|
Foreign Language Teaching and LearningfulltextIntercultural Competence
Increasingly, language educators contend that foreign lan-
guage learning should increase students’ intercultural com-
petence (IC) which would allow them to see relationships be-
tween different cultures, mediate across these cultures, and
critically analyze cultures including their own (Chapelle,
2010). Language teachers have now recognized their role in
eliciting culture learning in their classrooms and ways to ac-
cess that learning (Moloney and Harbon, 2010). One such way
proposed by Schulz (2007) is through utilization of culture-
learning portfolios. According to Schulz, the teaching of inter-
cultural competence should include developing awareness of
variables that affect communicative interactions, recognizing
stereotypes and evaluating them, and developing awareness of
types of causes for cultural misunderstandings between mem-
bers of different cultures. The use of a culture-learning portfo-
lio allows teachers to assess students’ progress over time based
on specific objectives that can be related to individual student
interest. These portfolios encourage critical reflection and self-
evaluation and, especially important in the area of cultural
learning, the use of multiple sources of evidence (Schulz, 2007:
p. 18). Despite much research into effective strategies and ap-
proaches to teaching and assessing intercultural competency in
foreign language classrooms (particularly in the United States),
several challenges have been put forward. One such challenge
is that of sensitizing students to the value of seeing the world
through the language/culture of another and creating a more
affective climate for developing intercultural competency in an
environment where a monolingual monocultural national lin-
guistic identity rules at home and global English rules abroad
(Fonseca-Greber, 2010: p. 117).
Dostları ilə paylaş: |
|
|