Aus unserem Forum 08. Interkulturelle Kompetenz/ Intercultural competenc
Meine interkulturelle Kompetenz/ My intercultural competence
Inwieweit hat sich meine interkulturelle Kompetenz in diesem Projekt entwickelt?/ To what extent has my intercultural competence developed in this project?
Barbara Marten - 22.09.2019 @ 17:29
Our intercultural competence
By Vera Petersson and Greta Stenberg, VKS Växjö/Sweden
When we first started the project, we had no idea what to expect. But when we got involved in the project we met a lot of different people and learned more about their cultures. We noticed that our cultures were different in some ways and the same in others.
When we started thinking about what the most different things were about the cultures our thoughts always came back to the school system. Here in Sweden we are provided with lunch by the school. But when we talked to people from other cultures we learned that they must provide their own lunch. Another thing is that they are very formal in their way of speaking to teachers. They show great respect for the teachers. In Sweden we are more informal and friendly with our teachers. Our behavior can seem unpleasant and disrespectful towards the teacher. That can be seen as a cultural clash. And result of that we have to adjust our behavior and constantly think about how we talk towards teachers in different cultures.
We believe that it is important to have intercultural competence because it teaches us to communicate in a way that cannot be seen as disrespectful towards people in other cultures.
Now it’s our turn to travel and we are going to Kufstein. We are looking forward to seeing a normal day for a teenager in Austria and how the landscape will look like. Because it’s very different from Sweden for example we don’t have mountains as they do. It will also be interesting to see how their school system is like. The most interesting thing will be to see how different our cultures is and we are really looking forward to it.
Vera Petersson - 17.01.2020 @ 12:59
Unterrichten interkultureller Kompetenz/ Teaching intercultural competence
Soll interkulturelle Kompetenz in der Schule vermittelt werden? Welche Methoden, Techniken und Strategien sind am effektivsten?/ Should intercultural competence be taught at school? What methods, techniques and strategies are the most effective?
Barbara Marten - 22.09.2019 @ 17:26
This is an interesting article written by my colleague Oskar Rydblom!
Nina Karlström - 22.11.2019 @ 12:48
Teaching Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC)
by Oskar Rydblom, VKS Växjö/Sweden
When George Bush (senior) went to Japan to negotiate trade, he and his delegation started the negotiations as they usually do; they put forward their direct demands. Unfortunately, in Japanese culture, stating a request directly is seen as both rude and a sign of desperation. The negotiations were not very successful to the detriment of both countries. ICC is about developing a set of skills that allows for more successful communication across cultures, a skillset that becomes more and more important in an increasingly globalized world. My fascination with the subject also began in Japan, in my case as an exchange student rather than a negotiator, but it wasn’t until I was working at a teacher trainee program for a Danish university and was asked to do the course on ICC that I started getting into the research of teaching it. In this short text I would like to share with you some of my thoughts on ICC and how I work with it in my classroom.
Why should we teach ICC?
To me there are three main reasons why it is important to work with ICC in class.
• It is a skillset that is likely to be helpful to the students in their future.
• It promotes understanding of other cultures and multiculturalism
• It is a view on language and culture that is more up to date
Let me start with the third reason for historical background purposes. Foreign language teaching used to focus on a method known as “grammar translation”, which focused on students reading texts and learning grammar to decode the language in the text. This was because schools saw the primary use of a foreign language as being able to understand foreign literature. With increased globalisation direct communication became more important and most school systems today follow a communicative approach to foreign language learning.
Similarly, the cultural aspect of language learning used to focus on “realia”, knowledge about the society and culture where the language originated. In general, this means studying for example the political system, school system, history or other aspect of the country where the language is primarily used. In the case of English this usually meant Britain and the US, sometimes also Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zeeland, also known as the anglosphere. Again, the main reason for this was to be able to understand references made in literature.
This “realia” view of culture in language learning is less applicable for our language needs today, just as grammar translation is. Only 25% of people who speak English as a first or second language live in the anglosphere (most can be found in Africa or Southern Asia) and English is widely used by people all around the world as a language of communication. Societies today also do not adhere to a traditional homogenous nationalistic culture; they are more multicultural by nature. Therefore, it makes much more sense to talk about culture and behaviour in a more general sense as well.
Students today are more likely to travel abroad or work for a company that has clients from other countries. Many of them already engage in interactions with people from other cultures on the internet, for example through social media or video games. Because of the free movement of the EU and the refugee crisis, classrooms and workplaces are much more multicultural than they used to be as well. Working with improving communication across culture is therefore a much more important toolset in today’s world.
What should our learning goals for working with ICC be?
It is of course impossible to teach the students all the intricacies and nuances of politeness and behaviour in all cultures around the globe. However, what we can do is give them some examples and teach them what to look for and how to think about these differences. In Byram’s model of ICC (the one developed for CEFR) he sees the main important skills as having an open and curious attitude, having knowledge of your own and other cultures, the ability to observe behaviour and then use what you have learned in interaction, and being able to critically analyse and compare behaviour in your own and other cultures. If you are interested in reading more theory on this subject I would recommend Michael Byram’s book Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence (The basis for CEFR and an in-depth description his model) or Karin Risager ‘s Language and Culture Pedagogy (an historical overview as well as specific advice on how to work with this in the future). When I work with ICC in class I tend to focus on:
• Creating awareness in the students of how their reality (perception of the world) is coloured by their cultural background
• Making them aware of how much difference and variation exists in everyday behaviour
• Understanding that most behaviour is just different ways of doing the same thing
• Knowing that different perspectives can increase your creative and analytical ability and make your world a bigger place
It is important to know that to many students this is a new area. They are aware that things are different in different cultures, but few have reflected on differences in the small everyday-life aspects like politeness, body language, touching and personal space, etc. This is significant because it is typically these things that are important to know when communicating with someone from another culture. Many of my students have reported that they feel that this was an eye-opener and that they did not expect that cultures close to us (Germany and Britain for example) also can be quite different in many respects.
It is also important that we go beyond just pointing out differences in behaviour, because that just leaves you with a “huh, that is an odd way of doing things” kind of impression. So, it is important to talk about the reasons behind the behaviour AND to also analyse behaviour and the reasons behind behaviours in our own culture. Furthermore, it is important that the students try to look at what aspects of their own culture outsiders might misunderstand.
How do we work with ICC in the classroom?
As a teacher I like to work with themes, often ones that run for 4 weeks to a month, which is often also how I work with ICC. To start the theme off I like to challenge the students’ perception of the world. One thing I do is to ask them how many of the world’s 7.7 billion people speak English at a good level. Many will guess half or more while the actual figure of proficient speakers is estimated to between 1 and 1.4 billion. I then ask them what countries they know where English is an official language and then show them a map of these countries (highlighting how many come from Asia, Africa and Central America). We then talk about how many different cultures can be found in the English-speaking world and what they know about them. I often use a few different examples to highlight differences in behaviour, the cartoon below is usually a good starting point:
Img source: https://studylib.net/doc/9608136/july--speaker-presentation-not-available-
I ask the students to discuss in groups what each person in the cartoon is trying to do and why the person they are communicating with reacts the way they do. Most, but not all, will figure out that it is about different ways to greet someone in different cultures. We talk about how a behaviour is likely to be seen by someone with another perspective. Another evocative example is to ask the students if they think the future is in front or behind them. Most or all will say in front of them and be very puzzled when I say that in some cultures they would say the future is behind them and the past in front of them. I explain that we often talk about abstract things like time by comparing it to something physical. We see time as a journey, thus where we are going is the future and where we have been is the past. In other cultures, the past is what we can see in front of our eyes, our memories, while the future is something we cannot see and is therefore behind us. This to illustrate that what just seems odd to us can have a reasonable explanation.
As for material that we work with really anything that deals with meetings between different cultures can be used. With intermediate level groups I have used posts from reddit where expats share anecdotes about cultural misunderstandings they or their friends have experienced, we have read excerpts from books, like Out of nowhere that depicts the meeting between Somali refugees and the citizens of a small town in the North of the US, among other things. In the advanced level we have read short research articles on culture and communication. Some favourites that I often use in different levels are the two TED talks linked below, both of them dealing with intercultural communication in organisations and business. Riccardi’s talk in particular is a favourite as it is quite funny and also highlights the importance of perception and being curious about what is behind the behaviour.
Pellegrino Riccardi – Cross cultural communication
Julien S Bourelle – How culture drives behaviours
We read or watch the material and then students either discuss it or work with study questions on the material. We also make or use wordlists of vocabulary commonly used when discussing culture, social interactions and politeness. I also like to give the students an opportunity to try direct intercultural communication by inviting international students from the nearby university for a discussion class. The idea is that they sit in small groups (3-4 high school students and one international student in each) and talk about topics like school life, politeness in different social situations, holidays that are important and how they are celebrated and how the international students have adapted to a new country. Important is that the discussion goes both ways and that the international students get to ask questions about Swedish culture that the high school students try to explain. I usually let them discuss for 10-15 minutes before rotating the international students so that my students get to talk to many different people.
This activity is often the highlight for my students who are motivated by learning new ideas and perspectives and the fact that they are able to use English and what they have learned about ICC “for real”. Getting to meet and talk to interesting and older student is of course also a huge draw. International students also enjoy the attention of the curious students and the insight it gives them into Swedish culture and the Swedish school system. Direct intercultural communication could also take place on social media in E-twinning projects (Skype or Zoom video call for example) or by having the students interview someone they know from another culture in English. It is important to note that it is not that important that the person from another culture is a native English speaker, just that the language used to communicate in is English.
How do we assess ICC?
Assessment of ICC can be done in many different ways, but I often focus on knowledge of other cultures and the ability of the students to discuss behaviour and reactions from different cultural perspectives. Therefore, to conclude the theme I often give them a project task of giving a group presentation of a country in the English-speaking world. The instructions specify that the purpose of the presentation is that the class is going to spend a month in the country on a study exchange and that they need to provide their classmates with a guide on how to behave and what to know when you live in said country. This includes making comparisons to their own culture and in the advanced level to make use of research and models to categorize cultures or communicating across cultures. The students then listen to each other’s presentation and we sometimes have a final quiz that tests what the students have learned from each other. The quiz assesses knowledge of other cultures while the project tests their abilities to explain what is behind the behaviours of other cultures and make comparisons with their own. As for evaluating skills such as their attitudes, I often ask the students to do a written evaluation at the end about what they learned and their thoughts on working with the theme. Many of them report a change of perspective and express desires to learn more, which is a clear indication of curiosity and open-mindedness. Here are just a couple of examples from student evaluations:
“I think my perspective on the world have changed a bit after meeting the international students. While listening to them i took in a lot of new thoughts and it was really fun. The many ways to communicate around the world was interesting and I have never thinked of it before.” (Intermediate level student)
“I feel like I’ve learned a lot of new things about aspects of the language and culture studies that I’ve never heard before. The information I have learned has been more complicated and in-depth than what I’ve learned before. For example, before we never went through how different people from other cultures can say hello, stay in a que or other everyday actions. Therefore I’ve learned more about how people from other parts of the world have their own way of behaving and that itself can cause a lot of misunderstandings between cultures. I feel like it’s a totally new world that has opened for me, for example when we had the exchange students here and heard about how their life is completely and also not different from our lives.” (Advanced level student)
Concluding remarks
When I ask my students at the start of a course why they want to, or think that we should, study English, one of the most common answers is “because I want to be able to speak with people from other countries when I travel or work in the future”. A communicative approach to language learning should also include a communicative approach to culture in communication. As a teacher the two student evaluations above sum up quite nicely why I am passionate about working with ICC, to make their world bigger. I hope that my hastily scribbled thoughts have given you some ideas about how to work with ICC in your classrooms and look forward to hearing any thoughts you have on this subject.
November 22 2019
Hallo liebste Lesefreunde,
Wenn man genauer betrachtet nimmt die zunehmende kulturelle Vielfalt in österreichischen Schulen zu. Kommt euch das Schlagwort Migration bekannt vor? Was hat Migration damit zu tun? Nun, interkulturelle Kompetenzen sind Fähigkeiten, sich mit verschiedenen Bevölkerungsgruppen, mit anderer Kulturen erfolgreich und angemessen zu verständigen. Daher wird vermehrt klar, dass Schüler/innen und sowie Lehrpersonen interkulturelle Kompetenzen entwickeln sollten. Im Ethikunterricht werden oft die Aufgaben bearbeitet, jedoch nicht in anderen schulischen Fächern, wo es doch am nötigsten wäre. Außerdem besuchen den Ethikunterricht nur Schüler/innen, die sich vom Religionsunterricht abgemeldet haben. Leider muss ich selbst zugeben, dass ich mich nicht gerade richtig gut damit auskenne und nicht viel empfehlen könnte, was effektiv sein würde in diesem Fall. Oft treten Verständigungsprobleme in Erscheinung, die eine problematische Rolle spielen. Meiner Meinung nach sollte man Wissen über verschieden Kulturen früh genug erwerben. Auch Pünktlichkeit gehört dazu oder sich über eine Religion zu informieren. Man sollte sich bewusst sein, dass Menschen nicht immer Repräsentanten einer Nationalkultur sind, sondern jeder einzelne Mensch seine ganz eigenen kulturellen Eigenschaften und Einflüsse aufweist. Außerdem kann man nicht jede Vorgehensweise mit "Kultur" erklären lassen.
Liebste Grüße, Melike.
Melike Aksak - 25.12.2019 @ 17:25