'Knowing me, knowing you'

Exploring Aspects of Intercultural

Communicative Competence (ICCC) Carole MacDiarmid, University Of Glasgow

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Overview

•Defining terms: what is ICCC?

•Its place in language learning

•Focus on developing observation skills

–Participant observer & Informer (that’s you!)

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But first of all…

What was the problem?

•I ask for bread at end of day, shopkeeper raises his eyebrows , I’m confused…(In Turkey)

•Last week a new student said “hi, how is your family?”

•An e-mail from a student: “Dear respected  teacher, I am so sorry to disturb you ,but i can not find the second article..”

•You take red & white flowers to a guest’s house

•A teacher discusses education and women's rights, some students say very little..

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Unfamiliarity can cause…

ConfusionMisunderstandingsPossibly break downs in communication if serious

•The importance of considering attitudes, behaviour, beliefs, values

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Learning a language…

(an anecdote)

(Carole, Gary, motorbike, rain, fall…)

Communicative competence•the language

•discourse competence

•sociolinguistic competency

•strategic competence

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Intercultural Communicative Competence

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Intercultural Communicative Competence

•ICCC refers to the ability to understand cultures, including your own, and use this understanding to communicate with people from other cultures successfully. (British Council: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/knowledge-wiki/intercultural-communicative-competence accessed 01/10/09)

•Intercultural communication competence is the ability to encode and decode meanings in matches that correspond to the meanings held in the other communicator's repository. (Beamer, L. 1992. Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 29, No. 3, 285-303)

Understand, observe, reflect …& communicate         

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What it isn’t:

•Having to about learning another ‘dominant’ culture

•All the ‘ins and outs’ of language & context ‘We did see Noah sailing down the street in his Ark at one

point but, hey, we can't all be lucky and have 1 in a 100 year floods when we go on holiday’ (shared religious reference)

‘No more tour buses wiv Essex Man and Woman for us (or should that be Jummy an' Merry fae Larkha'?).  You wot, mite? ’ (shared popular culture & accent reference)

•Having to learn about lots of different cultures

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Why bother?

Who do people speak to?

(some of my students)

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Why bother?

Who do people speak to?

– Native English Speaker (NS) + Native English speaker (NS)

– NS+ to Non Native English Speakers (NNS)

– NNS + NNS

• Understanding your own cultural identity, behaviours, beliefs , practices, can help you understand others

(HSBC advert:

‘HSBC understands that people value things differently’)

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ICCC….

…a desirable outcome of learning… a learner with the ability to see and manage the relationships between themselves and their own cultural beliefs, behaviours and meanings… (Byram, M. 1997. Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Multilingual matters ).

..part of it is knowing yourself & your own cultural.. becoming a cultural observer…( Corbett. J. 2003. An intercultural approach to English language teaching .Multilingual matters).

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Focus on developing observation skills

How do people greet each other?

How do people greet each other in Taiwan?

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Task: Greeting people in Taiwan(behaviours)

When you see …

• An acquaintance from class

• Your parents

• Your grandparents

• Friends of your parents (that you don’t really know)

• A visitor from another country  

…..how do you greet them?(e.g. smile, kiss, shake hands, bow, ‘high five’???)

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Task: Family…

(values)

Who is important in your life?

• Your immediate family

• Your extended family..

 

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Task: The family (ask and answer)

In your country:

• Who is the most important person in your family?

• Who lives with who?

Do you live with your parents?

When do young people leave home?

Where do grandparents live? …)

• How often do you see your immediate family?

• And your extended family?

Why do you think that is?

How does it affect what you do/your lifestyle?

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Task: Festivals (customs & traditions)

Think of an important festival in your country and discuss the following questions:

• What does it celebrate?

• When is it?

• How do people celebrate it (what do people do (& do you

know why?))?

• What do you think of this festival? (do you like it, why/not?)

  

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Compare to a festival in Britain

• What does it celebrate

• When is it?

• How do people celebrate it (what do people do (& do you

know why?))?

You can find out more about festivals in Britain at:

http://elt.britcoun.org.pl/elt/

(from the list on the left hand side- previous issues, go to Festivals in Britain then select:The Changing face of British festivals)

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An English man in New York (Sting)

 

 An Englishman in New York

I dont take coffee I take tea my dearI like my toast done on one sideAnd you can hear it in my accent when I talkIm an englishman in new york

See me walking down fifth avenueA walking cane here at my sideI take it everywhere I walkIm an englishman in new york

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