Transcript developng interlectual competence of Engish language teachers

Good Afternoon !
 Language
learning does not
mean linguistic
competence(Chomsky) or
communicative competence
(Hymes) only, it embraces
Intercultural Competence
too(Byram)
Shashini R. Tennekoon
Pasdunrata National College of
Education
Sri Lanka
What is intercultural competence
 Why it is important to my working
context
 What I found about IC
 What I wanted to find out through my
study
 What I did
 How I did it
 What did I find
 The implications of what I found and
My conclusions


the ability to communicate
effectively and
appropriately across
cultural boundaries”
“
 Darla Deardroff ( 2004)
Sri Lanka is a pluralist society trying to
recover from damages done during
ethnic clashes in the past
 Segregated school system but Salient
opportunity for English teachers
 Teacher-student
understanding for
optimal
learning-Requires
intercultural sensitivity
 “the
ability to successfully teach
students who come from different
cultures other than your own” (Diller &
Moule, 2005, p. 2)







It involves knowledge, skills, and
attitudes based on five dimensions
(Byram,2003)
Skills (savoir comprendre) Interpret and
compare
Knowledge (savoirs) Knowledge about ‘other’
and ‘own
Education (savoir s’engager ) Critically evaluate
Attitudes (savoir être) Openness and curiosity
Skills (savoir apprendre/faire) Acquire new
knowledge (and apply in real time)



Cultural sensitivity is a developmental
process which moves the individual
from (Bennet,2004) ethnocentrism to
ethnorelativism
Denial ➝ Defense ➝ Minimization ➝
ETHNOCENTRISM
Acceptance ➝ Adaptation ➝ Integration
ETHNORELATIVISM

Intercultural competence develop by
degree, and having components at the
lower levels of competency enhances
the upper levels. (Deardorff ,2006)


To evaluate the prospective teachers' current
perceptions on cultural diversity and
determine whether they are more inclined
towards ethnocentrism or ethnorelativism
To broaden the knowledge on how the
specially designed curriculum on teaching
English Language skills based on intercultural
material help to develop intercultural
competence of prospective teachers of
English.


To identify the effectiveness of the activities
used in the curriculum in developing
intercultural competence of the student
teachers
To propose an alternative course of action
for the teacher educators to follow based on
my experience when teaching English
language skills which would be more
beneficial to students teachers produced by
National Colleges of Education in their future
role
 Mixed
method approach
 Action research
 Pre test-intervention-post test
model
 Intervention based on specially
designed intercultural syllabus
 Questionnaire
 Observation
 Observation
check list + Field
notes (Non participant
observer)
 Reflective journal (researcher)
 Student diaries (participants)
students' cultural perceptions
have more inclination towards
ethnocentrism
 They have a strong attachment
to their culture
 They seem to be having a sturdy
influence from their religion
rather than language

Mean Score of the Sample
0-10
.11-20
6%
21-30
3%
31-40
3%
41-50
51-60
over 60
3%
26%
36%
23%
 Mean
Score Based on Ethnicity
 Tamil
- 34
 Muslim
- 39
 Sinhala
Buddhist - 29.1
 Sinhala
Roman catholic - 19
Mean Score of Each Ethnic Group
Sinhala Roman Catholic
Sinhala Buddhist
Mean Score of Each Ethnic Group
Muslim
Tami
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
students possess limited knowledge
of other ethnic and religious cultures
despite their existence together in the
island for hundreds of years
 This was especially evident in the
Sinhala group they also being the
group with the poorest knowledge of
language of the other two groups
 The reason could be that they do not
need second language of the country
for their survival

 the
respondents have scored high
marks in the questions related to
adaptation stage of the intercultural
competence continuum
 showing their willingness to adapt to
other cultures may be because Sri
Lankan culture is based on the
concept of peaceful living that hates
violence
 The scores reveal that almost all the
participants fall into the minimization
stage of the IC development process
which supports the principle 'live and
let live'

Students responded positively to the activities
in the intercultural syllabus
30
Activity 1
25
Activity 2
20
Activity 3
15
Activity 4
10
Activity 5
5
Activity 6
0
Activity 7
Mean
Activity 8
Some of these activities dealt with
enhancing knowledge of other
cultures
 the assumption was that greater
intercultural knowledge may instill
greater intercultural competence
 the observations confirmed that they
generate superficial descriptions that
fostered negative stereotyping in the
research participants

Intercultural competence very
important for teachers handling CALD
students
 Help developing intercultural
citizenship necessary in a pluralist
society
 Extensive intercultural interaction
promote social harmony









Bennett, M. J. (2004). . Toward multiculturalism: A reader in multicultural education In Wurzel,
J. (Ed.).
(2nd ed., pp. 62-77). Newton, MA: Intercultural Resource Corporation
Byram, M. (2003) Teaching languages for democratic citizenship in Europe and beyond. In
Brown, K. and Brown, M. 2003. (eds.) Reflections on citizenship in a multilingual world.
London: CILT: 15-24
Deardorff, D.K. (2006). Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student
outcome of internationalization. Journal of Studies in International Education,10, 241-266
Krajewski,S. (2011). Developing intercultural competence in multilingual and multicultural
student groups. Journal of Research in International Education Sabine (10)137-153
Premier,J.A. (2010) Preparing Pre-service Teachers for Multicultural Classroom. Australian
Journal of Teacher Education, 35( 2),35-48
Sara Rubenfeld, S.,Richard, C., Vinograd,J., Lussier,D., Amireault,V. (2007). Becoming a cultural
intermediary: a further social corollary of second-language learning. Journal of Language and
Social Psychology (26): 182
Spooner-Lane, R., Tangen, D., Louise, K.M. Hepple, E.,Carrington, S.(2013) Building
Intercultural Competence One “Patch” at a Time. Education Research International, (10),1-9
Susan G. Sample(2013) Developing Intercultural Learners Through the International
Curriculum. Journal of Studies in International Education, retrieved February2013 from
http:/jsi.sage.pub
Thank
you!!