Intercultural Communication and Language Education

Foreign Language Annals

2018) 'Making a dierence : language teaching for intercultural and international dialogue.', Foreign language annals., 51 (1). pp. 140-151.

In Palaiologou N. (edit.). Intercultural Education: Paideia, Polity, Demoi. Cd-rom Proceedings of the International Conference co-organised by the International Association for Intercultural Education (IAIE) and the Hellenic Migration Policy Institute (IMEPO), under the aegis of UNESCO, 2009

This article explores the connections between Foreign language education (FLE) and political education. Recent developments in language research stress the intercultural and political dimensions of FLE and foreign language teachers’ social, political and moral responsibilities. FLE is inherently intercultural since the foreign language classroom is where two cultures meet: the learner’s and the target culture. However, FLE tends to focus on linguistic competence and when it chooses to deal with culture teaching, it commonly adopts a facts-oriented approach which is criticised as inadequate as it represents the risk of creating and reinforcing stereotypes. Instead, language learners have a need for intercultural skills so that they become tolerant of cultural differences. The concept of critical cultural awareness integrates politics into FLE. Since education is never neutral and all forms of education are political, FLE too has a political role to play. Language learning is then concerned with social justice and moves beyond purely performative approaches. It is thus recommended that FLE uses concepts from citizenship education, education for democracy, and human rights education to address global citizenship. Such an approach places the focus on universal values and morality and requires modifications so that FLE contributes to democratic and active citizenship.

2020

This book series publishes top quality monographs and edited volumes containing empirical research that prioritises the development of intercultural communicative competence in foreign language education as part of intercultural citizenship. It explores the development of critical cultural awareness broadly aimed at triggering and managing personal and social transformation through intercultural dialogue. Citizenship education and interculturallyoriented language education share an interest in fostering learner exploration, critical analysis and evaluation of other cultures within dynamic socio-political environments. To complement existing research on the development of intercultural communicative competence, this book series explores the techniques, processes and outcomes of intercultural language pedagogy and intercultural citizenship inside and outside the classroom. It also explores the nature, dynamics and impact of intercultural dialogue outside the classroom in real-world settings where various language codes are in use, including World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca. Further, this book series recognizes and explicitly attempts to overcome wideranging real-world barriers to intercultural dialogue and intercultural citizenship. This is especially important in the field of English language education considering the status of English as a global language and associated problems connected to linguistic imperialism, ideology and native-speakerism among others. To promote the development of deeper understandings of how such social problems connect to the use of foreign languages in general, contributions are also sought from disciplines outside foreign language education such as citizenship education, social justice, moral education, language policy and social psychology that shed light upon influential external social factors and internal psychological factors that need

Social Science Research Network, 2020

While the use of appropriate linguistic items is essential for successful communication in any language, sociocultural factors also play an important role. Intercultural communicative competence is one dimension of sociocultural awareness that has been recognized as integral for communicative competence, but its practical application remains a challenge, possibly due to the fact that language educators tend to have more knowledge about the target language than its related cultural aspects (Celce-Murcia, 2007). While cultural references are, even if implicitly, prevalent in textbooks, teacher discourse, and the media, they are often reduced to "American" or "British" while the culture of speakers of English from many other countries, including Brazil, are often ignored. Another important dimension that positively affects language and cultural learning is the representation of one's identity (Norton, 2013). In this sense, implementing intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in English Language Teaching (ELT) allows learners to express their identities while engaging in meaningful discussions about cultural views. This article provides a brief overview of communicative competence and draws on Byram's (1997) model of ICC to suggest pedagogical applications aimed at validating student identity in English language classes, particularly but not exclusively, in Brazil.

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 14675986 2012 664750, 2012

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Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 2011

In the field of modern language education, the discourse of intercultural communication has experienced three ‘moments’: cultural awareness, cross‐cultural mediation, and critical intercultural language pedagogy. The first refers to the equation between culture and country. The second concerns the development of intercultural competence through acts of tolerance while the third aims to enable a more promising sense of agency within wider political contexts. Despite progression to the third ‘moment’, many intercultural theorists are sceptical of the shifting nature of this discourse. Drawing from cultural and intercultural theory, this paper challenges the first two ‘moments’ through discussion of the notions of imagined communities and communities of shared meanings. It argues in favour of critical intercultural language pedagogy by proposing that the latter be informed from the Habermasian Theory of Communicative Action where acquisition of knowledge depends on the meeting of the S...

2014

Today foreign language education and teaching ‘culture’ have become part of the English language training offered to our learners for an improved communication competency in the globalized world around us. Practitioners can teach their learners how to become more culturally-sensitive and mind the important role cultural factors play in communication. The vast number of intercultural activities and techniques that are available provide not only the opportunities for cultural awareness raising but also an increased motivation for language and ‘culture’ learning. The current paper looks into the arguments that support this statement. To exemplify some of the points, we have selected ‘critical incidents’ as a ‘culture’ and language learning activity that will be analysed from this perspective.

Essays concerning second language teaching as a means of promoting intercultural competence include: "Intercultural Competence: From Language Policy to Language Education" (Chantal Crozet, Anthony J. Liddicoat, Joseph Lo Bianco); "Linguistic Diversity, Globalisation and Intercultural Education" (Jagdish Gundara); "French Linguistic and Cultural Politics Facing European Identity: Between Unity and Diversity" (Genevieve Zarate); "A 'Syntax of Peace'?" (Joseph Lo Bianco); "Language and Intercultural Competence" (Richard D. Lambert); "Global English for Global Citizens" (Michael Singh, Linda Singh); "Questions of Identity in Foreign Language Learning" (Michael Byram); "From 'Sympathetic' to 'Dialogic' Imagination: Cultural Study in the Foreign Language Classroom" (Jo Carr); "The Challenge of Intercultural Language Teaching: Engaging with Culture in the Classroom" (Chantal Cr...

Cambridge Open-Review Educational Research e-Journal (CORERJ), 2019

The issue of intercultural communication has garnered more attention than ever as the world changes with increasing mobility both physical and virtual. Such change not only transforms how we communicate but also foregrounds cultural differences and the implications of intercultural understanding. Scholarly debate on the nexus of language and culture has ignited considerable research effort to contextualise foreign language education to accommodate such changing landscape. This article reviews both this debate and empirical effort with two aims. First, it aims to explore theoretical debates on the nature of the relationship between language and culture to identify the theoretical underpinnings of educational practice. Second, it reviews relevant empirical research to reveal how the issue of language and culture has been addressed in foreign language classrooms. In the theoretical overview, three highlights in the language-culture nexus debate are summarised, followed by the proposed dual focus on language and culture in foreign language education. Particularly, a model of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is reviewed in detail as the paradigmatic example of addressing both language and culture in foreign language education. In the empirical review, scholarly works inspired by the ICC model are synthesised into three different themes, namely "Developing ICC: The traditional classroom approach", "Developing ICC: The telecollaboration approach" and "Assessing ICC". Insights and limitations of previous studies are discussed and future research directions are proposed at the end.

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, 2018