Teaching Language and culture with the consideration of ethno-psychological aspects of communication

Abstract

The authors support the idea that in teaching language and culture it is necessary to consider the ethno-psychological aspects of communication which are revealed through the different values, perceptions and norms of the communicative behavior of the speakers. What the authors have in mind by the ethno-psychological aspects of communication are the ethno-psychological peculiarities of the speakers that belong to different cultures. They are connected with their mentality and revealed by it. Ethno-psychological peculiarities can influence the communicative norms and linguistic structures that the speakers use interacting with their foreign partners and thus cause misunderstanding in international communication. That is why in the process of teaching language and culture the perception of a target culture in comparison with the perception of a native culture should be taken into consideration. The knowledge of the ethno-psychological peculiarities can be provided through culture-related texts called Value and Language Capsules. Value Capsules present the information about the views and perceptions of a target culture in comparison with a native culture. Assignments connected with the Value Capsule teach the students to identify, analyze and compare the ethno-psychological peculiarities. Language Capsules, on the other hand, are focused on the communicative norms and linguistic structures to realize the ethno-psychological peculiarities of a representative of a target culture. The assignments connected with Language Capsules are directed to predict and plan the possible communicative behavior of international partners in certain intercultural situations