Developing intercultural competence and achieving B2 English proficiency level through using creative and interactive teaching methods and watching authentic TV series; Методика повышения межкультурной компетенции и навыков владения английским языков до уровня B2 с применением интерактивных методов обучения при просмотре аутентичных сериалов

Introduction. The increasing level of world’s globalization makes it necessary to be able to interact with representatives of other cultures. Since English is recognized as the language of international communication, students need to develop intercultural competence in order to interact with the international community based on mutual understanding and shared values. Incorporating creative interactive methods with the viewing of authentic TV series into education allows students to improve their skills in understanding the original language, which reflects the particularities of the culture. The purpose of the research is to develop a methodology for teaching English using video materials to enhance students' level of intercultural competence and language proficiency to independent mastery (B2). Materials and methods. To achieve the set goal, a pedagogical experiment was conducted involving 110 2nd year undergraduate students, 53 of whom were assigned to the control group and 57 to the experimental group. The experiment consisted of 3 stages: preliminary assessment of the level of intercultural competence among students in both groups; conducting classes in the experimental group with the viewing and discussion of TV series in the original language; final assessment of the level of intercultural competence and English language proficiency, followed by comparison of groups’ results. Mathematical processing of testing results was conducted using Fisher’s angular transformation, Student’s t-test for unrelated samples, and Pearson's chi-square test to determine changes between the two groups. Results. Analysis of the experiment's results revealed a statistically significant difference between the levels of intercultural competence formation among students in the experimental and control groups (χ2 = 16.232, χ2 = 15.425, χ2 = 14.547 with tcrit = 2.621, p < 0.01), indicating their differences. Evaluation of the abilities of students in the experimental group showed a substantial increase in the number of students at the Advanced level. Thus, the pedagogical experiment demonstrated the effectiveness of using authentic TV series as means to enhance the level of intercultural competence and English language proficiency up to the B2 level. Conclusion. The study showed that the development of students' intercultural competence requires reliance on authentic materials reflecting the cultural characteristics of the country whose language is being studied. The presented methodology can be used in combination with other interactive teaching methods for the effective education of students in various disciplines. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.