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A REVIEW OF THE TERM INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
Intercultural communicative competence is a term widely discussed in the field of
foreign language teaching and learning. Intercultural competence refers to the
knowledge of how to interpret and produce spoken or written piece of discourse within
a particular sociocultural context (Us-Juan & Martinez Flor, 2008: 161). Us-Juan &
Martinez Flor definition of Intercultural Competence is not the only existing one, but
there are other definitions available. Nonetheless, ICC is still a hardly understood term.
Despite the difficulty in understanding what intercultural competence means, it seems
clear that the main aim of learning a foreign language is to be able to communicate with
people of other cultures, so language and culture are integrated in language teaching as
a whole. Indeed, learning a second language is understood as a combination of
Communicative competence (language) and Intercultural Competence (culture). For a
successful language learning, it is not enough to build up linguistic knowledge out of
context, but it is essential to contextualize the language. As Meyer (1991) pointed out,
being intercultural competent means to behave effectively in a flexible manner when
confronted with actions, attitudes and expectations of representatives of foreign
cultures.
Therefore, it is clear that culture is a key element in foreign language teaching and it
should be integrated in the class. Nonetheless, in spite of the fact that teachers are well
aware of the importance of teaching culture, it is difficult for them to put it in practice
and the implementation of a communicative methodology is not an easy task. Cultural
competence in foreign language teaching might be neglected due to different reasons:
teachers usually have overcrowded curriculum to cover and lack the time to spend on
teaching culture; many of them have a limited knowledge of the target culture and, are
afraid to teach it and finally, teachers may be confused about what cultural aspects to
cover (Omaggio, 2001). Moreover, teachers who do not update their sociocultural
competence tend to focus on linguistic competence and omit the sociocultural one
(Costa Afonso, 2011). For this reason, it has been demonstrated that foreign language
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learners have shortages in the cultural knowledge of the foreign language (Carrillo
Lpez, 2014).
Thereby, teachers should find a way to incorporate in a successful way the teaching of
culture in their lessons. The role of the teacher is to develop skills, attitudes and
awareness of values just as much as to develop a knowledge of a particular culture or
country or of different cultures within ones own country (Byram, 2001). To do so, the
traditional resources (textbooks) should be adapted to this new situation. As Liddicoat
and Scarino (2013) proposed, a resource for intercultural learning needs to enable
access to and insights about the language and culture that is being learned. So for that
reason, textbooks are not the only resource for teaching culture, but it is very common
for teachers to use other materials, which supplement or replace the traditional textbook.
Authentic resources are widely used because they might seem more relevant to the
learners: literature as an authentic resource, communities of target-language speakers
and the language produces by learners themselves (rarely used). Apart from this
materials used, it is important to focus on new technologies and audio-visual means,
mainly films (Costa Afonso, 2011).
Apart from the adaptation of the resources available for the teaching of culture, there is
also a need of educate teachers in what means to be a teacher nowadays. Firstly,
educators must be sure of the teachers understanding of the concept of intercultural
competence in order to make sure that they are able to incorporate interculturally
competent practices into teaching (Deardoff, 2011). Once the concept of intercultural
competence is clear, teachers should be trained to effectuate their profession in the most
fruitful way. Educators may help teachers to confront with languages and cultures they
are unfamiliar with and encourage them to compare different languages and relate
language and culture (Costa Afonso, 2011). Furthermore, it is essential for teachers to
go abroad for lengthy visits, take part in different seminars in the target language, etc. in
order to acquire their intercultural competence and feel better proficient for the teaching
of the culture of the foreign country. From what we have learnt before, it is quite clear
that teachers are the main source of information and they are situated in the middle of
the teaching-learning experience. For that reason, it is teachers responsibility to
establish the basis for intercultural competence by suggesting to their students how they
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can develop their learning and stimulating them to know different cultures (Costa
Afonso, 2011).
As
abovementioned,
most
teachers
realize
the
importance
of
intercultural
communication but they find difficult to integrate the teaching of culture in their lessons
due to the (traditional) resources accessible to them and their own (conventional)
education. Nevertheless, the most remarkable difficulty for teachers is the assessment of
this intercultural communicative competence. As Clouet (2013) mentioned, assessing
intercultural competence is a challenging activity due to the fact that it is much more
complicated to assess awareness and attitude than it is to assess knowledge and skills. In
other words, it is impossible for teachers to assess language skills and culture awareness
in the same way. For that reason, assessing intercultural competence requires extra work
from teachers, who must create and develop new forms of assessment.
As
a
conclusion,
it
can
be
said
that
intercultural
communication
in
foreign
language
courses
must
not
be
sidestepped,
and
teachers
must
attach
importance
to
the
cultural
component
in
their
lessons.
Despite
the
difficulties,
the
implementation
and
the
assessment
of
the
intercultural
competence
is
essential
in
the
21st
century
since
the
development
of
intercultural
competence
play
an
important
role
in
helping
us
to
live
together.
REFERENCES
Byram,
M.,
Nichols,
A.
and
Stevens,
D.
(2001).
Developing
Intercultural
Competence
in
Practice.
Clevedon:
Multilingual
Matters.
Carrillo
Lopez,
M.
J.
(2014).
Opinin
del
profesorado
de
Lengua
Extranjera
en
torno
a
la
integracin
del
componente
cultural
en
el
aula
de
idiomas.
Porta
Linguarum
21:
265-279.
Aprendizaje
y
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ICC
Andrea
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Clouet,
R.
(2013).
Understanding
and
assessing
intercultural
competence
in
an
online
environment:
A
case
study
of
transnational
education
programme
delivery
between
college
students
in
ULPGC,
Spain,
and
ICES,
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RESLA,
26:
139-157.
Costa
Afonso,
C.
(2011).
Intercultural
Competence:
A
major
Issue
in
Foreign
Language
Teacher
Training?
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Witte
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Hardens
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Concepts,
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(Peter
Lang
International
Academic
Publishers)
Deardorff,
D.K.
(2011).
Intercultural
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in
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Language
Classrooms:
A
Framework
and
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In
Witte
&
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Intercultural
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Evaluations,
ISFLL
Vol.
10
(Peter
Lang
International
Academic
Publishers).
Liddicoat, A. J. and and Scarino, A. (2013). Intercultural Language Teaching and
Learning. Oxford: Blackwell.
Meyer,
M.
(1991).
Developing
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in
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(2001).
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Us-Juan
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