Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning

Intercultural language teaching and learning, as it is termed in the literature, is different from approaches to teaching language that focus on language without reference to culture, and also different from approaches that teach language and culture separately from each other and which primarily transmit information about a culture.

Intercultural language learning involves the fusing of language, culture and learning into a single educative approach. It begins with the idea that language, culture and learning are fundamentally interrelated and places this interrelationship at the centre of the learning process.

Intercultural language learning involves developing with learners the understanding of their own language(s) and culture(s) in relation to an additional language and culture. It is a dialogue that allows for reaching a common ground for negotiation to take place, and where variable points of view are recognized, mediated and accepted.

Intercultural language teaching and learning raises awareness of the pervasive presence of culture in language. It uses learning processes such as interacting, exploring, comparing, and experiencing languages and cultures to develop in learners the competencies that allow them to communicate effectively across cultural boundaries.

Intercultural language teaching and learning refocuses the goal of learning by shifting from a narrower focus on linguistic competence towards a more holistic goal of intercultural communicative competence - the ability ‘to communicate and interact across cultural boundaries’. This refocusing is reflected in the Council of Europe’s framework for intercultural language learning, which identifies the knowledge, skills and attitudes “which language users build up in the course of their experience of language use and which enable them to meet the challenges of communication across language and cultural boundaries”.

Byram (1997), one of the foremost theorists in the field of intercultural language teaching and learning, proposes a model of intercultural communicative competence that has five components: skills for interpreting and relating, attitudes, skills for discovering and interacting, knowledge, and awareness.

(1) …………….. required for effective intercultural communication and learning comprise two aspects: (a) values and beliefs, curiosity, and openness and (b) relativizing self and valuing others. Byram describes these as “readiness to suspend disbelief and judgment with respect to others’ meanings, beliefs and behaviours”, and “a willingness to suspend belief in one’s own meanings and behaviors, and to analyze them from the viewpoint of the others with whom one is engaging”, requirements that apply to teachers as well as students.

(2) ……………… includes knowledge of self, of other cultures, and of social and cultural processes. Knowledge of self is knowledge about society and cultures in one’s own country. Knowledge about other cultures includes information about such things as everyday living, interpersonal relations, values and beliefs, body language and social conventions. Knowledge of social and cultural processes is knowledge about culture in general and how it affects behaviour.

(3) ………………. involves “the ability to interpret a document or event or visual materials from another culture, to explain it and relate it to documents or events from one’s own”.

(4) ……………….. is ‘the ability to acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to operate knowledge, attitudes and skills under the constraints of real-time communication and interaction’.

(5) …………………. refers to awareness of one’s own culture and language, as well as the language(s) and culture(s) of the target group.

The Newton report notes that, in the literature, it is generally considered that native speaker-level communicative competence is an unrealistic target for most learners and, from an intercultural perspective, it is also an undesirable one because it assumes that language learning leads to a form of assimilation. Rather, the aim of intercultural communicative competence is for learners to understand their own identity in relation to others, not to replace identities.

[86] An introduction to the concept of intercultural communicative

language teaching and learning: A summary for teachers.

Read the text again and choose the correct answer.

1. Intercultural language teaching and learning is…

a. focusing on language without reference to culture.

b. primarily transmitting information about a culture.

c. fusing of language, culture and learning into a single educative approach.

2. Intercultural language learning involves

a. developing the understanding of learners’ own language and culture in relation to an additional language and culture.

b. the ability to interpret a document or visual materials from another culture.

c. the ability to acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices

3. According to Byram, components of intercultural communicative competence are:

a. attitudes, knowledge, skills for interpreting and relating, skills for discovering and interacting, and awareness.

b. skills for interpreting and relating, skills for discovering and interacting.

c. attitudes, knowledge, skills for interpreting and relating.

 

4. Knowledge of self is

a. the knowledge about culture in general and how it affects behaviour.

b. the knowledge about society and cultures in one’s own country.

c. the information about such things as everyday living, interpersonal relations, values and beliefs.

5. The aim of intercultural communicative competence is

a. to understand their own identity in relation to others, not to replace identities.

b. to focus on knowledge about a country or society.

c. to explore a wider range of cultural artefacts.

Answer the questions.

1. What does intercultural language learning involve?

2. What learning techniques are used to develop the competencies that allow them to communicate effectively across cultural boundaries?

3. What does intercultural communicative competence mean?

4. What components of intercultural communicative competence does Byram suggest?

5. What does knowledge about other cultures include?

6. How are the skills for discovery and interaction used?

7. Why it is generally considered that native speaker-level communicative competence is an unrealistic target and an undesirable one?

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