Practical Proposals for the Development of ...

Isabel Alonso-Belmonte and María Fernández-Agüero

Practical Proposals for the Development of Intercultural Communicative Competence in EFL: What Textbooks won’t Tell you Abstract The objective of this chapter is twofold: on the one hand, we aim at endowing teachers and teacher trainers with grounded theory on the concept of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) and its development in the foreign language class. In that respect, this is a practical contribution to the improvement of teachers’ critical skills to test the intercultural potential of textbooks and teaching materials, where the findings highlighted in the literature review are illustrated by means of a case study based on a recent English language textbook series commonly used in our teaching context. On the other hand, we present examples of well-tested productive skills-building activities (speaking, writing, interaction, mediation) that prepare EFL students for real intercultural encounters. These suggestions are intended to compensate some of the limitations and weaknesses reported in research on ICC in internationally oriented ELT textbooks. Keywords: Intercultural Communicative Competence; EFL textbooks; language activities; teacher training

Introduction Several important trends of the late 20th century, such as the rapid advance of ICT, the globalisation of the economy and the expansion of multiculturalism, have turned the world into a global village where individuals are expected not only to increase awareness towards cultural differences, but also to gain the skills to perform appropriately in different communication settings. Consequently, foreign language education research has progressively shifted its focus to the intercultural aspects of learning (Porto, 2010; Baker, 2012). As a result, the concept of communicative competence has been assimilated by the concept of “intercultural communicative competence” (henceforth, ICC), defined by Byram (2000) as “the ability to interact effectively with people of cultures other than one’s own” (p. 297). In intercultural language learning, the goal is not to achieve native speaker competence in the target language (Alptekin, 1990, 1993, 2002; McKay, 2002),

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but to follow the norms of an “intercultural speaker” (Byram, 1997; Kramsch, 1993), who is constantly engaged in self-reflection and is able to “mediate/interpret the values, beliefs and behaviours (the ‘cultures’) of themselves and of others and to ‘stand on the bridge’ or indeed ‘be the bridge’ between people of different languages and cultures” (Byram, 2006: 12). These “intercultural skills” are also put forward by the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001) as essential learner competences. McCloskey’s (2012) review of the conceptual work on interculturality and ICC in foreign language education reveals a consensus on the fundamental principles underlying effective intercultural learning. First, learners must be exposed to different interactions between native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) in the foreign language and should be encouraged to reflect actively on these intercultural experiences and to learn from them. Many scholars advocate explicit cultural comparisons. Both experiential and conceptual learning are recommended; this combination engages affect and cognition, two essential components of intercultural learning. Discussions, negotiation of cultural meanings and revisiting prior conceptions are considered of paramount importance. Unfortunately, the above-mentioned procedures are time-consuming and logistically difficult for many teachers. ICC development is a lifelong learning process and although nowadays most foreign language teachers endorse intercultural teaching, they struggle when having to prioritize language teaching and culture teaching objectives (Skopinskaja, 2003; Sercu, 2005; Young & Sachdev, 2011); as a result, what most teachers do is expose their students to the cultural content coming up in their textbooks. The coursebook, whether personally chosen or imposed by institutions and authorities, generally represents the core of the teachers’ kit and the primary source of linguistic and cultural input. Unfortunately, research has shown that the representation of foreign cultures in EFL textbooks does not reflect the status of English as an international language (Yuen, 2011), that it is frequent to find clichés and stereotypes (Cortez, 2012), and that textbooks do not always provide students with sufficient opportunities for the improvement of intercultural competence (Mendez García, 2000, 2005; Shin et al., 2011). As Nault claims, culture learning should be viewed “as an experiential and open-ended process essential for English language education, as opposed to a momentary diversion from regular EFL/ESL lessons or pointless exercises on fact gathering” (2006: 325). Thus, the present chapter’s main objective is to endow teachers and teacher trainers with solidly-grounded theoretically-driven work on ICC to be applied in class, together with examples of well-tested skills-



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building activities that prepare their students for cultural diversity and tolerance in the EFL classroom. Our practical suggestions are aimed at complementing some of the shortcomings reported in the existing recent research on ICC in internationally oriented ELT textbooks. To illustrate the findings highlighted by this literature review, we present a case study of the foreign cultures represented in a recently published English language textbook series widely used by Madrid Secondary schools. The textbook series is Real English (Marks & Addison, 2010), an internationally oriented ELT material designed for both ESO and Bachillerato (compulsory and non-compulsory Secondary studies in Spain, respectively)1, which aims specifically at developing cultural awareness and communicative competence among learners. Real English meets the requirements of the Content and Language Integrated (CLIL) programmes being implemented in many regions of Spain and across Europe by including a cultural annex titled Real World which expands on the sociocultural content covered in each unit and relates them to other areas of the school curriculum: geography, history, literature, etc. In sum, we believe that this textbook series can furnish the reader with good examples which will illustrate the most recent tendencies in interculturally informed pedagogy, as manifested in published teaching materials.

ICC in ELT textbooks: revision of the literature and examples of current practice Traditionally, the cultural systems represented in ELT textbooks were only those of the countries where English is spoken as a first language, mainly the United Kingdom and the United States of America. From the 1990s onwards, however, with the emergence of English as an International Language (EIL) pedagogy, some authors started to claim that English spoken by NSs could no longer stand as a model for NNSs of English (McKay, 2002; Jenkins, 2012; Burns, 2013), and called for the “deanglicisation” of English “both in linguistic and cultural respects” (Alptekin, 1990: 23). Thus, the target culture (or C2) was shifted from its central position in the most widely used ELT textbooks, which now adopted a more global perspective building up their teaching units around international themes and global issues, and suggesting classroom activities that link students to the wider world. Concerning our case study, Real English revolves around universal topics that facilitate English-language learning with a global perspective, i.e. schools, cities, transport, superstitions, crimes, keeping fit. The global topics

1 There are versions of Real English for other markets, such as the Greek one.

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chosen for each unit are developed by means of oral and written examples of discourse interaction both among NSs and among NSs and NNSs, which highlights the international orientation of this material. Besides, scattered throughout the textbooks are frequent references to international VIPs, places and objects which ring a bell in most readers’ minds at least in the western world: Lady Gaga, The Parthenon, Van Gogh or the MTV awards are good examples of this tendency. These topics clearly preserve inclusivity, avoid inappropriacy (Gray, 2002: 159), and invest in connectedness (Tomlinson, 1998; Chang, 2003), although they are also criticised as to be “bland and characterless constructions (…) which could be anywhere and nowhere” (Pulverness, 2004: 33). In Real English, it is also possible to find oral and written texts devoted to well-known Spanish cultural icons – Picasso, Sorolla and Cervantes. Also, readers often come across allusions to more recent VIPs, such as Javier Bardem the actor, or Fernando Torres the football player, and events such as the 2010 FIFA World Cup, won by the Spanish national football team. The presence of these samples of the local culture (or C1) in the text is motivating and contributes to the internationalisation of the book, since these are world-known cultural or sport icons. Nevertheless, they are very scarce if they are to be compared to the existing references to the cultures of the Inner Circle countries (or C2), especially to British and American: texts about the British Royal family, about J.K. Rowling, and scattered citations of Justin Bieber, Backstreet Boys or Robin Hood. In Real World, the cultural annex of Real English, the written texts also convey the cultural point of view of the Inner Circle countries. For example, in the section “man-made wonders in the world”, students are asked to read about the Opera House in Sydney, the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, the Statue of Liberty in New York, and the Sri Swaminarayan Mandir Temple in London. This seems to confirm researchers’ claims that C2 cultural contents are still predominant in internationally oriented ELT textbooks (Basabe, 2006; Nault, 2006; Shin et al., 2011; Cetinavci, 2012). Regarding the relationship between language skills and ICC development in Real English, the most frequent activities proposed for culture and ICC are reading and writing tasks. Surprisingly, we have hardly found an ICC activity that engages learners in oral productive skills (speaking, interacting, or mediating). Written texts are accompanied by comprehension questions and sometimes preceded by a quiz which activates background world knowledge. Next to these reading tasks, students can find historical or anecdotal bits of information beginning with “Did you know that…?”, which enhances conceptual memorization to the detriment of experiential learning. Finally, post-reading follow-up is always



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a written task which stimulates discovery skills (i.e. “Make a survey about the use of the mobile phone around you”; “Find out about the recycling programme of Hong Kong on the Internet”) and the capacity to compare and contrast cultural phenomena (i.e. “Write about a musical instrument or musician in your country”; “Write a paragraph about one of the following aspects of your country (nonverbal communication, punctuality, dining customs)”. Unfortunately, if we are to look at the teachers’ guide, these written activities lack teacher guidance whatsoever. Thus, learners may not be engaged in guided productive discussions or deep levels of reflection essential for enhancing intercultural interaction, and find it easier to fall into the trap of clichés and of stereotyping, especially during adolescence. Summarising, the analysis of Real English provides us with examples of cultural materials related to local and international contexts, in which C2 contents play a key role. Students are exposed to different samples of interaction among NSs and among NSs and NNSs. Unfortunately, most cultural content proposed in Real English is knowledge-based, which confirms the traditional knowledgeoriented presentation of cultural content in international ELT textbooks already described elsewhere (Shin et al., 2011). Indeed, we feel that there is an absence of proposals to boost students’ intercultural attitudes, that is, to teach learners to put their own culture to the test by questioning their existing values and beliefs. Finally, there is a clear lack of ICC activities for practising oral productive skills (speaking, interaction, mediation).

Suggestions for good practice: appropriate activities, techniques and materials in ICC teaching Fortunately, EFL teachers are not at a loss: there is plenty of literature on “good classroom practices” for fostering ICC, providing the reader with indications and suggestions on how to make progress in ICC through specific techniques and activities (among others, Barro, Jordan & Roberts, 1998; Byram, Gribkova & Starkey, 2002; Denis & Matas Pla, 2001; Sercu, 1998; Hernández & Váldez, 2010; Lázár, et al., 2007; López García, 2006; Paricio Tato, 2004; Starkey, 2003). Some of these recommendations are summarised below.

Experiential learning ICC work should be based on experiential learning of other lifestyles, beliefs and traditions through an analysis of situations, problems and daily activities. Experiential learning “is powerful in developing self-awareness as well as

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perceptions of other countries” (Byram, Gribkova & Starkey 2002: 14). To make experiential learning an intercultural endeavour, though, it is necessary to accompany these foreign cultural insights with an awareness of one’s own cultural perspective and to establish connections between this perspective and the target culture, so that they are brought together in a third culture or third space (Kramsch, 1993). It is all about “beginning and finishing the activity in the students’ mind” (Tomlison & Masuhara, 2004: 8). In this concern, an effective strategy has proven to be having students design their own culture-oriented materials (Nault, 2006: 323). Other authors emphasise the usefulness of teaching models based on project-based or task-based work (Denis & Matas Pla, 2001: 31–37), where students are given the chance to learn and think from experience. In this respect, ethnographic tasks and projects are particularly interesting (Lázár et al., 2007).

ICC and language development Good ICC activities develop both intercultural and linguistic competence. In other words, a specific aim of an ICC activity should turn around language progress. This facilitates the teacher’s work, who can more easily integrate work on ICC in the syllabus. Besides, the teacher should also make the student aware that kinesic (body language) and prosodic features of speech (such as rhythm and intonation patterns) exert a powerful influence on intercultural relations. Debates and discussions, role-plays, simulations and the like help improve both ICC and speech patterns – making appropriate choices in conversation topics, opening and closing a conversation, turn-taking, changing the subject, criticising and complaining –, and some other culturally determined aspects of non-verbal communication such as facial expressions, eye contact and gestures. A variety of activities along these lines in the four language skills – speaking, listening, reading and writing – are presented for teaching ICC in Usó Juan and Martínez Flor (2008). In short, activities proposed in the classroom in relation to ICC have a linguistic aim too, and should be related to interaction, negotiation – thus contributing to other aspects of communicative competence – and action; that is, linking practice with experiential and meaningful learning.

Activities: typology and characteristics Depending on their procedural characteristics, activities can be classified into: (1)  observation activities intended to make cultural concepts and attitudes



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explicit; (2) activities meant to help face culture shock2; (3) presupposing activities related to the analysis of prior cultural knowledge schemata; (4) activities based on getting to know and analyse stereotypes; (5) activities to compare and contrast C1 and C2; (6) situational activities of experiential learning – namely role-play and simulation3; and (7) activities on constructive criticism, where the focus is placed on finding a solution to a problem (Alonso-Belmonte & Fernández Agüero, 2013: 200f.). ICC activities are also (8) tasks carried out in real scenarios outside the class, and (9) information activities, associated with traditional conceptual learning (López García, 2006: 67). The items in this list are not mutually exclusive – it may be possible to classify activities under more than one heading –, and they are complementary – it is common practice to combine activities belonging to different categories. Within this general taxonomy, group work, debate, discussion and active thoughtful participation in class are effective dynamics to foster critical attitudes and help students become aware of their ethnocentrism: learners are given the chance to contrast their positions and search for a common ground in conflicting situations. One way of doing this, instead of searching for differences (which can reinforce existing stereotypes and prejudices), is by looking at the similarities and common perspectives of two cultural practices. Other useful fluencyoriented productive language activities are information-gap games and drama activities; these develop empathic attitudes and foster cognitive and emotional competence (García & Biscu, 2006). Two well-known ICC activities are cultural capsules and cultural problemsolving tasks, which provide students with intercultural information. The former consist of brief descriptions – of a paragraph or so – of a given cultural aspect in C2 or minimal differences between C1 and C2, along with images and realia; the latter, also called critical incidents, are based on a short description of a conflicting situation taken from real life and require students to propose adequate solutions. Also, interesting methods to facilitate comprehension of intercultural phenomena are culture assimilators and cultoons4, based on representations of trouble2 Culture shock is understood as “the anxiety that results from losing familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse” (Oberg, 1960: 177). 3 Role-plays allow students to assume other people’s roles, while in simulations participants behave in the way they would actually do. 4 Culture assimilators and cultoons are activities in which various cross-cultural encounters are discussed and analysed. Culture assimilators consist of a brief description of a situation where at least one person from the target culture interacts with other people from other cultures. This description is usually followed by a list of usually

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some or failed cross-cultural encounters to which the student must react. These activities increase tolerance of ambiguous situations and help them cope with the impact of culture shock.

Outside the class Whenever possible, students should be exposed to intercultural situations outside the class to enhance classroom work. Cultural exchanges, trips and cooperation with people from other countries boost tandem learning and reveal the need to achieve a certain degree of communicative and intercultural competence. Access to input from a variety of Englishes is granted through the Internet and ICT (chatrooms, forums and online discussions, e-mail, etc.)5.

Practical ready-to-use proposals for the development of ICC in the classroom In the next few lines we present practical applications of ICC in the FL class, to give readers the possibility to put into practice the principles and recommendations presented above and to integrate ICC practice in class along with daily language work. The aim is to enhance students’ intercultural attitudes through different integrated productive skills (speaking, writing, interaction, mediation) through experiential learning assisted by ethnographic research or project work.

Ethnographic research: “Getting to know yourself. Getting to know your people” This activity is an ethnographic research task on a given aspect of sociocultural behaviour, the topic of punctuality, whose outcome is a report on habits and four possible responses to the incident which explain the meaning of the behavior, action, or words of the participants in the interaction. Students read the description in the assimilator and then choose which of the four options they feel is the correct interpretation of the interaction. Once all students have made their individual choices, the teacher leads a discussion about why particular options are correct or incorrect in interpretation. Cultoons are like visual culture assimilators. Students are given a series of (usually) four pictures depicting points of surprise or possible misunderstanding for people coming into the target culture and they are asked if they think the reactions of the characters in the cultoons seem appropriate or not. 5 For example, Gómez Parra (2010) proposes interesting e-mail activities for ICC, such as key pal projects, in which students from different countries write to each other to learn about their cultures.



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attitudes in the students’ area. Through ethnographic research and drawing on the students’ experiences, we intend to make students reflect on sociocultural behavioural patterns in their C1 to contrast them with those of other communities; also, they will be able to identify stereotypical behaviour and realise that cultural representations are provisional and dynamic. Collection of data could be made in various ways but we suggest that students conduct a survey at home, among their classmates or across the school, in the L2 if possible. In any case, this task should be guided and carried out orally. Questions in the survey could be “How often are you late?”, “Think of the last school meeting that you attended: did it begin late?”, “What do you typically do if you are late?”, and the like. Once the data have been collected and revised, students should be introduced to or reminded of the discursive characteristics of reports. The final product itself can be individual or shared, depending on whether the survey was conducted at home or at school. In any case, it should be presented orally to an audience. When the task is completed, the report could be written and shown to members of the C2 – schoolmates in a twin school from a C2 community, for instance – so that the data can be compared with similar information in the C2. ICC activity type: Task oriented activity of comparison between C1 and C2, intended to make cultural concepts and attitudes explicit (Types 1 and 5 above). Language activities imply: Interaction and, to a lesser extent, speaking and writing are involved. Work on discursive features of reports and vocabulary and structures on the specific topic chosen will be required too. Other applications: This activity can be undertaken as a follow-up to nearly any reading comprehension activity on habits and behaviour, and can take place as a one-day-only activity to be carried out within the class.

Task-based work: “All around the world” Ideally, this is an ICT task-based project to be carried out in small groups over several weeks, beginning with written or visual input on geographical landmarks in the world, for example man-made wonders. The final task is to choose one of them for the school’s “USESCO6 World Heritage List”, or to decide on a new Seven Wonders of the World. The aim is to expose learners to intercultural content other than the target culture’s, reconstruct their perspective on a particular cultural phenomenon, and face real intercultural encounters.

6 This stands for an imaginary ‘United Schoolmates Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation’.

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To get to know about the famous sites, students need to undertake intermediate tasks: get in contact with tourist information offices, read about history and trivia, watch online videos on the sites and their location, etc. Interaction activities – with people and institutions involved – are to be encouraged. At the end, students show their work to others with the help of visuals such as PowerPoint presentations or posters. This is a situational oral activity where some students belong to the imaginary “USESCO” or Seven Wonders commission which has to make a decision and others play the role of supporters. At this stage, apart from providing information on the site itself, supporters should be ready to answer personal questions (“Why did you choose that precise monument?”, “What makes it special?”). ICC activity type: Task based activity partly carried out in real scenarios (Type 8) + Role Play (Type 6). Language activities imply: This is an interaction task where students make requests and ask for information in writing. Besides, reading and listening are required to react to and gather information: it involves the use of skills to read critically (such as abilities to distinguish fact from opinion, to decode the hidden message of a text or visual image, to make deductions about the author, source and target audience) and research skills (discriminating information, drawing relevant conclusions). Speaking will be required in presentations and discussions too. Other applications: To shorten this task, it can be adapted into a guided webquest followed by a debate. In any case, task-based work of this kind can be set as follow-up to textbook activities on travelling or factual information about people and places. For instance, students can be asked to choose a destination out of a given list and organise a trip.

Drama activity: “Are you ready to order?” This is a role-play activity where students pretend to be speakers of different mother tongues – L1 and L2 – in the context of C1. This way, they need to put into practice mediation skills to complete a communicative task in an intercultural context, in order to compare C1 and C2. Participants are arranged into dyads and are assigned the following roles at a restaurant: Student 1 and student 2 are patrons sitting at a table. Student 1 speaks L2 but not L1 and wants to know about certain dishes typical of C1 (Spanish “cocido” for instance, a very rich chickpea stew).



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Student 2 is told that he is a NS of L1 who also speaks L2 and has to explain and translate the menu, written in the L1, to speaker 1. The menu contains typical dishes such as “cocido”.

To guide and boost linguistic practice, other conditions could be: speaker 1 likes or dislikes certain foods; speaker 2 has a limited budget to spend; speaker 3 is a waiter who provides information on the dish of the day. Chances are that they will engage in a discussion, at the same time that student 2 translates the menu to student 1. ICC activity type: Situational activity of experiential learning (Type 6). Language activities imply: This activity explores the skill of mediating in oral interaction. Features of oral communication such as negotiating skills, turn-taking, opening and closing a conversation and aspects of non-verbal communication are of utmost turnaround importance to complete it successfully. Making suggestions and requests, and vocabulary on food and eating will also be needed. Other applications: We encourage teachers to reflect on the role of mediation in role-plays, simulations and other fluency-oriented oral activities. To engage students in mediation, we suggest oral activities that involve reading some sort of material: instructions, leaflets, webpages, etc.

Discussion: “What would you do?” We propose a problem related to intercultural encounters, to be presented in the manner of a critical incident with possible solutions: Yesterday you were invited to a birthday party. When you arrived you gave your present to the host, who took it, said “thank you” and put it away. You were puzzled and hurt because you expected her to open it. Today you’ve received a text message saying “thank you for your present”. Do you… …answer back saying “not at all”? …never get in contact with that friend again? …phone your friend and tell her about your feelings? …phone another friend for advice?7

In this activity, students will improve negotiating and conversational skills. Besides, it prepares learners for potential intercultural situations that require culturally different interactional norms. Students have to take sides, discuss the options and, if possible, agree on a solution. To get students to talk, it is useful to brainstorm ideas and look for information to support opinions beforehand. In any case, the teacher should come 7 More critical incidents can be found in Apedaile and Schill (2008: 52–63).

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up with thought-provoking questions or “for and against” statements to liven up the discussion. The norms of the discussion should be made explicit: how to take turns to speak and who will moderate. In this respect, we find the norms proposed by Byram et al. (2002: 25) most handy. The next step would be to ask students to contribute their own critical incidents taken from real experiences from outside the class. ICC activity type: constructive criticism activity (Type 7). Language activities imply: In debates and discussions students practise oral interaction and work on the discursive features and non-verbal communication already mentioned in section 3 above. In this particular case, there is certain reading work and possibly writing too. Other applications: We invite teachers to contextualize the topic of discussion of the debates that they come across in their teaching materials by initiating them with a critical incident or cultural problem solving activity, in order to address the student’ experience and emotions.

Conclusions As stated in the introduction, this chapter’s main objective is to provide teachers and teacher trainers with theory-driven suggestions on ICC to be applied in class, together with examples of skills-building activities which illustrate the aforementioned ICC typology of activities. These proposals are the result of our practical work on ICC in our classes for prospective English language teachers at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and incorporate feedback from our students after their implementation. Our aim is to make a small but practical contribution to the development of teachers’ critical skills that will allow them to test the intercultural potential of textbooks and teaching materials. As we have seen, even international textbooks aimed at improving students’ cultural awareness, such as Real English, offer room for improvement concerning ICC. In our view, in order to equip prospective and practising teachers with intercultural awareness and intercultural competence, teacher education programs in higher education and in-service training should include cultural content and ICC objectives in their curricula, such as a course on intercultural communication, so that teachers will eventually be more able to integrate cultural practices in their teaching. This training would also provide them with the necessary critical skills to adopt a proactive role in evaluating textbooks and give continuous feedback to publishers about what a foreign language textbook should offer (Yuen, 2011). While awaiting this moment, we hope the examples of activities provided in this chapter allow teachers to integrate ICC in their daily teaching practice.



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