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Essay on expanding cultural awareness
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What is intercultural competence
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Introduction
The increasing impact of globalization has, in recent years, caused a significant shift in the goals of foreign language education from communicative competence to a requirement for intercultural communicative competence (Byram, 1997). He defined intercultural competence as the ability to establish and maintain relations with members of other culture but not necessarily linked to foreign language proficiency while intercultural communicative competence implies that the learner can do this in a foreign language (Helm & Guth, 2010). However, in a traditional language classroom, the focus of language teaching is to develop reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. If the focus on language teaching is to improve this set of
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Thanks to the ubiquitous nature of the internet in recent years, the world has become more connected each day. The increased use of the web on a daily basis has opened the doors for teachers to give their students the opportunity to connect with people around the globe without leaving their home country. The internet allows teachers to link their students with students of other cultures in distant countries by utilizing online communication tools. This kind of teaching method is called telecollaboration and has been employed using different formats in classes all over the globe with the aim of developing intercultural competence and foreign language skills, such as e-tandem, virtual online exchanges, collaborative online international learning, and many others. According to Helm (2009), telecollaboration is “an approach to intercultural learning that uses internet technology as a tool to facilitate intercultural communication between classes of learners in different countries.” Numerous studies have shown that telecollaboration has been one successful teaching method to assist foreign language learners in developing this combination of language skills and intercultural awareness (Belz, 2003; Chun, 2011; …show more content…
The study shows that online interaction has a positive impact on developing students’ communication skill and appreciation towards other people’s cultures. Chun (2011) investigated the effect of online communication tools used in asynchronous and synchronous communication to the students’ language style, and students’ performance in conveying various expressions related to speech acts in writing. The study found that while asynchronous communication contains longer and more complex sentences, synchronous communication reflected more engagement and evidence of the development of intercultural competence compare to asynchronous communication due to the lack of personal interactions. Online collaboration also enhances the development of opportunities that might not have been available in a traditional class setting. This opportunity enables the students to link theory and practice and has a practical dimension of their course by interacting with others (Dooly et al.,
The subject of this paper is Liz, a 52-year old, 1.5 generation female immigrant from Hong Kong. What this means is that she immigrated to the United States when she was a child, around 7-years old (Feliciano Lec. 1/4/2016). As a child of a family that consists of five siblings and two parents that did not speak any English prior to immigrating, the focus of this paper will be on the legal processes that the family went through to become legal immigrants and the various factors that aided in her path towards assimilation.
Cultural competence has to do with one’s culture. Culture affects among other factors, how children are raised, how families communicate, what is considered normal or abnormal, ways of coping with issues, the way we dress, when and where we seek medical treatment, and so forth. I should know because I come from a very cultural home where it is considered bad to talk to a male doctor about anything gynecological.
The differences observed in society can be seen in almost every aspect of life and can separate every human from another through choice and perception. Considering a simplistic example where one driver in the United States drives on the right side of the road, compared to a European driver that drives on the left side of the road. Each may perceive that the other is incapable of driving when sharing the same environment. Yet both individuals are perfectly capable of operating a vehicle safely and successfully. The similarity is that both know how to operate a vehicle and this similarity is what creates cohesion between two individuals. The aspect of multi-cultural counseling operates across this same philosophy where the diversity of one client
“Cultural competence is the ability to engage in actions or create conditions that maximize the optimal development of client and client systems” (Sue & Sue, 2013, p. 49). Multicultural competence includes a counselor to be aware of his or her biases, knowledge of the culture they are evaluating, and skills to evaluate a client with various backgrounds (Sue & Sue, 2013). Client assessment involves gathering information pertaining to the client’s condition. Making a culturally responsive diagnosis involves using the DSM-IV-TR axis (Hays, 2008). Following the axis backwards is ideal to discovering the client’s diagnosis, understanding the client’s ADDRESSING outline will help to come to a closer resolution for a diagnosis.
China has become the world’s 3rd most popular destination of international students who chose to further their studies abroad. There is a notable increase in the number of foreign students coming to China. These students are coming from different parts of the world and have different culture backgrounds, which implies that, there is need for them to learn and adapt to the new culture of the new environment. Because of the uniqueness of Chinese culture, it is crystal clear that, as they will be learning the new culture, the students will inevitably face intercultural adaptation problems in their daily lives. Therefore，they need to understand and learn
In the context of globalisation, there is an increasing call for quality language education for Australian students, so that they are able to deal with the rapid changes of information successfully. Developing in Australian students’ language skills and inter-cultural understanding is considered as a considerable investment in Australian’s capability (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs [MCEETYA], 2005). This essay will elucidate what role does language teaching plays in Australian schools. It will also explain the necessity for all Australian to learn a second language. In this essay, ‘languages’ will be used to refer to all languages other than English, including Australian Indigenous languages (MCEETYA, 2005).
I have learned a great deal about different cultures and the communication between those cultures. I didn’t really think I would learn as much as I did. I am from an older cohort than most of the people in my class; therefore my experience level is a little greater. This did not prevent me from learning a few things and enhancing the knowledge I already have.
Intercultural communication is an evolving discipline that encapsulates the interactions between individuals or groups from different backgrounds. Diversity and the need for cultural awareness are forever increasing, and this solidifies the direction in which diversity will take in the future. Intercultural communication is going to be a tremendous part of our future and as individuals it will be part of our personal, social and professional relationships.
The goals of intercultural education focus on the improvement of relations between individuals and groups, for it seeks to increase respect for the various individualized differences among diverse populations in order to strengthen a national identity (Giles, Ingram, & Pitkin, 1946). The objectives of intercultural education are theoretically connected to notions of inequality, discrimination, ethnic and cultural diversity, and national identity (Leeman & Ledoux, 2005). Through historical evaluation of intercultural programs, there is much disagreement on the perspectives, target groups, boundaries and key concepts of intercultural education. The value attached to its ideals varies, and it is closely linked to visions of equity of multicultural
...s encountered by Chinese background students in intercultural communications. This study also suggests including knowledge of nonverbal communication into EFL teaching so as to enable English learners to become fully competent in the targeted language, because nonverbal communication is used in everyday communication, and it is one of the prerequisites to acquire intercultural communicative competence.
The rapid development and spread of electronic communication technologies is quickly making the world a smaller place. The economies of various nations become more merged through the globalization and people using these technologies increasingly find themselves interacting with a larger international audience. However, this audience has different expectations for how it evaluates and interprets information. For this reason, companies need to become aware of intercultural communication through the internet with its opportunities and advantages of global communication. Communication through the internet could cause miscommunication in international online interactions. For this reason, trainings should be used to provide strategies for avoiding these problems.
Globalization demands people to communicate in a new context of communication. People should be able to communicate across nations and become the part of global society. Since a language is a means of communication, people should master language well to support them in their communication activities. Meanwhile, learning language is not only learning different words for the same things but also learning another way about things. Byram and Fleming (1998: 7) state that the potential of language teaching to prepare learners to meet and communicate in other cultures and societies than the specific one usually associated with the language they are learning. It means that language learner should master the knowledge of how to express appropriate messages
People live in the world of communication. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Current English (Moore, 1997), communication is defined as, “The activity or process of expressing ideas and feelings or of giving people information”. The significance of communication can be found within the context of a human existing as a social being. As a human being manages his or her life in the course of the interaction between other members of the entire society, communication is inevitable. Communication occurs through the medium of a language and it is presented in two different forms which are written and spoken (Brown & Yule, 1983: 1-10). The importance of spoken performance of a language is becoming more prominent over the written performance capability. It is because the ability to speak a language reflects a person’s personality, self image, knowledge of the world, ability to reason, skill to express thoughts in real-time (Luoma, 2004: ix). These days, due to the global trend of internationalisation, the ability to communicate in English is needed as an essential skill. Whenever the international exchange happens, the use of spoken English entails. However, it is not always an easy task for people who use English as a second language to be able to speak to the level of a native speaker. They have to perfectly understand the sound system of English, have almost instant access to proper vocabulary and be able to place words together intelligibly without hesitation. Moreover, they also have to perceive what is being said to them and need to be able to respond appropriately to acquire amiable relations or to accomplish their communicative goals (Luoma, 2004: ix). Therefore, non-native English speakers encounter these barriers and they are subject to make mistakes often. In relation to this matter, this essay argues that there are socio-cultural factors as well as linguistic factors that affect non-native speakers’ communication in English. It provides analysis of several different situations when the use of spoken English has generated miscommunication problems in regards to author’s personal experience.
Language. It is a sign of who we are and where we come from. As language defines us, so does it unite us, but it can also impose barriers that drive us apart. As our society aggressively pursues globalization, individuals who maintain cultural sensitivity and strive for effective communication despite language barriers will be an increasingly important commodity; individuals who can also pass the gift of adept communication to others will be invaluable. On the eve of my college graduation, the culmination of four years ' immersion in language and communication and the beginning of a lifetime of educating others in these disciplines, I feel increasingly the weight of
To elaborate, by mentioning intercultural understanding, I meant that each cultural group has different ways to communicate. For example, Western culture encourages people to be up-front and straight-forward with their communication; contrastly, people who are influenced by Eastern culture might be less outspoken about their ideas and pay a lot of attention to nonverbal language of the people around them. Culture is something that if one have never encountered or exposed to it, he or she would never know. I hope that after this project, besides of the knowledge we gained from the research itselves, all four of us would improve even more on our intercultural and interpersonal communication skills. Because at the end of the day, the knowledge that one have learnt might be forgotten, but all of the skills that one have gained will stay for a very long time.