Intercultural communication

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Intercultural communication

• Synthesis of the Year One Report

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1. Definition

• Communication - the active relationship
  established between people through language
• Intercultural - communicative relationship
  between people of different cultures
• Culture - the structured manifestation of human
  behaviour in social life within specific national
  and local contexts political, linguistic,
  economic, institutional, professional and so on.

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• intercultural communication (linguistic
  perspective )
• a situated communication between individuals or
  groups of different linguistic and cultural
  origins

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• Focus
• the acquisition of skills and human attributes
  likely to enhance intercultural communication is
  reviewed exclusively as a component of language
  programmes

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• intercultural competence -
• knowledge
• skills
• attitudes

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• 7 significant issues
• i) ICs relationship with language itself,
• ii) its integration into language teaching
  pedagogy
• iii) its identification or otherwise with
  nationhood,
• iv) its link with personal identity,
• v) the psychological principles underpinning the
  formation of attitudes and stereotypes,
• vi) the disciplinary structure of higher
  education (HE) in different countries and
  institutions,
• vii) more general economic and cultural aspects
  of academic environments, internal and external,
  in which learning takes place.

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• Intercultural communication
• content
• competence

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• Content
• Autonomous courses theoretical, not necessarily
  linked to languages
• Cases of courses with
• theory, practice, relationships between
  language-related aspects and language-independent
  aspects

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• Competence
• Knowledge of language(s) and of the context
• Skills to express oneself in language appropriate
  to rhe context concerned
• Attitudes to deploy these skills

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• Intercultural competence is based on awareness
  (for example of the difference between oneself
  and others)
• Identity /identification
• how to behave and how to interpret the behaviour
  of others ?

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2. Delivery

• an implicit element of most language courses
  delivered in different European HE environments
  or features as an autonomous subject in other
  disciplinary fields

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• as knowledge and a skill but also aims to promote
  an appropriate attitude / awareness as an
  integrated part of language learning
• TaLLICo (Tandem Language Learning for
  Intercultural Competence) Waterford Institute of
  Technology
• aims to promote meaningful intercultural dialogue
  to improve language and intercultural skills
  between Irish and visiting Erasmus students.

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• associated with translation (as in Spain)
• associated with intercultural knowledge
  dissemination (as in Århus).
• degrees combining business studies or
  organisational communication studies with foreign
  languages - University of Southern Denmark and
  Copenhagen Business School
• Linguaggi del turismo e comunicazione
  interculturale - University of Rome.

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• Most interesting cases are normally on
  specialised modern language degree courses which
  have a professional focus.

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3. Assessment / evaluation of students

• Distinction between knowledge, skills and
  attitudes
• Knowledge component can, strictly speaking, be
  assessed in traditional ways.
• Skills and attitudes need to be assessed in other
  ways such as role-play, observation,
  self-assessment or reflection on critical
  incidents. Yet such assessment practices are not
  widespread within European HE language
  programmes.
• Skills evaluated by project work - students have
  to apply their theoretical knowledge to
  particular communicative situations or conducting
  small-scale ethnographic or case study research
  (U.S. Denmark)

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• - writing logbooks (UK)
• Interculture Project http//www.lancs.ac.uk/users/
  interculture
• LOLIPOP portfolio www.lolipop-portfolio.eu.
• INCA Project http//www.incaproject.org/tools.htm
  .

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4. QA mechanisms

• In all the countries, there are national quality
  agencies but quality assessment in language
  teaching/learning does not appear to be one of
  their primary concerns.
• Quality in intercultural communication in higher
  education as well as school education should not
  be reduced to ascertaining reliable methods for
  assessments and direct evaluation, but by opening
  up opportunities to students as well as teachers
  to participate in relevant programmes.

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• Perhaps the increase in numbers participating in
  mobility could be a way of defining the quality
  of language courses which are offering
  intercultural communication as part of their
  curriculum

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• the role of the language teacher is to
  develop skills, attitudes and awareness of values
  just as much as to develop knowledge of a
  particular culture or country
• (Byram, Gripkova Starkey 2001)