Intercultural communication in multicultural education space

Abstract

Educational migration and academic mobility have turned national universities into multi-ethnic and multi-lingual educational institutions. With international students coming from abroad and a growing number of students from the various regions of Russia, intercultural communication has become a feature of academic practices for both students and teaching staff. The paper addresses culturally determined specifics of academic communication in the multicultural education space of Russian universities. The purpose of the paper is to present the results of research carried out with the aim of defining the types of cultural indices applying classifications suggested by Edward Hall, Geert Hofstede, Fons Trompenaars and Richard Lewis, and analyse the influence of cultural and ethnic specifics on intercultural communication in the university. Implementation of research on the basis of four Russian universities included surveying and interviewing students as well as analysing the results obtained and case analysis. The key findings made it possible to classify and give a detailed description of the cultures of the post-soviet states as well as several regional cultures of Russia with regard to behavioural patterns. The paper further discusses reasons for communicative failures in the classroom, including linguistic barriers, and ways of preventing and overcoming them. The paper argues that awareness of ethnic and cultural specifics helps to break barriers in intercultural communication in the university and streamline the teaching process.

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