Role of intercultural communication in foreign languages studying in higher educational institutions

Intercultural communication competence plays a decisive role in the development of values, relations, skills, knowledge and critical thinking, necessary for life and professional activity in the globalized world. This study aims at the analysis of intercultural communication in enhancing the effectiveness of English language studying by students of higher educational institutions. In this study, different empirical methods such as experiment, questionnaire, and qualitative and quantitative analysis were used. The educational online course “International communication” was conducted with the engagement of students at the age of 19-23 from the member states of the European Union. The effectiveness of students' education in international and mononational study groups was evaluated. The results showed that students, who studied in international groups, achieved higher indicators compared to students of mononational groups. Testing confirmed that education in international groups significantly accelerated the development of key linguistic skills in the English language. The creation of an educational environment, oriented on intercultural interaction, knowledge and experience exchange, contributed to the achievement of high results in studying. Results of self-evaluation of the personal level of the development of intercultural English-language communication competence by students showed that students of the international group became more confident in their ability to participate in quality intercultural English-language communication than students of the mononational group. Further study perspectives include the development of an integral self-regulating mechanism for the development of intercultural English-language communication competence under conditions of international educational cooperation as well as the creation of the methodology of evaluation of education with the use of quantitative and qualitative indicators.