Interculturality in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language: strategies for intercultural learning

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UDC 372.881.1

Universidad Nacional Ivan Franko de Lviv

Interculturality in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language: strategies for intercultural learning

Fernando Martm-Loeches Morales

Until two decades ago foreign language teaching models were not adequate to respond to real demand or to solve many of the misunderstandings and difficulties that occur because students have a lack of sociocultural competence. These problems, which are quite common, are the result of linguistic misunderstandings, differences in character, strangeness of foreigners, etc. Now people who study a foreign language know that they not only have to learn a language and another culture, but they must experience another way of living. Therefore, the type of competence that is needed can not be only communicative, it must be intercultural first of all.

In fact, in 2002 the Common European Framework of Languages, which is a project by which the policy of teaching modern languages ??in Europe is to be governed, emphasizes the concept of interculturality as an objective of language teaching:

The linguistic and cultural competences with respect to each language are modified through the knowledge of the other language and contribute to create an awareness, skills and intercultural capacities. They allow the individual to develop a richer and more complex personality, and improve the ability to later learn languages ??and open up new cultural experiences. [...] The student does not acquire two different ways of acting and communicating that are not related, but rather he becomes multilingual and develops an interculturality [2, p.60].

First, we must answer the question: what is intercultural competence? The dictionary of key terms of ELE gives us the answer:

Intercultural competence means the ability of the learner of a second language or foreign language to function adequately and satisfactorily in situations of intercultural communication, that which results from the interaction between speakers of different languages ??and cultures, which occur frequently in society. current, characterized by multiculturalism [8].

The origins of intercultural education

If we make a general review of the history of intercultural teaching, we can see how the first initiatives in the study of multiculturalism started from the company.

The first studies were carried out by the anthropologist E. T. Hall [5] and the Dutch social psychologist G.Hofstede [6]. The first is based on comparative analyzes of different cultures to explore how cultural factors affect the way they negotiate in different countries. The goal was to help Americans understand the psychology and behavior of different cultures. In his work, important elements such as time, space and context are explored. The second investigated the values ??and norms of a multinational company and identified four common dimensions in the value system that affect human thinking: distance of power, individualism and collectivism, masculinity and femininity, and aversion to uncertainty .

The sociocultural formation had its origin in the USA, when they began to send aid workers to third world countries. Training courses were created to facilitate participants' knowledge of cultural elements. Later it was extended to private companies that sent workers to other countries, but it was not a usual practice until the beginning of the 21st century. In any case, these courses were based on the results of comparative analyzes of different cultures and simplified cultural aspects with affirmations such as the Italians are corrupt, the Danish democrats or the lazy Mexicans. Basically it was a list that limited itself to saying that things could be done in those countries and that other things could not.

In the last two decades, studies on the teaching of foreign culture have changed and greater importance is given to cultural training as part of the communicative learning of a language, thus preparing students for intercultural communication.

1.2. Intercultural competence in relation to communicative competence

During all these years, the concept of communicative competence in the pedagogy of language teaching has prevailed. According to this approach, the student acquires the ability to use the language in an effective and adequate manner, but the concept of intercultural competence is much broader, since it emphasizes the cultural aspect of language teaching. The initial point of this approach is to make more emphasis on the student and their needs when communicating with another culture [11, p. 32]. For this we must take into account some skills that must be developed by the student who wishes to communicate in another language.

M. Byram [1] considers that intercultural competence should include certain competences related to the personal abilities of the student that can be summarized in:

Knowing being: ability to perceive what is foreign implies a change of attitude towards foreign culture.

Knowledge: acquisition of new concepts of foreign culture, so that the student reconceptualize their world.

Knowing how to do: learning through experience and knowing how to behave in the new culture.

The learner of a language, according to M.Byram [1], is going to be an intermediary, that is, an intercultural speaker. In this sense, our intention as teachers should be to find and formulate objectives so that students acquire a competence that includes the possibility of mutual understanding in intercultural situations and, in this way, facilitate the student's encounter with other cultures. According to this author, there are four reasons for us to reconsider the concept of communicative competence:

Give greater importance to the sociocultural aspect.

The communicative competence is based on the ideal speaker: interaction of ideal interlocutors. But we must bear in mind that the student has a cultural background of his own and this influences how he sees the new culture.

Introduce both cultures in the classroom, that of the student and that of the foreign language to make it intercultural.

Introduce the emotional aspect in learning.

In relation to this last characteristic, J.N.Schumman [13] describes three types of disorientation experienced by people who live in a foreign culture for a long time:

Linguistic shock: frustrating feelings due to lack of competence in the foreign language

Cultural shock: the usual strategies used in their own language to solve problems do not work

Cultural stress: caused by issues of identity, due to the change of social status in the foreign culture.

1.3 Intercultural teaching approaches and acquisition stages

There are two main approaches in intercultural teaching: the social skills approach (The Social Skills Approach) that tries to make the student behave appropriately in the speech community and try to pretend that he or she is another member of the community; and the holistic approach (The Holistic Approach), which is the one that we will try to follow, in which the affective and emotional aspects of the student must be developed so that the student shows certain attitudes towards cultural differences in a way that moves away from ethnocentrism and become a cultural mediator.

M.Meyer [9] distinguishes three stages in the acquisition of intercultural competence:

Monocultural level: the student contemplates the foreign culture from the interpretative limits of his own culture;

Intercultural level: the student takes an intermediate position between the own culture and the foreign one, which allows him to establish comparisons between both;

Transcultural level: the learner reaches the appropriate distance with respect to the cultures in contact to play the role of mediator between both.

1.4 Conclusions

1. As a conclusion, we consider the conditions, which according to A.M.Soderberg [15], should bring together all intercultural competence:

It must be effective: the speaker has to communicate in a different culture.

It must be appropriate: the speaker communicates in an intercultural situation in an appropriate way.

It has an affective component: tolerance, empathy, curiosity and flexibility in confusing situations.

It has a cognitive component: understanding differences and specific knowledge of other cultures.

It has a communicative component: ability to understand and express verbal and nonverbal signs, and interpret social roles in an acceptable way.

That we understand by culture

What is culture? What elements of culture are essential for learning a language? To answer this question, we have to take into account several elements: from what is believed to be essential, to those that indicate how we should behave or more immediate and daily manifestations.

Art History

We are going to be left with the definition of culture that F.Poyatos gives [12, p. 25] in his work The non-verbal communication:

[...] culture can be defined as a series of habits shared by members of a group that lives in a geographical space, learned, but biologically conditioned, such as the media (of which language is the basis) , the social relations at different levels, the different daily activities, the products of that group and how they are used, the typical manifestations of the personalities, both national and individual, and their ideas about their own existence and that of the other members.

That is, it is not going to be a culture that we can call "encyclopedic", but a set of norms, patterns of behavior that students will internalize so as not to have problems in a society different from their own, where they should interpret attitudes and intentions, and understand linguistic and cultural elements [7].

What culture to teach?

L.Miquel and N.Sans [10, pp. 15-21] made a subdivision of the culture that ELE professors have assumed:

Culture with capital letter (encyclopedic culture)

Culture to dry (linguistic or pragmatic culture)

Culture with k (epidermic culture)

The "culture with capital letters (culture cultivated or legitimized)": is the traditional concept of culture, that is, literary, historical, artistic, musical, etc. It is the culture par excellence (in Spain we would talk about Diego Velazquez, Francisco Goya, Federico Garcia Lorca, Don Quixote ...).

Table 1 Strategies to solve intercultural conflicts

The "culture to dry (with small)": is what all individuals share and take for granted. In other words, it is the way of expressing a linguistic and cultural community. These variables are insensitive and are the culprits of cultural misunderstandings. We would be talking about a sociocultural component that would include, among other things, the way of expressing modesty, courtesy, speaking turns ...

And, finally, "Culture with k" that refers to the type of knowledge that is used in different contexts, such as the jargon of some cultural groups; they are the uses and customs that are different from the common cultural one and that do not share all the speakers. That is, it will take into account the ability of the speaker to distinguish the different registers of the language and adapt to each situation.

Reflection and attitude towards topics and stereotypes

Our own culture teaches us what we should see and ignore, but a person outside of that culture would not know how to interpret certain elements. Normally he will interpret them from his own experience through association, analogy or deduction. An example of this is in the book of Nancy's Thesis by R.J. Sender In this book, the protagonist, a young American university student, intrepts the Spanish culture in her own way, without checking her comic hypothesis with any native.

The objective is to go beyond the superficial comprehension of a culture, we have to overcome what is called "the showcase effect" [7], that is, to look from the outside - from my own culture - to interpret what I see but without checking my hypothesis, so I do not find out if my impressions are valid to explain some linguistic behaviors or certain attitudes. This leads to a danger that can appear in language students, the so-called Nancy syndrome:

the way in which the behaviors of the speakers of the target language are interpreted, without the intention that has led them because they almost always receive their true meaning within the totality of the culture of origin, because the ways of thinking, feeling and acting that define each culture are acquired socially [7].

According to I. Iglesias [7], the process of intercultural competence avoids this way of seeing the other culture: it requires the student to distance himself from the usual way of seeing what is around him in order to accept other points of view, without have to give up their own cultural identity. In this way the student develops his receptivity to different languages ??and different cultures; as well as his curiosity and empathy towards his environment. For this we must work positive attitudes towards cultural diversity, eliminating prejudices, but also reflecting critically on one's own culture. intercultural competence conflict learning

Units of analysis of different cultures:

There is a series of interrelated cultural elements that occur in communicative interactions, through which cultures can be analyzed [14; 3]: symbols, beliefs, modes of classification, presuppositions and actions.

If we want to create a bridge between the two cultures, that of the student and that of the target language, we can use an approach that uses the resources of feeling, thinking and acting. These premises are the basis of the Amani collective, specialized in intercultural teaching. Through this approach, students will learn to use a series of tools and strategies to help them resolve conflicts based on their senses and their experiences; in such a way that they play in the classroom with their ability to feel, think and act so that they understand, act and interact properly with the natives of the other culture while remaining themselves [4].

In all societies there are differences of cultural patterns, for example, usually happens with the Spanish and a large part of Europeans and Americans. In a negotiation they act differently: the second ones listen to their interlocutor without interrupting him and he says what he thinks because for them it is a form of respect and intelligence; and the first ones intervene in the conversation, giving feedback, because it is a way of showing interest and does not say what they think all the time because the other could be upset. However, some feel disrespected and others feel uncomfortable. Both act in a natural way, trying to respect the other they have learned from their culture, but the communication does not work and they are rejected. This would be a clear example of an intercultural problem.

We, as Spanish teachers, should try to help foreign students through certain strategies to avoid these intercultural problems.

The following exercises try that the students develop their emotional capacity and their experience through activities that form their intercultural competence, so that they learn 1) to observe, 2) to compare and look for nuances, 3) to interpret and 4) to act and interpret

Learn to observe

In this class of exercises students are expected to reflect on different aspects of the target culture such as colors, architectural style, vegetation, vehicles or clothing through images. These activities can help the students of the initial levels to become familiar with the other culture. For example, we can show different photos of Spain and other countries to the students and they should explain why they believe it is Spain or not and comment on the signs that led them to think so [16]; or we show two images, one of the country of the student and another of a country of the language that is studying, and we ask that you compare them and look for differences and similarities. We can use different themes, such as houses, streets, rooms, meals, people, etc. [4].

Exercise 1: Here you have a picture of a Spanish city. Do you know what's in the picture?

(Gonzalez Blasco, Intercultural Learning, 1999)

Learn to compare and look for nuances

In this case the objective is for the student to learn to be interested and pay attention to the differences of the other. We seek to make them aware of their cultural being and can qualify all kinds of generalizations and stereotypes. A model activity of this series of exercises is to draw on a sheet of paper the map of your country (in which case if you find yourself in a unicultural environment you can do it from a country you know) and indicate what the name and capital is. Then they must place the map on the wall of the class and then write on the maps of their classmates what they know of each country. To finish, the student will return to the map of his country and prepare a presentation in which he can qualify the notes that his classmates have written [4].

Another interesting exercise is to show them a letter that a Ukrainian who is living in Spain sends to a friend, where they relate their visions with the foreign culture during their first day. After reading it, students should look for pragmalinguistic interferences, expressions of their language in the target language, and sociopragmatics, social perceptions and expectations of behavior typical of their culture, which the protagonist has committed.

Exercise: Igor is a young Ukrainian student who has obtained a job to teach at a Spanish school. Igor speaks Spanish very well, having studied it in Lviv for many years, but this is the first time he has visited Spain. He has written three letters to his best friend telling him how his first day in Spain has been.

We are going to divide into three groups. Each group will read a letter with attention. To memorize the content, you can write nine words on a sheet of paper. Afterwards, each member of the group will meet with members of the other two groups and summarize the contents of their letter with the help of the notes they have taken.

Now let's reflect together:

What has happened to Igor? Do you think, like him, that Spaniards are strangers? What are Igor's problems related to? With his mastery of Spanish? Have you ever traveled abroad? <^ Did things like Igor's have happened to you? How did you solve the problem? What emotions has Igor felt?

Make a list and give examples of situations that would make you feel those emotions.

Each group will make a list of the "mistakes" Igor has made on his first day of work in Spain that appear in his letter. Later, we will explain why Igor acted like this.

Now let's imagine the opposite situation. Imagine Antonio, a young man from Madrid who goes to work in a school in Lviv. I'm sure things like Igor's would happen to him! Let's imagine that we are Antonio and that we write a letter to our best friend to tell that "horrible" first day in Ukraine, working with the members of our group.

(Versiу de Instituto Cervantes de Moscu)

Learn to interpreter

The idea is that they compare, reflect, qualify and interpret certain stereotypes positively. We chose a topic, for example, that the Spaniards are always late and we ask them to think if in different situations or contexts the normal thing in Spain is to arrive early, on time or late [16]. The purpose is to question stereotypes that until recently seemed inexorable and thus realize that, if we think about it, there are always similar and different elements to their culture. Not everything is white or black.

Exercise: "The Spaniards ALWAYS arrive late" ^ sure ?, ^ always? Mark in the questionnaire if you think that, in certain situations, in Spain the normal and appropriate thing is to arrive early, late (and how long) or on the dot.

Learning to flirt and interact

We raised a supposed cultural conflict through an anecdote, like that of a Spanish person who was left without tasting the dessert that his Ukrainian host had prepared because he did not accept the first invitation he received (in Spain it is cuts not to accept something at first) . Then we ask you to look for solutions to this problem. The goal is to learn from mistakes and lose fear. In general, we will try to make them errors of others, through anecdotes or guided exercises, but we can also demystify this type of conflict if we ask them to tell a personal event and the rest of the class to look for a solution [16].

Exercise: A few years ago I went to England to study English and live with a family. The first day in the house there was an exquisite dinner. The mother took out a wonderful dessert cake and asked me if I wanted to. I, demurely on my first day, said "no" with a small mouth. I was left without trying the cake because the lady did not offer me again.

What would you do in my situation?

<^ Has something similar happened to you? Write it on a sheet. Then we will do a dramatization of all these situations and we will look for a solution for each of them.

(Tomalin & Stempleski, Cultural Awareness, 1994 / Gonzalez Blasco, Intercultural Learning, 2009)

To discover the importance of intervening in the conversation, show interest and cooperate, you can perform different exercises, for example: one student tells what he did on the weekend and the other asks him questions about what the other is telling him, this shows interest in the conversation and the fear of intervention is lost [4]; and in another the students try to broaden the response of a dialogue that the teacher has given them previously, to practice the interest in cooperation [16].

Exercise: Your partner is going to tell a story about your weekend. Try to interrupt him by asking questions so that the words he said while he is counting are retaken.

For example:

- Friday saif afternoon ...

What time did you leave?

- At nine o'clock or so, I went to have a beer with some companions.

With whom? icon Juan ...?

(Gonzalez Blasco, Intercultural Learning, 2009)

Exercise: Does it seem that this person has an interest in cooperating? Try to answer with longer questions.

Hello! Are you in this class?

- Yes.

where are you from?

- From Ukraine.

Have you come to Spain to study? Are you a student?

- SL

- And what do you study?

- Computing.

- And how long are you going to be here?

- Three years.

When did you arrive?

- Last month

(Tomalin & Stempleski, Cultural Awareness, 1994)

Conclusions

In our approach, the foreign language learner will develop adequately and satisfactorily in situations of intercultural communication, so that this will become an intermediary. We will achieve this by giving greater importance to the sociocultural aspect, the experience and emotional aspects of the student and introducing both cultures in the classroom.

In this approach, emphasis is placed on the strategies of the Amani collective: feeling, thinking and acting, so that students open their senses and experiment with them, think about their experiences with their peers and act to learn from them. We will try to understand, act and interact appropriately with the natives of the target culture with a series of activities that focus on these strategies. The main objective is for students to be positive, to lose their fear and seek solutions to conflicts; because, after all, what we want is for them to leave the classroom and be able to interact properly with the natives. For this we will train them with strategies that help them risk, experiment and face the target culture alone.

Annotation

Universidad Nacional Ivan Franko de Lviv Intercultural component of teaching Spanish as a foreign language: strategies of intercultural instruction Abstract. Concepts of teaching foreign languages haven't cleared up the misunderstanding and difficulties which appeared because of the unsufficient level of the development of pupils' sociocultural competence. These difficulties were closely connected with linguistic misunderstanding, striking difference in national characters, peculiarities of foreign cultures. Nowadays, while studying a foreign language, pupils realize that they should master not only a foreign language and get acquainted with other culture but get to know the other way of living. So the necessity of developing the intercultural competence alongside with the communicative one has appeared.

Purpose. To give a short historical analysis of teaching within the intercultural approach, to show the connection between intercultural and communicative competences. Approaches to teaching and stages of sociocultural learning and its content are regarded. Intercultural context of teaching based on the sociocultural aspect of teaching a foreign language is described. The most important feature of such teaching is the role of a pupil and his necessity of dealing with a foreign culture. The main problems within intercultural communication are closely connected with a linguistic (language) shock (when the pupils' level of the language competence is rather low), a cultural shock (when the problem solving strategies peculiar to the culture of the mother tongue do not hold) and the cultural stress may occur. It is connected with the change of a new social status in another culture. There are two another approaches towards skills development in intercultural teaching: The Social Skills Approach and The Holistic Approach. The scholars define three stages of intercultural competence development: monocultural (at this level a pupil watches and evaluates another culture on the grounds of his own one); intercultural (a pupil holds the position between two cultures and can compare them), and transcultural - a pupil acts as a mediator between two cultures. Different exercises and tasks for developing main strategies of an intercultural conflict resolution - to watch, understand and compare, interpret, act and interact are given.

Key words: intercultural competence, culture, studying Spanish as a foreign language, intercultural communication strategies.

У статті, присвяченій навчанню іспанської мови як іноземної, розглядаються чинники, які зумовлюють необхідність формування міжкультурної компетентності, проводиться короткий історичний аналіз міжкультурного навчання, визначаються зміст, підходи до навчання і етапи оволодіння соціокультурною інформацією. Виділяють три етапи формування міжкультурної компетентності: монокультурний, коли учень спостерігає і оцінює іншу культуру з позицій власної культури; міжкультурний, коли він займає позицію між двома культурами і здатен їх порівнювати, та транскультурний, коли учень виконує роль посередника між двома культурами. Даються приклади вправ і завдань для формування основних стратегій вирішення міжкультурних конфліктів: вчитися спостерігати, розуміти і порівнювати, вчитися інтерпретувати, діяти і взаємодіяти.

Ключові слова: міжкультурна компетентність, культура, вивчення іспанської мови як іноземної, стратегії міжкультурного спілкування.

В статье, посвященной обучению испанскому языку как иностранному, рассматриваются факторы, обуславливающие необходимость формирования межкультурной компетентности, дается краткий исторический анализ межкультурного обучения, определяются содержание, подходы к обучению и этапы овладения социокультурной информацией. Выделяют три этапа формирования межкультурной компетентности: монокультурный уровень, когда учащийся наблюдает и оценивает другую культуру с позиций собственной культуры; межкультурный уровень, когда он занимает позицию между двумя культурами и способен их сравнивать; и транскультурный уровень, когда учащийся исполняет роль посредника между двумя культурами. Даются примеры упражнений и заданий для формирования основных стратегий решения межкультурных конфликтов: учиться наблюдать, понимать и сравнивать, учиться интерпретировать, действовать и взаимодействовать.

Ключевые слова: межкультурная компетентность, культура, изучение испанского языка как иностранного, стратегии межкультурного общения.

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