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MCMC Meeting Lagos26 May 2012

Intercultural Understanding and Languages teaching

Vicky Grammatikopoulou Goldsmiths University of Londonv.grammatikopoulou@gold.ac.uk

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“Many opportunities for education and sustainable human development are being undermined by the lack of tolerance and intercultural understanding, upon which peace is founded. ”

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“In the knowledge society of the 21st Century language competence and intercultural understanding are not optional extras, they are an essential part of being a citizen.” – Languages for All: Languages for Life (2002)

IU in the UK – Key Stage 2 (ages 7-11) Framework for

Languages & Citizenship curriculum– Key Stage 3 (ages 11-14)- National

Curriculum – Languages and Citizenship

– Key Stage 4 (ages 14 – 16) – GCSE syllabus and Citizenship curriculum

– Key Stage 5 (ages 16-18) – A level syllabus

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Key findings– Cultural awareness is more common than

intercultural understanding or competence– There is little evidence of progression– The ‘inter’ cultural component is not clear– The Citizenship curriculum offers ideas for

content for the languages curriculum– There are more opportunities for Intercultural

Understanding that are not obviously included in the Languages curriculum

– In Languages classrooms there is a predominance of linguistic objectives and superficial inclusion of cultural themes.

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Why is there a focus on culture?

– Change in the focus of language learning: from linguistic to communicative to intercultural competence

– Communicative competence (Canale, 1983):– grammatical competence (knowledge of morphology,

syntax, semantics, lexis and phonology)– discourse competence (knowledge of the rules

governing the structure of texts)– sociolinguistic competence (knowledge of the

sociocultural rules of language and styles governing speech; e.g. knowing when to say ‘tu’ or ‘vous’)

– strategic component (knowledge of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to manage social interactions in the target language and culture).

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What is ‘culture’?Jenks (1993) provides four different definitions of ‘culture’.– A culture can be synonymous with a particular country, region,

religion, civilisation or nationality or can correspond to several of these. In that sense, it is an ‘embodied and collective category’ and invokes a state of intellectual or moral development. An example is the early Mayan civilization.

– Culture can be understood as a person’s cognitive state of mind (e.g. ‘the cultured person’).

– Culture can be interpreted as a descriptive category relating to the collection of arts and intellectual work (e.g. literature) within any one society.

– Culture, understood as a ‘social category’, describes the way of life and a set of social practices shared by the members of a group. These members shape and are shaped by particular habits, attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviours.

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What is ‘culture’?

– Culture: civilisation, collection of Art (Jenk’s first three definitions)

– culture: ways of life, traditions (Jenk’s fourth definition).

Traditions have been created recently but give the illusion of longstanding traditions which have bound people or a group together.

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Inter – between…who?

culturalCulture or culture … whose?

Understandingnot ‘awareness’ or ‘knowledge’…

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Iceberg theory of cultureAbove: visible, taught, obvious,

recognised

Below: assumed, not conscious, not explicitly taught

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Intercultural competence (Byram)– savoir être – attitudes: abandoning ethnocentric

attitudes towards other cultures; being interested in the target language and culture; developing curiosity and openness.

– savoir – knowledge: being familiar with different cultural products, practices and processes

– savoir comprendre – skills: observing, enquiring, analysing and interpreting. These skills are required to understand events (or documents).

– savoir apprendre/ faire – skills of discovery and interaction: ability to draw on the other three ‘savoirs’ and to use them in authentic interactions with people of other languages and cultures.

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Intercultural competence (Byram) Byram & Doyé (1999): developing ‘savoir être’

‘savoir’ and ‘savoir faire’ requires pupils – to distance themselves from their own culture– to reflect on it– to share their interpretations with people of

other cultures– to define appropriate means of acting.

Intercultural competence is constructed in interactions with people of other communities and through reflection on experienced similarities and differences.

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Intercultural

– Raise consciousness– Develop knowledge– Understand self– Understand others– Show empathy /

understanding

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Culture or culture– Culture = visible, high valuee.g. art, literature, architecture

– culture = invisible, day to day life, routines, habits

The importance of citizenship education

Citizenship education helps to equip young people to deal withsituations of conflict and controversy knowledgeably and tolerantly. It helps to equip them to understand the consequences of their actions, and those of the adults around them. Pupils learn how to recognize bias, evaluate argument, weigh evidence, look for alternative interpretations, viewpoints and sources of evidence; above all to give good reasons for the things they say and do, andto expect good reasons to be given by others.

Ted Huddleston, Citizenship Foundation

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Community CohesionSince 2007 all schools have a legal duty to

promote community cohesion, by:

– Teaching children to value diversity whilst promoting shared values

– Working to eliminate variations in educational outcomes

– Enabling children to interact with people from different backgrounds

www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/Communitycohesion

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How we address intercultural understanding in our Initial Teacher Education Programmes

at Goldsmiths:

•Primary•Secondary•Continuous Teacher Education

Languages For all “Every child should have the opportunity, throughout Key Stage 2, to study a foreign language and develop their interest in the culture of other nations. They should have access to high quality teaching and learning opportunities, making use of native speakers and e-learning. By age 11 they should have the opportunity to reach a recognised level of competence on the Common European Framework and for that achievement to be recognised through a national scheme.”

( DfES , 2002) National Languages Strategy

Initial Teacher Education: Developing Intercultural understanding through languages teaching- some examples

For Primary Teachers

– Diversity conference– Languages for All – Language Specialism – Exchange programme with Spain, Germany

and France– Cross-curricular week- Local Area/Trip abroad – Cross-curricular Week- Carnival

Bilateral exchange Programme

On placements abroad

Creating links between schools and classes

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Knows the lyrics to a song in another language

Speaks another language at home

Has relatives in a another country

Ça va?

I know someone who ...

Can introduce themselves in

another languageCan count to 10 in another language

Has had a good / bad experience learning a language

Can greet me inanother language

Can give two reasons for learning/ not learning a language

Some areas covered– Learning a new Language (Greek, Danish,

Luxembourgish, Korean etc)– Exploring the potential of links between language

teaching and other areas of the curriculum,– Global citizenship– Language and culture/intercultural

understanding– Exploiting the potential and richness in the

classroom and bringing in children’s backgrounds

Idea from Raymonde Sneddon

Languages I use with different people

Community CohesionSince 2007 all schools now also have a legal

duty to promote community cohesion, by:

– Teaching children to value diversity whilst promoting shared values

– Working to eliminate variations in educational outcomes

– Enabling children to interact with people from different backgrounds

www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/Communitycohesion

Cross-curricular week: Carnival

carnival petalozzi.ppt

Cross-curricular week: Local area

Trip to Saint Omer

trip tourist office

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A range of outcomes

1- For them as student teachers = to experience a day trip first hand

2- For them as as teachers = to see what kind of activities will benefit pupils

3- To work ‘cross-phase’ = primary and secondary students collaborate

IU in teacher education - Secondary– Promoting cultural awareness –

big C and small c– Global citizenship– Content and Language

Integrated Learning– Links with other countries

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Cultural diversity– What names and images are

you using? Are you showing the diversity in the target language communities?

– Are you making references to the wider French/Spanish/ German speaking world?

– Are you making links with pupils’ backgrounds?

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Developing intercultural understanding

Teachers can develop children’s intercultural understanding at different levels:

– Discovering linguistic and cultural diversity – Discovering cultural artefacts– Learning about routines and daily life– Learning about traditions

– Rhymes, poems and songs– Tales, fables and stories

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Stereotyping…

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Stereotyping…

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Representing themselves– Own identity – family,

pastimes, favourite food, music, TV programmes = collage

– What would they use to illustrate this for a pen pal abroad? Just with images…

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Avoiding stereotypes– Personalise- case studies,

own experiences, give context

– Regionalise- focus on the area rather than the country

Global citizenship

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Content and Language Integrated Learning– Focus on Art and Languages– Work with Partnership school– Links with partner schools

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SoW: NCL4MFL/NCL5/6 A&D•Explore Frida Kalho/ more risk taking techniques/ explore self and personality/ include banner with a longer description of self, using adjectives and opinion sentences.

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CLIL and partner schools: Coombe Girls School•Pupils in UK drew self portraits and wrote in Spanish what they liked •Portraits sent to Spain and Spanish pupils illustrated the portraits according to the text – using their own artefacts•Portraits sent back to UK•+ same with Spanish pupils