Teaching Foreign Languages in Multicultural Environment of Us Schools: Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

The development of current education system worldwide is characterized by intense and thorough transformations encouraged not only by social and economic development, but also by a tendency to integration, prompted by internationalization and globalization of education system in general. Innovations, implemented in accordance with the program of modernization of education are not limited to this or that individual aspect, but touch upon all education issues. Among them multiculturalism in education that has an important function of ethnic and racial equality development. Multicultural education creates equal opportunities for all ethnic groups and attaches youth to cultural and moral values of other countries and peoples. Globalization processes in education draw our attention to the educational policies of different countries, especially most advanced ones. In this regard the United States as one of the most developed countries in the world serve a perfect example of successful realization of educational reforms. The article deals with basic principles and innovations that provide for the successful training of foreign language teachers who are to work in the multicultural environment of the US schools. The study is relevant due to the significance of modernization of education that defines certain conditions of students' and teachers' training education. Among others the article highlights the role of culture in foreign language learning. Culture helps to create multi-sided personality of a student, reveals his/her identity, contributes to students' engagement in the learning process and improves academic performance of students, including those from recent immigrant families. The authors analyze multilingual and multicultural programs implemented in the US schools and devise a list of challenges that the teacher can face in a multicultural class. The research data collected with the help of traditional research methods, such analysis, synthesis and interpretation of theoretical and empirical material allowed the authors to come to a number of conclusions. One of them is the importance of multicultural education in foreign language teaching. The authors analyze students' performance in the subject, outline the model of a successful multicultural class teacher of the XXI century and provide recommendations to improve students' academic performance in a multicultural class. The experience of the United States in multilingual education is really valuable and on careful consideration can be applied in Russia and worldwide to successfully teach foreign languages to students in a multicultural class.