Kompetencja komunikacyjna Romów. Strategie grzecznościowe w polsko-romskich relacjach interkulturowych

The authors of the article evaluate social-communicative problems of the minority group of Roma Gypsies in Poland. The existing low linguistic competence is additionally constrained by the accompanying insufficient communicative competence. The authors emphasize that teaching of a foreign language, in this particular case of the dominant language in the country, is effective only when it is simultaneously enhanced by a corresponding interaction between the two cultures in question. The authors indicate the barriers to cultural integration that hamper the community’s capacity and capability of establishing the relationships between these communities that would be based on partnership and mutual respect: these barriers include the orality and the tabooisation of Romany culture as well as its unfamiliarity to the Poles. This, in turn, generates patterns for statements and utterances in which ceremonial patterns are of secondary importance. It is rather the pragmatic factor that governs a particular linguistic behaviour: the Romany people simply want to understand the message and want to be understood. The article stresses that the present unfortunate social communication can be changed in the future by the implementation of appropriate activities within educational strategies directed towards the target group.