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A periodic newsletter for TESOL members.2009 Volume 7 Number 2Read: http://www.tesol.org/NewsletterSite/view.asp?nid=3244

Intercultural Communicative English Language TeachingJasmina Djordjevic, [email protected]

English teaching is increasingly intercultural, leaving English language (EL) teachers with a recurring dilemma of making culture comprehensible and intercultural. Any teacher of EFL (English as a foreign language) or ESL (English as a second language) has probably had the frustrating experience that 25 out of 30 students are put off by the fact that English is hard to understand not because of the language but because of the culture that goes along with it. Underlying cultural concepts behind many English phrases, idiomatic expressions, collocations, and phrasal verbs drive many a student into despair and many a teacher into serious self-criticism because those expressions are miles away from the familiar cultural concepts of the students.

The following article outlines three major principles that can help EL teachers integrate an intercultural communicative language teaching approach into their classes. The suggested principles are based on 14 years of experience in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms in Southern Serbia and on the results of the author’s PhD research (Djordjevic, 2008) conducted on a sample of 486 Serbian secondary-school students. The results of this PhD research, inspired by sociolinguistics (Crystal, 1997; Freire, 1972; Jessner, 2006; Kramsch, 1993; Wertsch, 1985a, 1985b and Vygotsky, 1978, 1986), showed that an integration of the Serbian and the English culture inevitably resulted in higher motivation and finally in a more successful English language learning process. The communicative approach was seen as an ideal foundation because it is a “process which grows out of the interaction between learners, teachers, text, and activities in a classroom context” (Breen & Candlin, 1980, p. 95). When intercultural communication is integrated, the interaction between students’ native and target cultures motivates students to communicate freely in the target language without any fear of mockery because their cultural diversity is acknowledged and legitimized.

The impact of such a teaching method can be identified on linguistic, sociolinguistic, and psycholinguistic levels:

The students will learn English more successfully; The level of cultural and intercultural awareness is raised; and Student motivation and engagement are enhanced.

ELT IN CULTURALLY DIVERSE SERBIA

This intercultural teaching framework is based on teaching and research conducted with multicultural Serbian EFL learners. The Serbian speech community is inhabited by members of different ethnic, religious, political, and cultural backgrounds (Serbian, Albanian, Roma, Bulgarian, Romanian, Hungarian, Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, etc.). Mixed marriages are common. Accordingly, the Serbian language is not necessarily the mother tongue of all people living in Serbia. Some members of one ethnic community first acquire their particular mother tongue and then Serbian as their second language. The learning of English adds one more language to a growing list. A more complicated issue with Serbian EFL students is the native culture because the EL teacher has to teach English to members of several different cultures in one single classroom. The greatest challenge is often helping students overcome their own ethnocentrism or cultural inferiority (depending on the prevailing attitude of the larger community, the awareness they have about their own culture can range from a strong sense of superiority to extreme inferiority).

Research conducted with these diverse Serbian students identified three principles underlying an intercultural communicative language teaching approach:

Building cultural awareness: the need to identify and work with student cultural backgrounds, building intercultural awareness, in addition to working with cultures of the English language;

Actively acknowledging the connection between identity and culture: the need to understand and proactively recognize that cultural background is an integral part of a learner’s personality; and

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Integrating student cultural experience into the classroom: the need to integrate artifacts of student cultures into classroom work to integrate individual identity into the classroom community.

THE PRINCIPLES IN DETAIL

Building Cultural Awareness

Intercultural interaction is inevitable and should be regarded as a major advantage to the teaching/learning process rather than a problem. Teachers should not assume all students are culturally equal or similar but recognize and work with the cultural diversity their students have to offer.

Actively Acknowledging the Connection Between Identity and Culture

Cultural diversity in a language classroom may be a great obstacle in the English language learning process because an individual of a unique cultural background may feel alienated in a classroom dominated by a majority cultural group. The teacher’s neglect of a student’s cultural background may result in other students perpetuating this alienation. This can result in low motivation and in some extreme cases even failure.

As my research in Serbia showed, if the EL teacher is open-minded and proactively works with diversity in the classroom, the communicative language teaching approach may be turned into a huge opportunity: adding intercultural communication skills and learning. Not only will students feel more motivated to study English but they will also find it easier to integrate into the classroom community.

Integrating Student Cultural Experience Into the Classroom

Intercultural communicative English language teaching can motivate students to talk about their culture in the English language. Every topic may facilitate interaction between the native and the target culture, validating identity and helping students overcome their fear of linguistic performance. Not only do students recognize the challenges their peers have with learning English but they also feel connected with their classroom community, accepted by peers who are different, and they can develop a better understanding of how to coexist with difference.

THE PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE

It is not necessary to change the entire EL syllabus in order to integrate intercultural communication and learning. Teachers of English can prepare a few classes integrating intercultural communication and introduce these into the curriculum. The following sample approaches have been tested by the author and are suggested as a starting point:

When the class is reading a text about holidays (a recurring topic in textbooks), the teacher can encourage students from other cultures to share something about students’ holidays celebrated in their culture. In addition, the teacher could prepare texts adapted to the particular learning group contrasting holidays in two or three different cultures, and have students read and discuss them. In that way students are encouraged to critically reflect about cultural patterns and to share their opinions. (For example, texts contrasting Christmas in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Orthodox Christmas in Serbia were used in the author’s research and proved very motivating.)

The teacher can choose two students from different cultures and prepare a list of terms related to their cultures. The terms may be presented in the form of a chart, written on a sheet or on the board, asking the other students in the group to match them with the two students’ cultures. In addition to refining English communication skills, the students familiarize themselves with the unfamiliar culture and start building a sense of respect for diversity.

The pros and cons regarding particular cultural differences between cultural groups can be elicited from students and written on the board to help students critically reflect on culture.

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Students may be encouraged to share personal opinions about aspects of culture based on a discussion in class.

An essay assignment may be given to advanced students to compare and contrast culturally diverse issues based on ideas elicited in class. Younger students may be encouraged to write short sentences about the similarities and differences that they have learned about.

When working with excerpts from literature, students from other cultures (particularly from minority cultures) can translate paragraphs from literary works famous in their cultures and read them to the rest of the class. This can greatly improve the sense of self-esteem of minority culture students and can prompt questions and curiosity about the unfamiliar culture.

The last 10 minutes of a class can be used to introduce different cultures. Students can then be encouraged to write a short summary about what they have learned.

A chain story may be written in a way that each student writes a comment on a piece of paper reflecting an idea elicited in a class devoted to issues of culture. Later the comments may be put together and the students can be asked to analyze the contradictions and agreements. For instance, the issue of family life in two or three different cultures could be compared to perceptions of family life in the United States or the United Kingdom. The students can write down comments referring to chores, pocket money, leisure activities, living arrangements (i.e., sharing bedrooms), meals, and family time in those different cultures. The teacher then reads the comments and asks students to talk about the similarities and differences, helping them build intercultural awareness and a sense of belonging.

CONCLUSION

The possibilities are numerous, easy to integrate, and can have a dramatically positive impact on the classroom and language teaching process. An intercultural communicative language teaching approach used in a culturally diverse classroom enables cultural self-reflection, increased intercultural awareness, and communication skills. Acknowledging and proactively working with student cultural identity rather than just focusing on linguistic competence can empower and motivate English language learners, developing intercultural communication skills that are highly needed in today’s societies.

REFERENCES

Breen, M., & Candlin, C. (1980) The essentials of a communicative curriculum in language teaching.Applied Linguistics, 1/2, 89-112.

Crystal, D. (1997). English as a global language. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Djordjevic, J. (2008). English language learning under the influence of the multicultural Serbian language environment (Uticaj višekulturne srpske govorne sredine na uèenje engleskog jezika). Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Belgrade, Serbia.

Freire, P. (1972) Pedagogy of the oppressed. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin.

Jessner, U. (2006). Linguistic awareness in multilinguals: English as a third language. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.

Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

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Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Wertsch, J. V. (1985a). Vygotsky and the social formation of mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Wertsch, J. V. (1985b). Culture, communication, and cognition: Vygotskian perspectives. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Jasmina Djordjevic is a lecturer at the Faculty of Legal and Business Studies Novi Sad in Serbia and teaches Culture of Business Communication, Translation Techniques, and Legal English. She has a great interest in the field of multiculturalism and intercultural communication in addition to the methodology of teaching English in culturally diverse environments.

ICIS Newsletter 2009 Volume 7 Number 2: Table of Contents

ICIS Newsletter is published by TESOL and supported by your active membership. Contents copyright by authors except where otherwise noted.

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