CULTURAL CENTER AS A FORM OF FOREIGN STUDENTS` CULTURAL ADAPTATION: EXPERIENCE OF H.S. SKOVORODA KHNPU

Abstract

Today with the rapid increase of students that go abroad for education (by the means of grants and other state programs as well as at own expense) both host universities and students face the problem of cultural adaptation.
The aim of the article is to describe the experience of H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National pedagogical University which among the wide range of foreign students` cultural adaptation methods traditionally used (educational work, students` mentoring, active inclusion into the University life etc.) uses such a unique agent of cultural adaptation as Cultural Center. Such methods of empirical research as observation, researching, as well as generalization, classification and description were used to describe and present the experience of H.S. Skovoroda KhNPU. Cultural adaptation as a process aims to help foreign students accept values of the country where they came to study, and promote friendly relations between countries.
Conclusion: Educating in the other-cultural educational environment (that differs from the cultural environment native for a particular student) puts abroad students in need to understand the specifics of this environment, learn how to navigate in various situations arising in the educational process (as well as in everyday life) and master forms of behavior and interaction (or behavior patterns) appropriate for the host culture in such situations. In other words, the problem of cultural adaptation of abroad students arises. Cultural Center as a form of educational, scientific and research work organization (and, in the case of foreign students, also contributes to solving the problem of their cultural adaptation) is a special form of a University-students` cooperation. The positive features of this work are informality, aesthetic appeal, reliance on the interests and social experience of a foreign student himself. The Research does not contain Literature Review as it is the first time in the Ukrainian professional literature this unique form of social and cultural adaptation work with students is described – it`s a scientific novelty.