Towards proteophilic competence? Intercultural learning and language education in Latvia

The new paradigm of language education envisages that teachers become intercultural mediators. However, there is no agreement about implementing the new paradigm in school practice and language teacher education. The author believes that the intercultural dimension of language education is strongly linked to integrating intercultural learning in language education. It implies cooperation with teachers from other subject areas and attitude change. The author recently designed a new course to prepare language teachers for understanding the processes involved in intercultural learning. The present article presents a case study carried out while piloting the course ‘Integrating intercultural learning in language education’ at the University of Latvia, Faculty of Modern Languages. The student teachers commented that pupils’ intercultural competence cannot be fostered by teachers alone, without the support of parents and broader Latvian society. The author recommends introducing a special course on intercultural learning in the compulsory part of all higher education programs.     

Critically engaging with cultural representations in foreign language textbooks

There is currently strong recognition within the field of intercultural language teaching of the need for language learners to develop the ability to actively interpret and critically reflect on cultural meanings and representations from a variety of perspectives. This article argues that cultural representations contained in language textbooks, though often problematic, can be used as a useful resource for helping learners develop their capacities for interpretation and critical reflection. The paper draws on data collected in an English language classroom in Japan to highlight some of the ways that language learners construct critical accounts of cultural content in a language textbook, highlighting not only the content of their accounts but also the discursive strategies they use to construct them. It therefore illustrates the potential for working with imperfect materials to develop intercultural competencies.     

Learning to teach culturally and linguistically diverse students through cross-cultural experiences

Teacher participation in cross-cultural experiences is often associated with the broadening of perspectives and increased intercultural sensitivity. While these qualities provide an overarching and important framework for intercultural development, they remain highly abstract. What exactly do we mean when we refer to these qualities? And in what ways, if any, do they translate into the classroom or school setting? Drawing on interviews from thirty Anglophone educators working in overseas international schools, this article focuses on links between broad-based changes in perspective and concrete changes in professional practice. Findings highlight an important relationship between personal and professional transformation, with the most noteworthy instructional changes emerging in the areas of language, communication style and religious/gender considerations. Most importantly, data from the study illustrate that the prolonged cross-cultural experience was not limited to changes in general disposition but had direct implications on the professional practice of participating educators.     

Intercultural knowledge,awareness and skills observed in a foreign language classroom

This article reports on findings from a research study conducted in a university-level Japanese course, which utilised intercultural learning approaches, methodologies and techniques. The purpose of the investigation was to assess student intercultural development as conceptualised in Deardorff's Process Model of Intercultural Competence.) The findings suggest that when an appropriate learning environment is provided, component elements of intercultural competence will develop. Emergent conclusions also highlight the importance of external engagement, reflection, scaffolding and training in foreign language classrooms.     

Developing intercultural competence and global citizenship through international experiences: academics’ perceptions

International education is a key priority for Australian universities, government and employer groups. For students, an international professional experience is uniquely placed in providing opportunities for developing intercultural learning, intercultural competence and global citizenship. Employers see graduates with international experiences as interculturally competent, viewing them as proficient in analysing and responding appropriately to culturally significant values and perceptions. This research seeks to understand how students are prepared for international experiences and how intercultural learning is integrated into course programmes. Academic staff responsible for international experiences were interviewed in one-on-one qualitative interviews about their practices and perceptions of preparing students for these experiences. Although all international programmes were procedurally well planned, we found that most participants did not include intercultural pedagogies into their programmes, nor did they purposefully seek to develop intercultural competence and global citizenship in their students. Professional development opportunities need to be created for academics to rethink their pedagogical intent regarding international experiences. Immersion in culture is not, on its own, an assurance of intercultural learning. Providing international experiences without a pedagogical framework that helps students to reflect on self and others can be a wasted opportunity and runs the risk of reinforcing stereotypical thinking and racist attitudes.     

Facilitating intercultural education in majority student groups in higher education

ABSTRACT

The present article critically analyses the pedagogical efforts of two teachers to promote values education and intercultural reflection in their own educational practice. They teach in higher education in Norway and most of their students have majority backgrounds. Based on their teaching experiences with VaKE (Values and Knowledge education), the article discusses opportunities and challenges when working with values education in majority student groups. It concludes that discussing values is difficult but can be eye opening. It also raises the question of which dilemmas can prevent stereotyping and foster more complex intercultural thinking and shows that intercultural education requires a discussion of one’s own cultural position. The article highlights the teacher’s crucial role in the VaKE-process regarding the aims of intercultural values education.     

Assessment of study abroad outcomes in Chinese as a second language: gains in cross-cultural adaptability,language contact and proficiency

Participants were 109 American college students studying Chinese in a study-abroad programme in Beijing. Following Kelley and Meyer, intercultural competence was defined as cross-cultural adaptability involving four dimensions (emotional resilience, flexibility/openness, perceptual acuity and personal autonomy) and was measured with a survey. A language contact questionnaire was used to document the amount of time spent on social activities. Language proficiency was measured with a standardised Chinese test. Results revealed that intercultural competence and language contact combined explained 37.7% of the proficiency gains. Language contact had direct effects on proficiency, but intercultural competence had indirect effects, mediated by language contact.     

Outcomes of an interdisciplinary study abroad course: learning Spanish and multicultural education concurrently

This study reports the outcomes of undergraduate students completing a pilot Interdisciplinary Intensive Course Abroad (IICA) with a service learning component. The IICA model is comprised of a three-part sequence of study that includes a seven-week course on campus, followed by three weeks of study abroad, and a summative seven-week course back on campus. The additional summative component gives students the opportunity to bring together their newly acquired knowledge and skills, and to reflect on how to integrate these experiences in their future. The sequence integrates discipline-specific content studies with foreign language classes, and grounds them with a study abroad experience. A mixed-method design was used to measure students’ development of language skills, understanding of multicultural education concepts, and intercultural skills. Primary data sources were pre/post-assessments, student field notes and reflections, and a post-course survey. Results indicated that students gained confidence in their Spanish skills and were likely to enroll in further Spanish courses, their ability to define multicultural education concepts increased, and service learning, homestays abroad, and their time in an indigenous reservation contributed to development of intercultural skills.     

Deliberations on the development of an intercultural competence curriculum

Committed to developing an institution-wide intercultural competence curriculum for master’s-level students preparing for international careers, a team of nine professors from across disciplines deliberated for a year on their fundamental understandings of intercultural competence and what it would mean to facilitate the development of that competence in students. This article recounts the team’s philosophical debates related to intercultural competence: definitions, effective methods of teaching, intersectionality of identities, Western bias in the literature, power and inequity, and the role of language learning. The deliberations became the foundation for an institution-wide curriculum, focused on helping graduates to be not only effective workers and managers in multicultural settings, but also to be leaders in social change. This article shares the conversations and considerations of the planning process and the breadth and emphasis of the curriculum that emerged. Reflections on students’ learning and recommendations for curriculum developers are offered.     

The white native speaker and inequality regimes in the private English language school

Private English language schools market the language as a tool that helps one connect with others from different cultures. Despite their promotion of English aiding in intercultural communication, these institutions may believe that only the white native speaker is the ideal teacher of the language. This valuing of the white native speaker can consequently act as an organisational inequality regime that marginalises nonwhite teachers. Using qualitative interviews with 10 nonwhite instructors working in schools in Toronto, Canada, this article investigates the ways in which these teachers experience the inequality regime of the white native speaker at work. The findings indicate that the teachers experience this inequality regime as a series of microaggressions that involve space, competence and customer desire. The article concludes with suggestions to dismantle inequality regimes in private institutions.     

Dealing with death in an educational context

While empirical investigations and the development of theories for studying intercultural communication are important for developing our understanding of what happens when people of diverse backgrounds come together, equally important are records of specific instances of contact as these provide opportunities to reflect on what we know; to validate or question theories; to critically consider the decisions made by those involved as well as the kinds of decisions we might have taken had we been in that specific situation. This essay represents this latter type of contribution to the field of intercultural communication and intercultural education by presenting a snapshot of some personal experiences I had while living in Japan over a period of 18 years. The focal point of this essay relates to the tragic death of a student – an event that was pivotal in my own acculturation process. It then introduces some other experiences before relating these to some general issues concerning intercultural awareness and intercultural educational practice.     

Intercultural language educators for an intercultural world: action upon reflection

Abstract

Bearing in mind that learning a new language is much more than acquiring a new code, but a new way of being in the world, the aim of the article is to briefly raise and discuss relevant issues relating to language teacher education in these contemporary times, especially in the area of English Language Teaching (ELT). Emphasis is placed on the importance of teacher education responding to the new demands of this globalised world, proposing among several aspects, new political and pedagogical postures which are to lead into preparing students to become more critical of their own realities and more sensitive to the intercultural encounters they are supposed to engage with this highly complex and ever increasingly intercultural world.     

Intercultural Education in Initial and Field Training

In Italy teachers for nursery and primary schools are trained in many ways. Although in this complex system numerous initiatives regarding the implementation of intercultural education have been taken by the Ministry of Education, practice is still inconsistent and a great deal is left to the initiative of individual teachers, principals and schools. The Teachers Centre of Democratic Initiative (CIDI) realised two projects in the field of language education. The basic idea was to ascertain to what extent the language used in school may pose an obstacle for children whose mother tongue is not the school language. The follow‐up was a field training course on intercultural issues. The objectives were to identify didactic instruments and procedures designed to transform the way in which a foreign child would be viewed from being a “problem” to being appreciated and valued. The paper closes with a list of elements that may be viewed as cornerstones of training activity in an intercultural framework.     

Interkulturelle Kompetenz und gruppendynamisches Training

This paper analyses how far group dynamic trainings can be used to develop intercultural competence. For that purpose the concepts of intercultural competence will be discussed and the importance of intercultural issues will be shown with an historical recourse on the outset of group dynamic. It will be examined, based on situations in three group dynamic trainings, how far the models of group dynamic can be transferred to processes in multicultural groups. The experiences made in these trainings indicate that group dynamic trainings do contribute to the development of a complex understanding of intercultural competence.     

The foreign language and intercultural competence teacher: the acquisition of a new professional identity

It has now become commonplace to state that foreign language learning should be viewed in an intercultural perspective. The main objective of foreign language education is no longer defined strictly in terms of the acquisition of communicative competence. Teachers are now required to teach intercultural communicative competence. The aim of the study reported on here was to investigate to what extent and in what way teachers' current professional profiles meet the specifications formulated in the theoretical literature regarding the ‘foreign language and intercultural competence teacher’. To answer this question, an international research design was developed, involving teachers from Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Mexico, Poland, Spain and Sweden. Our findings suggest that teachers' current foreign language‐and‐culture teaching profiles do not yet meet those of the envisaged ‘foreign language and intercultural competence teacher’, and that patterns in teacher thinking and teaching practice appear to exist within and across the participating countries.     

Intercultural education and practice in Greece: Needs for bilingual intercultural programmes

During the last ten years, intercultural education has gradually emerged in Greece as a new type of education. This paper focuses on several aspects of the implementation of intercultural education in the Greek context. Specifically, it highlights and addresses the following issues: (1) the multicultural situation in Greece and the discourse on intercultural education; (2) Law 2413/96, entitled Greek Education Abroad, Intercultural Education and Other Provisions, as well as the official regulations relating to the establishment and functioning of reception and tutorial classes; (3) the difficulties and obstacles present in the current educational system, as well as teachers' and pupils' needs; (4) the language policies associated with the Greek educational system, as compared with the language policies of England and Australia. Finally, it reflects on matters of social justice and equality of opportunities for the new student population of Greece.