The dark sides of an intercultural-based teaching of RFL: A critical approach

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the topic of culture and intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in Russian as a foreign language (RFL) at an academic level. The work offers a critical overview of the main relevant studies in the Russian language on RFL and ICC from 2008 to 2022. The findings show that even the most recent research (in the wake of lingvostranovedeniye and lingvokul’turologiya) still leans on an ambiguous, essentialized, and nationalistic idea of ‘culture’. Finally, through a critical reinterpretation of intercultural dialogue, the author provides a first insight into some new perspectives on RFL teaching.

Keywords

• Cultural studies. Culture. Intercultural communication. Intercultural communicative competence. Intercultural dialogue. Linguoculturology. National culture. Teaching Russian as a foreign language