L. 4-5: Intercultural Competence

 You have organised an exchange with a school in another country. During their visit, the students attend each other's school and stay at each other's homes.

1- Describe the general terms of the arrengement, i.e.: country, age and academic level of students, length of the stay, who is visiting who this time, and any other detail you may consider relevant.

2- How would you prepare your students prior to the visit, bearing in mind the above set of conditions.

Trip to Brighton (UK)

Age: 15/ 16 years old

Level: 4th ESO, A2

Group: It will be a group of 20 students, and two teachers (each teacher will be in charge of ten students)

Cities: We will be staying in Brighton, since it is not the big city, and the students will be able to move around on their own. We want them to be autonomous, yet a big city, such as London, may be too big and crowded for our teenagers, who are underage.  However, Brighton is a town full of young people like them, since almost half the population is formed by students. This way, they will be able to meet their English partners, who are the same age, and thus it will be easier to establish bonds with the English culture, which is undoubtedly part of the English language.

Moreover, Brighton is definitely cheaper than the capital. Our students will be staying with the families of their peers. This way we will be able to overcome two problems: students with different economic levels will be able to come, and they will be directly in touch with English people: caring families, who will take care of them like their own family.

When? How long? The trip will take place during the Easter holidays, when our students will enjoy a break from homework and the exams period. It will last for a week. Since our students will be staying in host-families, the cost of the trip will be much cheaper than if they stayed in hotels. Thus, we will be able to enjoy England for a whole week!

What's more! The trip will include a one-day trip to London,  and another day trip to Oxford, where teachers and the local students will be the guides. During the rest of the week, in the mornings, activities will be held for our students to get to know students from  the high school in Brighton, with which we have an agreement.  And in the afternoon, our students will get to know international students from St. Giles College, which holds lectures for students who come from all over the world so as to learn English.

How to prepare the students prior to the visit: as it will be the first time many of them travel abroad, we will make sure in advance they have all the necessary documents, such as passport or European sanitary card. As for the language, the lessons before the trip will be devoted to introducing vocabulary and expressions (such as asking for directions or ordering a coffee) to ensure they are able to make themselves understood in any kind of contexts they might encounter during their visit to Brighton. Teachers will also encourage them to prepare a small notebook with useful tips, plans or ideas to share with their English peers.  

We will need: A coat and an umbrella (it’s England.. and you never know when it’s going to pour!). A pair of comfortable shoes and trainers (we won’t stop walking and running and playing!). And a lot of hope and wish to laugh and enjoy meeting a new culture!!!

L. Activity 3.5. Intercultural Competence (how to implement it in class)

1- Describe an example of exercise, or unit, from a book, dealing with intercultural competence.

    Looking for information about how intercultural competence is actually included in the textbooks, we've found a very interesting unit to analyze. The unit is called "Culture Vulture", a direct allusion to the topic it covers, as well as to the feeling it aims to arise in the students: curiosity towards other cultures, together with the realization of the enriching value of diversity.

            Indeed, what has caught our attention is the warm-up, a speaking activity in pairs entitled: Test your culture knowledge with this culture vulture quiz!  The activity includes images and short clues about cultural icons related to different arts (such as Kylie Minogue, the play Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare or the painter Salvador Dalí) and students must guess the name and the country of origin of each one. Then, they share their answers with the whole class, and anyone who may know any further details about one of the given topics will be welcomed to share the information with the rest of the group.    

               OpenMind2. Level A2. London: MacMillan (2014).   

2- In your opinion, has the subject been dealt with appropriately? Explain why it has or why it has not.

           From a general perspective, the activity is positive since it covers cultural aspects from different regions and different areas (i.e. England, Spain, Italy...). At the same time, it directly appeals to the background knowledge of the learners on this topic, so the activity may arise their curiosity.

       However, we think that it will be more appropriate (and more enriching for the students) if the authors of the book had included some cultural notions belonging to less known countries. For instance, being a book to work on the English language, it could include images and clues about cultural icons from the different English speaking countries (such as India, New Zealand or Ireland), broadening thus the students perspective while dismantlement the myth that the English world only consists of the UK and north America. After all, we believe that the more and most varied information we give to our students, the better for them to mature as responsible citizens of our current, globalized world.    

3- How would you present/include it in your teaching?

         We'll include this activity while studying the names of countries and nationalities, so by doing the quiz students can put into practice the lexical items they have just learnt. Even though it is aimed at a A2 level, it can also be useful for practicing the grammatical point of comparative and superlative adjectives, encouraging students to make comparisons between the pictures and their own reality.  

          On the other hand, as it is a team-work, interactive sort of task, we will use it at the end of the lesson, when students are more tired and need an incentive to pay attention to the explanation. Thus, we believe that the competition factor will assure the active participation of the whole group.

          We can also take the activity a step further by asking the students to research at home the characters or countries they liked the most from the activity, and then prepare their own quiz to be answered by their partners in the following session. 

L. Activity EGL 1-5. I.C. - Group Discussion

                                                 Intercultural Competence 

1-What is “Intercultural Competence” (I.C.)?

 According to Deardoff, it could be understood as the capacity to communicate (both to utter and to understand) and to adapt oneself to an intercultural context. Moreover, this should be done in a way in which not only is it possible to get one’s point across, but also to do so in the most adequate fashion. This idea could be summed up by the English idiom “When in Rome, do as the Romans”.

2- Is I.C. important for communication?

Yes, it is. On the one hand, it is important in a very practical way. In our experiences as EFL speakers, there will be and have been many instances in which we have had to speak with people coming from different cultures. Therefore, we have had to adapt the way in which we communicate. Not only regarding actual utterances which need to be adapted as well, but also regarding body languages and ways of expression which are much more linked to culture. On the other hand, we also spoke about how interesting this intercultural competence was and what its study could offer concerning the linguistics and the degree to which culture affects language.

3-  How  does  I.C. relate to identity?

It goes without saying that one’s original culture shapes his or her personality. Hence, we have thought that I.C. and the opportunity to interact with other cultures allows people to negotiate and question the roles that might have been assumed.

4-How  does  I.C.  relate to the use of a language as a lingua franca? 

Firstly, we considered that I.C. was of the uttermost importance in the EFL classroom, for English is the likeliest language to be used in an intercultural context. Therefore, this competence has to be fostered and encouraged so that students can thrive in these situations.

5-How would you include  I.C.  in your teaching of  English as a global language?

Discussing this topic, we came to the conclusion that it would be important for students to understand and gain insight into other cultures, while at the same time reaffirming themselves as product of their own. Thus, we though it would be interesting to study different cultures and establish links with the one they belong to, and to study similarities and differences and try to account for them. Nonetheless, we also talked about how the best way to improve this competence would be, of course, to travel. This not being affordable for everyone, other options such as telecollaboration where mentioned.