Intercultural Literacy Research Articles

Intercultural literacy dialogue: international assessment moderation in early childhood teacher education

ABSTRACTThis research reports intercultural dialogue of meaning making in literacy by lecturers, engaged with an assessment moderation process of early childhood education (ECE) preservice teacher education across Australia, New Zealand and Sweden. The purpose of the dialogue was to inform pedagogical and conceptual knowledge in their courses. The research question is: How does intercultural dialogue inform teacher education literacy practices? Methods include (1) a blind assessment review process using 30 examples from ‘high’ to ‘low’ exemplars of ECE students’ literacy assessment annotations, some from each country, and (2) textual analysis of intercultural student feedback and reflection from student forum comments and, semi-structured reflexive interviews with students about the assessment moderation process. Rich academic reflections on the data have led to our recommendations that the conceptual framework of intercultural praxis could be applied in early childhood preservice teacher education practice. Further, we suggest there are increased possibilities for the use of intercultural literacy with ECE preservice student teachers using virtual and explicit collaborations and texts as explained in this research.

Intercultural Perspective on Impact of Video Games on Players: Insights from a Systematic Review of Recent Literature

The video-game industry has become a significant force in the business and entertainment world. Video games have become so widespread and pervasive that they are now considered a part of the mass media, a common method of storytelling and representation. Despite the massive popularity of video games, their increasing variety, and the diversification of the player base, until very recently little attention was devoted to understanding how playing video games affects the way people think and collaborate across cultures. This paper examines the recent literature regarding the impact of video games on players from an intercultural perspective. Sixty-two studies are identified whose aim is to analyze behavioral-change, content understanding, knowledge acquisition, and perceptional impacts. Their findings suggest that video games have the potential to help to acquire cultural knowledge and develop intercultural literacy, socio-cultural literacy, cultural awareness, self-awareness, and the cultural understanding of different geopolitical spaces, to reinforce or weaken stereotypes, and to some extent also facilitate the development of intercultural skills. The paper provides valuable insights to the scholars, teachers, and practitioners of cultural studies, education, social studies, as well as to the researchers, pointing out areas for future research.

Attain Cultural Integration through teachers’ Conflict Resolution skills Development: The ACCORD Project

Scenario-based learning (SBL) has recently received more and more attention in the training and education fields as a mechanism for providing active and generative learning. E-learning systems can provide a solid platform upon which SBL can be created and used to promote relational competences development, and to offer open source e-learning tools so to overcome common lack of access to affordable training resources. Within this paper a project called ACCORD to develop a new e-learning system to promote intercultural skills in terms of intercultural literacy, inclusive education and conflict management will be described. This project aims to prepare secondary school teachers from five European countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain) to take an active stand against intercultural conflicts within the school context, by providing SBL and game-based learning approach. The present article will provide an overview of the ACCORD project, highlighting the theoretical framework underpinning its development, the methodologies that have been used, and the main preliminary outcomes.

THE INFLUENCE OF PERSONALITY TYPE ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING: A CRITIQUE OF THE ACCELERATIVE INTEGRATED METHOD

The Accelerative Integrated Method (AIM) is an inductive approach to second language acquisition. It was developed in Canada in 1999 by Wendy Maxwell to teach French in primary school. The AIM is currently being used to teach also English, Spanish, Mandarin and Japanese in over 10,000 primary and secondary schools in the world. The method privileges meaning-making and effective communication through a gesture approach. Maxwell claims that the AIM allows learners to reach high levels of communicative proficiency quickly, mainly through an emotional engagement with the language that they learn through dance, drama and creative writing. This paper critically evaluates the AIM; it focuses on how much it draws and impacts on the learner’s personality. It also explores the appropriateness of the AIM for secondary school students who have a higher cognitive developmental age than primary students for whom the AIM was originally designed. The discussion is informed by theories on second language acquisition, emotion and personality type. The paper concludes by making recommendations on learning and teaching methodologies that can challenge and successfully engage foreign language learners while also developing in them intercultural literacy.

Transit point of global talent: social/cultural dimensions of short-term student circulation

ABSTRACTThe development of the modern global economy and the national competition in trade and commerce has intensified. Thus, overseas study as a major form of human capital formation in the Asian region tends to be regarded as an economic measure for enhancing workforce quality and national competitiveness. Mainstream discourses on international students at the national level have been instrumental in ignoring the social and cultural dimensions pursued by transnational interaction and understanding. However, in addition to the rapid advancement of internationalisation, international student mobility has become significantly diversified in terms of scenarios, patterns and motivations. In this paper, two short-term study-abroad programmes in Taiwan and Los Angeles were selected to investigate their influence on participants’ perception and awareness of intercultural literacy. Results indicate that many participants have been highly motivated to engage in ‘local culture, people and tradition’. The international outlook and perspectives of participants have broadened substantially due to these short-term but focused activities. In contrast to the economic purpose of student mobility, the result from this research provides promising information on further raising the young generation’s social and culture understanding of other societies and countries by attending such short-term study programme.

Subtitling’s cross-cultural expressivity put to the test: A cross-sectional study of linguistic and cultural representation across Romance and Germanic languages

Abstract This article focuses on linguistic and cultural representation in AVT as a medium of intercultural literacy. It has two objectives: it puts to the test increasingly accepted assumptions about AVT modalities’ distinctive meaning potential and expressive capacity, with a case study of communicative practices in their representation, via AVT, in subtitles across Romance and Germanic languages. The second objective is to make a start on a neglected question to date, by considering, concurrently, the respective potential for representation of different types of languages, Indo-European in the first instance, in different pair configurations. The study applies to (Romance) French, Italian, Spanish and (Germanic) English and German and uses a cross-cultural pragmatics framework to explore representation, per se and comparatively across the languages represented in the main data, Lonnergan’s 2016 feature film Manchester by the Sea. Data is approached qualitatively from a target text end in the first instance and primarily, in a subset of scenes from across the film. Quantitative analysis is used complementarily for diagnostic purposes or as a complementary source of evidence, with initial focus on types of features identified in earlier studies as a locus of stylised representation in subtitling with evidence of distinctive pragmatic indexing (e.g. pronominal address, greetings, thanking). The study is a pilot study and is exploratory at this stage, but part of a broader endeavour to inform debates about, and build up the picture of, AVT as cross-cultural mediation and, ultimately, promote our understanding of films in translation’s societal impact.

Strengthening inter-cultural literacy and minority voices through narratives of healthy religious pluralism in higher education

ABSTRACT Religious faith and spiritual practices, although increasingly important to some students, are often avoided in the Western University classroom and student experience. There are some understandable and valid reasons for this. However, when two academics (Education/Social Work and Theology) were asked to evaluate a co-curricular, interreligious dialogue program in an Australian University, called Finding Common Ground (FCG), the data was so compelling that consideration for pedagogies in the university ‘classroom’ took on additional significance. More so in the contemporary context, where religious pluralism and respectful religious expression is to be encouraged, over and against polarisation, in today’s global and multi-religious world. This article reports on the evaluation of the FCG program’s social inclusion and inter-cultural literacy objectives. As a co-curricular program, FCG offers a safe space for students to discuss their religious faith, or alternative value base, and to learn from those of others. Research findings on two iterations of the program indicated that creating safe spaces, respectful dialogue and eliciting personal narratives supported the development of inter-cultural literacy in participants and encouraged participation of minority student voices. We examine this informal learning process, exploring possibilities that might affirm more inclusive practices in higher education and cross-culturally informed graduate outcomes.

문화 간 리터러시 함양을 위한 문화항목 비교 분석 - 국내․외 대학 영어교재를 중심으로 -

문화 간 리터러시 함양을 위한 문화항목 비교 분석 - 국내․외 대학 영어교재를 중심으로 -

СОЦИАЛЬНОЕ ПАРТНЕРСТВО КАК АКТУАЛЬНАЯ ФОРМА РЕАЛИЗАЦИИ АНТИЭКСТРЕМИСТСКОЙ ПРОФИЛАКТИКИ В МОЛОДЕЖНОЙ СРЕДЕ

The characteristic of youth extremism in the context of destructive way of solving social problems from the standpoint of extremist ideology is given. The main state directions of prevention of youth extremism are systematized and characterized: preventive measures against terrorism, anti-extremist information and education, integration educational courses on intercultural literacy, events organization for the development of social and cultural activity of the individual and the formation of active citizenship. The main vectors of youth extremism prevention, in which a special role is given to social partnership – the system of interaction of state structures and civil society, consolidating efforts in this problem solution. At the same time the effective forms of social and cultural activities aimed at solving the problem: monitoring, patriotic educational activities, organization of creative ethno-oriented evenings, international cultural and creative festivals are described. It is proved that social partnership has sufficient potential to make the process of extremism prevention most effective on the basis of complex interaction of state and public structures involved in the implementation of anti-extremist policy, taking into account religious interests, as well as differentiation of the targeted focus of preventive measures. The basic principles of social partnership are highlighted, without which it is impossible to build effective cooperation: integration and complementarity, confessional parity, targeted orientation. The analysis of social practices realized on the social partnership basis, aimed at intercultural dialogue, international cooperation, patriotism development and civic activity of youth is presented.

리터러시 중심 문화학습: 대학생들의 인식 수준과 바람직한 수업 설계 방향

The present study tried to analyse students’ perception of culture learning in the foreign language teaching and to discuss desirable direction of instructional design of literacies integrated into culture class. It started from the point that culture instruction at the korean universities should deal with multi-literacies because the rapidly changing world has been required learners to equip with new competencies and skills in terms of redefined literacy. To this end, 429 students were asked to respond to a closed (6 Likert scale) questionnaire which consists of 15 items. Analysis of survey results was followed by defining a pair of terminology such as multi-literacies, cultural literacy, intercultural literacy, critical literacy, and information literacy. While most of the students regarded culture learning as important, many of them considered developing critical literacy as not so much necessary as cultural literacy. Given the korean educational system, it is needed however to incorporate critical literacy into culture instruction. In addition, culture class should focus on intercultural literacy for students to address global problems. On the basis of former studies, some guidelines for integrating intercultural literacy and critical literacy into culture class were suggested.

The Communication Aspect of Business Negotiations in the Intercultural Context

In the current era of social processes all over the world, the demands on the culture of communication increases, but on the other hand we are more aware of differences in thinking and acting of individuals coming from different cultural backgrounds. These facts are reflected in the international business negotiations, which require some specific abilities and knowledge influencing the successful result of mutual communication from negotiators. In fact, it is impossible not to communicate. There is communication everywhere and all the time. Within the context of this topic, we put a question: How can we communicate properly and successfully with a foreign business partner? In that connection, the cultural background of our business partner is important. There arise frequent misunderstandings during business negotiations because of the partner's different cultural background, which is reflected in their thinking and acting. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance and direct connection of intercultural literacy as one of the conditions for successful communication in negotiation processes. The paper presents some theoretical starting points for the topic; it offers the views of the problem of interculturality by several theoreticians, and tries to reply the questions directly connected with intercultural business negotiations: what is the impact of my partners' culture on their behavior and thinking? Is intercultural communication only a product of communication in a foreign language, or is it something more than that? What does the intercultural competence of the negotiator mean, and how can it be acquired?

Intercultural literacy is critical to success in a foreign country

As the growth trend of foreign direct investment continues, Kazakh managers are challenged to develop their abilities to adapt to the new cultural environment To that end, Kazakhstan business schools should help their students develop cross-cultural skills that are necessary to deal with people from different cultures. The article determines the importance of English language as the lingua franca in the modern international business. The knowledge of English provides crucial understanding, making effective decisions and establishing cooperation. Intercultural literacy provides business students with an opportunity to experience the details of other cultures through the establishment of a friendly relationship with members of another country.

Seeing English in Asia from Multicultural Language and Intercultural Literacy Perspectives: Indonesian Perspectives

The majority of Asian countries nowadays recognize English as an indispensable language not only forintranational as well as international communication, they are increasingly committed to strengthening andimproving English language teaching (ELT). In parts of Asia where English serves as an official language and ELTexpands and succeeds, people start speaking English among themselves. Wherever this happens, a set of indigenouspatterns develop, the kind of patterns people find easier to handle. The same situation can develop in "English as aninternational language" countries, like Indonesia where English serves as foreign/international language. Indonesianeeds to fully understand the aspects of present-day English if they tries to deal with their various ramifications. Oneimportant issue is diversity management. This paper tries to observe and argues that a plausible way of managingthe multiculturalism or varieties of English especially in Asian country is not standardization but more onintercultural literacy.

Visualizing intercultural literacy: engaging critically with diversity and migration in the classroom through an image-based approach

Accessible forms of language, learning and literacy, as well as strategies that support intercultural communication are needed for the diverse population of refugee, asylum seeker and migrant children within schools. The research project Journeys from Images to Words explored the potential of visual texts to address these issues. Working in Glasgow primary schools within critical pedagogical frameworks that invite sharing of personal narratives and of cultural knowledge, the researchers examined and evaluated an image-based approach, both for reading and responding to a selection of children's texts and for obtaining an insight into the home literacy practices of diverse communities. In this article, a ‘generative theme’, as used by Paulo Freire is used to examine how students engaged with reading visual texts, shared their responses and extended their intercultural understanding. The results from this project provide evidence for the inclusion of visual texts and methodologies within critical pedagogies in order to develop intercultural literacy in the classroom.

Intercultural intertexts encountered by Taiwanese EFL students

This paper reports on an exploratory study of one specific aspect of intercultural literacy: the activation of intercultural intertexts. Readers of intercultural intertexts fall into two general groups: knowing readers (who know the source text) and unknowing readers (who do not know the source text). This paper aims to explore Taiwanese unknowing students' responses to Western-derived allusive intertexts. Eight instances of intercultural intertexts were drawn systematically from the article titles of the British magazine spiked for 16 Taiwanese college students to read, who had a required level of proficiency to skim spiked articles. Qualitative data about their reactions to the intertexts were drawn for analysis from semi-structured one-on-one interviews. In addition, the eight magazine articles were taught to 82 Taiwanese unknowing students without a required level of proficiency. A brief questionnaire was then conducted to probe into their motivations to learn intercultural intertexts. The results show that the interviewees generally felt positively about the intertexts and that most of the interviewees and questionnaire respondents were motivated to learn such intertexts. The findings indicate that it is not only theoretically but also practically worthwhile to inquire further into unknowing readers' responses to and interest in learning intercultural intertexts.

A Case Study on Intercultural Literacy of Newcomer Children in Kobe

This paper sheds light on the process of intercultural literacy acquisition of newcomer children (NCC) in a youth program organized for them by an NPO which is working to create a multicultural society. Based on the observations done with an NPO in Kobe,the learning process in the initial stage of intercultural literacy development was closely examined. Intercultural literacy includes the ability of NCC to recognize and express their own opinions and perspectives as ethnic minorities in their host society. By having dialogue with other participants in the youth program, the newcomer children gain approval of their own ethnicity, knowledge about the situation of foreign people in Japan, etc. Uponparticipating in the program, the newcomer children advanced from beingparticipants and settlers, to expressionistsas they subsequently acquired intercultural literacy.

Toward a Model for Intercultural Communication in Simulations

The growing need for intercultural literacy in an increasingly interconnected and computer-mediated world contrasts with the dearth of investigation in best practices when designing simulations aimed at improving intercultural communication. Synthetic cultures inspired by real-world cultural traits, problem-based learning, and a social constructivist theoretical base represent core components of immersive learning environments designed to improve intercultural literacy. Through an analysis of the literature, a model is proposed primarily to promote discussion and debate about intercultural simulations. The Model for Intercultural Communication in Simulations asserts that along with those components, the Experiential Learning Cycle (ELC), natural decision making, and third place thinking form an approach in understanding how intercultural simulations should be designed. The Model for Intercultural Communication in Simulations challenges the learner to move beyond known paradigms and encourages simulation and e-learning designers to employ socially situated contexts. Accordingly, within the context of the model, a culminating evaluation of an online intercultural training simulation ( ARGONAUTONLINE) follows the introduction of the model.

Bodies and language: process drama and intercultural language learning in a beginner language classroom

In this article the author draws on classroom video recordings and student commentary to explore ways in which the kinaesthetic elements of a process drama provided the context and the space for beginner additional language learners to engage with intercultural language learning. In the light of student comments in interviews and questionnaires, she justifies the need for learners to experience the bodily aspect of communication as part of authentic, multi-modal interaction and hence a crucial element in intercultural literacy. Drawing on Kress's concept of interest as a motivation to make meaning, she suggests that learner interests are aroused by dramatic conventions whose multi-modal nature affords students access to multiple ways of participating in the narrative. She argues that a more conscious integration of the kinaesthetic mode into the additional language classroom can stimulate, scaffold and authenticate the verbal participation of beginner learners. Finally, given the students’ overwhelmingly positive response to the kinaesthetic elements of the work, she suggests that, despite the challenge of balancing drama and language imperatives, encouraging language teachers to venture into imaginative worlds and include a kinaesthetic dimension to their communicative practice could improve engagement and outcomes for beginner learners.

Dialogic Performance: Towards a Pedagogy of Transformance

This article relates performance literacy to storytelling as a foundation for the making of democratic narratives and communities. It explains how the aesthetic potential of all public space is shaped by the relationship between historical memory and imagined communities, and how both affect the intimate dialogic performance of everyday life. From these foundations, the article argues for the decolonization of our internal dialogue through intercultural literacy to nurture participatory democracy and a new paradigm of education based on sustainable transformation and cooperation.

Intercultural and Transcultural Literacy in Contemporary Africa

This paper argues that the challenge of intercultural communication has often been overlooked in discussions of indigenous language literacy in Africa. The omission continues despite the fact that literacy practices in Africa have often served as a means of intercultural communication, especially among highly educated Africans. Proposals for the adoption of indigenous language literacy are not likely to succeed unless a policy is developed that deals with the problematic of intercultural communication. For maximum effectiveness, indigenous language literacy practices in Africa will have to involve a balance between vernacular, transcultural and intercultural literacy. This paper offers definitions for both intercultural literacy and transcultural literacy. It agues that exclusive vernacular literacy coupled with translation between vernacular languages will encourage language shift towards more powerful languages. By contrast, a practice of intercultural literacy will blunt the drift towards monoculturalism, while transcultural literacy will enhance recovery of local agency over African textual production. Cet article prend comme point de départ le fait que les discussions sur l'alphabétisation en langues africaines tiennent rarement compte des problèmes de communication interculturelle. Et ceci en dépit du fait que le texte écrit sert souvent comme moyen de communication interculturelle, surtout parmi les Africains ayant un niveau élevé de scolarité. A moins de trouver une solution à la problématique de communication interculturelle, les projets d'alphabétisation en langues vernaculaires ne réussiront pas en Afrique. Ce qu'il faut pour assurer une pratique soutenable d’écriture en langues africaines, c'est un équilibre entre l'utilisation de l’écriture pour communiquer en langue maternelle, et l'utilisation de l’écriture comme mode de communication interculturelle et transculturelle. Une pratique focalisée uniquement sur l'alphabétisation en langues maternelles avec traduction entre langues vernaculaires contribuera à long terme au monoculturalisme et à la disparition de certaines langues. Un programme d’écriture pour communication interculturelle diminuera l'attraction de monoculturalisme, tandisqu'un programme d’écriture pour communication transculturelle permettra aux Africains d'exercer une certaine autorité sur leur propre production textuelle.