Cross-cultural Communication as the Way to Improve the Efficiency of Learning a Foreign Language

The article considers the new time; new conditions demanded the immediate and radical revision, both the general methodology and specific methods and techniques of teaching of foreign languages. These new conditions and its prompt entry into the world community, reckless gallops of politics, economy, culture, ideology, mixture and movement of the people and languages, change of the relations between Kazakhstan citizens and foreigners, absolutely new purposes of communication—all these set the new tasks in the theory and practice of teaching of foreign language. The sudden and radical change of social life of our country, its "opening" and entry into the world community returned languages to life, making them a real means of different kinds of communication the number of which is increasing day by day along with the growth of scientific and technical facilities of communication.


Culture as a Broad Ethnographic Sense of the Word
People! Be patient, respect the "foreign", not only your own culture and life will become easier and calmer.Patience, tolerance, indulgence -are the formula for cross-cultural communication ( Ter-Minasova, 2000).
The lesson of a foreign language is the intersection of cultures.It is a practice of cross-cultural communication and each foreign word reflects the foreign world and foreign culture: behind each word there is an idea of the world caused by national consciousness.
Presently, there cannot be an aim of learning the foreign languages be only a transmission of linguistic knowledge, abilities and skills, and encyclopedic mastering of cross-cultural information.
A central place in a pedagogical process must occupy forming of capacity for participating in crosscultural communication that it is especially important now, «when a mixture of peoples, languages, cultures reached a record level -and as always there was a problem of education of tolerance for other cultures, creating interest and respect for them, overcoming a sense of irritation from redundancy, failure, or simply otherness of other cultures.That's what caused everyone's attention to the issues of intercultural communication» (Ter-Minasova, 2000).
New time, new conditions demanded the immediate and radical revision, both the general methodology and specific methods and techniques of teaching of foreign languages.These new conditions and its prompt entry into the world community, reckless gallops of politics, economy, culture, ideology, mixture and movement of the people and languages, change of the relations between Kazakhstan citizens and foreigners, absolutely new purposes of communication-all these set new tasks in the theory and practice of teaching of foreign language.
The sudden and radical change of social life of the country, its "opening" and entry into the world community returned languages to life, making them a real means of different kinds of communication -the number of which is increasing day-by-day along with the growth of scientific and technical facilities of communication.
Currently, the high school level learning a foreign language as a means of communication between specialists from different countries, the researchers understand not as pure applied and highly specialised tasks of learning the language of physicists' physics texts, geologists -geological and so on.
The expert of a higher educational institution is widely an educated person with fundamental training.Accordingly, foreign language specialist is the instrument of production, part of the culture, and a means of humanization of education.
All this suggests a fundamental and versatile training in the language.The students' level of knowledge of a foreign language is determined not only by direct contact with the teacher.

Intercultural Communication in Everyday Communication
To teach a foreign language as a means of communication, it is necessary to create an environment of real communication, to liaise with foreign language teaching life, to actively use foreign languages in vivid, natural situations.
It can be scientific discussions in the language with foreign specialists, referencing and discussion of foreign scientific literature, reading individual courses in foreign languages, participation of students in the international conferences, and work as a translator, which is precisely in communication, contact, and ability to understand and transmit information.Out-of-class forms of communication need to be developed: clubs, societies, public lectures in foreign languages and scientific organizations on interests where students of different specialties can gather.
Unexpectedly for themselves teachers of foreign languages appeared in the centre of public attention: in different areas of science, culture, business, equipment and all other areas of human activity demanded immediate training in foreign languages as to an instrument of production.They are interested in neither the theory, nor language history.Foreign languages, first of all English, are required for them exclusively functionally, for use in different spheres of life of society as means of real communication with people from other countries.
The basic principles of this trend can be formulated as follows: 1) to learn languages functionally, in terms of their use in different spheres of social life: in science, technology, economy, culture and so on; 2) to generalise enormous practical and theoretical experience of teaching of foreign languages to specialists; 3) scientifically to prove and develop the methods of the language teaching as the means of intercourse between professionals, as the instrument of production in combination with a culture, economy, right, applied mathematics, different branches of science -with those spheres that require application of foreign languages; 4) to study languages in a synchronous cut, on the wide background of social, cultural, political life of people talking on these languages, that is in close connection with the world of the studied language; 5) to work out the model of preparation of teachers of foreign languages, specialists on international and cross-cultural communication, specialists on public relations.
The main answer to the question of solving urgent problems of teaching foreign languages as a means of communication between people of different nations and cultures is that languages should be taught in an indissoluble unity with the world and culture of the peoples who speak these languages.
To teach people to communicate, teach to produce, create, rather than just understand foreign speech is the difficult task, complicated by the fact that communication is not simply verbal process.Its efficiency, besides knowledge of language, depends on a set of factors: conditions and culture of communication, rules of etiquette, knowledge of non-verbal forms of expression (mimicry, gestures).
Overcoming of a language barrier isn't enough for ensuring efficiency of communication between representatives of different cultures.For this purpose, it is necessary to break a cultural barrier.
In the fragment given below from Markovin and Sorokin's interesting research national and specific components of cultures, which are presented, as creates problems of cross-cultural communication: • In a situation of contact of different cultures (linguistic-cultural communities) language barrier is not the only obstacle to understanding.National-specific features for the different components of culture-communicants may impede the process of intercultural communication.The components of culture, national-specific staining, include 1) tradition (or stable elements of culture) and customs (as defined in the tradition of "socionormative" sphere of culture) and rituals (performing the function of unconscious initiation to the dominant system in the regulations); 2) consumer culture, closely related to the tradition, so that it is often called the traditional consumer culture; 3) daily behaviour (the habit of representatives of some culture accepted in some society of norm of communication), and also related mimic and pantomimic (kinesthetic) codes used by carriers of some lingo-cultural community; 4) "national picture of the world", reflecting the specific perception of the world, national peculiarities of thinking representatives of a given culture; 5) artistic culture that reflects the cultural traditions of a particular ethnic group.Specific features have also the carrier of national language and culture possesses.In cross-cultural communication it is necessary to take into account the features of national character of communicants, the specificity of their emotional state, national and specific features of thinking (Antipov, Donskikh, Markovin, & Sorokin, 1989).

Language is a Mirror
Under cross-cultural communication, the researchers mean an adequate understanding of two or more participants in the communicative act, belonging to different national cultures.The fact that even if people speak the same language, they are not always able to understand each other and the cause is often a discrepancy cultures.Urgent to intercultural communication in everyday communication -knowledge models of communication, cultural attitudes, values, images and symbols of culture.
According to Edward Sapir, "each cultural system and every single act of public conduct explicitly or implicitly involves communication".(Sapir, 1993) Thus, the researchers are talking about the need for a deeper and more thorough study of the world (not the language and the world) native speakers of their culture in a wide ethnographic sense.Study of their way of life, national character, mentality and so on, because the actual use of words in speech, real speech reproduction substantially determined by the knowledge of the social and cultural life of the speaker in this language speech community."The language does not exist outside of culture, and it is socially inherited set of skills and ideas that characterize our way of life".(Sapir, 1993) The result of familiarity with the culture of the target language and mastering ways of intercultural communication is formed by the students' socio-cultural competence as an integral part of communicative competence.(Bibler, 1989) The term "socio-cultural competence" implies knowledge of students of national and cultural characteristics of the social and verbal behavior of native speakers, their customs, etiquette, social stereotypes, history and culture, as well as ways to use this knowledge in the process of communication.
Sysoev in social competence includes knowledge of the socio-cultural component, as well as experience and the use of language in different social and cultural situations.
A term a "socio-cultural competence" implies knowledge by students' national and cultural features of social and speech behaviour of native speakers, their customs, etiquette, social stereotypes, history and culture speakers, and also methods of the use of this knowledge in the process of communication.
The structure of social competence includes сcultural and linguistic information.In the classroom for foreign language students are invited familiarity with the following information about the target language country: geographical location and natural conditions, polity, culture of the country and its contribution to world culture, organization of life and leisure, information about educational institutions, holidays and important dates, and features of speech behaviour and etiquette.Linguisticcultural knowledge includes information about non-equivalent background of lexicon and ways of its transfer in the native language, cultural studies component of authentic texts, and speech etiquette of native speakers (Raku, 2004).
In the substantial plan -communication includes the following subjects: the country of the learned language, a family, school, leisure, sport, the city and its sights, travel, choice of profession, the nature and ecology, achievements of culture, the well-known people, national holidays and traditions.
Noteworthy is the list of knowledge and skills that constitute the social competence, should possess a student studying a foreign language was drafted by the American methodologist Lafayette.
• Group 1-Students should know the basic geographical information; the main events of history; to work out the model of preparation of teachers of foreign languages, specialists on international and cross-cultural communication, specialists on public relations; the structure of the government; and significant development in the field of culture and art of the country the language is spoken.
Group 2 -Students should know the accepted norms of behaviour in different situations; spiritual values and cultural traditions that define the life of society; and particularly appropriate behaviour in various situations within this cultural tradition.
Group 3 -Students must respect the life and cultural traditions of the peoples of other countries.
• Group 4-Students should be able to to give an objective assessment of the various claims and existing notions of national culture; and to find information about the foreign language and culture to be able to use it.(Sysoev, 2000) Socio cultural competence provides an opportunity not only to participate in cross-cultural communication, but also to use the language at the level of its carrier, that is, become a language personality, able to organize their verbal behaviour in accordance with the rules not only the target language, but also the culture of speakers.
Therefore, at the present stage of teaching languages of international communication, knowledge of culture of the country and the people of the target language are not just important and significant, they will play a decisive role in the use of language, and thus influence the foreign language communicative competence of students.
Thus, the task of learning a foreign language as a means of communication are inextricably fused with the task of studying the social and cultural life of the countries and the people who speaks in that language.
You must not only teach a person to a foreign language, but also teach to respect and appreciate the culture of the people.
Language -is a mirror that shows the world in human perception surrounding the human reality.At the same time in the mirror of the language reflected the man himself, his lifestyle, and behaviour, relationships with other people, values, and culture.(Ter-Minasova, 2000) The said allows to draw conclusion, that culture -is one of the objects of study (along with language, speech, speech activity).As a result of exploring the culture of the target language, students gain knowledge and skills to ensure the possibility of cross-cultural communication, that is, ability to mutual understanding of the participants of communication belonging to different national cultures.