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