The linguo-cultural component of English language lessons as a means of acculturation of basic secondary education students

Abstract

The purpose of the paper was to ground the need to take into account the linguo-cultural component in English lessons as a means of acculturation of basic secondary education students. The research uses such methods as: analysis of pedagogical and methodical literature, documents for synthesis, comparison of different approaches to the problem, determination of its theoretical foundation and conceptual-and-categorical apparatus; critical mastering of foreign language teaching methods, intercultural communication, linguistic and cultural studies.

The research proved that an important aspect of todays’s foreign language learning is the linguo-cultural direction of this process, as well as the use of such methods and techniques that would facilitate the process of acculturation of students, that is, their adaptation to the culture of the people whose language is studied. Linguo-cultural competence is defined as the ability of the learner to communicate in intercultural context, to realize himself within the dialogue of cultures, which is based on the knowledge of lexical and phraseological units with a national cultural component of meaning and the ability to apply them in situations of intercultural communication; on the possession of nationally specific models of communicative behavior and the ability to communicate in socio-culturally determined situations; on the ability to use background knowledge (historical, cultural, socio-cultural, etc.) to achieve intercultural mutual understanding with speakers of other languages. Specific examples are used to demonstrate the peculiarities of conducting linguo-cultural work in English language classes for the purpose of acculturation of students. The introduction of a linguo-cultural component into the process of learning English provides: high-quality aquisition of a foreign language; the formation of the learner’s linguo-cultural competence; the expansion of worldview and general cultural knowledge, ideas and attitudes; the understanding of value attitudes, features of psychological and social identity inherent in the linguo-cultural community, in the language of intercultural communication; the development of intercultural tolerance, skills of coexistence with representatives of foreign cultures, tolerant attitude towards existing differences (linguistic, cultural) in the communicative behavior of the participants of intercultural communication; the facilitation of the acculturation process of a foreign language learner.