Scientific-methodological workshop of the Commission on Foreign Languages of the RUDN University
Ph.D., Alexandre André Louis Solcà (Switzerland, Lausanne Institute, an independent researcher) was the speaker at the scientific-methodological workshop of the Commission on Foreign Languages of the RUDN University at the Department of Foreign Languages of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities on December 1, 2021 for teachers of foreign languages of the RUDN University. The report “Intercultural connections and teaching foreign languages for different purposes. How ancient and modern languages can help us in our daily need of social communication” was delivered in French.
64 participants (teachers of foreign languages of the RUDN University) attended the workshop.
The topic of intercultural communication and social communication in the context of teaching foreign languages is especially relevant today because Russia’s rapid entry into the global multilingual community requires improving the quality of foreign language teaching. Training specialists in various fields of knowledge who speak one or more foreign languages is a priority, in accordance with the new challenges posed to humanitarian education in the 21st century.
Ph.D., Alexandre André Louis Solcà (Switzerland, Lausanne Institute, independent researcher) discussed common approaches to teaching foreign languages in the context of intercultural communication and presented the results of research on the role of ancient and modern languages in social communication.
According to André Louis Solcà, the close connection and interdependence between language teaching and intercultural communication are so obvious that they hardly need a lengthy explanation. Every foreign language teaching is an intersection of cultures, a practice of intercultural communication, because every foreign word reflects the foreign world and the foreign culture: behind every word there is a world view shaped by the national consciousness.
Firstly, Ph.D., Alexandre André Louis Solcà defined intercultural communication as a set of various forms of relations and communication between individuals and groups belonging to different cultures, which involves both direct contacts between people and their communities and mediated forms of communication (language, speech, writing, electronic communication).
Next, Ph.D., Alexandre André Louis Solcà moved on to the practical aspects of languages in everyday communication. On the example of Indo-European names of the days of the week, he illustrated the role of the ubiquity of Latin, as well as intercultural communication between languages and peoples in different regions of the world.
Alexandre André Louis Solcà emphasized that the study of Latin or another language related to Indo-European allows us to imagine the cultural horizons of those cultures, which over the millennia have overcome many natural and geographical and linguistic barriers.
Alexandre André Louis Solcà pointed out that the development of new forms of communication, in particular the introduction of new information technologies, can contribute to the redistribution of the semantic meaning of a word or series of words. Therefore, when studying foreign languages, we should always pay attention to the cultural and social codes of the language in question. Ph.D., Alexandre André Louis Solcà gave an example of the semantics of greetings in different languages and showed that greetings are a sign of cultural affiliation, which represents a rich material for study.
In conclusion, Ph.D., Alexandre André Louis Solcà noted that representatives of Western and Eastern civilizations should communicate with each other as much as possible, and emphasized once again the important role of foreign language teachers and linguistic researchers in developing a multilingual environment and the parallel study of ancient and modern languages as a verbal support for intercultural communication.
For reference
Ph.D., Alexandre André Louis Solcà (Switzerland, Lausanne Institute, independent researcher) is a specialist in Egyptology, Ancient Greek and Latin, teaching Ancient and Modern Languages.
In 2002-2007, he completed his bachelor’s program in Egyptology, with specialization in Ancient Greek, Latin and Coptic.
In 2007-2009 he studied Master’s Program at the University of Geneva, where he wrote the dissertation on Egyptology. In 2011-2013 he studied Ancient English and Ancient Dutch at the University of Geneva.
Knowledge of modern languages: French, English, German, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, New Greek, Icelandic.
Sphere of research interests: ancient and modern languages, teaching, foreign languages Egyptology, Anglo-Saxon and Old Scandinavian monuments; linguistic approaches to Old Scandinavian and Old English poetry; study of runic inscriptions.
The report was delivered in French, the discussion after the report was conducted in three languages — French, English, and Russian.
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