Abstract.
The relevance of the study is due, on the one hand, to the fact that foreign language education can be considered as a tool of intercultural communication, and, consequently, as a tool of forming a supranational educational space, which is relevant in relation to the Russian Federation and its friendly countries which include Cuba. In addition, the foreign language education as an academic discipline has a high educational potential, which allows us to consider it as a possible means of transmitting national and universal values.
In this study, the purpose of which is to identify approaches to foreign language education at each of the main periods of its development in educational institutions of Cuba, its main stages are also highlighted and considered in the context of the cultural and historical eras of premodern, modern and postmodern: genesis and development, remission, revival, which, in turn, is the theoretical significance of this study. The practical significance of the study lies in the fact that it can become the basis for constructing an education system that meets the needs of modern society, forming a single educational space in intercultural dialogue with the national systems of other states, with the Cuban one in particular.
The empirical basis for the study was the data from interviews conducted with graduates of Cuban universities and colleges of various years of study dating from the 1970s to the present, curricula and programs for teaching Russian and English in various educational institutions in Cuba.
The study shows changes in approaches to the foreign language education using the example of teaching the English and Russian languages in colleges and universities in Cuba, revealing its specifics at each of the identified stages. It also deals with the current state and problems of the foreign language education in Cuba, such as the use of the communicative method in the context of having no native-speaking teachers, the difficulties in using digital technologies in the learning process, problems of students’ motivation, as well as adaptation of educational and methodological material. A conclusion is also drawn about the main trends in the study of Russian and English in educational institutions in Cuba.
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Keywords:
a foreign language education, intercultural communication, cultural dialogue, modernism, postmodernism, the Russian language, the English language, educational institutions in Cuba.
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