Intercultural Linguistic Competence Development

Intercultural Linguistic Competence Development

MYERS, Marie J.

Key words: beliefs; intercultural awareness, new implementations ABSTRACT With new developments in applied linguistics, foreign language teacher preparation programs come under a great deal of scrutiny. Teachers have to grasp the different degrees of difficulty and the different amounts of detail involved in acquiring professional know-how and at the same time understand that these have to be balanced accurately across cultures. A number of suggestions have been made for the processing of information in an intercultural context through a step-by-step mental approach . In today's global knowledge economy some parameters take on crucial importance in situational contexts (Gee, 2006; Myers, 2012; Olson, 2004). Developing awareness of self and of how people interact in their native language is a crucial aspect of this approach. In order to enhance comprehensibility, for clearer output on language teaching issues, we have proposed an integrated model derived from two perspectives (looking at linguistic and intercultural aspects) and including a number of processes with a focus on a 'new grammar approach', culture and assessment of intercultural linguistic competence. We investigated teacher endorsement of new implementations through written contributions. Data were collected and analyzed to uncover emergent themes. The findings point to the perceived importance of the following three main topics namely, the new grammar approach based on developments in applied linguistics, a new way to integrate culture knowledge in teaching and the new approach to assessment of linguistic competence. These findings will be discussed in light of the literature and contextual elements. The results indicate that these new implementations required a change in beliefs. Overall we found that the students in the courses put on 'new lenses' and most of them accommodated in their mind's eye.

Article
PeerReviewed

IBU Publishing

2013-05-03

1847