How to Teach Intercultural Communicative Language Teaching
This is the second video in a series about Intercultural Communicative Language Teaching
(iCLT).
The first video briefly discussed iCLT and the first principle of iCLT.
Here we will continue with the second, third and fourth principles of Newton regarding
iCLT.
Principle 2: iCLT engages learners in genuine social interaction.
According to Lahdeperä from Sweden, culture is a dynamic construct of artifacts (which
are the visible aspects of culture), such as architecture; it’s also a construct of
behavior patterns, of beliefs and values, of ways of thinking, of emotions, of communication,
and of self-concept.
Can you see from the above definition how culture is a result of social interaction?
What about language?
Communicative language instructors believe language is used in social situations.
And, communicative competence means being able to communicate successfully with others.
This emphasizes the interaction between individuals in communication.
So, if language and culture are both social constructs and activities, why not connect
them in the classroom?
Don’t just introduce new vocabulary.
Explain the appropriate social uses of them, what language teachers refer to as the register
of the language.
And, don’t stop with just the language, discuss the intonation variations and appropriate
gestures – not separately from vocabulary and grammar, but in conjunction with.
By the way, when the language classroom asks learners to use language to learn about social
variations across cultures, it becomes very authentic, or “genuine” as Principle 2
states.
Principle 3: iCLT encourages and develops an exploratory and reflective approach to
culture and culture-in-language.
Teaching culture is not about teaching facts.
Students will go out of their way to explain why a particular “fact” or stereotype
about their culture is incorrect.
So, don’t try to teach that this country is always on time and this other country is
always late because individuals don’t fit into stereotypes.
You could explain that there are general views of time and such and such country tends one
way or the other.
However, the point of Principle 3 is that allowing the learners to discover how their
classmates respond to time and why is much more valuable than the instructor presenting
themselves as the cultural expert for every culture.
Create non-threatening ways for students to explore the beliefs and values of their classmates.
And, build in reflective exercises where students spend time thinking about what they have just
heard from fellow students and how they feel about it.
How does what they’ve learned effect their own cultural identity.
As an instructor, never assume learners will automatically spend time in reflection.
Principle 4: iCLT fosters explicit comparisons and connections between languages and cultures.
Research indicates that learning about culture, or being told about culture, does not require
me to actively consider how my experience differs from yours.
Only when I explicitly look for connections and differences between our cultures will
my awareness be raised.
Usually, this results in cultural dissonance in one or more of the learners.
Research shows that role-playing, where cultural situations are reversed, is one of the most
effective teaching tools for developing conscious recognition of differences.
It is through cultural dissonance, or conscious recognition of differences, that we begin
to develop cultural acceptance and new bicultural/multicultural identities.
So, cultural dissonance is an important process to go through.
I find Lynne Diaz-Rico’s suggestion to always compare three or more cultures invaluable
here.
When only two cultures are compared, it possibly can lead to “us versus them” mentality
instead of the “us” mentality desired.
In summary, iCLT is active, active, active.
Learners participate in authentic social exchanges, take a discovery approach to culture with
reflection emphasized, and seek explicit comparisons and connections.
The last video in this series will explore Principles 5 and 6.