Intercultural Communicative Competence

While the role of culture in second and/or foreign language (L2/FL) learning and teaching has often been unquestioned, empirical research on culture learning and teaching in L2/FL education has been less common than opinion-oriented writings in relevant journals. This article offers a summary and synthesis of 52 empirical studies on L2/FL culture learning and teaching published during the 20-year period 1996-2015. In doing so, it first provides some background, then discusses the methods used for choosing, summarizing, and briefly analyzing these studies, and finally outlines a range of quantitative and qualitative findings. Culture learning and teaching research in L2/FL education during this period involved five main languages (English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish) in 19 different countries; adopted mainly qualitative research approaches; and addressed a diverse range of age and educational levels, although postsecondary research studies were most common. The survey here highlights a shift from a focus on ‘culture’ to the ‘intercultural,’ and reveals that culture learning and teaching research has moved beyond reporting teachers’ and students’ attitudes to a range of topics impacting L2/FL learning and teaching, including instructional approaches, teaching materials, assessment, and technology. It also points to connections between the studies outlined and offers possibilities and directions for future research in this important area.

Licence: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Abstract: Globalisation and technological advances have contributed greatly to increasing mobility in higher education (HE). One of the main stakeholders in this process are lecturers, for whom internationalisation is often understood as simply the use of a lingua franca-usually English-in their teaching (then known as English medium instruction, EMI) to the detriment of other key factors such as intercultural competence. The present study focuses on the analysis of a specific in-service training module intended to develop the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) of a group of 21 Spanish lecturers working at two public universities. Adopting an empirical approach, we specifically aim to contrast the participants' beliefs about their own ICC before and after taking the training course. Adopting a mixed-method approach, two data gathering processes were used prior to and after the training: questionnaire and self-reflection report. The results show that before the training participants were willing to learn but mostly unaware of the importance of ICC. Once trained, many of them seem to have become aware that EMI goes beyond language issues and that there is a crucial need to work on the intercultural component to fully develop HE internationalisation. Furthermore, this study highlights the need for major changes in in-service training courses as well as in language policies for EMI in order to give ICC the presence it should have.

Globalisation and advancements in communication technologies have brought a dramatic increase in the frequency and complexity of intercultural interactions. In addition to linguistic skills, foreign language (FL) learners today need the ability to deal with cultural differences. This has implications for language learners and teachers. In recent years, the Japanese government have implemented several nationwide "global" projects aimed at reforming the higher education system, and at cultivating in learners the skills necessary to become effective global communicators. While intercultural communicative competence (ICC) has been widely researched and discussed over the past thirty years, global communicative competence (GCC) remains relatively unexplored in FL learning circles. To establish effective pedagogies for GCC in FL classrooms, it is important to characterize its component skills, knowledge or attitudes, and to consider student needs. The researcher undertook a preliminary qualitative study that used a survey instrument to investigate Japanese FL learner (n=23) ideas and needs related to GCC. Participant responses were coded according to Byram's 1997 model for ICC. Findings showed that participants believed attitudinal factors to be of primary importance in the development of GCC. In addition, many learners identified challenges for ICC development that lay outside the scope of Byram's ICC model. These included issues of language anxiety, low self-confidence and a focus on linguistic accuracy at the expense of communicating meaning. In this paper, the researcher discusses student responses, their correlation with Byram's model for ICC, and pedagogical implications for foreign language educators in Japan.

Enhancing the development of intercultural communicative competence in business and study environments explores the development of intercultural communicative competence in English language teacher training and management. The author asks how establishing effective and appropriate behaviour within intercultural communication can promote effective communication in teacher training programmes and in management training. To answer this question, the article explores how the concept of intercultural sensitivity is integrated into intercultural communicative competence in training programmes and how it can facilitate the development of overall sensitivity. In doing so, it identifies some of the enabling and hindering features that shape the development of intercultural communicative competences in English language and culture in training courses in management or university.

Teaching English is given priority in the military system of higher education, being in fact the central intercultural core that provides substance, consistency and strength to the intercultural dimension of the academic military education. After the accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the participation of the Romanian armed forces, particularly the Land Forces officers, in a multitude of missions abroad has created the need to form, develop and consolidate their ability to meet specific intercultural standards during academic training.  In this regard, identifying and addressing issues aimed at improving the teaching of English, as well as of other foreign languages, is considered to be of paramount importance.  The present study highlights the importance of linguistic interoperability in successfully accomplishing international missions and suggests several ways of improving the intercultural communication skills of cadets. At the same time, it insists on the necessity of reconsidering education from an intercultural perspective since on the modern battlefield the capacity to implement the acquired cultural knowledge will be the one that will make the difference.

The integrated and internationalized global economy, international exchanges, and cultural integration increased the frequency of intercultural communication, calling for intercultural communication talents. Thus, the cultivation of students’ intercultural communication skills garnered widespread attention. To better and fairly assess college students’ actual Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and effectively cultivate students’ ICC, first, this study comprehensively explored the internal relationship between linguistic subjectivity and intercultural communication. Second, an ICC teaching model from the perspective of linguistic subjectivity based on modern information technology (MIT) was constructed, and a college student ICC assessment scale covering 7 dimensions and 36 variables was designed. Finally, an empirical teaching experiment was conducted to verify the credibility and validity of the constructed teaching model and assessment scale. Results show that the 7 dime...

There is a strong relationship between language and culture, both carryy the DNA samples of one another, which makes it hard to imagine English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in classrooms and textbooks without any reference to target culture(s). Therefore, teaching a language cannot be thought of only as teaching grammatical structures of the target language, but also teaching the culture(s) of the target language or society. However, considering intercultural communicative competence, along with the target culture(s), the local culture should also be included in the textbooks. This study aimed to trace the local culture (Turkish) in a book used in a Turkish higher education institution. In order to do this, an in-house published reading book was evaluated through thematic content-based analysis and item frequency analysis. The results showed that in spite of the fact that the evaluated reading book is dominated by the target culture, and there is an inadequacy in terms of providing elements from the local culture, it was revealed that the book does not favor any specific culture(s), and it exhibits an increased awareness about intercultural communicative competence.

This paper intended to provide examples of ICT resources that could be used in order to support and enhance the learning of English, at bachelor level, from an intercultural perspective. The development of intercultural communicative competence is no longer optional in a globalized society. Face-to-face interaction rules need to be replaced by netiquette rules in a virtual space since online communication has become the norm today in all career fields. The subjective turn in foreign language teaching aims to make students more aware of their own cultural programming and cultural encodings when interacting with interlocutors belonging to other cultures. This paper provided an example of efficient use of ICT resources in order to develop students’ intercultural communicative competence in a technology-based medium of communication.

В статье кратко представлена концепция обучению иностранным языкам (ИЯ) на основе использования фильмов. В статье подчеркивается важность положительного эффекта и, значимость разных стилей обучения, мозговой штурм при изучении и планировании обучения посредством фильмов. В данной статье обсуждается использование фильмов в различных аспектах преподавания иностранных языков: устного общения, лексики, грамматики и культурных аспектов. Также анализируются факты, которые необходимо учитывать при использовании фильмов в обучении. Ключевые слова: усвоение второго языка, коммуникативное взаимодействие, концепция интерференции, коммуникативная компетентность, коммуникативная эффективность, интеграция отдельных суб-навыков.

The article briefly introduces the concept of teaching foreign languages (ESL/EFL) based on the use of films. The article emphasizes the importance of authenticity, positive effect, the necessity of different learning styles, as well as the brain activity in teaching and learning ESL through films. This article discusses the use of films in various aspects of teaching foreign languages: oral communication, vocabulary, writing, grammar and cultural aspects. Keywords: second language acquisition, communicative interaction, the concept of interference, communicative competence, communicative effectiveness, integrate separate sub-skills.

Bilingualism and multilingualism are the speaker’s ability to speak two or more languages. This capability is achieved by the individual speakers, where besides the mother tongue (L1) learners different languages on a parallel basis or gradually, indifferent times and places, creating different language competence, which memorializes in his cognitive and uses the self-actualization in the process of instruction in the language required in compliance with contextual communication situation.
Linguistic diversity reflected in multicultural social community enables all individuals to develop bilingualism and multilingualism skills ranging from family environment with mixed marriages and social environment with formal education systems, formal and informal education for the achievement of personal and collective in ward-processing versatile in every aspect of life.
Achievements of the Individual in ward-processing to multilingual speakers reflected on the enrichment cognitive with different competitive languages, in developing affective achieving empathic on respecting the principle of multicultural democratic society toward psychomotor skills development of oral and written expression in every language, communication towards the provision and acceptance of different messaging and social terms with the facilitation of providing vital existential unemployment challenge in the XXI century.
This project aims to clarify scientific theoretical concepts about bilingualism and multilingualism and with empirical research to illuminate the current state of bilingualism and multilingualism which is used by the speakers to provide vital existentiality in everyday life in the city of Gostivar, Republic of Macedonia. In this research shall use combined questionnaires prepared in advance according to Likert scale and with alternative questions for three groups of bilingual speakers. The survey will held with employed citizens of three ethnic groups in Gostivar with Albanians, Macedonians and Turks.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between intercultural communicative competence and demotivation to learn a second language. The participants of the study included 60 Iranian EFL learners at the intermediate level of language proficiency. Data were collected through administering the intercultural communicative scale and demotivation questionnaire and also conducting interviews. Data analysis was performed by running Pearson Correlation Coefficient using SPSS 21. The results of Pearson Correlation Coefficient showed that intercultural communication competence was negatively related to demotivation. Analysis of interview data showed that participants believed in negative relationship between intercultural communication competence and demotivation. They also maintained that integrating with other cultures and communicating with people from other cultures are sources of motivation in English language learning. Based on the findings of the study, teachers are encouraged to try to develop learners' intercultural communicative competence in an effort to reduce EFL learners' demotivation.

Historically, a major focus on intercultural competence emerged out of research into the experiences of westerners working abroad (e.g., Peace Corp volunteers) in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. This early research was typically motivated by perceived cross-cultural communication problems that hampered collaboration between individuals from different backgrounds. In the late 1970s and 1980s, the contexts for intercultural competence research expanded to include study abroad, international business, cross-cultural training, expatriates living overseas, and immigrant acculturation. During these formative years, research on intercultural competence utilized assessments of individuals' attitudes, personalities, values, and motives, usually through short self-reports, surveys, or open-ended interviews. The purpose and focus of ICC assessment using these tools centered around four main goals: "(1) to explain overseas failure, (2) to predict overseas success, (3) to develop personnel selection strategies, and (4) to design, implement and test sojourner training and preparation methodologies" (Ruben, 1989, p. 230).

2018 dans  Actes du 9° Congrès panhellénique et international des professeurs de français (20- 23 octobre 2016) : Enseigner la langue et la culture françaises : construire des ponts socio-humanistes, Université nationale et capodistrienne d’Athènes, vol. 1 p. 33-44.

This test review examines the development of the Intercultural Development Inventory® v.3 (IDI®, Hammer, 2011), which measures practitioners’ orientations toward cultural differences. The theoretical framework for this instrument was based on Bennett’s developmental model of intercultural sensitivity (DMIS, 1993). DMIS explains how people construe cultural differences and the ways in which their underlying worldview changes. The author suggests that the IDI is appropriate for any culture group and individuals who have at least a 10th grade reading level (Hammer, 2011). The scale includes seven subscales (i.e., Denial, Defense, Reversal, Minimization, Acceptance, Adaptation, and Cultural Disengagement), which collectively reflect the six dimensions of Bennett’s DMIS. The IDI was developed through a three phase process, wherein each developmental step was followed by vigorous validation. The author concluded that the IDI is a valid intercultural instrument, which has good content validity, internal validity and construct validity. Reliability, on the other hand, is in need of improvement since the internal consistency (i.e., Coefficient Alpha) for each subscale is less than .80 – a minima level acceptable for research and low-stakes practice purposes. Further large sample testing and potential scale revision and refinement are recommended to further investigate and improve the subscale internal consistencies.

One of the most important aspects of cross-cultural competence of Economics students – the ability to overcome cultural barriers in professional communication at the international level is considered in the article. The author analyzes in detail the causes of cultural barriers, the role of stereotypes in communication, the prerequisites of adequate perception of partners’ statements and actions. Cultural barriers’ overcoming should be based on respect for national traditions, ideas, values and norms of behavior of foreign partners. The article notes that the task of studying interaction characteristics with representatives of various national business cultures is very complex and many-sided, so each teacher has to develop their own methodology that takes into account both modern approaches to cross-cultural competence development of future specialists in the field of business, and needs, interests and communicative competence of each particular group of students. The article gives a brief description of the technique of teaching English, which is aimed at developing skills of students to overcome cultural barriers in business communication. This technique consists of three phases (stages), each of which includes different kinds of tasks. The tasks of three stages of the given teaching model encourage students’ positive attitude to representatives of foreign cultures. The article emphasizes that this teaching technique should teach students to classify cultural business communication barriers, to find ways to overcome them, and include a variety of interactive teaching methods focused on the development of communicative skills in interpersonal cross-cultural communication.

This dissertation addresses some of the pertaining issues in the field of intercultural competence, namely, the negative aspect of Ethnocentrism, the missing adherence to the cultural context, the lack of cross-disciplinary dialog, and lastly, its limited usefulness, due to its missing connection with performance. Most of the intercultural competence research has its origin in Western countries, which thereby defines what is deemed to be intercultural behavior. This is arguably problematic in today’s constantly changing interconnected business world, in which organizations are comprised of employees from different corners of the world. It is deemed to be important for managers and leaders to gain insight into the beliefs, knowledge, and attitudes of culturally diverse employees.  Both in terms for the organization to stay viable and gain a competitive advantage, but also in terms of developing the intercultural competence in organizations and create an inclusive environment, where different employees can contribute with their unique knowledge.      
My aim in the dissertation has been to answer the stated research question: How does creativity as a tool influence intercultural competence in an organization from a pragmatism framework? The chosen approach provides a cross-disciplinary perspective, in which the intercultural competence perspective is integrated with a creativity perspective and organizational culture perspective. The pragmatism framework is sought to convey a practical dimension, in terms of usefulness, as in how creativity can be implemented in practice and influence intercultural competence among employees in practical everyday situations in the organizational setting. There is thereby both a theoretical and practical aim in the dissertation. Theoretical in terms of reconceptualizing intercultural competence and develop a model that integrates the field of intercultural competence, creativity, and organizational culture. The practical aim relates to my ambition to provide practical creative tools that managers and other staff members can implement and use in their organization to develop intercultural competence in their organization. The results showcase that the creative platform and its principles no judgment and parallel thinking facilitates the development of intercultural competence, by providing a non-judging learning process. When engaged in 3D cases, the participants are encouraged to share diverse ideas, without limitations from cultural or social patterns and thus contribute to the mutual development of intercultural competence among them throughout the collaboration process.
The results furthermore showcased how self-awareness, mindfulness, and open-mindedness can be implemented as creative tools through different practices to facilitate and influence intercultural competence in an organization.         
It is argued that the developed theoretical perspective is significant in a number of ways. Firstly, competence is united with performance in the perspective, as it provides practical useful examples of how intercultural competence can be developed in practice through a number of collaborative exercises in an organization. Secondly, due to the developed cross-disciplinary perspective that includes the cultural context and broadens how competence ought to be perceived, namely, through a dialog with multiple voices, which is deemed to address the issue of Ethnocentrism.

The significance of knowing a foreign language to communicate with people of other nations has never been so crucial since the beginning of humanity. The increase in interactions among nations, and possibilities of communicating with people of various nations gave rise to a foreign language to come to the forefront which has been English for a long time. No language has achieved the success of English so far, and in that, intense globalization plays a big part as well as English being the language of technology, trade, art, finance, economy etc. all of which paved the way for English as a lingua franca (ELF). Whereas English is the medium of communication for everyone today and culture cannot be separated from the language itself, it is considered unnecessary to teach only native culture because of the prevalence of non-native to non-native interactions. Therefore, intercultural communicative competence has come into prominence and this notion focuses on developing intercultural communicative skills of English as a Foreign Language learners. As textbooks are the dominant foreign language teaching materials, it is necessary to examine the common ones to test whether they apply to the teaching of intercultural skills. The present study aims to investigate if the English textbooks used in all departments of a university include intercultural elements. This study is a descriptive study which is based on content-analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the textbooks 'English File Elementary and Pre-intermediate' are not satisfactory to enhance intercultural communicative competence and need revision. Öz İnsanlığın başlangıcından bu yana, diğer uluslarla iletişim kurmak için bir yabancı dil bilmek hiç bu kadar önemli olmamıştır. Uluslararası iletişimdeki artış ve çeşitli ulustan insanlarla iletişim kurabilme imkânı bir yabancı dilin ön plana çıkmasına olanak sağlamıştır ki bu yabancı dil de uzun zamandır İngilizcedir. Hiçbir dil İngilizcenin başarısına şu ana kadar erişememiştir ve bunda İngilizcenin teknolojinin, ticaretin, sanatın, finansın, ekonominin vb. alanların dili olasının yanında küreselleşmenin yoğunlaşması da büyük rol oynamaktadır ve tüm bunlar İngilizcenin 'ortak dil' olmasına zemin hazırlamıştır. Günümüzde İngilizce herkes için iletişim aracı olduğu için kültürü de dilden ayırmak mümkün değildir ve anadili İngilizce olmayanlar arasındaki iletişimin egemen olmasından dolayı yalnızca yerel kültürü öğretmenin faydasız olduğu düşünülmektedir. Bu sebeplerden ötürü, kültürlerarası iletişimsel edinç ön plana çıkmış ve bu kavram İngilizceyi yabancı dil olarak öğrenenlerin kültürlerarası iletişim becerilerini geliştirmeye odaklanmaktadır. Ders kitapları yabancı dil öğretim materyalleri içinde en çok kullanılanlar olduklarından

The purpose of this article titled The marginalized status of French in Ghana: A real misrepresentation by the Media and Academia, is to highlight the actual status of French in current communication in Ghana, an Anglophone country. It focuses on demonstrating that the priority placed on French by the Ghanaian authorities is only apparent. We can even talk of the pseudo-status of French, with the wide gap that exists between what is said and what is done in view. Indeed, whereas the authorities in Ghana affirm that French is the second most important international language in that country, the reality seems to be different. French remains far from being the linguistic medium of social discourse in the country .Administrations, international organizations, the media, and even schools all seem to marginally prioritize French. Meanwhile, continuous official discussions are held on the importance of this language to the Anglophone Ghanaian community. Moreover, since 2006, Ghana has being a partner member of the “Francophonie”; something which presupposes that aside from English, Ghanaians can also, to an extent, transact in French, as is the case in the Francophone countries where people somehow “glean” words to express themselves in English when the need arises. Unfortunately, such a conclusion is erroneous. Ghana’s “Francophonie” partner membership status is far from being rooted in her communicative needs. The teaching of French in schools and the treatment French teachers receive are enough indicators for us to conclude that, in reality, French is not a priority in the Ghanaian community and that Ghana will not need a second international language, after her official language English, which is increasingly more important than any other foreign language, even local Ghanaian languages inclusive.
     
Key words: Misleading status; international language; Communicative needs;  National language(s)

This article reviews and summarizes the literature on intercultural competence and intercultural communicative competence in order to better understand how these notions can impact the cultural component of a foreign language curriculum. Building on various models of intercultural communicative competence, examples of cultural tasks that promote intercultural communicative competence and represent best practices in language teaching and learning are presented and illustrated for classroom integration.

Студията представя резултати от литературно проучване на съществуващите множество модели на интеркултурната компетентност, като са подбрани най-популярните и е анализирана възможността на всеки от тях за интеграция във възпитателната работа по отношение на формиране на интеркултурна компетентност в рамките на училищната среда. Представени са ключови идеи, подпомагащи формирането на интеркултурна компетентност в рамките на учебното съдържание по език. Ключови думи: интеркултурна компетентност, интеркултурност, интеркултурно възпитание, модели на интеркултурна компетентност, култура.
The present paper analyses the most popular among the multitude of intercultural competence models in terms of their suitability for inclusion in school environment with the aim of developing intercultural competence, as part of a literature review. Key concepts facilitating the development of intercultural competence are also presented, as well as the possibility of their integration in the language education curriculum.

Developing ‘communicative competence’ in today’s classrooms is the main aim of foreign language teaching. On the other hand, enhancing the communicative competence of EFL learners also requires the development of intercultural knowledge and skills due to the ‘lingua franca’ nature of English. In this paper, EFL teachers’ practices and beliefs about the concept ‘intercultural communicative competence’ (ICC) in classrooms are discussed by gathering their opinions with the help of interviews. The results show that EFL teachers, especially the ones working at a university, believe that enhancing learners’ intercultural communicative competence and making them aware of various cultures other than their own is an effective and beneficial approach in due course of teaching English. In addition, it was found that teachers are knowledgeable about the issue and they try to put their knowledge into practice in order to raise students’ cultural awareness. Yet, the only suspense is that they do not have clear-cut activities to use for this cause. Therefore, teachers need instructive studies and new research on how to develop students’ intercultural communicative competence and what kind of materials to use on this basis.

In light of the CLB 4 language requirement for citizenship application mandated by the federal government and the Canadian Language Benchmark’s application of Sociolinguistic Model, the ESL teacher is tasked with equipping newcomers for employment, eventual citizenship and social integration in general. However, there is an absence of explicit means of imparting this competence. Therefore, using Byram’s Model for Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC), this investigation explored Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills of ICC among English as a Second Language teachers in government funded adult non-credit language programs in Canada. Teachers of English as a Second/Additional Language organizations in Canada were contacted to gain access to their members. A mixed method design was employed to gauge teachers’ intercultural competence attitudes, knowledge, and skills. Teachers’ classroom practice was also explored using aspects of Sociolinguistic Knowledge and ICC. Findings showed that although teachers possessed attitudes, knowledge and skills of intercultural competence, lack of time, resources and inadequate understanding of Intercultural Communicative Competence prevents them from fully implementing intercultural communicative competence practice into their classrooms.

Alvino E. Fantini, School for International Training, USA:

This book offers educators an approach to developing 'intercultural citizenship' and illustrates ways in which teachers and learners can cooperate to develop an openness and willingness to learn about others and to resolve conflicts peacefully. The world today desperately needs more citizens competent to do just this.

Youzhong Sun, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China:

Foreign language education for intercultural citizenship is a bold and beautiful idea. Those who care about globalisation and its consequences, and foreign language education and its cultural dimensions, are strongly advised to read this book and join Michael Byram's global club of teacher-researchers who have the vision and courage to implement that bold and beautiful idea in the classroom.

Prue Holmes, Durham University, UK:

This international research-led anthology – on teaching and learning about intercultural democratic citizenship through language education – is important, timely, and practical in an increasingly interconnected world. The chapters, developed by language teacher-researchers from the CULTNET network (Durham University, UK), offer new theoretical and practical innovations for language educators everywhere as they seek to develop intercultural understanding and active citizenship in their language learners.


Editors:
The contributors to this volume have collaborated to present their work on introducing competences in intercultural communication and citizenship into foreign language education. The book examines how learners and teachers think about citizenship and interculturality, and shows how teachers and researchers from primary to university education can work together across continents to develop new curricula and pedagogy. This involves the creation of a new theory of intercultural citizenship and a procedure for implementation. The book is written by teacher researchers who aim to help other teachers, and concludes with reflections on the lessons they have learnt which will help others to implement these ideas in their own practice. The book is essential reading for foreign language educators and researchers, students in pre-service teacher training and teachers in in-service training.

Moroccan Arabic dialect has not a designed pronoun for Spanish usted/es but it has a wide range of ways and vocatives to show a similar courtesy attitude, which makes the teacher working with Moroccan students think about the most suitable way to teach clear contexts of use, helping students to find the equivalence in their language and systematizing its correct and spontaneous use, with a particular focus on its agreement with verbal, possessive determiners and pronouns. In a theoretical way, we aim to take a close look at the idea of oral verbal courtesy, its usual treatment at the Spanish as a foreign language classroom and the expression of courtesy using usted/es. In a practical way, we try to provide a framework of guidelines and didactic orientations in order to treat verbal courtesy at the Spanish as a foreign language classroom, and a series of activities designed to practise the use of usted/es and its grammatical implications, as well as its use in the meridional Spanish dialects, Canary Islands and Spanish America.

The concept of ‘communicative competence’, first proposed by Hymes, referred basically to abilities speakers have in their first language. This term, however, was appropriated and reworked (Canale & Swain 1980; van Ek 1986) within the field of foreign language teaching and new approaches or dimensions (sociolingustic, socio-cultural, social, etc.) were added to the original idea. Consequently, the prescriptive model based upon native speaker competence started to be put into question and the replacement of the native speaker by the intercultural speaker as a reference point for the foreign language learner was suggested (Byram & Zarate 1994). Stemming from all these considerations, a model was proposed (Byram 1997) for Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC), involving one step further in communicative competence.

En el presente trabajo pasamos revista a una serie de investigaciones relacionadas con el factor edad en el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera. Como veremos, las teorías son muy variadas e incluso opuestas entre sí. Para poder profundizar en el análisis del tema, es preciso abordar por separado el aprendizaje de cada uno de los componentes del lenguaje -pronunciación, gramática, léxico...-. Al margen de las cuestiones directamente asociadas con la edadpérdida de la agudeza auditiva, evolución neurológica del cerebro, etc.-resulta sumamente esclarecedor tener en consideración otros factores que interactúan con la edad -afectivos, cognitivos, sociales, de motivación, actitud, tipo de aducto (input), etc.-.

Teaching a foreign language does not merely involve teaching its linguistic system but also its cultural system. A native speaker of English may tolerate EFL speaker’s grammatical or phonological errors in communication but cultural errors may not be tolerated and may create serious problems which lead to communication failure. Therefore, English culture should be given an adequate place in EFL teaching and syllabi if we want to produce competent users of English who can use it effectively and appropriately for communication with English people. For this reason, this paper aimed at raising Yemeni EFL teachers’ awareness towards integrating English culture into their EFL classes. It explored Aden University EFL teachers’ perceptions of the importance of integrating English culture into their EFL teaching and the actual practices they utilize for integrating English culture into their teaching. Data were primarily collected through a questionnaire webbed to 56 teachers (n=56) and then analysed by using SPSS. Findings have revealed that Yemeni EFL teachers held positive attitudes towards integrating English culture into their EFL teaching as their overall attitude was more than 4 (out of 5). There were significant differences in teachers’ attitudes which were gender-based as female teachers showed a higher overall positive attitude than their male counterparts. Other variables such as major, years of experience and academic level showed slight statistical differences. On the other hand, findings have shown a low level of integrating culture into actual teaching by both male and female teachers. Slight differences were found among their actual practices that can be attributed to teachers’ major and teaching experience. As per the findings, the study has provided some recommendations that may help Yemeni teachers to go beyond teaching linguistic skills and to integrate culture into their teaching of English.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332199761_Integrating_Culture_into_EFL_Teaching_A_Study_of_Yemeni_EFL_Teachers'_Perceptions_and_Actual_Practices

The introduction to this volume is intended to be a holistic introduction to international /intercultural  communicative competence.  In this introduction and part 1, the four
chapters on the meaning of EIL competence by four different authors present very different perspectives. We do not wish to attempt to resolve differences of perception, although I will
discuss some differences in this introduction. After all, the tolerance of different perspectives is an essential part of the epistemology of EIL. As Moser, (2002, p.17) eloquently suggests in
defence of his own epistemology, meta-epistemic instrumentalism,
Within the tolerant confines of meta-epistemic instrumentalism, we can welcome even as rational, much of the remarkable divergence we see in contemporary epistemology (p.17).
When faced with a broad and divergent body of knowledge, it would have been tempting to simplify the different accounts of knowledge into some kind of coherent whole. This can
sometimes take the form of rejecting scholarship that we cannot reconcile within our own paradigm. In our own field, we might want to reconsider whether a common target for rejection
(frequently also within this volume), Chomskian linguistics, is indeed really in opposition to holistic views of competence. For Moser (2002, p.6), holism is related to ‘epistemic coherentism’ as it “finds the ultimate source of justification in a system of interconnected beliefs or potential beliefs”. However, Moser does not support the artificial creation of a tidy fixed, impervious system of interconnected beliefs. Moser (p.16) argues instead that to characterize the present state of epistemic scholarship as ‘rational’, a tolerance of conceptual divergence is
needed that might not be encompassed in a coherent holistic model (coherentism). Moser coins the phrase ‘meta-epistemic instrumentalism’ (p.16) which “enables us to explain as rational
conceptual divergence what initially looks like perennial disagreement.” In Moser’s view, “the diversity hides a deeper rational unity” (p.17). As Sivasubramaniam suggests in this volume, we must therefore view all attempts a creating ‘final’ systems as temporary. The parts may come together in apparent coherence as with a kaleidoscope, but the ‘fixed’ outcome will only be
provisional. In the case of Chomskian linguistics, might we not need to acknowledge that EIL specialists have so far struggled to come up with an adequate characterization of linguistic
competence? As a result of this conceptual divergence in part 1, there is inevitably some repetition too. On closer examination, however, I have found that similar but very important concepts are
contextualized very differently in these chapters. This is perhaps most apparent in Sivasubramaniam’s contribution, which provides a much broader challenge to the concept of competence itself. Sivasubramaniam proposes a pluricentric view of community leading to a notion of competence that is enriched by its dependence on a plurality of contexts. His suggestion that we are actually in search of context-based confirmations rather than objective and context-free affirmations underline the difficulty of providing a meaningful definition of EILcompetence at all. My co-editor therefore provides a different angle on “rational diversity” as he underlines the need to broaden our perspectives, whereas as definitions tend to summarize and reduce. His strongly expressed views of social alignment and sociolinguistic sensitivity have, I
hope, helped me avoid reductionism in my own attempt to characterize (rather than definitively or narrowly define) EIL competence in this introduction. I have nonetheless responded to my own perception that the EIL literature has spent a lot of time pointing out what EIL competence is not, but less time suggesting what it is. If readers feel we have made a first step in this regard, we will be delighted.

Nei programmi scolastici d'insegnamento delle lingue straniere in Europa sono esplicitamente previsti obiettivi di competenza interculturale. A partire dal 2001, da quando cioè il Consiglio d'Europa raccomandò l'uso del Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe 2001) redatto nel '96, essi sono entrati a fare parte della politica educativa degli stati dell'Unione Europea, e sia prima che dopo quella raccomandazione la dimensione interculturale è rintracciabile in documenti ufficiali di politica o di programmazione didattiche.

Teaching a foreign language does not merely involve teaching its linguistic system but also its cultural system. A native speaker of English may tolerate EFL speaker's grammatical or phonological errors in communication, but cultural errors may not be tolerated and may create serious problems which lead to communication failure. Therefore, English culture should be given an adequate place in EFL teaching and syllabi if we want to produce competent users of English who can use it effectively and appropriately for communication with English people. For this reason, this paper aimed at raising Yemeni EFL teachers' awareness towards integrating English culture into their EFL classes. It explored Aden University EFL teachers' perceptions of the importance of integrating English culture into their EFL teaching and the actual practices they utilize for integrating English culture into their teaching.
For full article click this link:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332199761_Integrating_Culture_into_EFL_Teaching_A_Study_of_Yemeni_EFL_Teachers'_Perceptions_and_Actual_Practices