communication experiencing psychological and physical discomfort.

- acceptance stage (feeling of rejecting a foreign culture is gradually changed by more tolerant attitude to the foreign culture realities). The problems while communicating stop being regarded as negative peculiarities of foreign mentality but as a result of intercultural differences which doesn't prevent the person from understanding it in the process of intercultural communication);

- acculturation phase (without losing the strong connection with the native culture the person begins to feel comfortable in the foreign surrounding thanks to better understanding of this culture and positive accepting the specification of intercultural cooperation) [8].

According to I. Ivanova, the necessity to create professionally oriented textbook on the aspects of intercultural communication, especially the strategies how to improve and enhance students' performance in the foreign surrounding is considered to be relevant in the process of future specialist training.

The textbook of this type could realise the culturological approach to forming students' intercultural communication skills. The following aspects could be included:

- forming positive attitude to the country, the language and culture of which is being learnt;

- high level of information values, especially in the context of lexical units;

- cultures comparison which is based on the native language and culture;

- selecting culturological content to illustrate functioning peculiar social phenomena;

- evaluation and analysis of social intercultural situations which can exemplify a person's correct behaviour in the future intercultural communication;

- taking the professional demands into account;

- taking into account students' experience of intercultural communication which they can demonstrate in the period of university studying [3].

In our previous research connected with the mentioned above topics it is pointed out that students' intercultural and interactive communication includes the following aspects: openness to accepting a foreign culture and taking psychological, social and other differences as the norm of intercultural cooperation; positively coloured attitude to overcoming some psychological differences at the initial stage of intercultural communication, the ability to differentiate social and personal peculiarities in the behaviour of foreign culture representatives, the ability to cope with social, ethnic, cultural stereotypes and limitations; gaining the set of communicative means and strategies and their right choice according to the communicative situation; following the ethical norms in the process of communication [7, p.166]

Forming the article aims. The aim of our study is to analyze theoretical and methodical background of using emotional intelligence strategies to improve the process of foreign language communication. To solve the given problem we need to set the following tasks: 1) to make theoretical and methodological analysis of emotional intelligence strategies as the constituent parts of foreign language communication; 2) to point out and make a description of psychological and pedagogical characteristics of emotional intelligence which determine the development of foreign language linguistic skills; 3) to develop the set of special training exercises which result in improving English language communicative skills.

Presentation of the research main material. Taking into account the fact that emotional intelligence is linked to students' performance while presenting their ideas in English in public, we need to consider emotional intelligence strategies to act effectively. Before giving practical advice and tips how to manage your emotional state effectively, it is necessary to point out that emotional intelligence can be thought to be a set of competencies organized into four major groups: self-awareness, selfmanagement, social-awareness and social skills.

Self-awareness is very important to achieve the success in the process of gaining knowledge of English by students. Lacking the development of students' own feelings at sufficient degree can decrease their whole effectiveness even if they present the tasks which were done at home. Individuals who have a high level of self-awareness are able to assess themselves accurately, to control their nervousness, to perceive the situation at the lesson, to welcome feedback and make necessary corrections. Being less self- aware, students are also ready to risk while presenting the ideas they think to be right.

Three basic competences within self-awareness to be taught are self-awareness, accurate self-assessment and self-confidence. The student, whose competencies are developed, should know why certain feelings occur and understand the connection between his/her inner state and what they think, do and say.

Accurate self-assessment is even more important for students to identify their abilities, strengths and weakness, to accept lexical and grammatical skill limits. The students who are aware of themselves accurately always ask teachers or groupmates for detailed feedback to learn new perspectives for further learning and selfdevelopment. The students with highly developed accurate self-awareness have a good sense of humor about themselves, can learn from the experience, are respective to constructive criticism, ready to do some routine and even boring steps. Self-awareness includes examining students' inner feelings and exploring their reactions to the people and events both in class and out-of-class activities, identifying their true intentions to avoid speaking in front of the class or, on the contrary, become an active participants of the discussion, paying attention to the effectiveness of their actions.

People with a high degree of emotional intelligence are usually highly motivated to become open-air discussion activators. They are highly productive, love taking up a challenge, and are very effective in whatever they do. New tasks and projects meet their positive approval and accompany with subsequent actions to fulfil them thoroughly.

One more very important element of emotional intelligence is empathy which is the ability to identify and correlate your way of thinking with the wishes, needs and speakers' viewpoints. People with empathy are good at recognizing the inner motives and feeling of others. As a result, emphatic people are usually excellent at managing dialogical speech, listening and relating to others. They avoid responses which are always based on thorough examination of the factual information.

Besides, it is usually easy to talk with people with good social skills which can be regarded as another sign of high emotional intelligence.

The learners with strong social skills are typically team players.

They don't focus on their own domination while debating, they encourage others to become eager participants. They can manage disputes, be excellent at communicating, building and maintaining verbal relationships.

Developing emotional self-awareness, accurate self-assessment and selfconfidence, motivation and social skills include some tips and recommendations, how to follow any strategy, should be taken into account.

- Pay attention to the physical reactions aroused in your body while being in the center of the audience attention. Sit in front of the mirror and ask the person you feel comfortable with to occupy the position behind your back and keep eyes on you. Give a monologue either prepared or a spontaneous one looking at your partner and addressing to him/her like to your class audience. While speaking try to fix your actions (playing with curls, turning the ring on the finger, touching your nose or ears, shrugging your shoulders, making your face etc.). At the end of your short speech make a list of physical reactions of yours and your friend's and compare them. Keep a record of your behaviour patterns when you face stressful situations on a daily basis and try to narrow down the list.

- Make a list of your language strengths as well as points that need to be developed and then compare your own observations with a similar list done by a person you feel comfortable with and be ready to accept his/her both positive and negative feedback.

- Adjust your behavioral patterns so that they can closely match someone whose models, from your viewpoint, deserve to be followed. Keep this model in mind trying to imitate his or her gestures, intonations, voice falls and rises, act decisively watching your every move.

- Examine on a regular base how your speech affects others. Change the intonations to attract their attention, check out if they keep their eyes on you. Insert emotional exclamations, interrogative or negative sentences to give additional emotional colour to your expressions. Pause to follow your listeners' feedback. Put yourself in the place of your audience. How will you react if you are exposed to this information? Would you like to follow the present arguments? If you must continue the issue under consideration, how can you deal with the task?

- Take the responsibility for expressing your point of view. If you strongly disagree, object to your partner's idea directly - don't ignore what other people say or mean or avoid having any debates or negotiations. People are usually more willing to take part in discussions if you make an honest attempt to make things right.

- Do a self-evaluation. Monitor how often you fake in open-class discussions. The process of monitoring can be done in the form of success scales, graphics or any other ones suitable for you. Be willing to accept that you are not perfect and that you could work on some areas to become a better speaker. Having a note-pad of brilliant ideas expressed by others during your speech sessions can organize your own thoughts more clearly.

- Look at your environment. Practice giving feedback to everybody's speech and always point out not only negative aspects but also findings of the person who has taken the floor. This process can make others more confident and give everybody a chance to be successful, but don't worry too much about getting praise for yourself.

- Observe how you react to other people performance. Do you rush to judgement too strongly before you learn all the facts? Do you stereotype and repeatedly insist on similar ideas? Look honestly at how you think and interact with other speakers? Be more open and accept their interactive patterns and ways of self-expression.

Conclusion

According to the results of the given study how to use emotional intelligence strategies as the ways to enhance English speaking communication the following ideas can be formulated: 1) the phenomenon of intercultural communication is depicted as the precondition of constructive interaction in the foreign language professional surrounding; reasons for making personal contacts easier, understanding the nature of inner worries while communicating, revealing the abilities to demonstrate personal positive features, impressing the partners of communication with positive emotions and interactive abilities according to the partner's expectations; 2) developing foreign language linguistic skills is based on deep understanding and positive accepting the necessity of professional functioning, enabling to interact with the representatives of different cultural groups, dealing with the state of emotional discomfort as the result of two different culture contradiction, demonstrating positive attitude to the culture of the country, the language of which is being learnt; 3) the set of special training exercises has been developed and implemented that is aimed at improving English speaking communicative skills by using definite emotional-intelligence strategies.

emotional intelligence culture english

References (translated and transliterated)

1. Holub I.Yu. (2011). Vykorystannia yavyshcha kulturnoho shoku dlia formuvannia sotsiokulturnoi kompetentsii studentiv na zanniattiakh z inozemnoi movy [The use of the cultural shock phenomenon for forming students' social and cultural competence in foreign language classes]. Inozemni movy - Foreign languages, 1, 40-43 [in Ukrainian].

2. Derevianko S.P. (2009). Emotsiinyi intelekt yak chynnyk sotsialno-psykholohichnoi adaptatsii osobystosti do studentskoho seredovyshcha [Emotional intelligence as a factor of social and psychological adaptation to the students' environment]. Candidate's thesis. Kyiv [in Ukrainian].

3. Ivanova I. (2008). Sformuvaty informatsiine tlo mizhkulturnoi kmunikatsii [To form information background of intercultural communication]. Inozemni movy u navchalnykh zakladakh - Foreign languages at educational institutions, 1, 46-50 [in Ukrainian].

4. Kozak A.V. (2011). Formuvannia hotovnosti maibutnikh fakhivtsiv u sferi mizhnarodnykh vidnosyn do mizhkulturnoi komunikatsii [Forming the readiness of future specialists in the sphere of international relations for intercultural communication]. Candidate's thesis. Lutsk [in Ukrainian].

5. Kravchyna T.V. (2010). Psykholohichni osoblyvosti rozuminnia inshomovnoho naukovoho tekstu studentamy humanitarnykh spetsialnostei [Psychologicalfeatures of understanding a foreign scientific text by students of Humanitarian specialties]. Candidate's thesis. Kyiv [in Ukrainian].

6. Myloslavska O.V. (2011). Emotsiinyi intelekt yak skladova komunikatyvnoi kompetentnosti studentiv [Emotional entellegence as a part of students'' communicative competence]. Candidate's thesis. Kharkiv [in Ukrainian].

7. Iaburova O.V. (2015). Sotsialno-pedahohichne zabezpechennia mizhkulturnoi komunikatsii ukrainskykh ta inozemnykh studentiv [Social andpedagogical supplying of intercultural communication of Ukrainian and foreign students]. Candidate's thesis. Sloviansk [in Ukrainain]

8. Oberg K. Cultural shock: adjustment to new cultural environments / K. Oberg // Practical anthropology. - 1960. - P. 177-182 [in English].

Размещено на Allbest.ru