Abstract:

Foreign language training in the tertiary sphere is closely linked to practice, as it depends on the purpose of the study and the profile of the non-philological graduate. Knowledge of a foreign language has different meanings and qualities depending on the field of study as well as the student's attitude. Foreign language education of management students is influenced not only by the professional context of foreign language use but also by current social and political-economic trends. In contemporary multicultural Europe, foreign language teaching is increasingly influenced by the principles of global education. Managers are in constant contact with other people and if they communicate in a foreign language, besides the foreign language fluency, the knowledge of relevant cultural specifics is also important. Therefore, intercultural competence development is also part of foreign language teaching and learning.

The Department of Intercultural Communication was established in the academic year 2012/2013 and is the youngest department at the Faculty of Management and Business of the University of Presov. The main aim of this department is the quality professional foreign language training of future managers in various areas of the economy. Emphasis on the development of foreign language skills and intercultural competence and interdisciplinary approaches to the studied issues are among the features of the educational process that will enable the graduates of the Faculty of Management and Business to find a broad-spectrum employment in the labour market. The acquisition of foreign languages and intercultural competence also corresponds to the current trend of global education promoting global citizenship in modern Europe.

The purpose of the presentation is the identification and description of specifics of foreign language teaching and learning of the students of Management at the Faculty of Management and Business (University of Presov) in the context of intercultural competence development by presenting the results of the needs analysis, discourse analysis of selected university textbooks, and the comparative analysis of currently dominant intercultural competence models. The reality of teaching is illustrated by the comparative analysis of the results of the needs analysis of students of Applied Foreign Language for Managers (English) courses in the years 2020-2022. The results showed that the students of Management were not motivated to develop their foreign language skills though they agreed that English was the lingua franca of international business. They understood the meaning of intercultural communication but they defined the culture in a narrow sense as being connected with nations and countries. The results of the needs analysis were used for the development of new teaching materials for the English language for managers with a focus on intercultural competence development. The literature review of intercultural communication university textbooks and studies introducing intercultural competence models were part of the background theoretical research aimed at the identification of dominant discourse in the field and for creating the basis of teaching materials development.

Keywords:

Intercultural competence, foreign language teaching, non-philological students.