Exploring opportunities for developing intercultural competence through intercultural communicative language teaching (ICLT): A case study in a Chinese as a foreign language classroom in a New Zealand high school

<p>This qualitative case study explores naturally arising opportunities for developing intercultural competence through intercultural communicative language teaching (ICLT) in a New Zealand high school Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) classroom. Although developing intercultural competence is a goal of many school curriculums, teacher awareness and implementation of effective intercultural pedagogies is not yet wellestablished. Exploring the naturally arising occurrences of intercultural teaching practices and behaviours in one classroom with no formal knowledge of ICLT provides evidence of how culture may be currently understood and approached in comparative settings. Existing views on culture provide a starting point for further developing ICLT. Data collection methods included classroom observations, stimulated recall, unstructured and semi-structured interviews, and written reflections. One teacher and three students from an intermediate level CFL class participated in the study from June to September 2015. The findings show that while some intercultural pedagogies and behaviours occurred naturally, without an explicit focus on developing intercultural competence students are unlikely to develop the skills, attitudes, and traits which make up intercultural competence in the language classroom. This study suggests that the current cultural activities in class could be transformed into opportunities for developing intercultural competence by adding a regular comparative, connective, and reflective dimension, incorporating the students’ linguistic and cultural experiences. The results of this study illustrate the necessity of expanding teacher awareness and skills in practising ICLT to promote the development of intercultural competence and to increase students’ interest in learning languages in New Zealand.</p>

Exploring opportunities for developing intercultural competence through intercultural communicative language teaching (ICLT): A case study in a Chinese as a foreign language classroom in a New Zealand high school

<p>This qualitative case study explores naturally arising opportunities for developing intercultural competence through intercultural communicative language teaching (ICLT) in a New Zealand high school Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) classroom. Although developing intercultural competence is a goal of many school curriculums, teacher awareness and implementation of effective intercultural pedagogies is not yet wellestablished. Exploring the naturally arising occurrences of intercultural teaching practices and behaviours in one classroom with no formal knowledge of ICLT provides evidence of how culture may be currently understood and approached in comparative settings. Existing views on culture provide a starting point for further developing ICLT. Data collection methods included classroom observations, stimulated recall, unstructured and semi-structured interviews, and written reflections. One teacher and three students from an intermediate level CFL class participated in the study from June to September 2015. The findings show that while some intercultural pedagogies and behaviours occurred naturally, without an explicit focus on developing intercultural competence students are unlikely to develop the skills, attitudes, and traits which make up intercultural competence in the language classroom. This study suggests that the current cultural activities in class could be transformed into opportunities for developing intercultural competence by adding a regular comparative, connective, and reflective dimension, incorporating the students’ linguistic and cultural experiences. The results of this study illustrate the necessity of expanding teacher awareness and skills in practising ICLT to promote the development of intercultural competence and to increase students’ interest in learning languages in New Zealand.</p>

Can a Systemic-Phenomenological Teacher Professional Development Program Enhance Awareness of Intuitions and Serve Pedagogical Tact?

In all levels of education, teachers’ abilities to deal with complex classroom situations in split-seconds concerns pedagogical tact, a crucial quality which relies, in part, on intuition. Developing the ability to appropriately handle the complexity of classroom situations requires a systemic approach. This study aimed to explore the experiences in and effects of a systemic-phenomenological professional development program for enhancing teacher abilities to handle complex (classroom) situations through conscious attention for intuition. In the present study, 64 teachers from primary, secondary, and higher education participated in a 12 week professional development program featuring systemic-phenomenological exercises, such as meditations and embodied simulations. By increasing understanding of the complexity of social systems and sensitizing awareness of intuitive signals, the program aimed to improve teachers’ use of intuition, and through that, their handling of classroom situations. Data were gathered through participant reflection logs and focus group discussions, which were analysed both deductively and inductively. The findings suggest that the program helped heighten teacher awareness of intuitions, and individual awareness in the classroom, yielding positive effects on teacher abilities to take appropriate split-second action in complex classroom situations. While further research is needed, the results of this study include practices for enhancing teacher awareness of intuition through systemic-phenomenological exercises which proved to be promising, and a taxonomy of effects related to pedagogical tact in the classroom.

Relevant Aspects To Promote Teacher Awareness in the Pedagogical Orchestration of Learning Activities WhereStudents Move

The pedagogical monitoring of activities involving spatial movement of students represents a teaching challenge due to events taking place outside the visual reach of the teacher. We present a literature review in which observational aspects are relevant to promote teacher awareness in these activities, from a perspective of awareness within the field of CSCW - Computer Supported Cooperative Work. We also identified instruments and situations associated with those aspects of awareness. Results are presented via thematic analysis, clarifying the relevance of aspects related to Motivation/Engagement, Location/Path, Execution of the Activity, Interaction/Cooperation, and Results/Feedback. This clarification may contribute towards the development of learning orchestration protocols and information systems which support teachers in the collection and analysis of awareness-supporting data, contributing to teacher awareness of what occurs in these activities and allowing greater freedom and assertiveness in the pedagogical orchestration.

An investigation into teacher awareness of, and attitudes towards, English as a Lingua Franca within Business English instruction in the UK

Masters in English Language Teaching Dissertation, from University of Sussex, 2016. This dissertation documents the research into Business English (BE) teacher awareness of, and attitudes towards, English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). Given that English has become the international language of global business and trade, used widely to communicate across linguistic and cultural borders, the argument is made that ELF is the most relevant paradigm for BE instruction, in contrast to the still currently dominant English as a Foreign Language (EFL) paradigm that has housed most English Language Teaching (ELT). A further argument is made that a number of what the author refers to as core ‘ELF competences’, primarily Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC), accommodation strategies and aspects of the phonological Lingua Franca Core (LFC), are the most relevant and teachable aspects of ‘ELF-talk’ to BE learners.The research took the form of a small Mixed Methods Research (MMR) case-study of a group of BE teachers based in the South of England, UK. Twelve participants completed questionnaires, modelled loosely on that used in Dewey’s 2012 research into teacher awareness of ELF and ELT teacher training. A further two participants were selected for follow-up classroom observations and interviews.A review of the literature indicates that teachers often possess limited awareness of the constructs of ELF or ICC and when there is awareness, demonstrate a conflict between their beliefs surrounding the relevance of these constructs to their teaching and their willingness or ability to apply those beliefs in practice. The findings from this research, however, do not support those claims and instead indicate relatively high levels of applied ELF awareness in practice. Due to the small-scale nature of this investigation it is impossible to infer that this difference in results emanates from the fact that the subjects in this research were BE as opposed to General English teachers, as has been the case in previous research, therefore implications for further research indicated by this study include a more widespread investigation into BE teacher awareness and attitudes towards ELF.