Abstract:

Pedagogical activity at the University, based on a personal-activity approach to improving multicultural literacy of students, involves the development of reflection, tolerance, the ability to intercultural dialogue, understanding the universal values and the uniqueness of different cultures (Russian, European, American, Eastern, etc.). This approach in teaching allows us to identify the inner side of the relationship between a person and a multicultural environment, reflecting the diversity of spiritual and material forms of coexistence and interaction of diverse, equal and equivalent cultures and their representatives.

University graduates are aware of the importance of cultural differences that contribute to the mutual enrichment of values and experience of interaction, they perceive them positively, equally relate to the culture of their people and other cultures, they are less inclined to contrast them with each other. The study of the problem of forming the readiness of students to communicate in a multicultural environment makes a certain contribution to the possibility of educating a young person focused on understanding, tolerance, acceptance and respect for cultural diversity.

In modern society, ethnic conflicts, intolerance, lack of understanding of the problems of people of other faiths, ignorance by many students culture of other peoples and inability to choose the correct form of behavior towards representatives proves necessity for special work to prepare students to communicate in a multicultural environment. Students are called to adequately and dynamically contact with the world around them, with themselves, with other people, and skillfully interact with the multicultural environment.

The aim of our special pedagogical research in various areas of student life is to develop educational programs that take into account the necessity to develop students' basic knowledge of the multicultural environment, manners, rules of behavior in modern society, respect for the diversity of modern cultures (European, Russian, American, Eastern, etc.) and their representatives, skills of tactful behavior.

Our research shows that most students have difficulties with communication between the representatives of different cultures. Thus, when developing educational programs, we suggest including certain disciplines that actually focus on the acquisition of communication competence with representatives of other cultural groups.

Keywords:

Multicultural literacy, intercultural dialogue, multicultural environment, educational programs, communication competence, multicultural education.