Intercultural communicative competence as a guiding principle for adult foreign language education in a polycentric world

Importance. Against the backdrop of the emergence of the polycentric system of international relations, as well as shifting values and objectives of foreign language education, there is a need to review approaches of teaching foreign languages to adults. The purpose of this research is to provide a theoretical foundation for intercultural communicative competence that addresses the objectives of proactively promoting native country’s discourse in cross-cultural interaction.

Research Methods. The following methods were employed in the course of the study: a review of the theoretical literature on the research topic; a critical analysis of contemporary academic research in the field of intercultural foreign language education; the synthesis and classification of information; conceptual and terminological differentiation; and a method for modelling the components of intercultural competence.

Results and Discussion. The need to distinguish between the concepts of “multicultural”, “intercultural” and “cross-cultural” in relation to the geopolitical realities of their development has been identified and substantiated. A distinction has been drawn between the objectives of developing intercultural and cross-cultural communicative competence within the framework of foreign language teaching for adults. A three-component structure of intercultural communicative competence (cognitive-discursive, behavioral-strategic, and mediative-proactive components) has been proposed as an independent construct that responds to the contemporary challenges of a polycentric world.

Conclusion. It has been concluded that, given the shift in the values and objectives of foreign language education, the traditional understanding of cross-cultural competence is proving to be irrelevant. In a context of “non-dialogue between cultures”, the integration of the objectives of intercultural and cross-cultural competence leads to a loss of their conceptual clarity. Consequently, within the framework of foreign language teaching for adults, it is proposed, while maintaining continuity with existing knowledge, to focus on developing intercultural communicative competence as an independent construct. This will enable a systematic approach to fostering adult learners’ ability to proactively promote native country’s discourse during foreign language communication.

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