European Language Teachers’ beliefs on Intercultural Communicative Competence

Kristi Jauregi Ondarra (Fontys University of Applied Sciences & Utrecht University) Martine Derivry-Plard (University of Paris 6)

TILA: Telecollaboration for Intercultural language Acquisition

(2013-2015)

Project goals

• (1) to innovate, enrich and make foreign language teaching programmes more attractive and effective by encouraging the implementation of telecollaboration activities in secondary schools across Europe;

• (2) to empower teachers and innovate teacher training programmes in order to assist them in developing ICT literacy skills as well as organisational, pedagogical and intercultural competences to guarantee adequate integration of telecollaboration practices; and

• (3) to study the added value that telecollaboration may bring to language learning in terms of intercultural understanding and motivation amongst younger learners and pedagogic competence development. 3

Partners

4

6 countries represented in

the consortium. Each country collaborates

with a secondary school & a

teacher training institution.

Consortium Partners

5

P1 Utrecht University (NL)P2 Berlage Lyceum

P3 U Roehampton (UK)P4 The Godolphin & Latymer School

P5 Steinbeis Transfer Center Language Learning Media P6 Gymnasium Saarburg (DE)

P7 Universidad de Valencia (SP)P8 IES Clot del Moro

P9 Université de Paris 3 and Paris 6 (FR) P10 Collège La Cerisaie

P12 Palacky University (CZ)P11 3DLES (NL)

42 associate partners

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Activities undertaken• Analysis of teachers’ needs• Development of teacher training

modules and • Teacher training sessions• Telecollaboration pilots

7

EuroALL 2013

http://www.tilaproject.euhttps://www.youtube.com/user/TILAprojectEU

http://ec.europa.eu/languages/inspire/tila-project_en.htm

Intercultural telecollaborationwithin a learning/teaching and research environment

Target languages

Researchers

Teacher Trainers

Teachers

Learners

Target Cultures

TILA : an intercultural learning environment

9

2 running modes Tandems : language reciprocity Lingua Franca: a communicative

language mediating 2 target cultures

6 „national“ cultures

6 educational systems

6 research institutions providing teacher training

Challenges languages are associated with target cultures (Usually Tandems ie French learners with English learners)AND Languages are dissociated with target cultures (Usually Lingua Franca ie French learners with Dutch learners using ELF or German as a Lingua Franca or Spanish as a lingua franca)

5 target languages

Organising telecollaboration among teachers : two major challenges

• Use of technology in the classroom, the availability and appropriateness of the facilities, and technical assistance have been addressed in a former paper :

• Jauregi, K., Melchor-Couto, S., & Vilar Beltrán, E. (2013). The European Project TILA. In L. Bradley & S. Thouësny (Eds.), 20 Years of EUROCALL: Learning from the Past, Looking to the Future. Proceedings of the 2013 EUROCALL Conference, Évora, Portugal (pp. 123-128)

• Facilitating intercultural telecollaboration, creating a third culture for teachers with different teaching cultures to work together on task planning and task development is going to be explored.

Research

Who are TILA teachers?What are the views of teachers concerning

intercultural telecollaboration?• Methodology: ethnographic (multimodal with questionnaires,

interviews, analysis of task descriptions, online interaction …) : another challenge for ethnography to be online.

• PILOTS (From December to May 2014)• 2 questionnaires • Background questionnaire : 15 respondents• Teachers’ views on telecollaboration for intercultural language

learning : 21 respondents

• Semi-structured Interviews (6 teachers)

Teachers’ background• 70 % female teachers and 30%

male teachers• experience (0-4 years) to more

than 25 years• Master’s degree and usually a

teaching license. 90 % work in state secondary school.

• Their learners are from 12 to 18.• They teach one language or 2

languages or up to 3 subjects• 80% have worked in a foreign

country where they have taught • Lack of support for computer

technologies and Internet .

15 respondents6 from France5 from Spain

2 from NL1 from Germany1 from the UK

Teachers have a pluricultural capital

• 80 % have worked in a foreign country , mainly in Europe (except for the USA and Vietnam) from less than a year to more than 5 years

• 80 % have taught in a foreign country mainly in Europe (except for North America) from 1 to more than 10 years

• 50% have French as their first language, others have German, Spanish, Dutch and Catalan. Just one teacher considers to be bilingual French/English

• 60% teach English, then French, German and Spanish for 13% respectively and then Catalan

Their trajectories are coherent with their studies as they have studied languages as a major for their degrees with academic relevance (American Studies, British history, English literature, English studies, English philology, German Literature, Didactics of French and Foreign languages)

Studies in languages, teaching languages abroad and at home

TILA teachers How intercultural

is your school?

Intercultural competence is an important strudent outcome ++

The intercultural dimension is a priority ++

Partnerships abroad are encouraged +

Colleagues develop partnerships =

Colleagues are willing to get a Language assistant ++

Language assistant are easy to get -

School support intercultural exchangesColleagues support intercultural exchanges

-

However teaching activities that are most important are :• 1/ Speaking (53%)• 2/ Listening and Reading (33% each item)• 3/ Vocabulary (26%) • 4/ Culture and Intercultural dimensions (21% each item)• 5/ Writing (13%)

TILA teachers open and willing to explore

intercultural dimensions

Teachers’ views on the intercultural dimension

21 respondents to questionnaire (French & English teachers in Spain, English

teacher, Spanish and German teachers in France)

Teachers’ views on the intercultural dimension

of TILA• For Learners• TILA is ranked 1 (60%) for motivation, and 2 for interactions

and communication (55%) and 3 for Intercultural skills (45%).

• For teachers• TILA is ranked 1 (40%) for allowing teachers to innovate, then

2 for developing collaboration with teachers from other countries and developing ICT skills (35%) and 3 for enriching intercultural competence (30%).

Teachers’ views on the intercultural dimension

Motivation and the intercultural dimension are linked (100%)

Adaptability is important

(100%)

Learners are interested in

learning about other cultures

(85%)

Intercultural and cultural dimensions are priorities in the

language and school curriculum (80%)

Empathy with others is

important (90%)

Teachers’ views on Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC)

• ICC should be developed due to increasing internationalisation of the world (95%)• ICC is part of developing intercultural

citizenship and teachers should be trained (90%)

Teachers’ views onintercultural practices

• ICC is about developing attitudes such as curiosity, openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and belief about one’s own. It is about relating to Self and Other and about cultural awareness of differences and similarities (95%)

• ICC is about developing cultural knowledge about one’s own and one’s interlocutor’s cultures (100%)

• ICC is providing information about daily life and routines (living conditions, traditions..) (95%)

• ICC is providing knowledge and experience of a variety of cultural expressions (Literature, music, theatre, film..) (90%)

Teachers’ views onintercultural practices

• ICC facilitates good language learning and teaching, communicative skills and positive attitudes towards people from different cultures (85%)

• The native speaker is a good model for learners (75%)BUT/AND• The intercultural speaker is a good model for learners (79%)

• ICC is about class collaboration between N/NN speakers (TILA Tandems) (95%)

BUT /AND• ICC is about class collaboration between NN speakers of

different countries (TILA lingua franca) (80%)

Conclusion

• The Intercultural dimension is a priority for TILA teachers • It relates to attitudes, knowledge and skills• It is also linked to motivating young learners in secondary schools• It is facilitated by technology in conjunction with tasks• Telecollaboration is seen as a powerful way to innovate in Foreign

language teaching

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Join us in TILA!tila@uu.nl

www.tilaproject.eu@tilaproject

www.scoop.it/tila

Thank you!Martine Derivry

Kristi Jauregi