Intercultural Competence Quiz

Culture and ICC in Foreign Language Education

• World Englishes describes the diverse varieties of English globally.
• English evolves and adapts as it spreads to fulfill the needs of its users.
• Braj Kachru's work established World Englishes as a field of study.
• In 1965, his article on "The Indianness in Indian English" laid groundwork for how English is adapted in India, highlighting unique cultural aspects.
• Kachru introduced "World Englishes" in 1984 at a TESOL conference along with a global English profile.
• He later proposed a three-circle model to visualize World Englishes relationships.
• The inner circle includes English's original speakers (e.g. UK, USA).
• The outer circle includes countries where English isn't the native language but is widely used (e.g. India, Nigeria).
• The expanding circle includes countries where English may be a minority language or studied as a foreign language (e.g. China, Brazil).

What is "Culture"?

• Culture is central to language teaching, supporting language proficiency.
• Kroeber and Kluckhohn compiled over 160 definitions of culture in 1952.
• Samovar and Porter (2003) define culture as the knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, social hierarchies, religion, time concepts, roles, and material objects, acquired through generations.

Chronological Evolution of Intercultural Communicative Competence

• The development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is a gradual evolution.
• Early ideas (e.g. Chomsky) focused on linguistic competence.
• More recent approaches incorporate sociolinguistic and strategic competence.
• Different models (Ruben, 1976; Bennett, 1993; Deardorff, 2006) detail various approaches and dimensions to analyze and understand ICC.
• Byram (1997) highlighted the importance of ICC, sub-competencies and broader aspects to achieve educational goals.

Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC)

• Byram (1997) defines ICC as the ability to communicate and interact across cultural boundaries.
• Byram (2002) expanded ICC to include a shared understanding of varied social identities, enabling intercultural understanding and interaction.
• ICC is a complex idea incorporating various skills and knowledge dimensions.
• Successful ICC necessitates a balance between personal cultural values and understanding other cultural perspectives.

Models for ICC Development

• Ruben (1976) : a behavioral framework with dimensions such as display of respect, interaction posture, orientation to knowledge, empathy, and tolerance for ambiguity.
• Bennett (1993) : stages of intercultural sensitivity (ethnocentric stages: denial, defense, minimization).
• Deardorff (2006) : a process model of intercultural competence involving attitudes, knowledge, skills, and external outcomes.

Byram's (1997) Model

• Byram's 1997 model focuses on foreign language education situations.

• The ICC model has specific attitudes, knowledge, and skills.

• Skills for interpreting and relating include understanding cultural differences, critical thinking and cultural awareness.

• It stresses both cognitive and behavioral competencies for understanding other cultures across countries.

Ways to Cultivate ICC

• Fostering wonder and curiosity about different cultures is essential to motivate learning.
• Knowledge about cultural beliefs, values and diverse cognitive approaches aids in understanding.
• Skills such as empathy, cultural information accumulation, conflict resolution, and anxiety management help build ICC.

ICC Assessment Tools

• Various tools are used for assessing ICC, incorporating direct (observation, simulations) and indirect (questionnaires) methods, and utilizing theories from different authors.

Discussion Questions

• What makes intercultural communication special?
• What is the role of culture in communication and language teaching?
• How can ICC be built and achieved?