TEACHING INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE
BY : MARWA MANSOUR
Abstract
Students ' cultural awareness and intercultural competence ( IC ) in foreign language ( FL ) classes have been extensively studied . The relevance of the FL instructor in assisting students ' IC development has received less attention . There has been an increasing interest in the cultural dimension of foreign language instruction in recent years , and teachers are now required to encourage their students to develop intercultural competency . As a result , the purpose of this lecture is to illuminate graduate student instructors ' and experienced teachers ' perspectives on IC and its integration into FL courses and classes and how to represent this in their classroom applications . The findings show that language instructors are aware of the importance of culture in foreign language education . Still , they do not frequently include culture in their instruction to create intercultural competency in their students . As a result , we ' d like to address the challenges that these teachers have while trying to grasp and teach IC . This has consequences for teacher development and improvement .
Keywords : Intercultural competence , cultural awareness
Introduction
As a result of globalisation , good communication has become a critical talent . People need not just appropriate language abilities to communicate effectively but also intercultural competence to achieve mutual understanding across cultural boundaries . As a result , English teachers are required to supply and promote students ' acquisition of English skills and intercultural competency . It is important to find out what EFL teachers think about intercultural competency in English teaching . The process of becoming more aware of and better understanding one ' s own culture and
other cultures worldwide . Intercultural learning aims to increase international and cross-cultural tolerance and understanding . This can take lots of forms - intercultural learning is by no means only a part of EFL , it also has exponents in all fields of education .
Intercultural awareness is considered a ' fifth skill ' - the ability to be aware of cultural relativity following reading , writing , listening , and speaking . As Claire Kramsch points out , " If language is seen as social practice , culture becomes the core of language teaching . Cultural awareness must then be viewed as enabling language proficiency . Culture in language teaching is not an expendable fifth skill , tacked on , so to speak , to the teaching of speaking , listening , reading and writing " ( in Context and Culture in Language Teaching OUP , 1993 ).
Intercultural Competence Awareness
Language itself is defined by a culture . We cannot be competent in the language if we do not also understand the culture that has shaped and informed it . We cannot learn a second language if we do not have an awareness of that culture and how that culture relates to our own first language / first culture . It is not only , therefore , essential to have cultural awareness but also intercultural awareness .
Intercultural communicative competence awareness is not a skill but a collection of skills and attitudes better thought of as competence . Intercultural communicative competence is an attempt to raise students ' awareness of their own culture and , in so doing , help them to interpret and understand other cultures . It is not just a body of knowledge but also a set of practices requiring knowledge , skills , and attitudes .
The attitudes and skills that make up the competence are ; observing , identifying , recognising , comparing and contrasting , negotiating , dealing with or tolerating , effectively interpreting messages , limiting the possibility of misinterpretation , and defending one ' s own point of view while acknowledging the validity of others , accepting differences .
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