Culture is often viewed as a constantly evolving view of the world. Paintings of the world and, consequently, language pictures of the world of different peoples absorb both the universal culture and the features of their culture, which influences the interaction and mutual understanding of different peoples. This fact undoubtedly affects the features of intercultural communication and is reflected in the learning process of foreign languages. On the one hand, the categories of thinking and the mechanisms of cognition are of a universal character, on the other — in each language the specific features of the worldview of the speakers of this language are reflected. Thus, each language has its own language picture of the world, different from the others. Specificity of the linguistic picture of the world predetermines a set of specific means used in stereotypical situations for this vision, which is determined by the rules of lexical and syntactic compatibility of the given language, its specific use.
Idiomatism is characteristic of any specific language, it is a cultural-specific phenomenon. Carriers of different languages in their statements differently reflect the surrounding reality, their thoughts, feelings, emotions, using special expressions that give speech in a given language its cultural-specific character.
The study shows that idiomatic speech is characterized by the following qualities: cultural conditioning, specificity, usuality, relativity.
Analysis of scientific literature and special dictionaries of English idioms allowed to conclude that idiomatic speech in English is achieved due to the use of speech stereotypes, ready phrases, formulas of speech etiquette and such stable phrases as clichés, phraseological units, proverbs, sayings, phrasal verbs. Mastering these means is a condition for the development of dialogical speech in a foreign language, close to the speech of the native speaker.
In the framework of this study, we considered it possible to combine all these word combinations under the name idiomatic expressions, by which we mean words and phrases reflecting a particular vision of the world of a given linguocultural community, defining the national and cultural specifics of the language being studied and characteristic for the natural speech of language beds in stereotyped communicative situations.
Numerous works of both domestic and foreign researchers are devoted to the issues of mutual influence of culture and communication (Vereshchagin E. M., Kostomarov V. G., Leontiev A. A., Morkovina I.Yu., Tarasov E. F., Agar R., Hess-Luttich E., Lado R., Kress G.). Communication can not be separated from the cultural context, therefore communication between speakers of different languages is always intercultural.
Intercultural communication is a process of direct interaction of cultures, and the whole process of such interaction «is carried out within the framework of incongruent national stereotypes of thinking and behavior, which significantly affects the mutual understanding of the parties in communication» (Sgernin I. L., 1996, 97).
In order to achieve meaningful contact within the framework of intercultural communication, one should take into account that the problems of intercultural communication are caused not by the lack of sufficient knowledge in the field of grammar or vocabulary of the language being studied, but are deeper.
It is noted in the literature that the main obstacle to intercultural communication is the national specific features of interacting cultures. Members of different societies are carriers of various conceptual systems. The mismatch of conceptual systems in intercultural communication generates so-called «language anomalies» — the use of language, atypical for its carrier, not idiomatic speech.
In the process of teaching intercultural communication, her future participant studies the features of the real life of a sociocultural community. Training communication in the framework of intercultural communication means not only the formation of the ability to adequately code and decode information in a foreign language, but also mastering the means of socio-cultural communication, the «conventional orientation» of conceptual systems. Without taking this fact into account it is impossible to assimilate the cultural values of the country of the studied language, the successful mastery of a foreign speech, the specificity of the usual speech behavior. A man who learns someone else's culture, comparing it with his own. As a result, there is a double enrichment: a man not only assimilates a foreign culture, but also understands his own, an increment of cultural potential. The central figure of communication is the linguistic personality, in terms of intercultural communication, we are talking about the task of forming a secondary linguistic personality when teaching a foreign language in a linguistic university. Since idiomatic expressions can be considered as specific nationally specific and culturally-conditioned units in the consciousness of the linguistic personality, which bear the imprint of an sociocultural picture of the world, teaching them favors the formation of a secondary linguistic personality, without which successful intercultural communication is impossible. Thus, the teaching of idiomatic dialogical speech can be considered one of the topical problems of the methodology of teaching foreign languages in the framework of teaching intercultural communication. The process of communication of representatives of different cultural linguistic societies takes place in the intercultural space.
The analysis of the literature on the problem made it possible to distinguish the following components of intercultural competence:
- Knowledge and understanding of one's culture, which determines behavior, perception of the world, etc.
- Comprehension of the picture of the world of another sociocultural
- Positive attitude to both the studied foreign language and its speakers, and other cultures and societies.
- Ability to recognize and understand the semantic orientations of another lingvo-society.
- The ability to see the similarities and differences between communicating cultures and apply them in the context of intercultural communication.
- Willingness to resolve conflicts, reject prejudice, ability to cope with obscure moments in the speech of the native speaker.
- Skills and skills of the participant in the intercultural dialogue, involving operations with non-cultural concepts and means of social communication, including idiomatic expressions. Idiomatic expressions reflect the cultural basis of the picture of the world of another lingvo-society, therefore they play a special role in the formation of intercultural communicative competence.
By virtue of the previously listed characteristics of an idiomatic speech that is foreign to another language, the latter's training contributes to the development of the ability to analyze and isolate certain phenomena of foreign culture that the students may encounter during contact with a foreign culture; as well as the development of students' flexible approach to other cultures so that they can recognize and accept other conceptual systems and compare them with their own culture, and, ultimately, deeper comprehend it. Thus, by teaching students of an idiomatic foreign language speech, we form an intercultural communicative competence.
References:
- Akhmanova O. S., Dictionary of linguistic terminology. 2nd edition. М., 1969. P. 165–166.
- Word-Combination: Theory and Method / Ed. By O. S. Akhmanova. M., 1974. Gvishiani N. B. Lexical-Phraseological Categories as Applied to the Study of Word-Combination.
- Firth J. R. A Synopsis of Linguistic Theory, 1930–1955. Studies in Linguistic Analysis (Volume of the Philological Society). Oxford, 1957.
