The role of extracurricular activities in foreign languages for intercultural competence aquisition

Abstract

It is known that the EU's motto is "United in diversity" - of cultures, traditions, beliefs, and, last but not least, of languages. Therefore, an efficient and productive interaction between various cultures and languages, in an environment of acceptance, tolerance, equality, flexibility, understanding, respect and affirmation, requires a multicultural training and appropriate intercultural competences. Moreover, the existence of many intercultural barriers, the urgent need to interact with people, regardless of their origin, to live in a world marked by pronounced cultural and linguistic differences, confirms the importance of developing such competences by studying cultural diversity and capitalizing its strengths, but in the same time maintaining its own identity and contributing to its development. Therefore, the local higher education system, foreign language teachers, in particular, have the complex mission to form and develop intercultural competences and/ or elements of competences, necessary for today's young people, for both, personal and professional development and in order to integrate into a multicultural environment. The approached subject reveals the fact that in the academic environment, intercultural competence can be successfully acquired with the help of traditional or modern extracurricular activities.