Intercultural competence in foreign language teaching

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Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatyuk National Pedagogical University, Ternopil, Ukraine

Intercultural competence in foreign language teaching

Pryshlyak Oksana -- Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate

Professor of the Foreign Languages Department,

Lupak Natalia -- Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate

Professor of the Pedagogy and Methods of Primary and Preschool

Education Department

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 favorably disposed foreign language teacher, who integrate culture into their classroom practices and the unfavourably disposed foreign language teacher, who did not support this practice.

Key words: intercultural competence; intercultural communication; foreign language teaching; Likert scale; favourably disposed teachers; unfavourably disposed teachers; questionnaires.

МІЖКУЛЬТУРНА КОМПЕТЕНТНІСТЬ У НАВЧАННІ ІНОЗЕМНОЇ МОВИ

ПРИШЛЯК Оксана кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент кафедри іноземних мов, Тернопільський національний педагогічний університет імені Володимира Гнатюка, вул. Тернопіль, Україна

ЛУПАК Наталя -- кандидат філологічних наук, доцент кафедри педагогіки і методики початкової та дошкільної освіти, Тернопільський національний педагогічний університет імені Володимира Гнатюка, Тернопіль, Україна

У статті розкрито розуміння міжкультурної компетентності у викладанні іноземної мови. Навчання культури у процесі викладання іноземної мови залишається невирішеною проблемою протягом багатьох років. Актуальність дослідження полягає у визначенні готовності викладачів англійської мови до формування міжкультурної компетентності на уроках англійської мови в школі. Викладачі іноземної мови є першими людьми, які знайомлять учнів з мовним та культурним розмаїттям світу, відкривають свідомість дитини для знань про інші культурні реалії, традиції, моделі поведінки, цінності тощо. Важливість формування полікультурної свідомості учнів пов'язано не тільки з країнами, мова яких вивчається, а й з іншими культурами, представники яких можуть спілкуватися іноземною мовою.

Однак, готовність вчителів іноземних мов до вирішення сучасних проблем суспільства, пов'язаних з розвитком міжкультурної компетентності учнів, недостатньо висвітлена у професійній педагогічній освіті.

Автори дослідили рівень готовності вчителів іноземної мови до формування міжкультурної компетентності учнів. У процесі дослідження було проаналізовано відповіді 78 вчителів іноземної мови з чотирьох областей (Львівська, Тернопільська, Івано-Франківська та Чернівецька області) за допомогою анкети. Дослідження показує розуміння вчителями поняття міжкультурної компетентності та культури, ставлення до формування міжкультурної компетентності, впровадження, та застосування на практичних заняттях з іноземної мови. У статті розкрито ставлення викладачів англійської мови до формування міжкультурної компетентності у процесі викладання іноземної мови. У результаті проведеного дослідження виявлено два профілі вчителів, іноземної мови перші інтегрують культурну складову у навчання іноземної мови, другі не підтримують цю практику.

Ключові слова: міжкультурна компетентність; міжкультурна комунікація; навчання іноземної мови; шкала Лікерта; позитивно налаштовані вчителі; негативно налаштовані вчителі; анкета.

Introduction

In the world context, the importance of language as a communicative tool of culture lead to learning a foreign language from the term «communicative competence» to the term «intercultural competence», which transmits communication to the cultural dimension. The last term has been fixed in the current school languages curriculum compiled in Ukraine in 2001, taking into account the recommendations of the Council of Europe on language education. The need for the implementation of intercultural component in the educational process is reflected in the main state documents: «National Doctrine of the Development of Ukraine's Education in the 21st Century», «The Concept of Civic Education», «The Concept of 12-year General Secondary Education», «State Standards for Elementary, Basic and Comprehensive Secondary Education». All documents emphasize the need to educate a person of a democratic worldview that adheres to civil rights and freedoms, with respect to traditions, culture, religion and world languages. So the teacher's functions change, and his\her activity should be aimed at creating conditions for developing interculturally competent individuals.

According to the latest sociological poll, almost 70 % of Ukrainian citizens never traveled abroad and did not have direct contact with representatives of other cultures in a foreign environment. As Ukraine is facing the possibility of joining to the European Union, it is important to strengthen the readiness of its citizens to contact with different cultures. On such a social background, the responsibility of the teacher of a foreign language as «the intercultural mediator» substantially increased.

The relevance of the study is to identify the readiness of the English language teachers to implement intercultural competence at English language lessons at school. Teaching culture in foreign language teaching classroom has remained an unresolved problem for many years. 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.

Multiple studies on learners' development of intercultural competence and cultural awareness in foreign language teaching have been conducted abroad (Belz, 2005; Furstenberg, Levet, English, & Maillet 2001; Omaggio-Hadley (2001); Dogancay-Aktuna (2005). General problems of formation of intercultural competence as the ultimate goal of foreign language education have been conducted by N. Barishnikova, O. Goncharova.

Defining intercultural competence and identifying which cultural aspects need to be included in foreign language teaching classroom has been a challenge. Many researchers stress the close relationship between language and culture. The crucial concept of culture is that language and culture are inseparable (Byram & Morgan 1994; Brown, 2000; Kramsch, 2000). According to Brown, «A language is a part of culture and a culture is a part of a language». Therefore, they cannot be separated without losing the significance of either language or culture. Cultural component was considered to be supplementary to language teaching for a long time; nowadays it develops learners' ability to communicate with each other across linguistic and cultural boundaries. As language and culture are closely related to each other, the teaching of culture is seen as an integral and organized component of language teaching. Teaching communication without teaching culture might be enough for survival and routine transactions but communicative competence is incomplete without cultural awareness and understanding, without intercultural competence (Brown, 2000). Kramsch pointed out, that «culture is often seen as mere information conveyed by the language, not as a feature of language itself». Thus, she emphasized that culture is «the very core of language teaching» and «cultural awareness must then be viewed both as enabling language proficiency and as being the outcome of reflection on language proficiency» (Kramsch, 2000, p. 8). Agar's term «languaculture» suggests that language and culture are merged and that language users draw on more than just vocabulary and grammar. Language is culturally loaded (Atay, 2005, p. 224). Agar used the term «rich points» to describe moments, in which people do not understand each other in certain situations and thus can cause intercultural misunderstandings. These rich points can be seen as cultural differences, which make culture become visible to an outsider. Using rich points in the classroom can aid in developing cultural knowledge, attitudes and an understanding of the native culture. Byram highlights the forward move from just communicating to exchange information to «understand and relate to people from other countries» (Byram, 1997, p. 5). Studies have been showing the importance of moving away from communicative language learning to intercultural competence (Aguilar, 2007; Byram, 1997; Deardorff, 2009; others). Not only is the research arguing for a change in foreign language teaching and learning approaches, but the learners' development of intercultural competence has been highlighted in numerous studies (e.g., Belz, 2002; Byram, 1997).

More recently, intercultural competence has become the emphasis when discussing culture in the in foreign language teaching. Scholars have offered many competing definitions on intercultural competence. Reitenauer et al. defined intercultural competence as «the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in a variety of cultural contexts» (2005, p. 68). Byram described intercultural competence as the willingness to consider and respect other beliefs and behaviors «and to analyze them from the viewpoint of the others with whom one is engaging» (1997, p. 34). Similarly, according to Kramsch, is «an awareness and a respect of difference, as well as the socio-affective capacity to see oneself through the eyes of others» (2005, p. 553). A person who displays these competences is known as an intercultural speaker (Belz, 2002).

Dogancay-Aktuna (2005) discussed how the field of intercultural competence can aid in preparing teachers of English to be more aware of their pupils' sociocultural backgrounds and thus make more informed decisions. Cushner and Mahon (2009) also discussed intercultural competence in teacher education. The authors consider teachers in general and, just as Dogancay-Aktuna (2005), are concerned with the teachers' own intercultural competence and how they will manage a classroom with students of different cultural backgrounds.

The discussion on including intercultural competence in the classroom and making sure that intercultural competence is taught, rather than just communication, does not consider the actual intercultural competence of the teachers. Before intercultural competence can be included in foreign language teaching classrooms, the question of whether or not the teachers are interculturally competent needs to be answered. Cushner and Mahon (2009) began this point of discussion in their research. How and whether foreign language instructors actually teach intercultural competence in the classroom and how they feel about having to do so, still needs examination.

A study by Sercu and her colleagues has been conducted in 2005 on intercultural competence, investigating foreign language teachers from Belgium, Bulgaria, Mexico, Greece, Poland, Spain and Sweden in order to observe the willingness of these teachers to teach intercultural competence (Sercu et al., 2005). Continuing this research, Sercu (2006) examined whether the same teachers fulfilled «the requirement of foreign language and intercultural competence» (p. 56). In both studies the authors discovered the willingness of teachers to incorporate intercultural competence in the foreign language lessons; however, they felt that they were not trained to teach intercultural competence. Findings of the study revealed two distinct teacher profiles, i.e., the favourably disposed foreign language teacher, who believed in the importance of integrating culture into their classroom practices, and the unfavourably disposed foreign language teacher, who did not support this practice. Data further revealed that no clear relationship appeared to exist between teachers' beliefs regarding integration of culture and the way in which they actually shaped their teaching practices.

D. Atay (2005) from Marmara University, Turkey carried out a study on 65 Turkish teachers of English and found that participants were aware of the importance of the cultural dimension in language learning, yet they were also aware of their own lack of knowledge related to the target language culture and that the teaching culture actually involved more than what they could do. Research into innovation in education has shown that teachers' perceptions of the innovation, beliefs, and preferences, in short, their conceptions, determine the success of that innovation to a large extent. Thus, insights on teachers' conceptions are crucial to understand the way in which teachers currently perceive the advocacy to integrate intercultural competence teaching in foreign language education and the reasons underlying their actual practices. She continued the study in 2009, data were collected from 503 foreign language teachers by means of Sercu' questionnaire. The findings have 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 (Atay, Kurt, Camlibel, Ersin, & Kaslioglu, 2009).

A similar study was conducted in Islamic Azad University, Jahrom, Iran by A. Nemati and his colleagues in 2014 to investigate the opinions and attitudes of Iranian teachers of English on intercultural competence teaching to see how and to what extent these opinions and attitudes are reflected in their classroom. Application data were selected from 50 foreign language teachers by mean of questionnaire. The results revealed that language teachers were 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 teachers had positive attitude toward teaching culture in the classroom. Teachers, similar to those in other studies, seemed to try, with varying degrees of success, to integrate the teaching of culture into the curriculum. Furthermore, the participants felt that the curriculum did not allow for the inclusion of intercultural competence (Nemati, Marzban, & Maleki, 2014).

This research is relevant to Ukraine, thus integration into European space is inevitable, it is the teachers of a foreign language that are tangible as nobody else to the formation of the intercultural component of the younger generation. Most scholars have emphasized the need of formation the intercultural competence by teachers of a foreign language at school, which should become part of pupil's personality in modern world.

The study aimed to investigate the opinions and attitudes of Ukrainian teachers of English on intercultural competence teaching and to see how and to what extent these opinions and attitudes are reflected in their classroom applications, as reported by the teachers. The aim of the study was to enrich the understanding of what foreign language teachers in Ukrainian schools think about intercultural competence in teaching. The research questions were: 1) How do the foreign language teachers in Ukrainian schools interpret the concept of «culture» in their teaching practice? 2) How do they see and specify the cultural objectives of their teaching? 3) What do they do to attain these objectives? Our goal was to explore how foreign language teachers make use of this potential in order to promote intercultural competence and understanding.