Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group Newsletter 6 2016 | Page 4

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2016 Newsletter

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Introduction
by Anne Gilleran

Interculturality, Illustrated
by Daniela Bunea

European students and teachers, plus peers from
other countries, work within eTwinning with ever
greater enthusiasm and in ever bigger number year
after year. They do project work that extends
knowledge and capabilities, and become skilled at
being successful in a complex, interconnected
world.

According to authors J. M. Bennett and M. J.
Bennett in their "Developing Intercultural
Sensitivity. An integrative approach to global and
domestic diversity" (2004), INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE is defined as
being "the ability to communicate effectively in
cross-cultural situations". It means:
- building relationships while speaking another
language, not the native language;
- negotiating how to effectively communicate so
that the participants' individual needs are
addressed;
- mediating conversations between people of
diverse cultural backgrounds;
- continuing to acquire communicative skills in
foreign languages.

The texts in this newsletter – recipes for success,
emotional testimonies, glimpses at the future,
stories of challenges, pieces of feedback – are some
of these teachers’ reflections and feelings during
this undertaking. Enjoy, thank you and good luck!

Anne Gilleran has always worked in the field of
education, firstly as a lecturer on a training course
for guidance counsellors, then as guidance
counsellor in a school. Then she became a School
Principal in a post primary school in Dublin, before
she moved to work in European Schoolnet. She has
worked in eTwinning since the beginning in 2005
and she is the Pedagogical Manager, responsible for
coordinating the pedagogical and professional
development aspects of the community.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the 21st century, people must have skills to work
collaboratively with other people from a variety of
linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In other words,
they must have a high degree of
INTERCULTURALITY - the ability to actively
participate in communication guided by an
awareness and understanding of cultures. As R.
Couet, G. Fulkerson and J. Bott Van Houten in their
Language Educator article "How interculturality is
changing our view of culture" (2014) put
it, "demonstrating interculturality requires both the
ability to use the language and to interact
appropriately in cultural contexts".
One way for learners to reflect on their
interculturality is by using the European Language
Portfolio that incorporates Michael Byram's theories
of interculturality; in his 1997 book "Teaching and
Assessing Intercultural Communicative
Competence", he described intercultural

4