I. Pshenichnova
Lipetsk

FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND CULTURE EDUCATION THROUGH THE DIALOGUE OF CULTURES

    Learning foreign languages is becoming of great importance now not only for international relations scholars, businessmen, human rights activists, specialists in diplomacy but for every citizen of the country. The world is entering the era of globalization. People of different national origins will have to communicate with each other in order to keep peace and security. Unfortunately many people do not realize that "big politics" starts with "little deeds". Even acquiring the foreign language one can learn to be more tolerable to others, become capable of accepting the right of others to think differently, appreciate the culture of one's own land and the lands of other people.
    We oppose foreign-language teaching (FLT) to foreign-language education (FLE), which is different in its aim and content. FLT is aimed at developing communicative skills and is focused on reaching pragmatic aims. Education, however, is aimed at teaching practical skills and developing learner's abilities to help a student assimilate moral values of the society and to live in conformity with the accepted principles, standards and moral values, to develop tolerance and the readiness to understand others and self. The aim of FLE is the development of student's personality by means of foreign-language culture. FLE is not only a country-study approach to foreign language teaching but also a sociocultural education of each individuality and thus the whole society. So teaching is only one aspect, a pragmatic one, of education. However, education is practically the transmission of culture. So FLE is the transmission of foreign-language culture. Foreign -language culture (inoyazychnaya kultura)( by Pr. Passov E.I.)- a part of general spiritual culture that student acquires by means of communicative language teaching in its instructional (social), cognitive(cultural), upbringing(pedagogical) and developing(psychological) aspects.
    The cognition of the country's culture, where the target language is spoken, is not the ultimate goal but a tool and a cause of deeper understanding and comprehension of the native culture. Students learn about new country comparing the knowledge that they have already gotten with recently acquired. The dialogue of cultures should take place every lesson. Such cross-cultural comparing promotes unity and development of understanding and positive attitude to another culture its people and traditions. It welcomes student to have strong life position, share their view points, thus stimulating student learn more about their own and other cultures.
    I am a graduate of the Foreign Languages and Culture Department Lipetsk State Pedagogical University. A recognized Russian scholar in the field Pr. Passov E.I. is a president of the ELE Center. My diploma work is one of the units of the Textbook for University Students that learn English. The chapter I am working on is "British, American and Russian: Are we similar or different?" This textbook is going to be published and be recommended to Russian Universities. Our center of FLE has a huge experience of publishing English-language textbooks for schools in Russia (Kuzovlev V.P., Lapa N.M., Peregudova E.S. "Happy English"). There is a special section in the textbooks, called "In You Own Culture" which is focused on teaching the students to be able to tell about their native culture in the foreign language. More than that there is a section "Link List" which is aimed at making the student realize the peculiarities of their own culture and relate them to the foreign language culture.
    In the unit I am working on I develop such issues as national identity, stereotypes, national character, international conflicts, international security. Being an exchange student in the US helped me to handle the work. I would be happy to present the unit at the conference and show how "foreign languages and culture education through the dialogue of cultures" approach works.