Translingual transcultural competence: student agency, teacher guidance, and program support

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-358
Author(s):  
Claudia Kunschak
Keyword(s):  
Critical Role ◽  
Current Trend ◽  
Student Agency ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Intercultural Communicative Competence ◽  
Teacher Interviews ◽  
Teacher Guidance ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Program Support ◽  
Native Teachers

Abstract An increasingly interconnected world requires people to become versatile communicators in a variety of different settings. Language centers have a critical role to play in this process by offering language and culture training in multiple languages to students, professionals and the wider community alike. They may do so from the perspective of developing plurilingual pluricultural competence, translingual transcultural competence or intercultural communicative competence and intercultural citizenship. This paper takes as its framework translingual transcultural competence, which not only reflects the current trend of transnationalism and diasporic communities, but also emphasizes the need to be critically aware, culturally reflective and socially sensitive. In order to better understand affordances and challenges in developing this competence, or set of competences, the author surveyed and interviewed students and teachers at one university-affiliated language center offering 30 languages besides German as the main language of study. Students at all proficiency levels as well as native and non-native teachers of the language taught were included in the study. Whereas the student survey investigated awareness and attitude, identity and community as well as the autonomy and agency of students in the program, teacher interviews provided insights into program parameters, classroom pedagogy and out-of-class projects. Findings from the study indicate a strong foundation in multicompetence thinking with some challenges in developing the transcultural component.

Didattica delle lingue in prospettiva interculturale: innovazione e potenzialità

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 189-198
Author(s):  
Manuela Derosas
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Intercultural Communicative Competence ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Vast Literature ◽  
The Creation

Since the early ’80s the adjective "intercultural" in language learning and teaching has seemed to acquire a remarkable importance, although its meaning is strongly debated. As a matter of fact, despite the existence of a vast literature on this topic, difficulties arise when applying it in the classroom. The aim of this work is to analyze the elements we consider to be the central pillars in this methodology, i.e. a renewed language-and culture relation, the Intercultural Communicative Competence, the intercultural speaker. These factors allow us to consider this as a new paradigm in language education; furthermore, they foster the creation of new potentialities and configure the classroom as a significant learning environment towards the discovery of Otherness.

The importance of language and culture to the growing Sino-Caribbean commercial relationship

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helene Zamor ◽  
Alicia D. Nicholls ◽  
Albert Christopher Lee
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Culture ◽  
English Language ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Cultural Barriers ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Linguistic Understanding ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
The 19Th Century

Language and culture play a critical role in international commercial relations. Since the 19th century, the English language has undeniably held the prominent position as the global lingua franca to facilitate communication between nations. However, China’s contemporary re-emergence as an economic superpower has expanded its global influence. Consequently, awareness of Chinese culture and language is becoming important not only globally, but also in the Caribbean, where China’s economic footprint has expanded considerably in recent years. This article conceptually explores the important role of language and culture within the growing Sino-Caribbean commercial relationship. Specifically, it discusses the potential impact of language on the trade and tourism sectors, which are two key industries that drive the economies of English-speaking Caribbean small island developing states. It does this by charting the development of the English and Chinese languages as dominant languages. It then briefly looks at the current level of Chinese engagement with the region in trade and, more contemporarily, the potential of greater Chinese tourism in the Caribbean. It discusses the value of deeper cultural and linguistic understanding in nurturing and expanding these relationships. Finally, the article concludes by providing meaningful recommendations on ways to mitigate cultural and linguistic barriers in order to promote deeper Sino-Caribbean trade and tourism.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Language and culture are two important factors in commercial relationships, especially trade and tourism.</li><br /><li>This article adds to the growing literature on budding Sino-Caribbean relations by exploring the importance of linguistic and cultural understanding to nurturing this relationship.</li><br /><li>It argues that Caribbean countries cannot take for granted that English will always be the lingua franca for Chinese-Caribbean relations given China’s expanding global footprint.</li><br /><li>The article makes recommendations on ways to mitigate linguistic and cultural barriers in order to deepen Sino-Caribbean commercial ties.</li></ul>

scholarly journals Planning for Substantive Testing at the Assertion Level: A Training Activity and Mini Case

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janice E. Rummell ◽  
Andrea B. Weickgenannt
Keyword(s):  
Planning Process ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Training Activity ◽  
Audit Planning ◽  
Financial Statement Audit ◽  
Students First ◽  
Survey Responses

This two-part educational resource was developed to enhance students’ understanding of a key aspect of the audit guidance concerning financial statement audit planning for substantive testing at the assertion level. Assuming the role of audit associates at a CPA firm, students first engage in a training activity in which they deconstruct substantive audit tasks into significant financial statement accounts, management assertions, and types of audit procedures related to each task. Then students consider inherent risk factors for a client engagement in a mini case and apply relevant accounts, management assertions, and detailed substantive audit procedures. These resources are easy to implement and require little advanced preparation, yet they provide a rich instructional resource for either new or experienced auditing faculty. Assessment results and student survey responses reveal the effectiveness of these resources in promoting students’ comprehension of the critical role of management assertions in the audit planning process.

scholarly journals Teaching intercultural communicative competence through the four skills

2008 ◽  
pp. 157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Usó Juan ◽  
Alicia Martínez Flor
Keyword(s):  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Communicative Language Teaching ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Intercultural Communicative Competence ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Linguistic System ◽  
Point Of Departure

Nowadays, the most accepted instructional framework in second or foreign language (L2) programs is Communicative Language Teaching, whose main goal is to increase learners’ communicative competence. This theoretical term means being able to use the linguistic system effectively and appropriately in the target language and culture. However, the implementation of a communicative methodology is not an easy task since it requires an understanding of the integrated nature of the theoretical concept of communicative competence (Celce-Murcia and Olshtain, 2005). Therefore, it is the main goal of this paper to help language teachers better understand such a theoretical concept for improving their classroom practices. In so doing, we first provide an explanation of the theoretical concept of communicative competence. Then, a current framework of communicative competence, which aims at highlighting the function of the four macro-skills to build discourse competence for communicative purposes and reflects our conceptualization of language teaching is briefly discussed (Usó-Juan and Martínez-Flor, 2006a). Finally, on the basis of this framework, and taking the intercultural component as the point of departure, a variety of activities in the four language skills are presented for teaching learners intercultural communicative competence.

Five Case Studies on Tackling Real-World Problems as a Means to Increase Student Engagement

2021 ◽  
pp. 142-158
Author(s):  
Mark Patrick Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Real World ◽  
Content Standards ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Teacher Interviews ◽  
Achievement Data ◽  
Real World Problem ◽  
Authentic Learning Experiences

Five case studies detail teachers and professors who use a real-world problem as the basis for planning and implementing a comprehensive unit of authentic learning experiences aligned with academic content standards, instructed with high levels of rigor, and assessed authentically to determine the extent to which students mastered the standards. The text details how the instructor works with students to identify a meaningful problem, aligns appropriate work products to standards and instructional activities, and adapts the plan to address varying student learning needs. A mixed methods approach used student achievement data, student and teacher interviews, and a student survey. Increases were seen in students' self-efficacy, as well as their abilities to collaborate, communicate both verbally and in writing, engage in higher order thinking, conduct research, apply knowledge to novel circumstances, justify opinions, and assume leadership roles.

Intercultural Challenges of Teaching in Multilingual/Multicultural Classrooms

2022 ◽  
pp. 481-499
Author(s):  
Éva Csillik
Keyword(s):  
Critical Role ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Melting Pot ◽  
Global Citizens ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Multilingual Students ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Multilingual Classroom

Language and culture are inseparable entities forming an interdependent relationship within the multilingual classroom, which is both a melting pot of languages as well as a myriad of cultural backgrounds. In learning a common language, known as “lingua franca,” in the multilingual classroom, culture plays a critical role since the lingua franca makes communication possible between language teachers and multilingual students. Cultural connections and effective communication enables these students to engage in social and interactive activities and allows them to become active participants of the multilingual classroom. This chapter addresses some of the major intercultural challenges that both teachers and students of multilingual classrooms currently face within the “cultural jungle” of New York City. These multilingual students are simultaneously learning English as the lingua franca and participating in an intercultural educational experience in order to become linguistically and interculturally competent global citizens.

scholarly journals My Language Autobiography and Critical Reflections

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Pan
Keyword(s):  
Critical Role ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Personal Story ◽  
Critical Reflections

Language has always played a critical role in my life. In fact, if I were to select one way to tell my personal story, it would be through the influence of language and culture on my life. If one were to break my life into several distinct stages so far, then language has played an important role in every stage.

Development of Intercultural Communicative Competence of Future Specialists in the Field of Information Technologies in the Process of Foreign Languages Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-112
Author(s):  
Svitlana S. Kostiuk
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Competence Development ◽  
Intercultural Communicative Competence ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Communication Practice ◽  
Different Cultures

Intercultural communication practice proves that effective communication with the representatives of different cultures involves not only knowledge of phonetics and lexico-grammatical structure, but the culture of the learned language as well. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to investigate and describe the essence of the term “intercultural communicative competence” and show the materials that promote its development. It is proved that the introduction of competence, communicative, and intercultural-based approaches facilitate the achievement of the set purpose. It has been found that intercultural communicative competence constitutes a complex formation with a lot of components that allow people to choose necessary language and speech means according to the sociocultural context, choose the strategies and tactics of communication to achieve set tasks and mutual understanding with the representatives of other cultures. It is found out that specific principles (dominance of problematic cultural tasks, cultural variability, and cultural opposition) form unbiased attitude towards the multicultural world, teach to perceive and analyse cultural difference, understand the interconnection of language and culture and thus improve the language level. The effectiveness of such methods as conscious-comparative, audiolingual, and role-play has been confirmed. Their introduction promotes meaningful learning and makes the process of intercultural communicative competence development easier. Considering the fact that the basis of intercultural communication is language, culture, and personality, the following components of intercultural communicative competence are identified: value-based, cognitive, effective, culturological. Exercises for intercultural communicative competence development of future specialists in the field of information technologies have been proposed. It is proved that the introduction of mentioned approaches, methods, and tasks has improved the maturity level of intercultural communicative competence. The practical value of the paper is in the fact that obtained results can be used in the process of foreign language teaching in any specialty

How Paper and Digital Children's Books Support Student Understanding

2020 ◽  
pp. 124-141
Author(s):  
Laura B. Liu ◽  
Kayla Pride ◽  
Payten Ewing ◽  
Maycie Benedict
Keyword(s):  
First Grade ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Learner Engagement ◽  
Teacher Interviews ◽  
Teacher Guidance ◽  
Digital Version ◽  
Paper Version ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
Digital Texts ◽  
Student Focus

This study builds on previous research regarding digital texts and learner engagement to provide insights on the impact of digital and paper texts on first-grade student learning. Three formats of the same STEM children's book included (1) a paper version read by the teacher; (2) a digital version read as a class and facilitated by the teacher; and (3) a digital version read independently by individual students, without the teacher. Mixed methods analysis involved a pre- and post-reading worksheet assessing student comprehension and concept retention, followed by teacher interviews. Quantitative and qualitative findings demonstrated the value of paper texts read with teacher guidance to highlight key concepts and sustain student focus. Teacher interviews also noted the value of digital texts to engage student interest, suggesting there is a pedagogical place for paper and digital texts in the classroom. Findings highlight the complexity of learner engagement and need for thoughtful pedagogies.

scholarly journals Brokering College Opportunity for First-Generation Youth: The Role of the Urban High School

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia C. Duncheon ◽  
Stefani R. Relles
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Social Capital ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Capital Gains ◽  
Urban High School ◽  
Student Agency ◽  
College Going ◽  
College Opportunity

Social capital research has demonstrated the value of relationships and networks to enhance college opportunity for first-generation students. While most work has focused on individual students and their ties, high schools play a critical role in social capital processes by connecting students to external college access organizations and resources. This case study employs Mario Small’s organizational brokerage theory to investigate social capital formation among college-bound first-generation youth in an urban high school. Specifically, we explore how the school itself brokered college-going resources through its partner organizations. Findings illustrate a range of passive and active brokerage strategies that influenced the quantity and quality of available resources, and in turn, the amount of student agency required to secure social capital gains.

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