2. Complete the sentences with the appropriate form of the verb.

1. If I __________a lot about Japanese culture, I _____________ more confident at the meeting. (to know, to be)

2. If I ___________ enough information about cultural values of the British during my internship there, I ____________ any difficulty in preparing my project now. (to obtain, to have)

3. If he ___________ the way people behave from different cultures, he _____________ that unpleasant situation. (to respect, to avoid)

4. I _____________ uncomfortable if I ___________ easily ___________ with people from different cultures. (to feel, can interact)

5. If Napoleon ______________ the battle of Waterloo in 1815, French __________ probably ____________ the official language in England. (to win, to be)

6. I the opinions of people from different cultures easily if I _____________ Intercultural Communication at University. (to accept, to study)

3. Work in pairs and complete the sentences with examples from your own experience.

1. I would find it hard to talk to people from other cultures if ....

2. I would think that people from other cultures are .... if .....

3. I would feel upset if ....

4. If I were open-minded, I ......

5. If I spoke two or more languages, I .....

6. If I had strong desire to ....., I .......

COMMUNICATION

1. Spend one minute writing down different words you associate with learning a language. Share your words with your partner and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories and use them in further discussions.

2. In groups, talk about your weak points in studying English.

1. How do these weak points make you feel?

2. What have you done to make these points less weak?

3. How long have you focused on improving the weak points?

4. Do they affect your ability to communicate, listen or read?

3. How far do you agree with these opinions on language? Talk about them with your partner.

1. The number of languages you speak is the number of times you are human.

2. If the whole world learned English, there’d be fewer communication problems.

3. To be successful in the world, it’s now better to learn Chinese.

4. English should become the official world language.

5. It’s a good for any nation to make its citizens at least bilingual.

6. There should be just one world language in the future.

7. My mother tongue is too beautiful to die.

WRITING

Choose ONE of the topics from exercise 3 above. Write an article in 300-350 words in an appropriate style.

READING

1. Express your opinion on the following.

1. What relevance does intercultural communication have to language education?

2. How far should teachers be familiar with the culture of foreign language they teach?

3. What is culture teaching in a foreign language teaching context?

2. Read the text.

Intercultural Communicative Competence

Why are you teaching English? There are lots of ‘right’ answers to this question, but many teachers answer that they are teaching English for the purpose of communication with people of other cultures. This is commendable. But in order to communicate with other people, is it enough just to master English grammar, vocabulary and colloquial phrases? The latest research says ‘no’.

Throughout Europe, recent research in foreign language education has focused on intercultural aspects. The concept of communicative competence has been transformed into the concept of ‘intercultural communicative competence’ (ICC). This concept is being incorporated into the work of the Council of Europe (a transnational body which provides education policy guidelines for member states), and is perhaps most clearly described in English in a book entitled Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence, which was written by an advisor to the Council of Europe committee on foreign language education, Mike Byram (1997). Basically, ICC requires that students acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and critical cultural awareness necessary to communicate interculturally.

There are two types of knowledge required for ICC. The first is knowledge about social groups and cultures in one’s own country and in the countries of one’s interlocutors. In a case like Japan where the foreign language is English, this means that students need to acquire a broad knowledge of many different countries and cultures, since English is an international language used all over the world. Such knowledge is also gained from social studies classes, the media, friends and family and so on. However, material treated in foreign language classes should help to develop this knowledge, and students should be encouraged to relate this knowledge to knowledge of their own culture.

The second type of knowledge is knowledge of the processes of interaction at societal and individual levels. This knowledge is essential for ICC: if students speak perfect grammatically correct English but have no knowledge of the processes of interaction, then communication will be a failure.

Byram divides skills into two categories. The first is the “ability to interpret a document or event from another culture, to explain it and relate it to documents from one’s own”. The second is the “ability to acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to operate knowledge, attitudes and skills under the constraints of real-time communication and interaction”. Both sets of skills obviously require the development of language competence.

Skills of analysis and interpretation are necessary, as they are the skills of relating between different cultures, and they help to put all this knowledge into practice in real situations.

(Lynne Parmenter Associate Professor, Waseda University

20 TEN VOL.1 SPRING 2003)