"Territory of meanings" as a way to acculturation

Grunina Elena Vladimirovna

This article deals with one of the pressing problems of modern higher education in Russia: finding ways to further improve the programs of socio-cultural adaptation of foreign students studying at Russian universities. The scientific novelty lies in the author's hypothesis that in the process of socio-cultural adaptation, the mastered space of a monoculture from the standpoint of semiotics can be perceived as "the territory of meanings." At the same time, the studied language of foreign culture from the system of signs for the purpose of communication turns into a key for decoding the meanings contained in objects and phenomena of the environment. Using the principle of intercultural interconnection, interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches, methods of included observation and content analysis, as well as the accumulated practical experience of specialists in the field of intercultural communication and their own experience, the author proves the vitality of the hypothesis put forward.

Keywords:sociocultural adaptation, the space of inoculation, "territory of meanings," acculturation, semiotics, intercultural communication.