Intercultural Communicationin the Context

ofGlobalization

“When historians look back on our century they may remember it most, nor for space travel or the release of nuclear energy, but as the time when peoples of the world first came to take another seriously.”

Huston Smith

Education

Interpersonal Relationships

Health Care

The scientific research held on the problem of Intercultural Communication in the context of Globalization touches upon the educational system, interpersonal relationships and the health care system for being the settings that are most affected by globalization in the perspective of an average student’s life style.

The city of Melitopol, Ukraine was chosen as an object of the study given below for the fact it represents Ukraine in the Intercultural City Programme since 2008 . The Programme is a joint project of the Council of Europe and the European Commission, initiated in 2008. It aims at stimulating new ideas and building an intercultural vision and strategy for the cities, reviewing polices through the “intercultural lens” and developing intercultural skills.

The Map of the Intercultural City Program

Melitopol Lyceum “Creativity” is a specialized high school established by the state for developing and maintaining creative and learning skills of Ukrainian students. Melitopol lyceum “Creativity” started participating in the international cross-cultural communication process in 2000 applying to Peace Corps international volunteer program. The educational establishment has a wide range of international links and contacts. It provides the students with the possibilities of taking part in exchange learning programs and scientific conferences, studying and traveling abroad.

Since 2008 Melitopol lyceum “Creativity” has been cooperating with Unichov Gymnasium, Czech Republic. Due to this cooperation the students have been constantly enrolled in educational and cultural international programs and developed their intercultural communication skills. Intercultural communication is guiding the students and school personnel to equal relations and an improved climate for everybody in school environment. In practice they get to know each other through exercises aiming at cooperation and trust.

Intercultural communication awareness in an educational context

Section 1

Value Differences in Teaching and Learning in Ukraine 30 years ago Nowadays

1 Young should learn; adults cannot accept student role. +2 Students will speak only when called upon by teacher. +3 Education is way of gaining prestige, getting into higher social

class. + +

4 Teachers expected to give preferential treatment to some students. +

5 Teacher-centered education. +6 Students expect teacher to outline paths to follow. +7 Teacher is never contradicted. +8 Students feel comfortable in structured learning situations (precise

objective, detailed objective, detailed assignments, strict timetables).

+

9 Teachers should respect independence of students. +10 Student-centered education. +

11 Teacher expects students to find their own paths. +

12 Students allowed contradicting teacher. +

13 Effectiveness of learning related to amount of two-way communication in class. +

14 Outside class, teachers are treated as equals.

15 Students feel comfortable in unstructured learning situations. +

16 Students rewarded for innovative approaches to problem solving. +

17 One is never too old to learn. +

18 Education is way of improving economic worth and self-respect based on ability and competence. +

19 Teachers expected to be strictly impartial. +

20 Teacher merits the respect of students. + +

Value Differences in Teaching and Learning Europe USA

1 Young should learn; adults cannot accept student role.2 Students will speak only when called upon by teacher.3 Education is way of gaining prestige, getting into higher social

class.4 Teachers expected to give preferential treatment to some

students.5 Teacher-centered education. 6 Students expect teacher to outline paths to follow. 7 Teacher is never contradicted. 8 Students feel comfortable in structured learning situations

(precise objective, detailed objective, detailed assignments, strict timetables).

+

9 Teachers should respect independence of students. + +10 Student-centered education.

++

11 Teacher expects students to find their own paths.+

+

12 Students allowed contradicting teacher.+

+

13 Effectiveness of learning related to amount of two-way communication in class. + +

14 Outside class, teachers are treated as equals. +

15 Students feel comfortable in unstructured learning situations.+

+

16 Students rewarded for innovative approaches to problem solving. + +

17 One is never too old to learn. +

+

18 Education is way of improving economic worth and self-respect based on ability and competence. + +

19 Teachers expected to be strictly impartial. +

20 Teacher merits the respect of students. + +

The data provided information on the following aspects:_ Teaching and Learning in Ukraine thirty years ago _ Teaching and Learning in Ukraine nowadays _ Teaching and Learning in Europe and the USA

Concern with larger

problems and issues

Understanding others

Self esteemfor all

Any student

Research findings support our conviction that effective intercultural teaching is student-centered rather than teacher-dominated. The teacher plans quality learning activities that engage students in active, hands-on experiences and builds on success to develop students’ self-esteem. Students are perceived as individuals, being careful to avoid generalizations that lead to stereotyped thinking. Eventually, multicultural education engages students in the larger issues and problems of the world.

Section 2

Intercultural communication awareness in interpersonal relations

The present research investigated and compared the level of intercultural communication awareness among the students of Melitopol Lyceum “Creativity” and some other Melitopol schools . It should be noted that representatives of both of the groups live and study in an intercultural city though the second one does not experience taking part in the international cooperation. Participants were invited to take part in informal interviews as well as a questionnaire to present their views on intercultural communication and how it affects their interaction with people from different cultural backgrounds. The paper discussed the results of this study in terms of personal development, intercultural identity, and professional effectiveness.

Turkey

Egypt

Italy

Czech Republic

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

lyceumother schools

The results of the Intercultural Quiz

Number of correctly given answers

The studies have proved our initial point for the present study that the school education supported by international materials such as simulations and exchange programs and other non- academic programs will help to educate graduates in the context of globalization.

The following chart analyzes the results of the final examinations in English of the graduates of Melitopol lyceum “Creativity” in a time period from 1995 till 2011 and the influence of international intercultural communication on it.

The level of foreign language skills

The participation of Melitopol lyceum “Creativity” in the international cross-cultural communication process started in 2000. Since that time the level of foreign language skills among students increased greatly up to 95 percents in average while as we can see in the diagram the period from 1995 till 1999 is characterized by 60 percents in average.

19951996

19971998

19992000

20012002

20032004

20052006

20072008

20092010

20110%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

satisfactory levelhigh and good level

In addition to developing skills which are directly related to one specific other culture, participants develop certain personal skills such as cultural empathy, personal strength , resourcefulness, orientation to knowledge and flexibility that transcend success in a single culture to success in a variety of intercultural situations. These skill sets can be identified as intercultural communication skills, or the ability to effectively interact with people of different cultures.

Intercultural Communication

:Key Elements

B

E

C

D

AFlexibility and open-mindedness

Cultural empathy

Personal strength and stability

Orientation to knowledge

Resourcefulness and ability to deal

with stress

Summarizing Intercultural Communication Skills

Section 3

Intercultural communication awareness in health care setting

It is important to examine the health care settings in Ukraine for being one of the settings that are most affected by globalization in the perspective of an average student’s life style. The subject of the investigation is such a widely spread among teenagers disease as scoliosis. Scoliosis has challenged the medical fraternity since the time of Hippocrates, ever since physical therapists and orthopedic mechanics have existed. From the first sight the disease is not so dangerous as heart problems or cancer are, though if not treated, the spine may undergo progressive axial rotation, increasing the clinical deformity that can lead to an increased incidence and severity of back pain , progressive cosmetic deformities, social and psychological problems and financial costs. With severe curvatures of more than 50˚ there can be cardiopulmonary compromise as well as subsequent morbidity and early mortality.

PainBack

Deform

itiesCosm

etic

Problems

Social

Mortality

Early

Pulmonary

Cardio

Comprom

ise

F 1 F 2 F 3 F 4 F 5

According to the statistics, 27 percents of Ukrainian children from 7 to 9 years old have scoliosis symptoms. The delivery of health care in Ukraine presents a unique challenge. Part of this challenge is an economic and logistic problem. But, more importantly, it is the lack of intercultural communication and, as a result, the lack of information in this field. The problem is that the treatment for scoliosis suggested in Ukraine is out- of –date and does not include any modern approaches being successfully used abroad. It is time and effort taking though not giving any positive changes in the process of the treatment. Accepted physical exercises are not systematical, they do not take into consideration pathogenetical elements of the scoliosis process and the necessity of complex approach. Using international experience through intercultural communication we got the information on the Schroth method and its outstanding influence on scoliosis treatment.

The Schroth Method

The most effective non-invasive treatment for idiopathic scoliosis used successfully in Europe since the 1920s is the Schroth Method. It had become the standard non-surgical treatment for scoliosis in Germany. This method is now taught to scoliosis patients in clinics specifically devoted to Schroth therapy in Germany, Czech Republic, Spain, England, Turkey and, most recently, the United States.

24-year-old woman (left) with extremely severe scoliosis and atrophied left side. After three courses of intensive Schroth treatment, each of 3 months duration (center). After four in-patient courses (right).

The experiment was held with the help and on the basis of Melitopol Children Hospital and Melitopol Rehabilitation Center for Disabled Children.Schroth subjects were 22 females (13- 15 years old), curvature averaged 33.4 degrees.They practiced the Schroth therapy every day for a period up to ten months. Then the subjects were examined by the orthopedists of Melitopol Children Hospital.

Age Curvatures (The Cobb angles)

0-10о 11-30о 31-50о < 50о Total

5-8 5 5 __ __ 10

9-12 29 34 7 __ 70

13-16 __ 137 36 3 176

Total 34 176 43 3 256

Percent of correction 89% 82,5% 26,8% 22%

The results of the Schroth therapy experiment in Melitopol, Ukraine, 2011.

The results prove the necessity of the Schroth method introduction in Ukraine. We think that Ukrainian physical therapists who do not specialise exclusively in Schroth therapy but who would receive Schroth certification through the Katharina Schroth clinic in Germany could change the adolescent idiopathic scoliosis situation for better.

Pictures of the patient taken before and after the Schroth therapy.

Patient 2: 15 years old. The period of the treatment- 4 months.

Conclusion

We sincerely believe that the ability to communicate effectively with people from diverse cultures and co-cultures benefits each of us as individuals and has potential to benefit the more than 6 billion people with whom we share this planet.

Globalization creates a world in which people of different cultural backgrounds increasingly come to depend on one another. As a result, the need for intercultural knowledge and skills that lead to intercultural communication competence becomes critical for leading a productive and successful life in the 21st century.

Thank you for attention!