PROMOTING INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE THROUGH AUTHENTIC MATERIALS AND INNOVATIVE WAYS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN TERTIARY EDUCATION
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Abstract
The article deals with the idea of accepting of the process of foreign language learning as means of student’s intercultural competence promoting at high schools, which is considered very important nowadays for their future. The Council of Europe has already included intercultural competence in the list of competencies that are important for the successful realization and adaptation of future professionals studying in any field in the modern information society and working conditions. The theoretical background of this issue has been examined including the content of teaching material: authentic materials and their pros and cons have been thoroughly analyzed. English language teachers have a great opportunity to contribute in intercultural development of the society in bringing up young generation that will be able to live successfully and work with the representatives of all cultures. Person knowing more than one language has an opportunity of entering the world of other people thinking and believing differently, accepting, experiencing their culture, traditions, life-styles, psychology. In the same way, he demonstrates and introduces his own native culture and values. This study highlights the necessity of native and foreign cultures co-study, which describes the ways of effective inclusion of the native culture component in the lessons and considers realization of the basic methodical principles. Paper deals with necessity of mastering foreign and native culture, national identity and values through TFL for successful integration into the global world in Azerbaijani universities. In addition, some ideas are presented for the introduction of culture and useful suggestions how, why and what to teach via textbooks, authentic materials, different activities etc.
Keywords
Abstract
Bu makale, öğrencilerin gelecekleri için çok önemli olan, liselerde gelişen kültürlerarası yeterliliğin bir aracı olarak yabancı dil öğrenme sürecini kabul etme fikrini ele alıyor. Avrupa Konseyi, modern bilgi toplumunda ve çalışma koşullarında herhangi bir alanda okuyan geleceğin profesyonellerinin başarılı bir şekilde gerçekleştirilmesi ve adaptasyonu için önemli olan yeterlikler listesine zaten kültürlerarası yeterliliği dâhil etmiştir. Bu konunun teorik arka planı, öğretim materyalinin içeriği de dâhil olmak üzere incelendi: otantik materyaller ve bunların artıları ve eksileri kapsamlı bir şekilde analiz edildi. İngilizce öğretmenleri, tüm kültürlerin temsilcileriyle başarılı bir şekilde yaşayabilecek ve çalışabilecek genç nesil yetiştirmede toplumun kültürlerarası gelişimine katkıda bulunmak için büyük bir fırsata sahiptir. Birden fazla dil bilen kişi, farklı düşünen ve inanan, kabul eden, kültürünü, geleneklerini, yaşam tarzlarını, psikolojisini deneyimleyen diğer insanların dünyasına girme fırsatına sahiptir. Aynı şekilde kendi ülkelerinin kültürünü ve değerlerini sergiliyor ve tanıtıyor. Bu çalışma, yerli kültür bileşeninin derslere etkili bir şekilde dâhil edilmesinin yollarını tanımlayan ve yerli ve yabancı kültürlerin birlikte çalışma sürecinde temel yöntemsel ilkelerin gerçekleştirilmesini ele alan yerli ve yabancı kültür ortak çalışmasının gerekliliğini vurgulamaktadır. Bu çalışma aynı zamanda Azerbaycan üniversitelerinde küresel dünyaya başarılı entegrasyon için TFL aracılığıyla yerli kültür, ulusal kimlik ve değerlere hakim olmanın gerekliliğini ele almaktadır. Ayrıca bu makalede kültürün tanıtımı için bazı fikirler ve ders kitapları, özgün materyaller, farklı etkinlikler vb. yoluyla nasıl, neden ve neyin öğretileceği konusunda faydalı öneriler sunulmuştur.
Keywords
- Language skills are necessary in order to promote the enhancement of cooperation in international political, diplomatic, economic, and cultural relationships. Regarding this, acquisition of languages in education is considered important in terms of giving social and cultural capital to future generationsin the globalizing world (Byram, M., 2008, p. 77). One of the important issues in teaching languages, for instance, English languageat education is to properly evaluate and represent cultural dimensions in order to generate effective results. In order to analyze the essence of intercultural competence within the context of teaching foreign languages, Byram, M., 1989; Deardoff, D. K., 2006 works have been referred to, and for the use of authentic materials in language teaching, Krichevskaya, 1996; Novosovic, 1999 research has been examined in detail in this study.
- Unfortunately, it was not possible to fulfill this task at the required level in traditional lessons. Because in traditional lessons the teacher is the person who conveys the information and the learner is the person who receives the information. A teacher provides own knowledge and students pass it on passive way. There were great problems in former Soviet Union educational system. It was due to the lack of practice with native speakers, language and cultural environment. In Azerbaijan, existing literature regarding teaching foreign languages were mainly devoted to the investigation of communicative teaching for a long time. However, recent years the aim of foreign language education is not successful only in use of foreign languages as a means of communication by only teaching just language skills, but also in being able to communicate effectively across cultural divides. A number of researchers including Byram (1997) emphasized the importance of teaching foreign languages by considering native and foreign cultures in order to explain different concepts properly.
- The implementation of the competence level determination and assessment instruments has not been studied in most countries as well as in our education system.We still have not designed and practiced an assessment system, instruments and models for evaluating the level of promoting IC. Deardoff, D. K. (2006) claimed that when it comes to the measurement of intercultural competence in the level of education, there has not been common agreement in the conceptualization of the construct. In his study, Deardoff, D. K. (2006) represented the ways to measure intercultural competence based on the consensus of foremost scholars and researchers regarding intercultural competence as a complex construct (p. 242). Besides this, the education of moral values, culture and good manners are emphasized in both secondary and high school programs. There are 66 assessment models proposed by scientists and they are applied in the following countries -the USA, Canada, Germany, Lithuania, New Zealand, Latvia, France, the Netherlands and Denmark. The teaching material, the ways of achieving desirable level, methods and principles for promoting IC are not also perfect. The complicated nature of IC creates problems also in choosing appropriate aspect for fostering and controlling this competence.
- The term "intercultural communication” appeared in the literature of Azerbaijani foreign languages teaching methodology in the 1970s. Azerbaijan is located at the juncture of Europe and Western Asia.Both eastern and western cultures have influenced Azerbaijan culture and social norms throughout the history and this tendency reflects on people’s attitudes and behavior, in particular, among the young generation. The purpose of these researches was to analyze students’ communicative failures in real situations of intercultural communications. We do not intend to enter into details regarding the history. However, the history of intercultural competence, intercultural dialogue and communication researches in the world began in the United States after World War II when the American diplomats encountered with difficulties abroad. Another problem was arising in the late 1940s and 1950s in the managing companies where immigrants from other countries and cultures were working with NativeAmericans. As an academic discipline intercultural communication appeared in 1954, when E. Hall published the book “Culture as Communication” where he proposed the term “intercultural communication” in all spheres of human relations (Everett, William & Yoshitaka, 2002).
- In 1962, the American social psychologist J. Gardner introduced the concept of "universal communicator". He described a person with important abilities for intercultural communication. This person must have the following set of qualities: integrity, stability, extraversion, harmony of personality with universal values, as well as special intuitive abilities. According to modern researchers, Gardner (1977) had already described the concept we call “intercultural competence” today (Gudykunst, 1977). In the 1980s, university courses on intercultural communication and methods of cross-cultural training began to swiftly develop. The main issue of researches in this sphere was to find out effective methods of promoting IC in TFL: 1) real, authentic contacts with representatives of target culture; 2) an artificial atmosphere made in the classroom. Until 2010, there was a definite opinion that above-mentioned first case is more productive (Nicoleta, Simona, Teodor, 2008). Learner’s short-term visits to foreign countries were accepted as the best methods of fostering intercultural competence.
- Changing point was Pederson’s comparative experimental research proving that learner’s stay in foreign country is insufficient for successfully mastering IC. Results of one year’s stay in foreign countries had confirmed that without theoretical knowledge and specially organized training such an experience does not lead to significant growth of the ability to interact in a foreign cultural environment. Three groups of American students took part in P. Pederson’s experiment. The first group studied in Great Britain and in the same time had IC trainings. The second group of students also studied in the UK for a year, but did not receive any theoretical knowledge of this competence. Finally, the third group included students continuing their studies of IC in the United States. The first group demonstrated the best results. The results of the second and third groups were very close. Thus, this experiment showed that just only by studying abroad is not sufficient to provide a significant development in IC, if additional training is not provided (Хухлаев&Чибисова, 2010).
- In recent years, European universities began to follow the example of the United States and included the subject of intercultural communication in their curricula (Corder& McLean, 1989). And from 1990s owing to the efforts ofthe professor at Durham University in England, one of the leading researchers in intercultural competence Byram. IC became the main topic for foreign language teachers and methodists(Byram& Morgan,1994). What is Intercultural Competence?
- Above-mentioned beginning period of IC studies also matches with the definition of the term "intercultural competence" in the scientific literature. Thus, Tewksbury (1957), professor of international education proposed a list of 21 necessary characteristics for a competent person in intercultural communication under the title "Characteristics of a Mature International Person” (Deardoff, 2006). Nowadays there are many definitions given to IC and alterations of definitions. After analyzing most of them, we think that the most appropriate and actual are the definitions given by Byram. The definition which is very actual for developing IC is also the ability to successfully communicate with representatives of their native culture” (Byram& Morgan, 1994). Another detailed description, which is accepted as the starting point for concrete, educational action in the foreign language classroom:“Intercultural competence is the capability of relating to and understanding people from other countries” (Neuner, Parmenter, Starkey & Zarate, 2003).Causes of the crisis in the world are mainly associated with differences in religious beliefs of the East and the West. All the negative cases such as intolerance, aggressive nationalism, chauvinism, racism, islamophobia and discrimination towards other nations are due to the loss in the dialogue of culture boundaries. English language teachers have a great opportunity to contribute peaceful and sustainable development of multicultural society, in bringing up young generation who will build developed peaceful society.
- Linguistic competence only is not enough for learners of a language to be competent in that language (Krasner, 1999). Language learners need to be aware, for example of the culturally appropriate ways to address people, express gratitude, make requests and agree or disagree with someone. They should know that behaviors and intonation patterns that are appropriate in their own speech community may be perceived differently by members of the target language speech community. They have to understand that, in order to make communication more successful, language use must be associated with other relevant cultural behavior. In many regards, culture is taught implicitly, imbedded in the linguistic forms that students are learning.
- Besides the before-mentioned criteria of authenticity, Milrud and Nosonovich note that the culture-based teaching material for the high schools must meet the following requirements: 1. The content must be interesting for learners; 2. Students age appropriateness; 3. Presence of educational value; 4. Information must be new; 5. Presentation of different forms of speech; 6. The naturalness of the situation, characters and circumstances; 7. Material must evoke a reciprocal emotional response; 8.Their verbal experience in native and foreign languages; 9. Must reflect realistic models of written or spoken language (Новосович,1999).
- Now let us analyze disadvantages of using authentic materials at language classes: The main problem in using just only authentic material in FLT focusing on the IC forming is the lack of native culture information. Intercultural competent specialist in order to be prepared for successful dialogue should be first aware of his or her own culture. Again, referring to Byram (1997) whose theory is based on the advantage of teaching native culture also at the foreign language classes. According to this theory acquisition of native culture, history and literature of own country makes student to value own culture and to be more confident, to be tolerant and open to other cultures.
- Authentic texts are written specifically according to the pedagogical and psychological characteristics of education, context, taking into account, learners’ needs, age, native culture, level of general and language knowledge as a nonnative language. Cortazzi&Jin (1999)have defined the cultural content of English textbooks in three categories: the source culture (the learner’s native culture), the target culture (for example, British, American, or Australian culture) and the international target culture (varieties of the target culture from all over the world, characteristic of the countries where English is spoken as an international language). However, they all contain elements of target culture. It is important to find textbooks, which deal with these three categories in a balanced way. METHODOLOGY
- This study adopts an exploratory research design to confirm or reject the suggested hypotheses. Questionnaire, which is one of the main research methods in teaching methodology, was designed to determine the student’s interest concerning target culture. The aim was to prepare educational program, teaching material and activities based on target and native culture. Population of this study consists of undergraduate students studying at Azerbaijan University of Languages in 2020-2021 academic year. A total of 14 students who study in the Faculty of International Relations and Regional Studies was recruited in order to participate in this research. Of this group, six of respondents are male and eight are female finishing first year of study. RESULTS
- In the questionnaire, participants firstly had read the short text about “Culture Shock” from the book “New English File” and then answered the question relating this topic (Oxenden& Latham-Koenig, 1997).
- The results of the survey obtained from fourth-year students at Azerbaijan University of Languages also clarifies that the majority of students clearly understand cultural difference and show cultural tolerance which is key to social harmony. Students studying in the Faculty of International Relations and Regional Studies at Azerbaijan University of Languages also learn about foreign cultures and ethique in language lessons, in particular English language lesson through authentic materials which promote intercultural competence in tertiary education. REFERENCES Byram, M. (1989). Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Education.
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