Intercultural Competence in Teaching: Defining the Intercultural Profile of Student Teachers

Marta Garrote Salazar,María Fernández Agüero

doi:10.5565/rev/jtl3.670

Abstract

This article describes the intercultural profile of European student teachers in order to clarify the relationship between Intercultural Competence (IC) and teacher training. The main tool used for that was a questionnaire to assess IC, following the criteria established by the Intercultural Competence Assessment (INCA) Project in which IC levels are ranked. The survey poses a variety of personal and professional situations where IC comes into play and different responses to choose from, ranging from insufficiently intercultural to highly intercultural. The results of this study show that most European student teachers participating in the research displayed an intermediate level of IC, which indicates a necessity to improve future teachers’ IC training, particularly highlighting IC dimensions such as behavioural flexibility or communicative awareness.

Highlights

The objective of this article is to contribute to the analysis of interculturality and, eventually, to its promotion by unfolding the notion of Intercultural Competence (IC) in the context of European education –taking IC as ‘the ability to interact effectively with people of cultures other than one’s own’ (Byram, 2000, p. 297)1
Having in mind the assessee manual, we look into IC dimensions, evaluating respondents’ scores and their relationship with variables such as nationality, age or number of languages spoken by the participants
The results related to Intercultural Competence Assessment (INCA) profiles can be seen in Table 6, according to which 97.3% of respondents displayed an intermediate level of IC

Summary

Introduction

The objective of this article is to contribute to the analysis of interculturality and, eventually, to its promotion by unfolding the notion of Intercultural Competence (IC) in the context of European education –taking IC as ‘the ability to interact effectively with people of cultures other than one’s own’ (Byram, 2000, p. 297). That study yielded a series of contradictions in the subjects’ discourse, between their professional and personal lives, that pointed at the need to draw a broader picture on the intercultural profile of teaching trainees. We believe that this line of enquiry will help identify possible shortcomings in teacher training from an intercultural perspective, so that teachers-to-be become ‘intercultural speakers’ (Kramsch, 1993), who are able to ‘decentre’, to see intercultural encounters from an outsider’s perspective There is an inseparable link between the ability to function effectively in an L2 and the collection of skills, knowledge and attitudes that contribute to IC (Byram, 1997), and the L2 classroom is the Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning Language & Literature. 9.4 (Nov-Dec 2016) ISSN 2013-6196

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion