Comparative Study of the Impact of Culture on Discussions in the English and Russian Discourse

This article focuses on the results of a comparative study of communicative behavior in the English-language discussion of British speakers and Russian-speaking students and attempts to explain the differences in relation to different characteristics of the national cultures of the two countries. The material for the study was the Internet videos of native speakers' discussions and English language discussions of Russian students taking place at the University. The author pointed out the strategies and tactics used by the communicators in the discourse, singled out language units that allow the interlocutors to join in the conversation, to keep contact and interact with each other. After a brief outline of the works of well-known domestic and foreign scientists, the author identified the distinctive features of the British and Russian communicative styles and summoned up the findings in the table. According to the conclusions, during the discussion native speakers and non-speakers will have noticeable differences in the construction of the discussion itself, in their arguments, in the relationship between each other etc., due to cultural characteristics. The findings were confirmed by the experimental research. The main differences can be observed in the use of discussion strategies and tactics. Thus, the predominant strategy for native speakers will be cooperative, while Russian students base their communication on confrontation. Active involvement in the discussion and demonstration of empathy characterizes the behaviour of the British communicators, while Russian-speaking interlocutors are passive listeners who express their opinions and do not reflect on the point of view of other participants, and sometimes reluctantly enter into discussion. The logical development of arguments in the course of discussion is compulsory in English. It is opposed to a rather inconsistent discussion among Russian participants. Overall, the behavior of Russian-speaking students during the English-language discussion is a transfer of their usual model of communication into a foreign language. In this article, the author has pointed out that communication in a discussion is highly influenced by the speaker's culture. Thus, it is obvious that knowledge of the differences between communicative styles is necessary for the successful intercultural communication and allows better understanding of the foreign cultural speaker. It is important to pay attention of Russian-speaking students to national and cultural features of behavior of native speakers during discussion to avoid transfer of habitual model of communication to the foreign language.

Keywords

Authors

References