With the support of the EU Lifelong Learning ProgrammeGrant 142672-LLP-1-2008-1-DE-COMENIUS-CMP

“English for intercultural purposes”: communication strategies in a multilateral

web collaboration via ELF

Claudia WarthUniversity of Tübingen claudia.warth@uni-tuebingen.de

www.ael.uni-tuebingen.dewww.iceurope-project.eu

ELF3 - Third International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca

22.-25. May 2010

Vienna, Austria

(1) The icEurope project

(2) Conceptualizing ELF as ‘English for intercultural purposes’

(3) Students’ language means and strategies

(4) Outlook

Overview

How do students use their English

to negotiate meaning

in intercultural web collaboration?

icEurope - research approach and questions

CALL pedagogy & activity design

Intercultural communication from linguistic-communicative perspective language used & needed by “intercultural speaker”?

About icEurope: the project

4 English classes (10/11th grades, ~ 80 students, ~16 ys.) from 4 countries (BG, HU, IT, TR)

Pedagogic aims: raising awareness of dynamic relationships between language and culture linking intercultural and language knowledge enabling learners to use own lingua franca (English) to express or negotiate cultural concepts in authentic contact situations to raise awareness on both levels

Pedagogic aims: raising awareness of dynamic relationships between language and culture linking intercultural and language knowledge enabling learners to use own lingua franca (English) to express or negotiate cultural concepts in authentic contact situations to raise awareness on both levels

Forum discussions

English as Lingua Franca (ELF)

Excursus: Intercultural communicative awareness

Signaling intercultural communicative awareness – a working hypothesis:

Noticing, identifying and recording differences or similarities

Comparing and contrasting own and other culture(s)

Discovering and increasing knowledge (cultural and linguistic)

Limiting the possibility of misinterpretation

Negotiating meaning and dealing with ambiguities on cultural and linguistic knowledge levels: e.g. signaling problems of understanding, asking for clarification, checking comprehension, linguistic simplification, recontextualizing, rephrasing, meta communication …

Trying to interpret messages in relation to own-other culture(s)

Trying to take on others’ points of view or perspectives

 

Conceptualizing ELF as ‘English for intercultural purposes’ / icEnglish (?)

Connecting ELF & ICC research perspectives

Use of English as it is “exploited in different ways for different

purposes” (Widdowson 2003, 59)

Intercultural communication via English as lingua franca (cf. Knapp

cited in Kotthoff & Spencer-Oatey, 2007)

Interactants’ “Non-ENL”-culture-in-language? (cf. Bredella, 1999;

Pölzl 2003)

Higher level of linguistic and cultural uncertainty re expression (cf. Bredella, 1999; Kohn 2007)

Expressing and negotiating ‘the intercultural’ and signaling

intercultural communicative awareness

Preliminary findings: Use of English in intercultural web collaboration

Intercultural Communication Strategies (based on icEurope web collaboration data samples)

1.Imitation or adaptation (‘copying’ and ‘repeating’ language features)

2.Avoidance (of topic)

3.Stating thoughts directly or bluntly

4.Differentiating & comparing concepts

5.Mitigating

6.Asking for clarification

7.Asking for help (re technical problems, cultural understanding)

8.Reflecting on how to express s.th. / making suggestions for communicative mov

es

9.Humor

10.Code-switching (and thereby introducing cultural facts)

‘traditional English breakfastby Mustafa E.- Wednesday, 3 March 2010, 08:05 AM

it is very diffrent i think. In Turkey we don't eat meal in breakfast.i watched that video i can't eat them  we eat olives, cheese cucumber,tomatoes, like that

Examples from icEurope web collaboration

2. Avoidance (of topic)

Re: Drinksby Tuba C. - Wednesday, 10 March 2010, 02:59 PM

 My family doesn't drink alcoholic-drinks.Because alcoholich drinks aren't healty for people.In addition,when one person drinks alcoholich drinks,the person can't control himself.

requires

additional

cultural

knowledge on

recipient’s side

4. Differentiating & comparing concepts

About the traditional English breakfastby Kiril K. - Wednesday, 17 March 2010, 06:54 AM 

Well, in my opinion the full English breakfast is quite big. I am not sure how English people can eat so much in the morning. I suppose that they don't eat this breafast every morning(especially when they have to get up early) as it is pretty time-consuming to make.

However, it looks very delicious. I haven't tried a full English breakfast yet.Breakfast in Bulgaria might […]

Re: 3.) What would you suggest to your intercultural team mates as a fantastic dish, pastry etc. that is typical in your culture?

by Rocco C. - Saturday, 27 February 2010, 06:41 PM

Culture in Italy is a quite different from place to place, and expecially from northern Italy to southern Italy.

In my country, for example, there is a long tradition about food that I'm always glad to hear from my grandmother. So, when my extended family is together (expecially at Christmas or at days like this), we use to eat a lot of tasty things (according to us obviously! )

For example, in my culture, during special events, is not unusual to eat spaghetti with clams and seafood as main course, and fried fish (expecially prawns and cuttle fish) as second course.They are important for my culture because Neaples is important expecially for its sea!

Let me show you some pictures. […]

5. Mitigating

Re: Intnat'l team #1: Music guesses - song Bulgariaby Merve S. - Tuesday, 20 April 2010, 06:09 PM

Sorry,I don't want to be too offensive,but I don't like it because it is very slow and the women doesn't say very good

(Edited by [own teacher’s name]- original submission Tuesday, 20 April 2010, 08:17 AM)

Re: Intnat'l team #1: Music guesses - song Bulgariaby Zsofia P. - Thursday, 22 April 2010, 07:19 PM

[…]

Um...don't get me wrong, but it seems a bit stilted and silly for me. Well, it's possible that it has to be. […]

8. Reflecting on how to express s.th. / making suggestions for communicative moves

Re: What should you when you don't like the served food?by Nicola C. - Tuesday, 16 March 2010, 07:38 PM

 I think this is a very embarrassing situation, especially when you're a guest in another family.

Of course you can't say anything like "I don't like that".

Unfortunately you have to taste the food or you may say "even if I don't like the foreign dishes ,that is very good".

[…]

Outlook

Linguistic-descriptive analysis and cultural interpretation

Linguistic and cultural analyses by teacher/researcher teams

Further introspective investigations (students, teachers)

Pedagogic analysis (leading to icEurope guide on designing and

teaching intercultural web collaboration)

References

Bredella, L. et al (Ed.) (1999). Giessener Beiträge zur Fremdsprachendidaktik. Wie ist Fremdverstehen lehr- und lernbar? Vorträge aus dem Graduiertenkolleg "Didaktik des Fremdverstehens". Tübingen: Gunter Narr.

Kohn, K. (2007). Englisch als globale Lingua Franca. Eine Herausforderung für die Schule. In: Anstatt, T. (Ed.) (2007). Mehrsprachigkeit bei Kindern und Erwachsenen. Tübingen: Narr, 207-222.

Kotthoff, H., & Spencer-Oatey, H. (Eds.) (2007). Series Handbooks on Applied Linguistics. Handbook of Intercultural Communication. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Kramsch, C. (1998). The privilege of the intercultural speaker. In M. Byram & M. Fleming (Eds.), Language learning in an inter-cultural 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.

Pölzl, U. (2003). Signalling cultural identity: the use of L1/Ln in ELF. Views, 12(2), 3–23. Retrieved January 29, 2009, from www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/views/03_2/POEL_SGL.pdf.

Project info & demowww.iceurope-project.eu

Seidlhofer, B. (2002). The shape of things to come? Some basic questions about English as a lingua franca. In K. Knapp & C. Meierkord (Eds.), Lingua Franca Communication (pp. 269–302). Frankfurt/M., Berlin, New York, Wien u.a.: Peter Lang.

Warth, C., Kohn. K., et al (2009). Grassroots & context analysis: Intercultural competence, foreign language learning, assessment and e-learning for intercultural web collaboration projects. Research report within the Comenius project icEurope. Tübingen: Universität Tübingen.

Warth, C. (2009). Interkulturelles Englischlernen mit Moodle - E-Learning Aktivitäten in einer deutsch-amerikanischen Web-Kollaboration. In: Zeitschrift für e-learning. / Special ed.: E-Learning in der Schule. 3/2009. Innsbruck: Studienverlag.

Widdowson, H. G. (2003). Defining issues in English language teaching. Oxford: OUP.

Yassine, S. (2006). Culture issues in FL teaching. Towards the fostering of intercultural awareness. In: Annales du patrimoine / Annals of Legacy. No. 05 / 2006 University of Tizi-Ouzou: Mostaganem.

Project info & demowww.iceurope-project.eu

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This presentation reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Thank you for your attention and feedback!

A glimpse at the icEurope Moodle

Language and culture notes (for learners)

Teacher‘s notes (didactic and technical tips for teachers)

“Language & Culture Notes“ - example