SOCIOCULTURAL COMPONENT OF PROFESSIONALLY-ORIENTED COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCY OF SEAFARERS

Abstract

The article describes the sociocultural component of professionally-oriented communicative competency of seafarers. It is determined that the foreign language communicative competency is a complex phenomenon and, thus, the analysis of its structure enables the identification of efficient means of its formation and development. The fact that distal components are distinguished in the structure of the professionally-oriented communicative competency together with the core ones allows for the improvement of the efficiency level of professionally-oriented communication among seafarers and other specialists of maritime industry. It is argued that the communicative culture of speakers is crucial for the communication goals achievement and, thus, it is necessary to distinguish among the compulsory components of the professionally-oriented communicative competency of seafarers the abilities to establish contacts with the crewmembers onboard, with the crewmembers of other ships and the representatives of the port services, the abilities to avoid conflicts during communication, the knowledge of social etiquette and norms, speech culture.

The article specifies the notion of cross-cultural communication and presents the arguments for the use of the term "sociocultural" in the name of the component of the professionally-oriented communicative competency of future seafarers. The necessity to include the sociocultural component into the structure of the professionally-oriented communicative competency is explained by the expansion of the worldwide integration processes and the interrelations among the representatives of different cultures. It has been determined that the main principles of sociocultural component of the professionally-oriented communicative competency formation in higher maritime educational establishment are the propagation of mutual cultural understanding and tolerance between the representatives of different ethnic groups in the professional environment. The aim of the sociocultural component of the professionally-oriented communicative competency formation is the expansion of knowledge as for the norms of communicative behavior of the representatives of different peoples and cultures, speech etiquette, traditions, communication peculiarities and the development of such personal qualities as the respect towards the others, the readiness to appreciate others, tolerance, and the willingness to cooperate.