Developing the intercultural dimension Developing the intercultural - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Developing the intercultural dimension Developing the intercultural dimension in teaching and assessing Chinese as in teaching and assessing Chinese as a foreign language a foreign language – A proposal from the EBCL Project A proposal from the EBCL Project – Liang Wang SOAS, University of London 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 1

About EBCL Project Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching assessment (2001) European Benchmarking Chinese Language Project (Nov 2010) http://ebcl.eu.com/ 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 2

EBCL project objectives Language Intercultural competence understanding Objectives Database Networking 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 3

Chinese as a foreign language – 1 � Different backgrounds and varieties of Chinese language � Use of Chinese in Europe vs. use of Chinese in Greater China � Internationalising Chinese � Localising Chinese e.g. 1 What do you expect your students to address you and what do your students address you? e.g. 2 ‘A Germany learner would not likely to associate with the word 认真 when describing someone.’ 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 4

Chinese as a foreign language – 2 � Lack of interactional perspectives and pedagogical practices � Culture as products � Culture as practice � Culture as perspectives � Individual experience? � Made implicit in most language courses ‘My students are all mature students so I assume that they are already culturally competent to some degree and actually there is no particular way of teaching intercultural competence.’ ZZ (personal communication, 28/04/12) 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 5

IC dimension in FLE � Theoretical perspectives on culture and communication � Essentialist view � Background studies: a range of knowledge to be transmitted (monocultural) � Cross-cultural comparison: over-generalization, stereotyping (bi-cultural) � Intercultural communication: interaction, but binary tradition of ‘Us’ & ‘Them’ � Negotiated/non-essentialist view (Scollon and Scollon 2001; Piller 2007) � Interdiscourse communication: a process of assertion, negotiation, construction, reflection, and the dynamics of interaction between individuals (interpersonal and social) � The changing goal of FLE � ‘Native-speaker’ ‘Intercultural-speaker’ � Communicative competence (CC) Intercultural CC (ICC) (Byram 1997; Byram, Gribkova and Starkey, 2001; Corbett 2003; Kramsch 1998, 2001) 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 6

IC dimension in CEFR - 1 � Educational objective ‘a central objective of language education [is] to promote the favourable development of the learner’s whole personality and sense of identity in response to the enriching experience of otherness in language and culture.’ CEFR (2001:1) � Social objective ‘to achieve a wider and deeper understanding of the way of life and forms of thought of other peoples and of their cultural heritage.’ CEFR (2001:3) 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 7

IC dimension in CEFR - 2 � Political objective ‘To promote mutual understanding and tolerance, respect for identities and cultural diversity through more effective international communication. To maintain and further develop the richness and diversity of European cultural life through greater mutual knowledge of national and regional languages, including those less widely taught. To meet the needs of a multilingual and multicultural Europe by appreciably developing the ability of Europeans to communicate with each other across linguistic and cultural boundaries, which requires a sustained, lifelong effort to be encouraged, put on an organised footing and financed at all levels of education by the competent bodies.’ CEFR (2001:3) 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 8

IC dimension in CEFR - 3 � Emerging but under-developed ‘ intercultural awareness’, ‘intercultural skills’, ‘existential competence’ CEFR (2001) ‘although the CEF included a discussion of intercultural competence and intercultural awareness, the question of assessment and the defining of levels of intercultural competence, had to be left aside as the CEF went to press.’ Neuner, Parmenter, Starkey and Zarate (2003) 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 9

IC dimension in CEFR - 4 � Lack of clarity ‘the influence of the CEFR in Europe and other countries does not include the question of intercultural competence and pluriculturalism. Neither does it include the notion of “mediation”.’ Byram (2011:68) � Competence of mediation finding a solution to the conflict or problem rather than merely translation/interpretation Byram et al. (1994, in Byram 2011) 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 10

IC dimension in ICCLE � International Curriculum for Chinese Language Education (2008) � Cultural awareness model � Cultural knowledge � Cultural understanding � Cross-cultural awareness � Global awareness � Lack of progressive description � Abstract vs concrete 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 11

ICC/IC assessment models � Byram (1997) – most comprehensive and well worked-out with objectives for teaching and assessment; prescriptive more than descriptive � Deardorff (2006) – synthesis of existing expert views, which justifies Byram’s model � LOLIPOP portfolio (2004) – online interactive version of ELP with an enhanced intercultural dimension � INCA (2004) – a framework, a suite of tools for intercultural competence assessment in work contexts linked to language and subject knowledge competence � CEFcult (2010) – a framework for enhancing language proficiency for intercultural professional communication 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 12

Byram’s model � ICC model � Communicative competence � Linguistic � Sociolinguistic � Discourse � Intercultural competence Skills (discover, (IC) interact) knowledge � Knowledge Critical awareness � Attitude Skills (interpret, � Skills Attitudes relate) � Critical cultural awareness 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 13

Deardorff’s models 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 14

The IC dimension within EBCL Generic and illustrative descriptors: Reception Spoken/Written Production Spoken/Written Interaction Spoken/Written Communication Strategies Sociolinguistic components Pragmatic components (List of themes and topics) (List of language functions) Linguistic components Intercultural components (vocabulary/character, (knowledge, attitude, skills, grammar, grapheme, etc.) critical cultural awareness) 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 15

Proposals � A portfolio approach to building up can-do statements � open list on the basis of Byram (1997) � knowledge-related (themes/notions) � action-oriented (behaviours/language functions) � Collection of learners’ intercultural experiences for data � Experiential learning in real-life contexts � intercultural ‘ communicative ’ experience � with linguistic evidence, supplemented by � EBCL List of Themes/Topics � EBCL List of Language Functions 11-13/07/2012 BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 16

What’s coming up… � Revising the framework Updated information about the project, please visit http://ebcl.eu.com/ Contact: Liang Wang, l.wang@soas.ac.uk BCLTS 2012, University of Central Lancashire, Preston 17