FORMATION OF INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE AS A PEDAGOGICAL PROBLEM

As knowledge of English becomes a priority for the development of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a modern military specialist is faced with a number of requirements, one of which is the formation of professionally oriented intercultural competence. Thus, a cadet, who has a certain conceptual and terminological apparatus in his/her specialization, has the opportunity to test his/her own knowledge and skills, to provide self-analysis of the level of formation of both intercultural and subject competences, as well as to receive an impartial feedback from foreign experts on the readiness for professional activity. The article considers the main notions that reveal the conceptual field of intercultural competence. The concepts of "competence", "competency", "culture", "intercultural competence" are defined and their historical-comparative analysis is carried out. It is found, that the professional training of cadets is carried out as a complex pedagogical influence, which has the purpose of developing a number of competences, among which the priority is currently considered to be intercultural competence. The essence of the concept of "competence" and variations of its interpretation by scientists, as well as differentiation with the concept of "competency", are clarified. The role of the humanities in general and the foreign language in particular in the development of professional competences of military specialists is noted. The generic function of the competence approach, which combines many traditional approaches, is mentioned. Intercultural competence is presented as a system of interconnected elements that position the personality in interaction with society through communication, which, in turn, is a means of adapting to the cultural values of society and acquiring educational competences to form a qualified graduate of a higher military educational institution. The hierarchy of competences is defined, which consists of three levels: general, special and professional, which are represented by integral, general and professional competences, respectively


Introduction
The relevance of the problem under study is due to the fact that military education presents an integral part of general public education. The set of requirements, facing the modern serviceman, is constantly growing and changing in accordance with the changes and recent events in Ukraine and the policy of the world's leading states. The military is increasingly involved in international projects in the field of peacekeeping missions, joint exercises and more. As a result, there is an urgent need to learn foreign languages. The aspect of intercultural competence is added to the motivational resources of learning a foreign language. After all, a modern serviceman must not only perceive and disseminate information, he or she must have a set of skills for analysis, synthesis and interpretation of data to show the ability to act effectively and properly in relations with servicemen who are the representatives of other cultures.
However, the theoretical analysis of the results of scientific research in the direction of intercultural compe-tence study indicated to the lack of systematic consideration of the problem of intercultural competence among cadets by a number of contradictions between modern requirements for military service in international society and the current state of English for international communication; the need for the introduction of innovative technologies, methods and approaches to learning a foreign language and the educational, methodological and resource base, available in the process of foreign language training of cadets of higher educational institutions; the planned learning outcomes of a foreign language and the unwillingness of cadets to communicate with representatives of other nations.

Literature review
The analysis of literature on philosophy and pedagogy shows that a large number of scientific works are devoted to the theoretical issues of intercultural competence (V. Bibler, O. Muratov, A. Novytska, I. Pluzhnyk, A. Sadokhin, T. Tkachenko, S. Ter-Minasova, et al).
The reformation processes in the education system first of all require a revision of the conceptual apparatus which, in the frame of competence approach, considers competence as a key concept. These research results show that different scientists interpret the concept of competence differently. According to A. Sadokhin, intercultural competence should be defined as a set of knowledge and skills for adequate evaluation of a communicative situation by means of a language to implement and test the results of communicative intentions [1].
A. Novytska interprets this concept as the ability to exist and effectively perform professional activities in a multicultural world [2]. Thus, the scientific concept of "intercultural competence" still needs clarification regarding its unified definition.
Military education in the 21st century focuses on the competence approach, which is fundamental in the system of secondary and higher education in the European space. In education law and regulations of Ukraine we can trace the adaptive and assimilative tendencies with the world educational traditions and innovations, intended to provide educational services.
In the Law of Ukraine "On Education" [3], Law of Ukraine "On Higher Education" [4], in Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) [5], National Doctrine for Development of Education in Ukraine [6], State National Program "Education" ("Ukraine of the XXI Century") [7] education is a means of forming and developing not only intellectual and physical potential, but also moral and cultural ones, which will be a background for the development of society and the state as a whole. It forms a system of generic, national and intercultural values and attitudes, integrates Ukrainian education into the European and world educational space for productive intercultural interaction in all spheres of public life.
The problem of the competence approach in education was studied by O. Antonova A competence-based approach can be an option to overcome the difficulties, associated with reforming Ukraine's education system to bring it closer to world and European educational standards. This approach is studied by O. Antonova and L. Maslak [8] who emphasize the creation of pedagogical conditions for the formation of competences of the modern specialist by assimilating European norms and standards and Ukrainian cultural as well as scientific and technological achievements. However, the issue of introducing the basics of intercultural communication into the educational process of higher military educational institutions for the formation of intercultural competence, which is currently one of the foundations for ensuring interoperability in the military sphere of EU countries and NATO member and partner nations, remains insufficiently studied.
All the aforementioned give the reason to conduct a study on the analysis of the pedagogical phenomenon of intercultural competence and clarification of the conceptual framework on this issue.

The aim and objectives of the study
The aim of research is to identify the peculiarities of competence approach, applied in military education to substantiate the necessity of intercultural competence development for cadets of higher military educational institutions.
To accomplish the aim, the following tasks have been set: 1. To analyze the essence of the competence approach in military education of Ukraine.
2. To study the notions of competence and competency.
3. On the basis of a comparative analysis of the key concepts of the study in the research of leading scholars on this issue to formulate the author's definition of "competence", "intercultural competence", and "culture".
4. To study the hierarchy of competences to establish semantic and causal links between general and professional competences.
5. To analyze the influence of culture on the formation of cadets' competences.

Materials and methods
The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is the scientific principles of philosophy, pedagogy, linguistics, psychology, and sociology.
The method of comparative analysis is used to clarify the basic concepts of the research by studying commonalities and differences in the definitions of key concepts.
The use of the methods of analysis and synthesis allowed to classify competences, distinguishing the types as general and professional competences.
The system approach to the analysis of pedagogical phenomena and philosophical provisions based on the unity of theory and practice made it possible to define basic concepts as elements of the whole to determine the correlation between general and professional competences.
The generalization method was applied to form conclusions.

Result and discussion
A. Bermus emphasizes the versatility of the competence approach, which combines many traditional approaches: culture based, didactics based, functional and communicative, etc. [9]. In our study, this idea is reflected in the structural components, which combine the above approaches in the process of functioning of servicemen in the intercultural environment through communication. Fig. 1 demonstrates a continuous cycle of interconnected elements of intercultural competence, in which a person, who is a participant in social interaction through communication, adapts the cultural values of society and acquires educational competences that form a comprehensively developed personality, capable of intercultural communication.
In the system of higher military education the competence approach is implemented through the normative documents of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. The purpose of the educational process in higher military educational institutions is "the opportunity for cadets, students, post-graduates, doctoral students to gain competences in the humanities, social, scientific, natural, technical and military realms, necessary for professional activities and their intellectual, moral, noetic, aesthetic and physical development".
The types of competences are defined as "integrated, general and professional (professional military, specific military), which are defined by the standards of higher education for the specialties, relevant degrees of higher education and levels of military education" [10].

Fig. 1. The cycle of interconnection of elements of intercultural competence
The concepts of "competency" and "competence" as the main results of the educational process first were considered in the 1960-70s in the United States with the introduction of a competence approach, which was reflected in educational reforms in Britain and Germany, while in the Ukrainian educational space this notion appeared at the end of the 20th century.
In recent years, the concept of competence has gained refinement and new interpretations. For a long time, the terms "competency" and "competence" were identified as synonyms in the Ukrainian scientific community because of their etymological proximity. Later, the concepts were distinguished, as competence was considered a way to implement competencies. In Merriam-Webster's English dictionary [11] and Oxford learner's dictionary [12] competence is a noun, defined as "the ability to do something well", as well as competency is "the ability or skill development". In scientific research, provided in English language, many researchers use both terms interchangeably. Nordhaug [13] understands competence as "the composite of human knowledge, skills and aptitude that may serve productive purposes in organizations". Mats Daniels relates competence to the ability to use knowledge [14]. Another point of view presents competency as "the connection of knowledge, skills, and attitudes and refers to the individual's ability to cope adequately with demanding tasks" [15]. But most of the researchers understand competence as an abstract and integral notion, while competency refers to individual performance. It also depends on whether British English or American is used as the British researchers use the notion of competence as qualification [16]. Therefore, we suggest to assume competence as a system of knowledge that a person can use to perform tasks, while competency is construed as an expected learning outcome.
N. Chomsky first tried to distinguish these concepts in the 1960s, suggesting that competency presupposes an idealized version of knowledge acquisition, while competence expresses the degree of use of acquired learning outcomes under real circumstances in the relevant environment [17]. This suggestion was supported by A. Sadokhin, noting that "competency" reflects the content of a particular activity, while "competence" is a set of personality qualities, needed to implement this content, a set of knowledge, skills and abilities that allows individuals to effectively address job issues and perform specific actions in a particular area of social activity, while competency assumes a set of objective conditions, under which an individual realizes its competences [18].
According to O. Dubaseniuk, "competency" means the scope of application of knowledge, skills and abilities of a person, while "competence" is a personal experience of applying the acquired competencies [19].
N. Sydorchuk performed a differentiated analysis of the concepts of competence on one hand and knowledge, skills and abilities on the other. The researcher notes that knowledge is the possession of information, but competence is the use of information in a particular activity; ability is knowledge about the ways to solve problems, while competence is the use of knowledge and skills to solve problems; and the ability to comprehensively approach problem situations distinguishes the concept of competence from skills [20].
H. Danylova interprets the concept of competence from the standpoint of the decision-making process as "… the ability to make decisions and be responsible for their implementation in the functional duties performance" [21]. The researcher, in our opinion, generalizes the concept of "competence" to some extent. In the mod-ern pedagogical literature such terms as "hard skills" and "soft skills" are used, which together are the condition for the formation of all necessary qualities of a specialist, but represented by different sets of knowledge, skills and competencies. Considering the content of modern educational programs for military specialists, "hard skills" are a set of professional competences, used to perform professional tasks only, while "soft skills" belong to such general competences as teamwork, leadership, critical thinking, creative approach, punctuality, and discipline, etc. Thus, we propose to understand the concept of "competence" in a broader sense.
O. Dubaseniuk defines competence as "a system and structural multilevel integrated personal and activity formation", which is a prerequisite for successful solution of professional multilevel tasks by a specialist, being a key concept in the process of professional formation of an individual [22].
V. Yahupov specifies the meaning of competence, distinguishing it from a hidden opportunity that cannot be used in a particular situation in the process of professional activity, but is only an abstract concept J. Raven considers the concept of competence not only as a category of education, but as a requirement of time for competent and conscious citizens. The scientist emphasizes that competence is an integral part of everyday life both for living conditions and professional duties accomplishment. Noteworthy is the opinion of J. Raven on the priority of assessing the personality paradigms and attitudes rather than abilities [24]. This fact suggests that not the input indicator but the eventual outcome, obtained as a result of pedagogical influence, is important for becoming a professional.
In his research, T. Oats emphasizes the ability to adapt knowledge to the requirements of time and situation, because it needs a comprehensive approach to solving problems. Adaptation, according to the scientist, makes it possible to analyze, assess the situation, as well as to transform the knowledge, gained in one social sphere, adapting it to a specific situation in another social sphere [25].
Thus, having analyzed the scientific works of native and foreign researchers, we propose to interpret competence as a system of such correlated and reciprocal elements as knowledge, skills, abilities, values, attitudes, and competencies that correspond to the recommended level of professional training, formed in educational and self-educational activities for effective solution of professional problems in the social and technological-professional environment.
The analysis, performed by A. Sadokhin indicates that English researchers consider the structure of competence as a three-level system, where the first level is integrative competence, i.e. the ability to integrate knowledge, skills and abilities for practical application; the second level is psychological competence which is responsible for the development of emotions for adequate worldview and situational behavior of people; the third level is special competence in the relevant areas of activity, which is expressed by the ability to cooperate and use teamwork skills, quick orientation in the decision-making priorities and implementation of tasks [26]. The process of training cadets involves the formation of graduates with a set of knowledge and skills that will allow them to become a specialist in a particular field of knowledge and solve professional problems. The professional competence of a higher military educational institution graduate is considered as a system of interconnected content and structural components, which are realized through a number of competences that are formed during different cycles of life and education.
O. Antonova substantiated the need to form the professional competence of a specialist, consisting of a set of competencies, defined by educational programs, based on a competence approach, where the graduate should act as a "plurilingual and multicultural person, capable of cooperation at the intercultural level" [8]. We share the opinion of the researcher as we see the formation of professional competence of a military specialist in the number of subcompetences through the relevant competencies.
Problems of professional development of servicemen and formation of their corresponding competences in the field of military pedagogy were studied by O. Barabanshchikov, V. Bachevskyi, V. Gerasymchuk, I. Hriaznov, O. Didenko, D. Ishchenko, P. Onyschuk, V. Raiko, V. Yahupov, etc.
V. Yahupov considers knowledge, skills and abilities, professional position of the specialist, individual mental features, acmeological invariants of the specialist as indicators of professional competence of a specialist [23]. In the frame of our study, the formation of intercultural competence is planned to be carried out through a competence approach in education, which provides a comprehensive study of three levels of professional competence of a military specialist, namely: integrative level, general level and professional competence level.
As the subject of our study is the formation of intercultural competence of cadets of higher military educational institutions in the process of foreign language training, we pay special attention to general competences in order to analyze the essence of the concept of "intercultural competence".
Intercultural competence is one of the principal components of professional competence of a serviceman. The ability to be an equal participant during international interaction is formed through integrative personal characteristics. For a comprehensive analysis of this phenomenon it is necessary to identify its components and characterize their content and the degree of correlation between components and consider them from the standpoint of system, features of functioning and progress, identify preconditions for personal development in a multicultural environment.
The concept of "intercultural competence", in our opinion, is often the result of the formation of general culture of an individual as part of the concept of "professional culture of the serviceman", viewed through the prism of cultural and ethical aspects of military activities and patriotic principles, such as devotion to the home-land, support of the priorities of functioning and development of the people, the right values to such concepts as decency, integrity, mutual respect, conscientious performance of service duties, etc. The culture of national and interethnic communication is an integrating factor among such a list of characteristics.
According to the ideas of M. Rozov, the process of successful formation of professional competence of a specialist is based on the concepts of both general cultural and intercultural competence, the possession of which is important not only for students, but also for teachers as it enables educational activities [27]. The idea of language and culture connection was suggested in the 18th century and was substantiated by the eminent German philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt. Anthony J. Liddickout specified this idea by analyzing the relationship between language, culture and learning, having considered the cultural component to be one of the leading ones for inclusion in curricula and syllabi [28].
T. Klak, P. Martin, E. Pascarella introduced the ideas of special intercultural education and training and devoted their research to find the ways to form intercultural competence and to interpret its essence [29,30].
D. Deardorff noted that the formation of intercultural competence is a long process that takes place throughout life. The result of such educational influence is not obtained immediately, it requires a number of conditions: it must be studied, developed and obtained in an open environment in the process of social interaction. The study phase involves the analysis of positive attitudes, which are the foundation for the formation of knowledge and skills, resulting in the target learning outcomes [31].
In order to clarify the importance of the concept of intercultural competence in the process of foreign language training as a key notion in our study, it is necessary to analyze the influence of culture factors on the formation of cadets' competences, formed during the study of humanities in general and foreign languages in particular.
A number of researchers believe that culture studies are "an integrative field of knowledge, studied in the interaction of philosophy, psychology, history, linguistics, ethnography, religion, sociology of culture and art history" [32]. In our study, the concept of culture is considered to be an educational factor that has an impact through the material, noetic and social products.
To clarify the definition of "intercultural competence" we offer a comparative analysis of its key semantic units, defined by native and foreign researchers. M. Byram defines them as knowledge, attitude, interaction, values, and behavior. D. Deardorff analyzes the concept of "intercultural competence" in relation to values, views, knowledge, understanding, skills, behavior, respect, and productive interaction. A. Knapp-Potthoff explains the concept through abilities, interpretation, and interpersonal interaction. D. Matsumoto sees the concept as effective communication, A. Moosmüller understands it within social skills and abilities, communication, and another culture, A. Novytska thinks that the notion of "intercultural competence" corresponds to ability, professional activity, and multicultural world. E. Rogers and T. Steinfatt consider the exchange of information with another culture to be the main function of intercultural competence. O. Sadokhin defines it as knowledge, skills, communication, and culture.
Thus, considering that the analyzed definitions have the common lexical field of the words knowledge, ability, communication, culture, dialogue, and from our suggested definition of competence, we propose to define the concept of intercultural competence as a system of formed knowledge, skills, abilities, values, attitudes and competencies, consisting of motivational-value, cognitive-linguistic, communicative-strategic and evaluative-reflexive components, which is formed in the process of educational and selfeducational activities for prompt and effective solution of professional problems in the process of communicative interaction with different cultures.
The advantage of this study is the fact that the comparative analysis, given in the research, allowed to clarify the concepts, related to the problem of formation of intercultural competence. The disadvantages are that these assumptions about the structure and types of competences and the role of cultural factors in the formation of professional competences of cadets require experimental testing and verification to determine the structure and model of intercultural competence and prove its efficiency.
6. Conclusions 1. The essence of the competence approach in military education of Ukraine was estimated as an efficient tool and main course to enhance interoperability between the education systems of Ukraine, EU and NATO countries.
2. The notions of "competence" and "competency" were analyzed to clarify their field of application to note that competency is knowledge while competence is the ability to implement knowledge.
4. The competences were assumed to be grouped into general and professional ones as congruent components of the proficiency paradigm for cadets.
5. The notion of culture was defined as indispensable factor of influence on personality social and professional formation.