Abstract
This paper focuses on the issue of developing intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in a higher education context, with a special focus put on teaching advanced foreign language (FL) students. First, the concept of ICC is discussed on the basis of Byram’s (1997) theory, which is still considered the most comprehensive model for describing the principles of developing and assessing intercultural competence in foreign language teaching. Next, a short overview of studies related to teaching ICC conducted by Polish researchers is presented. This is followed by a description of an Intercultural Communication course designed for university students and conducted by the author of the paper. In this report, the theoretical principles, the main aims of the course along with the techniques applied in teaching and evaluating students are discussed. It is hoped that the paper will be a useful contribution to discussions concerning developing ICC and will stimulate further research in this interesting area of education.
Highlights
This paper focuses on the issue of developing intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in a higher education context, with a special focus put on teaching advanced foreign language (FL) students
A substantial number of studies focus on practical issues related to incorporating the intercultural component in FL teaching, such as materials and techniques applied in teaching, and problems encountered by teachers and learners
It is worth emphasizing that several essays produced by students within this international project became an important part of the Intercultural Communication (IC) course which is the focus of this paper and which is described of the text
Summary
Developing intercultural communicative competence (ICC) has become an important goal of foreign language (FL) education. The role of school instruction is to equip FL learners with appropriate language skills, and to prepare students to understand FL cultures and successfully communicate with their representatives. As they regard higher education, the clear aims concerning this aspect of education are explained in National Qualifications Framework for Higher Education (in Polish Krajowe Ramy Kwalifikacyjne) which, since 2012, has Kusiak-Pisowacka: Developing intercultural competence. Byram (1997), in my opinion especially important in teaching adult learners, is enhancing critical cultural awareness It entails practicing critical thinking in relation to one’s own culture and the foreign one, which results in viewing other cultures in a more objective way and being aware of potential areas of conflict. The model has been a source of inspiration in the process of designing classroom activities
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