scholarly journals Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence in ELF Communication

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-60
Author(s):  
Lili Cavalheiro

The traditional notion of English as a foreign language solely for communicating with native speakers can no longer be applied in a world that is constantly changing, hence paving the way for an alternative use of the language known as English as a lingua franca. As a result, instead of focusing only on grammatical correctness, research into language pedagogy has also come to recognize the importance of exploring bottom-up learning processes, and developing intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and more communicative-based methods. Nowadays, it is essential to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and critical cultural awareness necessary to communicate successfully. To show the importance of integrating ICC in language pedagogy, a recording from the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English is analysed here to demonstrate the significance of developing critical awareness as well as several communicative strategies, so that language learners can afterwards have the necessary ICC to interact in today’s multi-lingual/cultural society.

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-71
Author(s):  
Višnja Pavičić Takač ◽  
Sanja Vakanjac Ivezić

Academic literacy includes the learners’ ability to use their language knowledge to form articulate texts. In communicative competence models this ability is subsumed under the notion of discourse competence which includes the concepts of cohesion and coherence. Starting from the premise that constructing a coherent text entails efficient use of metadiscourse (i.e. means of explicit text organisation) this study focuses on elements referring to discourse acts, text sequences or stages called frame markers, i.e. items providing framing information about elements of the discourse and functioning to sequence, label, predict and shift arguments, making the discourse clear to readers or listeners (Hyland 2005). It analyses patterns of L2 learners’ use of frame markers, compares them to English native speakers’, and explores the relationship between frame markers and coherence. The corpus includes 80 argumentative essays written by early undergraduate Croatian L2 learners of English at B2 level. The results indicate that foreign language learners’ argumentative essays are characterized by an overuse of a limited set of frame markers. Finally, implications are drawn for teaching and further research.


2015 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 175
Author(s):  
B. Greg Dunne

Using O’Dowd and Ritter’s (2006) Inventory of Reasons for Failed Communication in Telecollaborative Projects as a barometer, this article details the considerations and procedures followed in a task-based, asynchronous email tele-collaboration project between EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners in Japan and Chile. In a climate where current research surrounding telecollaboration continues to gravitate toward the dual foci of intercultural communicative competence and multimodal technology, this article exemplifies how the adoption of a task-based framework can greatly assist the induction of beginner-level EFL students into a telecollaborative learning environment. It also encourages EFL and ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers throughout the world to seek task designs that will help them do the same. The project experienced its share of logistical and technical challenges but by adopting the currently unconventional stance of designing tasks that highlight individual identity and downplay cultural identity the project appeared to minimize intercultural tension, unmanageable levels of incomprehensibility and inability to arrive at task outcomes.Utilisant l’article de O’Dowd et Ritter (2006) Inventory of Reasons for Failed Communication in Telecollaborative Projects comme baromètre, cet article décrit en détail les considérations et les procédures d’un projet de télécollaboration asynchrone, par courriel et basé sur les tâches entre des apprenants d’anglais langue étrangère (ALE) au Japon et au Chili. Dans le climat actuel où la recherche portant sur la télécollaboration continue à se tourner vers la compétence communicative interculturelle et la technologie multimodale, cet article démontre les bienfaits significatifs d’adopter un cadre basé sur les tâches pour accueillir les élèves débutants en ALE dans un milieu d’apprentissage télécollaboratif. L’article encourage également les enseignants d’ALE et d’ALS partout au monde à rechercher des tâches qui les aideront à en faire autant. Le projet a connu sa part de défis logistiques et techniques, mais en adoptant la position originale de concevoir des tâches qui soulignent l’identité individuelle et diminuent l’identité culturelle, il semble avoir minimisé la tension interculturelle, l’incompréhensibilité et l’incapacité à arriver aux résultats voulus.


Author(s):  
Katrin Herget ◽  
Noemí Pérez

Nowadays, teaching languages for specific purposes, in particular in the field of entrepreneurship, has to focus on pragmatic and intercultural aspects in response to a multicultural professional reality that comprises different areas of knowledge. Our study aims at analyzing the speech act of making a request in German and Spanish by Portuguese native speakers, i.e. BA students of Languages and Business Relations at University of Aveiro. For this study, two different types of tests were performed: the Discourse Completion Task (DCT) and the Rating Assessment Test. The data provided by the answers given to these two surveys will help the teacher to understand the pragmatic difficulties students have when making a request in these two foreign languages. The information obtained will help the teacher to focus on aspects that are really problematic from the pragmatic point of view, and at the same time, to find and implement strategies and activities that help students improve their pragmatic awareness and overcome difficulties that may arise in intercultural communication. Hence, the objective is to contribute to an adequate development of the students' pragmatic and intercultural communicative competence.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-97
Author(s):  
Ayse Taskiran

AbstractToday, language learners can be linked with students in other countries to form international partnerships, which is often called telecollaboration. Some common goals of telecollaboration include cultural awareness, development of foreign language skills and intercultural communicative competence. This study intends to gain insights about the learners’ experience following a 5-week telecollaboration activity between 100 English as a foreign language (EFL) students from Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics in China and Anadolu University in Turkey. The participation in the project was on voluntary basis for Turkish students. The telecollaboration activity included three different stages in which learners from both countries were expected to be able to communicate using different channels (text messaging, voice calls, video calls, emailing) synchronously and asynchronously, to analyse and compare their own and their peers’ culture to build understanding of each other’s identities and to collaborate together to produce a cultural piece of work. At the end of the activity Turkish EFL students were invited to answer a questionnaire that aimed to gain insights about their experience related to telecollaboration activity. Results revealed that the participants mostly enjoyed the activity. They also believed the activity contributed to their language learning process, motivation and intercultural communicative competence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Francisco Perez-Gomez ◽  
Dra. Dina Elizabeth Cortes Coss

In student-teachers’ education, it is fundamental to foster the intercultural communicative competence for them to express their views on cultural concepts and phenomena in written and orally, with native and non-native speakers of a foreign language. In the same vein, future foreign language teachers, particularly at an early stage of their learning process, are expected to possess some basic citizen competencies which allow them, amongst other things, to show an understanding of the country they live in, the cultural diversity it has, and the current situation they and their co-nationals are facing (cognitive dimension).  Bering in mind the importance of competences mentioned before. This short-scale quantitative study set out to classify the perceptions that a group of student-teachers had on Colombia, their cultural identity, and Colombians’ cultural identity in general. To that end, one oral and two written short narratives along with a final questionnaire were collected and analysed using Atlas TI. 8 and Excell spreadsheets. The counting and classification of prominent speech parts that conveyed perceptions (nouns, nouns plus adjectives and adjective per se) unveiled that participants held quite optimistic views on their nation, particularly in cultural, natural, geographic, and culinary aspects. It was also revealed that student-teachers had a high appreciation of themselves culturally speaking, praising their personality and mood as most important features. Furthermore, it was unveiled that participants held a positive view about their compatriots, highlighting their personality, mood, and character. It is important to remark that positive views about own identity were much higher than general views on Colombians.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moh. Rofid Fikroni

Bearing in mind that the learners’ speaking skill had become the main goal in learning language, grammatical competence is believed to have a big role within foreign language learners’ language production, especially in spoken form. Moreover, the learners’ grammatical competence is also closely related to the Monitor Hypothesis proposed by Krashen (1982) in which it says that the acquired system will function as monitor or editor to the language production. The students’ monitor performance will vary based on how they make use of their acquired system. They may use it optimally (monitor optimal user), overly (monitor over-user), or they may not use it at all (monitor under-user). Therefore, learners’ grammatical competence has its own role, which is very crucial, within learners’ language production, which is not only to produce the language, but also to monitor the language production itself. Because of this reason, focus on form instruction will give a great impact for students’ grammatical competence within their communicative competence. This paper aims to present ideas about the how crucial the role grammatical competence within learners’ L2 communication.


Author(s):  
Марьям Магомедбековна Курбанова ◽  
Габибула Муталлипович Рабаданов

Статья посвящена рассмотрению понятия межкультурной коммуникативной компетенции и различных технологий по ее формирования у учеников средней школы. The article is devoted to the consideration of the concept of intercultural communicative competence and various technologies for its formation in secondary school students.


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