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various countries. “Much like how America is “the melting pot” of North America, Kazakhstan
plays the same role in Central Asia. Kazakhstan has constructed a reputation of diversity and multi-
ethnicity for itself over its nearly three hundred-year history as a state” [1]. As the matter of fact,
such multicultural society has to face the issues of ethnic revival and simultaneously the problem of
inter-ethnic integration and intercultural communication. According to the conception of the
ethnocultural education in Kazakhstan, all citizens of our country should contribute to the common
cause – creation of multilingual, multicultural entity, able to integrate to common international
educational space.
The process of globalization and the unification of cultural values lead to the active work of
the international organizations in the field of intercultural communication: “As our contribution to
help everyone in Europe to live together in understanding, the European Commission has made
2008 the Year of Intercultural Dialogue” [2].
The United Nations Organization project and its workshops have included a large body of
work in the field of multilingualism: “Knowing the language of the host country is like getting
one’s own front-door key. It opens the way to all the other opportunities of a new life. It allows
them to play a part in economic, social, intellectual, artistic and political life” [2]. Therefore,
multiculturalism seeks to reduce tensions by teaching values that support diversity and acknowledge
the contributions of all communities.
Much was done in the issue of multiculturalism and national language revival in Kazakhstan.
In general, intercultural communication is more accepted in Kazakhstan today than it was in the
first half of 20
th
century: intercultural predispositions between major groups are still high, as
demonstrated by Russians and Kazakhs during a sociological survey taken in Kazakhstan in
December 2013: both groups want to learn the language and culture of each other other, and to live
in a cooperative, peaceful way. The majority of Russians asked (63.5 %) agree to see Kazakh
language as a compulsory subject in all schools; 80.6% of the Kazakhs have the same attitude
toward the Russian language.
One of the main issues of contemporary education policy in Kazakhstan is raising people’s
consciousness in the field of interethnic interaction. A great contribution to the development of
intercultural communication in Kazakhstan was made by the Presidential policy: “The decisions of
the political leaders are one of the determining factors in the inter-ethnic relations. In this sense,
Nursultan Nazarbayev appears to be a skillful politician who keeps ethnic relations under control”.
Kazakhstan is now educating its children in the three official languages of the country:
Kazakh (an important heritage language), Russian (an important historical language of the region),
and English (the language that will allow Kazakhstan to become a world player). The role and place
of multilingual education are determined in the “Concept of development of education in the
Republic of Kazakhstan”, and its status is objectified by well-known factors, such as:
- integration of Kazakhstan in the world civilization and economic space;
- orientation of the Republic to the way of scientific-technical and industrial development;
- the increasing stream of foreign investments in the economy of the country, the growth of
the number of foreign firms which raise the demand for a highly qualified experts with the
knowledge of foreign languages, and technological and business skills;
- necessity of competitiveness improving of the Republic on the global market;
- international integration in the sphere of education, the opportunity to receive qualitative
education at home and abroad;
- admission of Kazakhstan’s diploma on the international market of educational services;
- the right of free mobility and universal residing within the limits of the countries which are
included in the European Commonwealth;
- the ability of person to adapt for the modern conditions of residing in multilingual and
multicultural society; his access to experience and knowledge of the world, to the informational
field, including multimedia means of communication .
Therefore, multilingualism and multilingual education are an absolute necessity, the
command of time, as today’s world is multiethnic and multilingual. Preservation and support of
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multilingual situation in each state and in relations between states can solve the main problem of the
contemporary world – consent and mutual understanding between people, overcoming of
difficulties of interethnic dialogue and intercultural communication.
As we can see today, cultures vary widely. It is no wonder that most of us need special
training before we can become comfortable with a culture other than our own. It means all of us
need to develop intercultural communication skills: the skills of verbal communication and partly
(if it is possible) the skills of non-verbal communication.
The most basic form of communication is non-verbal. Our ancestors communicated with one
another by using their bodies. We still use non-verbal cues to express superiority dependence,
dislike, respect, love, and other feelings. Non-verbal communication differs from verbal
communication in fundamental ways. For one thing, it is less structured, which makes it more
difficult to study. Non-verbal communication also differs from verbal communication in terms of
intent and spontaneity. Although non-verbal communication is often unplanned, it has more impact
than verbal communication. Non-verbal cues are especially important in conveying feelings. One
advantage of non-verbal communication is its reliability. Not surprisingly, we have more faith in
non-verbal cues than we do in verbal messages. Non-verbal communication is important for another
reason as well: it can be efficient from both the sender’s and the receiver’s standpoint.
Although non-verbal communication can stand alone, it frequently works with speech. Our
words carry part of the message, and non-verbal signals carry the rest. Experts in non-verbal
communication suggest that it have six specific functions: to provide information, either
consciously or unconsciously; to regulate the flow of conversation; to express emotion; to qualify,
complement, contradict, or expand verbal messages; to control or influence others; to facilitate
specific tasks, such as teaching a person to swing a golf club.
Although you can express many things non-verbally, there are limits to what you can
communicate without the help of language. If you want to discuss past events, ideas, or
abstractions, you need words – symbols that stand for thoughts – arranged in meaningful patterns.
It is important to remember that effective communication is a two-way street. People spend
more time obtaining information than transmitting it, so to do their jobs effectively; they need good
listening and reading skills. Unfortunately, most of us are not very good listeners. Immediately after
hearing a ten-minute speech, we typically remember only half of what was said. A few days later,
we have forgotten three quarters of the message.
The first step in learning to communicate with people from other cultures is to become aware
of what culture means. Our awareness of intercultural differences is both useful and necessary in
today’s world.
Person may not realize it, but he belongs to several cultures. The most obvious is the culture
he shares with all other people who live in the same country. However, this person also belongs to
other cultural groups, such as an ethnic group, a religious group, a fraternity or sorority, or perhaps
a profession that has its own special language and customs.
So, what exactly is culture? A.L. Kroeber and C. Kluckhohn tried to classify the existing
determinations of the phenomenon "culture". Their classification has included the descriptive,
historical, normative, psychological, and structural determinations [3], which analysis has allowed
us to establish that all determinations of the phenomenon "culture" complement each other in
different ways. Besides, this analysis has allowed us to choose the most corresponding to the
research aims and tasks determination of the phenomenon "culture". It is “Culture is a complex of
the spiritual achievements of the person, which, having appeared as national-subjective and
historically concrete, have got the status of public-objective beyond the time existing spiritual
phenomena [4, p.42].
It is also useful to define culture as a system of shared symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values,
expectations, and norms for behavior. Thus, all members of a culture have, and tend to act on,
similar assumptions about how people should think, behave, and communicate.
Cultures and subcultures vary in several ways that affect intercultural communication:
stability. Conditions in the culture may be stable or may be changing slowly or rapidly; complexity.
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