Abstract
Successful foreign language learners need to have intercultural communicative competence that goes beyond linguistic knowledge. This paper focuses on designing activities that promote intercultural communicative competence in foreign language learning. Competence in intercultural communication requires an understanding of both the L1 and L2 cultures. Using the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) [1] skill levels, this paper looks at the role of intercultural competence in developing effective cross-cultural communication. The paper presents lesson activities designed to build such intercultural competence from the elementary through professional working competency levels as defined by the ILR scale. The sample activities address specific cultural objectives, activate higher-order critical thinking skills, and have the added advantage of allowing teachers to recycle information to anchor and reinforce existing knowledge.
Highlights
It is critical to understand the difference between two key concepts: cultural competence and intercultural communicative competence
The achievement of intercultural communicative competence depends on the development of critical or higher-order thinking skills including comparing, assessing, evaluating, and synthesizing [27]
Are several examples showing how activities building intercultural communicative competence can be included in the classroom at all levels
Summary
The purpose of learning a language, including a foreign language, is to communicate with others. An understanding of a given culture’s constructs of time should help learners correctly assimilate the usage of tenses [25] At this point, it is critical to understand the difference between two key concepts: cultural competence and intercultural communicative competence. True competence in intercultural communication requires that an individual have active knowledge of both his/her own culture as well as that of the target language culture. In developing this competence, one needs to activate higher order critical thinking skills to understand the effects of culture on individuals and promote self-awareness. Has a speaking proficiency equivalent to that of an educated native speaker including a command of a wide vocabulary, idioms, and cultural references
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