introduction to virtual intercultural exchanges
TRANSCRIPT
Intercultural Communicative Competence &
the Role of Virtual Exchanges
Claudia Warth-SontheimerUniversity of Michigan
Overview
1. Virtual Exchanges & the Development of ICC
2. What is “Intercultural Communicative Competence” (ICC)?
Virtual Exchanges & the Development of ICC
* Aka: telecollaboration, web based collaboration, online networking, online exchanges, teletandem, online buddies, epals
Virtual Exchanges *
Didactic use of web and other communication tools for joint and collaborative learning
Constructivist approach learning by working and solving problems or tasks together
Different combinations possible (e.g. hybrid learning, web-enhanced, local and international); tandem or more
Using virtual exchanges to support intercultural (language) learning
Authentic …
Use of the foreign language
Between learners of different socio-cultural backgrounds
Controlled, save space...
What is “Intercultural Communicative Competence” (ICC)?
The 3 Core Components of ICC
Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC)
Intercultural competence
Cultural competence
Communicative competence
Understanding and interpreting cultural concepts and artifacts (own – other)
“… is the complex of abilities needed to perform effectively and appropriately when interacting with others who are linguistically and culturally different from oneself” (Fantini 2005)
In L1 and L2
“Inter”?
Communication?
Culture?
• Artifacts & products?
• Membership?• Attitudes, values,
practices & behaviors?
• Knowledge?• Organizational,
corporate?
• The contact situation?
• The (un)common ground?
• What is created from “culture contact”?
• Communication between “cultures”?• Between individuals?• Considerations re language aspects, FL
Fuzzy Concepts of Culture
away from text-book approach or “culture capsules”: “culture” not something monolithic, stable or tied to ‘nationality’
“people communicate, not cultures” (Scollon & Wong-Scollon)
individual is actively involved in constructing their identity person as “cultural programmer […] rather than just a ‘cultural’ member” (Lull 2001: 136)
shift towards the ‘inter-’: intercultural discourse & processes of meaning negotiation, co-construction of meaning, or ascribing and interpreting what a speaker believes to be ‘cultural’
A Model: the Intercultural Speaker
is someone who is able to see relationships between different cultures
is able to mediate, i.e. interpret and explain each culture in terms of the other
it is also someone who has a critical or analytical understanding of (parts of) their own and other cultures
is conscious of their own perspective, of the way in which their thinking is culturally determined, rather than believing that their understanding and perspective is natural
(based on Byram & Risager 1999, Sercu 2005, Kohn & Warth 2011)
Negotiating and co-constructing a 3rd space
Byram’s Model of ICC & the 4 Dimensions
Competence area Description
Attitudes curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and belief about one's own
Knowledgeof social groups and their products and practices in one's own and in one's interlocutor's country, and of the general processes of societal and individual interaction
Skills of interpreting and relating
ability to interpret a document or event from another culture, to explain it and relate it to documents from one's own
Skills of discovery and interaction
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
Critical cultural awareness / political
education
an ability to evaluate critically and on the basis of explicit criteria perspectives, practices and products in one's own and other cultures and countries
Learning Contents: One Approach
Languaculture & Rich points (Agar)
(1) “languaculture” = close interconnectedness of language and culture language use cannot be understood outside the cultural context in which it is used
(2) refers to the notion that the use of language differs with respect to its culture and various other subcultures
(3) “rich point” refers to a moment when a person is at a languacultural interface and encounters a difference in the ways of communicating from his or her cultural assumptions; rich points have rich, thick and heavy meaning
“hot spots” (Heringer) speech acts, conventions, rituals
also extends to: Cultural scripts (and with this, an exploration and explication of what a person believes to be a cultural pattern)
Agar, M. (1996). Language shock: Understanding the culture of conversation. Harper Paperbacks.
Belz, J. (2003). Linguistic perspectives on the development of intercultural competence in telecollaboration. Language Learning and Technology, 7(2), 68–117.
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessingiIntercultural communicative competence. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Fantini, A. E. (2005). About intercultural communicative competence: A construct. VT: Brattleboro. School for International Training. http://www.worldlearning.org/SITOccasionalPapers/feil_appendix_e.pdf
Heringer, H.J. (2004). Interkulturelle Kommunikation. Grundlagen und Konzepte. Tübingen & Basel: UTB.
INCA – Framework & Manuals (LdV project, 2004) http://www.incaproject.org/
Kohn, K. & Warth, C. (2011). Web collaboration for intercultural language learning. Münster: Monsenstein & Vannerdat.
Kramsch, C. (1998). The privilege of the intercultural speaker. In M. Byram & M. Fleming (Eds.), Language learning in an intercultural perspective (pp. 16–31). Cambridge: CUP.
Lázár, I., Huber-Kriegler, M., Lussier, D., Matei, G. S. & Peck, C. (Eds.) (2007). Developing and assessing intercultural communicative competence. A guide for language teachers and teacher educators. European Centre for Modern Languages. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.
O'Dowd, R. and Ware, P. (2009). Critical issues in telecollaborative task design. In: Computer Assisted Language Learning, 22:2,173-188.
O'Dowd, R. (2007). Online intercultural exchange: An introduction for foreign language teachers. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
References