scholarly journals Developing intercultural competence: a model based on introducing a literary analysis in a foreign language classroom

2021 ◽  
pp. e021046
Author(s):  
Anfisa N. Ibragimova ◽  
Alina A. Kadyrova

This article is concerned with developing students' intercultural competence through teaching a literary analysis as a part of teaching foreign languages and linguistics in higher education. The objective of the research is to design a model of developing intercultural competence through a literary analysis in a foreign language class. Modeling was applied as the leading method of the research as it regards the process of IC (intercultural competence) development as a task-oriented and organized pedagogical process. The submitted didactic model should develop the IC through knowledge, skills, a system of values, reflection and positive attitude to the culture under study, so it includes such components as objectives, motivation, organization, content, and evaluation; it determines the pedagogical conditions, organization, teaching methods and tools that together provide the targeted result. The formative experiment introduced the model into practice in a foreign-language class at university and showed positive results in developing the students' intercultural competence. The model provides pedagogical support of the process of developing IC as a part of foreign language teaching and can be applied within language, literature and linguistics-related courses.

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tecnam Yoon

<p><em>The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of virtual simulation-based language learning in a foreign language class in Korea. Total 35 1st-year university students in Korea participated in this research to figure out the effect of simulations. A virtual English learning community, ‘Cypris Chat’ in Second Life was selected as a learning tool. For the data collection, a survey questionnaire was distributed and analyzed quantitatively. The result shows that the majority of the students had a positive attitude toward using a virtual simulation in English learning and had better understanding in learning English by experiencing an authentic practice. The first section of this paper provides a general overview of simulations in educational settings through an insightful literature review of the current research in the area. The review includes a comprehensive outlook on simulations, an example of successful classroom integration and some of the considerations researchers have found for their implementation. The latter section addresses the research method, results and conclusions.</em></p>


Author(s):  
Monika Kusiak-Pisowacka

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.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (102) ◽  
pp. 18-23
Author(s):  
Asta Lileikienė ◽  
Lina Danilevičienė

Background. Anxiety includes uncomfortable feelings when learning or using the new language. It continues to exist in the university foreign language classroom as well. A number of foreign language students report feeling anxious about language learning. Research aim was to investigate the foreign language anxiety (in our case, English as a foreign language, EFL) in the classroom context at tertiary level in relation to its effect on foreign language acquisition as well as to design recommendations of how to reduce or exclude foreign language anxiety from the university foreign language classroom. Methods. The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale developed by E. K. Horwitz, M. B. Horwitz, and Cope (1986) was used. The questionnaire consisted of 5 statements about the respondents’ general background and 33 statements which were evaluated on the Likert scale from 1 to 5 by the research participants. The research sample involved 200 first and second year students of Lithuanian Sports University . Results. The research analysis revealed that the respondents generally felt anxious speaking in the language class, making mistakes and being corrected by the teacher, worrying about the consequences of failing foreign language class and speaking with native speakers. The correlation between the students’ level of knowledge and their feeling of anxiety was established: students of lower level (A2 and B1) tended to feel higher levels of anxiety. Moreover, female participants of this study exhibited higher levels of foreign language anxiety. Conclusions. Foreign language anxiety proved to be a powerful predictor for demotivation in foreign language learning and impeded the acquisition of foreign languages. The research analysis revealed that the majority of younger respondents demonstrated a higher degree of anxiety. The more mature the students were, the more confident they felt in EFL classes. It was found that female students felt higher level of anxiety in learning English as a foreign language than male students. They were more inclined to hesitate and felt anxious in the language classroom, while male undergraduates were more confident and had a greater ability to cope with the feelings of anxiety and nervousness. Students with higher knowledge of English language (level B2) showed lower levels of anxiety and felt more confident in language class. A large number of failures was observed at the pre-intermediate and lower intermediate (A2/B1) levels. Therefore, the learners with high anxiety often got low achievement and low achievement made them more anxious about learning.


2018 ◽  
pp. 307-318
Author(s):  
Marzanna Karolczuk

Comparing and contrasting cultural, lexical and grammatical aspects in the foreign language classroom has many advantages. These include the development of intercultural competence, cultural awareness and a new insight into the first language. Research shows that foreign language textbooks are basic teaching tools. Therefore, this article is an attempt to analyse Polish-Russian tasks and comparative content in Russian textbooks at the level of lower secondary school. Five textbook series for learning Russian, published between 1999 and 2009, are examined. These are В Москву, Времена, Кл@ссно!, Прогулка and Эхо. The findings show that these textbooks offer comparative reflective tasks and reconstructive ones.


2013 ◽  
pp. 193-202
Author(s):  
Tadeusz Pacholczyk

The contemporary glottodidactics is an interdisciplinary science, which is reflected, among others, in the transition from mono- to bi- and multiculturalism. The main objective of this paper is to define the relationships between, and conditions of, intercultural teaching and foreign language communication. The following issues will be explored in detail: - discussion of the main assumptions of the post-communicative paradigm of contemporary glottodidactics; - definition of the subject of cultural studies and linguistics in the context of the relationships between “language and culture”; - development of relationships in terms of communication and intercultural competence; - definition of the main objective of intercultural communication; - analysis of relationships as well as intercultural teaching and communication based on examples.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 69-77
Author(s):  
Dr. Neerja Samajdar

Learning a language, is not only learning sounds, alphabets and grammar, but it also means learning the customs and cultural norms. We all grow up in social circles, we informally learn how to use language expressions, gestures, tones. We get to learn the acceptable behaviors or language use in our society. We all speak Languages. We all imbibe Cultures. Language expresses a particular meaning that represents the culture of a particular social group. We interact with a language and culture becomes its reference point. Krober(1923) expresses, "Culture, then, began when speech was present, and from then on, the enrichment of either means the further development of the others". Hence, language and culture are complex, yet inseparable form of human interactions. Culture is complexly intertwined with language. Human interactions are defined as communication. The communicative force of culture works not only in representing aspects of reality, but also in connecting one context with another. According to the linguistic relativity principle, the way we think about the world, gets influenced by the language we use to express it and vice versa. Therefore, consciously or unconsciously, we show certain behaviors and carry certain language habits which are deeply rooted in our culture. Thus learning a language means learning and adopting that culture.   This paper deals with this very relationship of language and culture with a cross-cultural interaction, how teaching and learning a foreign language plays a role in learning the target culture. This paper will make recommendations for effective culture education in foreign language classroom to develop intercultural competence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (33) ◽  
pp. e16754
Author(s):  
Alla Guslyakova ◽  
Nina Guslyakova ◽  
Nailya Valeeva ◽  
Ludmila Veretennikova

The article covers the problem of project-based learning (PBL) in present-day foreign language classes. The main aim of this research is to identify how PBL method can be implemented in teaching a foreign language (for example, English as a second language) in a modern comprehensive school and to give recommendations on organizing a foreign language class with the help of PBL. The working hypothesis of the study says that PBL method can be a relevant and effective methodological technique allowing educators to improve the quality of school education and motivating young learners to work hard at L2 classes and study a foreign language better. For the effective analysis and estimation of project-based learning in teaching ESL a two-step experiment was conducted. Overall, the results of the study demonstrated the importance of introduction of project-based learning in foreign language classes as an essential component of the teacher’s work in the present-day education. They also proved that project-based learning should be a must in every educator’s pedagogical “piggy-bank” because PBL is an effective professional instrument which may overcome the latest demands and challenges of the third millennium society.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 237-243
Author(s):  
Mihaela Cozma

Abstract In order to communicate effectively with people belonging to different social or ethnic groups, any language user is supposed to have not only a good command of the language code involved, but also what is generally known as “intercultural knowledge.” As a consequence, the development of the students' cultural competence is perceived today as a major aim of the foreign language education. Starting from this hypothesis, the paper discusses the manner in which the concept of genre can provide students with insights into cultural expectations of creating a text in both spoken and written English.


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