In the course of perceiving one’s own and foreign culture we turn out to be at the interface of two cultures. It approaches us to intercultural world outlook. The term «intercultural» implies reciprocity, interaction and mutual influence between representatives of different languages, cultures and ethnic groups. In order to be aware of the importance of the burning issue the author pays special attention to the problem of studying the notion «culture», which is represented in different sources as elementary, relevant, referring to a group, contested. The long-term process of learning culture and forming the intercultural world outlook involves not only learning culture-specific vocabulary, but also developing such qualities as empathy, acknowledgement of cultural diversity, tolerance, an ability to distance oneself from position, cultural identity, etc. This purpose may be achieved by applying active methods of teaching. It is supposed that implementing the culture-through-language studies aspect will enable to approach awareness of cultural differences and will help to form the intercultural competence, in which the above mentioned elements are included. One should admit that not all students possess these traits and one of the primary purposes of a foreign language teacher becomes broadening the scope of students, awareness of linguistic and cultural picture of the world and forming intercultural world outlook. It goes without saying that developing the intercultural competence, combining social and communicative skills: empathy, an ability of dealing with a conflict, working collaboratively, flexibility, awareness of a foreign language, speech speeds, speech patterns, functional styles, etc. Some researchers affirm that intercultural communicative competence also entails linguistic competence, vocabulary, syntax, morphology, etc.; sociolinguistic, discourse and intercultural competence. The article highlights the models of intercultural teaching. The author investigates the principles of teaching culture and language and the models of assessing intercultural skills on the basis of foreign colleagues’ experience.
In the course of perceiving one’s own and foreign culture we turn out to be at the interface of two cultures. It approaches us to intercultural world outlook. The term «intercultural» implies reciprocity, interaction and mutual influence between representatives of different languages, cultures and ethnic groups. In order to be aware of the importance of the burning issue the author pays special attention to the problem of studying the notion «culture», which is represented in different sources as elementary, relevant, referring to a group, contested. The long-term process of learning culture and forming the intercultural world outlook involves not only learning culture-specific vocabulary, but also developing such qualities as empathy, acknowledgement of cultural diversity, tolerance, an ability to distance oneself from position, cultural identity, etc. This purpose may be achieved by applying active methods of teaching. It is supposed that implementing the culture-through-language studies aspect will enable to approach awareness of cultural differences and will help to form the intercultural competence, in which the above mentioned elements are included. One should admit that not all students possess these traits and one of the primary purposes of a foreign language teacher becomes broadening the scope of students, awareness of linguistic and cultural picture of the world and forming intercultural world outlook. It goes without saying that developing the intercultural competence, combining social and communicative skills: empathy, an ability of dealing with a conflict, working collaboratively, flexibility, awareness of a foreign language, speech speeds, speech patterns, functional styles, etc. Some researchers affirm that intercultural communicative competence also entails linguistic competence, vocabulary, syntax, morphology, etc.; sociolinguistic, discourse and intercultural competence. The article highlights the models of intercultural teaching. The author investigates the principles of teaching culture and language and the models of assessing intercultural skills on the basis of foreign colleagues’ experience.