Intercultural Competence Teaching Research Articles

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE OF CHINESE UNIVERSITY TEACHERS WORKING WITH BACHELOR-TRANSLATORS

This article presents a factor-criterion model of determining the intercultural competence of Chinese university teachers who work with bachelor-translators. The practical result of the scientific research of the article is the system of recommendations to the management of the intercultural competence development of teachers who work with bachelor-translators in the condition of Chinese institutions of higher education. The article systematizes the main problems of improving the intercultural competence of teachers in Chinese institutions of higher education. The article considers the internal and external factors of developing intercultural teaching competence of teachers in Chinese institutions of higher education. The article emphasizes that the intercultural competence of the teacher, as a systematized set of knowledge, abilities and qualities that ensure the optimal implementation of pedagogical activities, is aimed at meeting both professional and social needs, is a multilevel system that develops over time from the three intercultural dimensions of emotion, cognition and skill. The essence of social and professional needs of teachers in the conditions of Chinese institutions of higher education is considered with the approaches of regular training and intercultural experience. The components of the model of determining the intercultural competence of the Chinese university teachers working with bachelor-transactors are analyzed and considered in detail. The article presents the essence of pedagogical conditions, which is necessary for designing the intercultural teaching training process in the conditions of Chinese institutions of higher education, and it contributes to the development of the intercultural competence of teachers in teaching implementation. The specifics of the pedagogical approach to the development of intercultural competence of Chinese university teachers are considered. The scientific result of the research was the proposed model of determining the intercultural competence of teachers in the conditions of Chinese institutions of higher education, which is verified to improve the intercultural competence of teachers who work with bachelor-translators.

Interculturally competent teachers: behavioural dimensions and the role of study abroad

Intercultural Teaching Competence (ITC) is essential for teaching in increasingly diverse primary schools. However, research has not sufficiently addressed the meaning and development of ITC, including whether study abroad during teacher education contributes to the dimensions included. Therefore, this study seeks to determine which dimensions of ITC the respondent teachers report and whether there is a difference in ITC between teachers with or without study abroad experience. Survey data from 155 Dutch primary school teachers measure dimensions of ITC selected from prior literature, of which five can be measured reliably. Furthermore, compared with teachers without study abroad experience, teachers with such experience score significantly higher on the ITC dimensions of openness and storytelling.

Prospective of Intercultural Teaching Competencies in Relation to Technology and Neuroeducation

The objective of this research is to analyze the prospective of intercultural teaching competence in relation to technology and neuroeducation. The research design is nonexperimental, descriptive, explanatory and regression. The sample, by convenience, is formed by students from Spanish and foreign universities, in 605 participants. A Likert scale questionnaire, constructed ad hoc, was applied. The quantitative methodology was developed through automatic linear regression modeling and a decision tree. The most relevant results show that this prospective is possible, determining that it is necessary to promote inclusion and to know the different cultures in the classroom, since they are the reason why intercultural teaching competence will undoubtedly develop, on the other hand, if we want to promote intercultural teaching competence, we must adopt neuroeducation as a basis, being of great help to use technological teaching competences, which in turn must have a neuroeducational character.

The relationship between intercultural teaching competence and school and classroom level characteristics

ABSTRACT The increasing levels of diversity in primary education make it essential to identify factors that influence Intercultural Teaching Competence (ITC). This study investigates which factors of Educational Effectiveness Research contribute to five dimensions of ITC: openness, classroom management, enriched lesson design, social initiative, and storytelling. Therewith, it contributes to the literature of both fields. Data collected through a cross-sectional survey among 155 Dutch primary school teachers were examined with linear regression analyses. The results showed that some characteristics at the classroom level have a strong significant relationship with dimensions of Intercultural Teaching Competence, whereas school characteristics did not.

Teaching Diversity and Inclusion: Examples from a French-Speaking Classroom ed. by E. Nicole Meyer and Eilene Hoft-March

Reviewed by: Teaching Diversity and Inclusion: Examples from a French-Speaking Classroom ed. by E. Nicole Meyer and Eilene Hoft-March Mary Anne Garnett Meyer, E. Nicole, and Eilene Hoft-March, eds. Teaching Diversity and Inclusion: Examples from a French-Speaking Classroom. Routledge, 2021. Pp 216. ISBN 978-0367648329. $160.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-0367648275. $38.95 (paper). ISBN 978-1003126461. $35.05 (eBook) The tone set by the editors in their introduction to this volume is urgent, even militant, in expressing the need for teachers to implement practices that promote diversity and inclusion in their classrooms. Acutely aware of the challenges facing our society and our profession in these turbulent and divisive times, they have [End Page 200] selected what in itself is a diverse and inclusive selection of seventeen essays to help teachers like themselves better understand the issues and to provide them with practical tools to implement changes. The authors of these essays represent a variety of institutions of higher learning. Writing from their own classroom experience, they have developed their own materials or supplemented existing ones to better meet the needs of their students in terms of gender, race, ethnicity and disabilities. This is indeed one of the major strengths of the volume. Each chapter begins by posing the theoretical basis for the practices described and recommended therein. This leads to some redundancy but also makes each chapter self-contained for readers who wish to pick and choose the areas that interest them. Each chapter also concludes with a bibliography, virtually an état présent, in addition to E. Nicole Meyer's comprehensive bibliography that closes the volume. The essays are organized into three sections, although the boundaries among them are fluid and some essays could easily have been included in a different section. The first section contains four chapters, each dealing with a traditionally marginalized group. CJ Gomolka makes the case for a queer pedagogy that also intersects with "anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-imperialist, antiableist, and decolonial pedagogies" (12) while Kris Aric Knisely focuses on TGNC (transgender and gender nonconforming) students in the context of TAQIBP (trans-affirming, queer inquiry-based pedagogies). In a deeply personal essay, Tammy Berberi, a disabled teacher herself, shares strategies she has implemented that foster pride and self-acceptance among all her students, disabled or not. The Black Lives Matter movement and backlash to the teaching of Critical Race Theory make Kate Nelson's contribution, "Improving Racial Inclusivity in the French Classroom," more relevant than ever. The second section, "Inclusively Speaking," is comprised of seven chapters, two of which (essays by Kiki Kosnick and Dominique Carlini Versini) examine the challenges of teaching langage inclusif. Kathryn A. Dettmer and Brenda A. Dyer discuss means of helping students with language-oriented learning disabilities, including dyslexia and audio-processing disorders, using principles of Universal Design of Learning. Jessica S. Miller details how she redesigned the French curriculum at her small state university using backward design and student learning outcomes (SLO) to promote equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). Similarly, Stephanie Schechner describes efforts at her private liberal arts college "to develop a curriculum that serves the entire-French-speaking world" to better serve "the needs of heritage, native, and second-language speakers" (97). Eilene Hoft-March focuses on promoting civil discourse in her speaking-intensive course, "La chose franco-arabe," while Dominique Licops has designed an introductory literature course with a diverse corpus based on Intercultural Teaching Competence (ITC) principles. The third section, "Embracing Cultures/Extending Contexts," contains a heterogeneous selection of six essays, each of which describes a specific course developed by its author. Lowry Martin has developed a core curriculum course and adapted it as an upper-level French course based on the concept of "Francospheres" as applied to the Americas. Global foodways and hip-hop cultures form the basis of courses created by Lauren Ravalico and Kathryn St. [End Page 201] Ours, respectively. Lovia Mondésir utilizes novels by Haitian authors Jacques S. Alexis and Louis-Philippe Dalembert to teach tolerance in her classroom. Whereas Jews as a minority group are often neglected in discussions of inclusivity, the final two essays seek to remedy this. Nancy M. Arenberg has created...

Developing intercultural awareness in language teaching: Insights from EFL lecturers in Turkey

This study aims to reveal EFL lecturers’ opinions about intercultural education and classroom practices including teaching materials, classroom activities, assessment, and teachers’ role for developing intercultural awareness. To gain insights about the current situation in EFL classrooms at a university level in Turkey, lecturers’ opinions and classroom practices have been examined through a questionnaire and an interview. This study, combining both quantitative and qualitative research, was designed according to the mixed method procedure and followed the sequential explanatory strategy. The study covered 172 EFL lecturers from preparatory schools of six state universities, and 12 EFL lecturers selected randomly joined the interview voluntarily. The participating institutions were Atatürk University, Cumhuriyet University, Erciyes University, Hacı Bektaş Veli University, Karabük University, and Karadeniz Technical University. The quantitative results show that although lecturers are aware of the importance of integrating both home and target culture into the classes, and developing learners’ interactional skills, intercultural communicative competence and intercultural sensitivity, they are not sure about how to put intercultural learning into practice for EFL classroom tasks and activities. Accordingly, the results of the interview present the problems that prevent teaching about intercultural awareness and reveal that lecturers need guidance and training to practice confidently intercultural competence teaching in the classroom, especially in terms of assessment methods as they do not have a clear idea about the assessment and evaluation methods to apply with intercultural competence.

Guest editorial

This special issue is devoted to a study of an action research-based reform of a US university study abroad programme to make it a genuine intercultural immersion experience. The four-year collaborative reform process combined participatory organisational redesign, the development of a comprehensive active learning approach and the teaching of intercultural competence through ethnographic immersion and community engagement in Seville, Spain. The case is an example of the development of intercultural competencies through guided behavioural change, of action research to reform higher education programmes and of active learning combined with formative and summative evaluation. The reader will learn about the experiences of the staff, faculty and mentors in the Consortium for Advanced Studies Abroad (CASA)-Sevilla study abroad programme and those of the sponsoring US universities as they together achieved a fundamental reform of a decades-old study abroad immersion programme. This special issue has many authors because this was a collaborative action-research project with continuous group work and brainstorming. The authors’ names are placed in the sections where the authorship is clear, but, as befits a collaboration, many of the ideas are the result of the combined thinking of all the authors. Authorship of the various sections has been allocated mainly to clarify for readers the most relevant author to contact to learn more about particular dimensions of the process. The guest editors took on the editorial duties on behalf of this larger group.

Investigating Intercultural Teaching Competence among Moroccan Teachers in Tertiary Education

<p><em>Intercultural learning is a new pedagogy that encourages learners to establish relationships between their own culture and the other culture, managing dysfunctions and mediating differences. These skills and others will enable learners to develop intercultural competence and help them become intercultural speakers/mediators (Byram, 1997). However, learners’ intercultural competence cannot be developed without an appropriate intervention and guidance on the part of the teacher who represents a central element in the intercultural learning process. Thus, the issue at stake is the degree to which teachers demonstrate knowledge of skills and competencies they need for the development of students’ intercultural competence and awareness. In this respect, the present study is an attempt to </em><em>explore the extent to which </em><em>the teachers’ competencies and skills meet the specifications formulated in the literature regarding intercultural teaching competence</em><em>. It included 25 Moroccan university teachers who have already taught culture at the university. In line with the objective of the study, a five-point Likert scale questionnaire was adopted as a major data collection procedure. The results revealed that the majority of Moroccan university teachers demonstrated negative attitudes towards and lack of awareness regarding the intercultural teaching competencies provided. It also turned out that the majority of teachers’ competencies do not meet the specifications formulated in the literature, regarding intercultural teaching competence. In light of the results obtained, several implications are derived from the study for decision makers and teachers.</em></p>

INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

PRYSHLYAK Oksana – Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Foreign Languages Department, Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatyuk National Pedagogical University, Kryvonosa Str., 2, Ternopil, 46024, UkraineE-mail address: pryshlyak_o@yahoo.com ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3108-502X ResearcherID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/F-3895-2019 LUPAK Natalia – Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Pedagogy and Methods of Primary and Preschool Education Department, Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatyuk National Pedagogical University, Kryvonosa Str., 2, Ternopil, 46024, Ukraine E-mail address: lupak@elr.tnpu.edu.ua ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7868-8771 ResearcherID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/I-7018-2018 To cite this article: Pryshlyak, O., & Lupak, N. (2019). Intercultural competence in foreign language teaching. Liudynoznavchi studii. Seriia «Pedahohika» – Human Studies. Series of «Pedagogy», 8/40, 185–200. doi: 10.24919/2413-2039.8/40.164457. Article history Received: January 12, 2019Received in revised form: February 14, 2019 Accepted: February 18, 2019Available online: April 22, 2019Journal homepage: http://lssp.dspu.edu.ua/ p-ISSN 2313-2094e-ISSN 2413-2039 © 2019 The Authors. Human studies. Series of «Pedagogy» published by Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University & Open Journal Systems. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).Abstract. The article reveals the understanding of intercultural competence in foreign language teaching. Teaching culture in foreign language teaching has remained an unsolved problem for many years. The relevance of the study is to identify the readiness of the English language teachers to implement intercultural competence at English language lessons. Teachers of a foreign language are the first people who introduce pupils to the linguistic and cultural diversity of the world, open the child’s consciousness to the knowledge of other cultural realities, traditions, behavioral models, values, etc. The realities of the modern world prove the importance of forming pupils’ multicultural consciousness, associated not only with countries of the target language, but also with other cultures whose representatives can communicate in the target language. However, the readiness of foreign language teachers to meet the modern challenges of society, which is related to the development of intercultural competence in pupils, has not been sufficiently highlighted in professional pedagogical education. The authors investigated the level of readiness of foreign language teachers for the development of intercultural competence in pupils. Data were collected from 78 foreign language teachers from four regions (Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi region) by means of a questionnaire. Study presented teachers’ understanding of intercultural competence and culture, attitudes to intercultural competence teaching, applications and actual teaching practices in foreign language classroom. The article reveals the attitude of the English language teachers to implementation of intercultural competence in foreign language teaching classroom. Findings revealed two distinct teacher profiles, i.e., the favourably disposed foreign language teacher, who integrate culture into their classroom practices and the unfavourably disposed foreign language teacher, who did not support this practice.Acknowledgements. Sincere thanks to the pedagogical staff of Ternopil National Volodymyr Hnatyuk Pedagogical University, in the person of Prof. Vira Polishchuk.Funding. The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Intercultural Competence in ELT Contexts: A Study of EFL Teachers’ Perceptions

Intercultural competence (IC) has been promoted by many educationalists as the most exalted type of competence in modern foreign language teaching (FLT). Among the difficulties to incorporate IC into FLT can be due to the fact that teachers may not have sufficient knowledge on the concept. To test this hypothesis, we attempt to answer the following question: how do Algerian English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers perceive the concepts of culture and IC as well as the objectives of the intercultural approach (ICA) in English language teaching (ELT) contexts? The present study proceeds to analyze teachers’ knowledge, perceptions and understanding of the concepts of culture, IC and the ICA and seeks to identify any potential deficiencies that may hinder effective IC teaching. The main aim of the study is then to help teacher trainers establish training programs that address more efficiently targeted teachers’ needs with regard to IC teaching. This paper will hopefully assist in improving the implementation of IC into FLT classrooms. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with eight teachers and then analyzed thematically. The findings revealed that many EFL teachers displayed a lack of theoretical understanding concerning the ICA and its objectives, which may well impact negatively on their IC teaching practices. Teacher educators therefore need to focus more on updating EFL teachers’ on both the theoretical and practical levels that learners are today expected to grow as cultural mediators equipped with a set of skills rather than as native-like proficient language users.

Intercultural Competence in ELT Contexts: A Study of EFL Teachers’ Perceptions

Intercultural competence (IC) has been promoted by many educationalists as the most exalted type of competence in modern foreign language teaching (FLT). Among the difficulties to incorporate IC into FLT can be due to the fact that teachers may not have sufficient knowledge on the concept. To test this hypothesis, we attempt to answer the following question: how do Algerian English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers perceive the concepts of culture and IC as well as the objectives of the intercultural approach (ICA) in English language teaching (ELT) contexts? The present study proceeds to analyze teachers’ knowledge, perceptions and understanding of the concepts of culture, IC and the ICA and seeks to identify any potential deficiencies that may hinder effective IC teaching. The main aim of the study is then to help teacher trainers establish training programs that address more efficiently targeted teachers’ needs with regard to IC teaching. This paper will hopefully assist in improving the implementation of IC into FLT classrooms. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with eight teachers and then analyzed thematically. The findings revealed that many EFL teachers displayed a lack of theoretical understanding concerning the ICA and its objectives, which may well impact negatively on their IC teaching practices. Teacher educators therefore need to focus more on updating EFL teachers’ on both the theoretical and practical levels that learners are today expected to grow as cultural mediators equipped with a set of skills rather than as native-like proficient language users.

An Empirical Study on College English Curriculum Assessment and Cultivation of Intercultural Communication Competence

Developing intercultural competence has been increasingly vital in the current college English curriculum reform. Based on data collected in curriculum assessment of English courses for non-language majors together with surveys and interviews, this study, explored critical factors in English curriculum that influence students' intercultural competence with the purpose of promoting effective teaching of intercultural competence and providing empirical evidence for the college English curriculum reform. Results suggested that class engagement, autonomous learning, and teaching methods had significant impacts on the overall level of intercultural competence and its specific dimensions, while the impacts of English language skills and satisfaction rate on intercultural competence were not statistically significant. Besides, students with different backgrounds and campus environments were significantly different in intercultural competence. The findings of this study on the relationships between curriculum factors and intercultural competence shed light on systematic development of intercultural competence in foreign language teaching and improvement of intercultural teaching.

Intercultural teaching competence: a multi-disciplinary model for instructor reflection

This article presents a model for Intercultural Teaching Competence (ITC) that instructors may use as a tool for reflection as they prepare to facilitate learning across cultures. Building on previous research on intercultural competence, culturally relevant teaching, intercultural trainer competencies, and student-centred approaches to teaching, the model identifies concrete facilitation techniques for instructors who would like to further develop their own teaching practice or mentor colleagues in effective teaching across cultures. The model consists of 20 instructor competencies grouped into three categories: foundational skills, facilitation skills, and curriculum development skills for intercultural learning. While intended as a tool to guide instructors in individual and group reflection on inclusive teaching practices, the ITC model may also be used by educational developers to guide feedback during classroom observations or while supporting curriculum internationalisation initiatives. Recommendations for use in faculty learning communities and workshops are included at the end of the article. The ITC model will benefit instructors in a variety of disciplines who teach in diverse and multidisciplinary classrooms, discuss global or social justice issues in their class, and those who seek to include intercultural and Indigenous perspectives in their curriculum.

Intercultural competence teaching in transnational higher education: a case review of an international branch campus in Uzbekistan

This article refers to:Intercultural competence teaching in transnational higher education: a case review of an international branch campus in Uzbekistan

Developing the Intercultural Competence of Graduate Students

This study explores how teaching development programs may facilitate the development of intercultural competence in graduate students and prepare them for communicating effectively in the global workplace after graduation. First, we describe the concept of intercultural teaching competence and examine the skills that graduate students may need to cultivate in order to communicate effectively in culturally diverse settings. Then, we discuss the findings of our qualitative study on the impact of teaching development programs enhanced with intercultural communication components. As a result of training, participants became more aware of cultural and disciplinary differences in communication, were able to adapt their communication style to audiences with different levels of background knowledge, and felt more prepared for interpersonal interactions across cultures with undergraduates. Finally, participants were able to transfer the skills learned to other areas of graduate study and used effective intercultural communication strategies when interacting with globally diverse peers and faculty supervisors.

The Role of Intercultural Competence in Foreign Language Teaching

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the cultural dimension of foreign language education, and teachers today are expected to promote the acquisition of intercultural competence in their learners. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the opinions and attitudes of Iranian teachers of English on intercultural competence teaching and to see how and to what extent these opinions and attitudes are reflected in their classroom application data were selected from 50 EFL teachers by mean of questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of four parts that investigate the teachers' attitudes and opinions. Date for present study, which was descriptive. Two statistics were used, if so , one sample t-test can be used, otherwise the chi-square test can applicable. The result of one sample t-test revealed that language teachers seem to be aware of the role of the culture in foreign language education though they do not often integrate culture into their teaching in order to develop intercultural competence in their learners. In overall, Iranian EFL teachers had positive attitude toward teaching culture in the classroom.

Outgoing Seminar as Project based Teaching of Intercultural Competence – A Description of the Results of the Project ‘Study Trip to Concentration Camp Memorial Site and Youth Encounter S’

The article is presenting the result of the project “Study trip to Memorial Site Dachau of the youth” conducted at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland and Krakow's high schools. The project's goal was to provide the knowledge as well as soft skills to the group of pupils and students. The aim of the project was to teach youth intercultural competence by showing them the similarities in common European history. The awareness of history and culture is an important key of intercultural competence. In order to teach intercultural competence there was used the project based teaching and outgoing seminar. It is worth to underline that in Polish youth opinion they have more difficulties in gaining the intercultural competence than Western Europe's students who are longer the part of EU. Outgoing seminar is the best way to show them their possibilities of having intercultural competence is the same as Western Europe's students because of common history.

Foreign Language Teachers and Intercultural Competence Teaching. Are they in Favour or Against It? Results from an International Investigation

Foreign language curricula now frequently require foreign language teachers to integrate intercultural competence teaching in foreign language education. This study's objective was to investigate whether and to what extent foreign language teachers support this new objective. To that aim, an international research design was developed, involving teachers in Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Mexico, Poland, Spain and Sweden.Our findings suggest that the larger part of the teachers who participated in our study are clearly willing to teach intercultural communicative competence (icc) in their classrooms, but that this overall positive disposition is conditioned by a number of convictions regarding the best way to teach ICC. In addition, we found that, despite differences in national teaching circumstances, teachers in different countries share a number of these convictions.

De la competencia intercultural en la adquisición de una segunda lengua o lengua extranjera: conceptos, metodología y revisión de métodos

In this paper different questions about the intercultural competence of a foreign language are analysed: its importance in that language acquisition and use; the evolution of central objectives in language education: from linguistic knowledge to intercultural competence; sociocultural aspects in the area of Foreign Language in the Spanish educational system and the most appropriate methodology to the teaching of intercultural competence where some techniques to work in the classroom are included. Besides the article presents a brief comparative study of the sociocultural dimension in the main methods of foreign language teaching in the 20th century.

Thinking not a Usual: Adding the Intercultural Perspective

The purpose of this article is to fill the gap between the emphasis in higher education on subject matter content and the acquisition of intellectual competencies. The authors suggest that these intellectual competencies are subject to triple conceptual reductionism, manifested in the following assumptions: (1) these skills are acquired through the content of established academic disciplines; (2) once learned, they transfer to other domains; and (3) they are "culture-free" and thus universally applicable. Contrary to these assumptions, the article attempts to demonstrate that these intellectual skills and their components are not learned automatically in traditional disciplines or by osmosis, and that they are influenced by the cultures in which they are practiced and taught. The authors selected three such competencies for review and examination: intercultural competence; critical thinking; and comparative thinking. Their analysis indicates that teaching of intercultural competence continues to be dominated by the "fix the problem" paradigm, which considers cultural differences an obstacle to be over-come. They applaud the emerging emphasis on the developmental approach to intercultural competence. Critical thinking, the second skill discussed, is the best known and is the one most commonly referred to in the literature as a universal skill. The authors dispute its universality by calling attention to specific areas of critical thinking that are influenced by culture, and by suggesting ways of expanding the concept to be more relevant to intercultural interactions. Comparative thinking, the third intellectual skill, seems to be the most neglected and yet is the most pervasively used, being practiced every time individuals explain themselves to others. Although these skills are treated separately for the purpose of analysis, they are interconnected and interdependent. The authors conclude that not only does the literature about these competencies fail to examine the role of culture in their development, but also international education literature is equally devoid of serious discussion about them. They hope that this article will begin a discussion about expanding the understanding of these intellectual skills.