Practical Steps to Overcome Verbal Manipulation within Intercultural Foreign Language Education

The article reports on the study of verbal manipulation realized in mass-media discourse as a specific case of intercultural communication. It deals with the preparation of a new generation of intercultural communicants with new skills, ready to interact in the situation of manipulative influence realized by a partner of intercultural communication. The authors give some practical steps that can be implemented into a coursebook of teaching intercultural communication or media-communication in foreign-language university. The following idea is illustrated in the work: overcoming verbal manipulation within massmedia discourse can be achieved by transforming manipulative communicative strategy of foreignlanguage partner into conventional one by intercultural communicant. Formation of conventional (sub)competence identified by the authors in intercultural communicative competence can be realized within specific steps of communicative strategy of convention: 1) Identification of verbal manipulation; 2) Interpretation of verbal manipulation; 3) Comprehension of own position within manipulative influence; 4) Introspection of communicative behavior while intercultural communication in the situation of verbal manipulation.

, development of cross-cultural communication competence in the course of modular technology (Kazantseva et al., 2020), a student as an object of intercultural foreign-language education and his ability to communicate on the intercultural level (Yazykova, 2009;Tareva & Budnik, 2013;Collier, 2015); principles of teaching foreign language (Brown, 2014); basics of intercultural communication (Romanowski, 2017;Chong, 2020;Martin & Nakayama, 2021). The aspects of teaching intercultural communication are implemented into the textbooks aimed at teaching students to interact effectively with foreign-language partners (Grushevitskaya & al., 2003;Taratuhina & al., 2016).
The study raised the following questions:

1)
What is known about the role of verbal manipulation in intercultural communication and is it considered in present-day linguadidactics?
2) How can a problem of verbal manipulation be implemented in the framework of interculturally-oriented foreign language teaching?
3) How teaching to overcome verbal manipulation can be operated in activities in ELT classroom and what activities these should be?
In this regard, we can formulate a problem: how can a problem-forming phenomenon of verbal manipulation be integrated into a practical course of intercultural teaching of foreign languages to be overcome.

Methodology
The following methods have been used to conduct the research and fulfill above-mentioned tasks: the analysis of scientific articles (theory and practice of teaching intercultural communication), the publications devoted to the studied problem of verbal manipulation, media-texts (BBC NEWS, Guardian, Telegraph, etc.) devoted to the topic of the article and modelling practical steps of overcoming verbal manipulation within intercultural communication.

Results
From the position of E.G. Tareva, "the ability to participate in the dialogue of cultures is affirmed as competence-based objective of foreign language teaching (competence-based and intercultural approaches)" (Tareva, 2017). There is no doubt that intercultural communicant should be "ready to interact with a foreigner on the basis of a comprehensive understanding of differences and peculiarities of his culture and capable of simultaneous rethinking, comprehension of his national cultural identity, being able to assess it from the point of view of a foreign communication partner" (Tareva & Tarev, 2020). Thus, the influence of mass-media that is characterized by its translation of disparity of cultures, linguistic imperialism, etc. (Goncharova & Levina, 2020) while intercultural communication determines the necessity of a learner to maneuver in the world of manipulative intervention. We arrived at understanding that verbal manipulation within intercultural communication can be defined as a communicative manipulative space in the frames of which the speaker (an intercultural partner) tends to realize one's hidden implicit influence through manipulative communicative strategies and tactics (linguistic and extralinguistic means) to change cultural values of the listener (Levina, 2018, pp. 428-429).
At present, Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) is determined as "a cluster of capabilities that will become even more essential, not only to negotiate borders of many dimensions as globalization proceeds, but also to enhance the ability to maneuver one's way in a world that changes by the minute" (Wilberschied, 2015, p.1). Therefore, from the position of the situation of manipulative influence within intercultural foreign-language education ICC is seen as the ability to interact on the intercultural level, in particular to critically comprehend the other culture, interpret differences and similarities of own and other cultures, learn the peculiarities of the other communicative behaviour (without loss of own identity) in the situations of implicit communicative influence realized by a foreign language partner.
The consideration of ICC within the situation of manipulative influence helped us identify in its competence content (linguistic, socio-linguistic, strategic, discourse, socio-cultural, social, professional and self-developmental) ( van Ek, 1993;Elizarova, 2002;Dikova, 2013;Kifik, 2012) conventional (sub)component. It is significant that conventional (sub)competence is seen in the content of the strategic competence of ICC with its top priority for realization of communicative strategy of convention that "allows to hold a commonly accepted, agreed upon and tolerant dialogue, with the communicative space being explicit for both partners of intercultural communication" (Goncharova & Levina, 2020, pp. 181). In other words, we highlight the rationale that it is precisely convention (as a unique strategy to build rapport in human relationships) which can "fight" and overcome manipulation (as a strategy to distract, abuse that rapport). Therefore, the process of formation of conventional (sub)competence is gradually implemented Olesia M. Levina, Victoria A. Goncharova / Proceedings TSNI-2021 589 within the following steps of communicative strategy of convention: 1) Identification of verbal manipulation; 2) Interpretation of verbal manipulation; 3) Comprehension of own position within manipulative influence; 4) Introspection of communicative behavior while intercultural communication in the situation of verbal manipulation (see figure 1).
The most productive and effective way to teach intercultural communication within manipulative influence is to work with a variety of authentic mass-media texts chosen in the frames of the following criteria: modern, up-to-date texts within the topic about Russia, Russian political, economic situation, etc. and manipulative content, with the level of the English language appropriate to the students of foreign-language university, etc.
At the initial stage of work (  Reflect on your text's perception in the frames of your personal attitude towards the speaker; take notes in your self-guidance book. 592 Olesia M. Levina, Victoria A. Goncharova / Proceedings TSNI-2021 Then on the basis of the above-mentioned case students create their own ones, exchange with another group and discuss to identify and interpret verbal manipulation. Model: What's the idea of democracy the British stand upon? Does Russia have a reputation of being a "proper" democratic state? Why not? What is their concern about Russian democracy motivated by?" It is necessary to perform a game as simulation of intercultural manipulative communication aimed at motivating students to comprehend their ability and readiness to interact with intercultural communicant within manipulative influence. For example: "Read the following information (situation description / roles / additional materials). Get ready to perform your roles making your characters "real" (try to add character, some peculiarities to their image). Role-play the situation. Situation: an improvised talk-show room. The topic under discussion is the cyber-attacks in the USA organized by the Russian students. The talk-show is to debate the issue and the problem within so as to finally arrive at some conclusion, common for everyone to reflect on intercultural communication". Students get their own role-cards and follow the instructions.
Finally, learners discuss their role while intercultural communication and within manipulative influence.
At the step 4 (introspection of communicative behavior) it is advisable to perform introspection work of students' communicative behavior within all tasks to project their future intercultural manipulative-free

Discussions
The situation of manipulative influence within intercultural communication defines readiness of a student to be flexible, capable of adapting to new conditions of understanding his own culture and culture of his foreign-language partner. This is such a personality that intercultural foreign-language education should prepare. In this regard this education faces new challenge: updating coursebooks of intercultural communication given educational priorities to identification, interpretation and comprehension of manipulative content of the messages of foreign-language partners. The above-mentioned procedure of teaching intercultural foreign language communication in the situation of manipulative influence can be implemented into a textbook of teaching intercultural communication or teaching media-communication within verbal manipulation.

Conclusion
The presented procedure and activities to tackle the problem of verbal manipulation in a foreign language classroom share finding from a longitudinal study and are a part of an ongoing piece of research.
At present, studying intercultural communication in the situation of verbal manipulation means to allow foreign-language students to form conventional (sub)competence as a subcomponent of intercultural communicative competence. It is precisely conventional communicative competence which aims to help learners overcome the problem of verbal manipulation in the global communication of today's world. In the context of modern geopolitical situation the formation of above-mentioned competence is considered to be as a strategic mission to create a personality of intercultural communicant to effectively interact within any non-dialogue (manipulative) situations. We rest on the rationale that to form conventional (sub)competence four core steps are to be taken: to be aware of the main notions of the course, to identify,