Task 3
Write in
your blog your personal reflection about the development of ICC in
foreign language education.
Do you
think ICC is an essential component of learning an L2?
Do you
think it is possible to assess students' intercultural competence
objectively?
What
have you learnt from observing some case studies?
Is there
any specific online intercultural exchanges or activities you would
like to implement in your teaching practice?
Looking
at cultural theory from Byram, Kramsch, Kim, Malinowski to name but a
few,
the
phenomena of intercultural sensitivity and intercultural competence
have become hot topics in language learning over the past years.
Hammer, Bennett and Wiseman all claim that the effectiveness in a
non-native culture is dependent upon one's interest in it, ability to
notice nuances and willingness to adapt to new behavioural patterns
thereby displaying respect to the host-culture.
L2
learners are difficult to motivate when they have no interest in the
new culture. Some exchange students are fascinated by the host
culture, like me when I was on Erasmus in Berlin, I kept a distance
from other Irish people and fully immersed myself in the local
culture. The students that are interested in the target culture,
usually acquire the necessary language at a fast pace, as they see
language and culture as connected and interchangeable.
Regarding
SLA, could intercultural sensitivity actually overtake learning
ability? Bennett's developmental model of intercultural sensitivity
charts the structural changes in cultural sensitivity and not changes
in attitudes and behaviour.
Having
studied other languages, I believe that ICC has a huge impact on L2
learning. Looking at Schumann and his acculturation model, the reason
that his case study Alberto's English did not improve, was due to the
fact that he did not integrate into the English speaking society. His
lack of acculturation to the target language group is why his English
did not improve. He was not motivated to immerse himself in the new
language or culture.
Could
teaching ICC help to motivate students? I think so. Students could
find some cultural aspects interesting and this could give them the
push to improve their language skills and visit the country that the
language is spoken in.
The
European Centre for modern languages suggest that self-evaluation
reports and journals be incorporated into language classrooms in
order to assess ICC. But how?
It is
very difficult to assess culture as it is unique to everyone. It is
subjective.
Chappelle
asks how we should incorporate ICC into the classroom and I wonder
the very same thing. Firstly the task assigned needs to be fit for
purpose and yield the desired outcome. Will it be private or
collaborative?
As
Fantini once said, the success of a project is based on the
motivation, self-esteem, clear sense of the self and open-mindedness.
In the case studies we looked at, the American and Italian
universities project did not success due to limited forum
participation, but the Soliya project, worked better and some of the
participants stayed in touch afterwards.
But what
really defines a culture is the hidden aspects that we only become
aware of when we spend a longer period of time in the country, taking
into account, interactions, customs and other sociolinguistic
factors. Personally I can identify with Kramsch's third place
phenomenon but I find it hard to relate to Bennett's model of
intercultural sensitivity.
Do we
really need to understand the culture to say that we are proficient
in the language? It certainly doesn't hurt. The below explanation
resonates with me and made me question the way I teach and can
implement ICC into my classes.
“ When
teaching intercultural communicative competence, teacher need to
teach both the local and international cultures. Teachers and native
speakers of English need to be aware of and respect nonnative
speakers' different ways of communicating. Nowadays language teachers
focus less on mimicking the culture and communication protocols of
native speakers of English, unless the goals of interaction require
it. The goal of ELT is not to produce language learners who can use
English as a lingua franca in a way that reflects their local
language and culture.”
References
Bennett,
M.J (1993) 'Towards ethnorelativism: A developmental model of
intercultural sensitivity' in Paige, M.R., ed. Education for the
intercultural experience, Yarmouth: Intercultural Press, 21-71.
Byram,
M. (1997) Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative
competence, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Chapelle,
C. (2001) Computer applications in second language acquisition:
Foundations for teaching, testing and research, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Chapelle,
C. (2003) English language learning and technology: Lectures on
teaching and research in the age of information and communication,
Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.
Fantini,
A.E. (2009) ' Assessing intercultural competence' in Deardorff, D.
K., ed. The SAGE handbook of intercultural competence, Thousand Oaks:
Sage, 456-476
Kramsch,
C. (1995) ' The cultural component of language teaching', Language,
Culture and Curriculum, 8(2), 83-92.
