Name: Jette Lykke Møhl
Age Group: 4th to 10th grade
Title and competence area:
• Learning and teaching communicative competence
• Kompetenceområde 3: Interkulturel competence I sprogundervisning
Introduction and background:
During my years as a 10th-grade teacher, I have learned that even though my students have been taught English from 3rd grade, they often don’t know very much about other English-speaking countries. Perhaps they have a slight knowledge about holiday traditions such as Christmas and Halloween, but knowledge about people’s daily life and culture, in general, is not a usual competence. That’s why every year I try hard to find the best way to teach about the culture of specific English-speaking countries. Recently
Focus question:
How can I help my students acquire intercultural communicative competence by comparing selected aspects of daily life in English-speaking countries and Denmark?
Theory:
While intercultural competence has become a highly prioritised aim to teach in primary schools in Denmark these days it is, of course, significant to know the different aspects of cultural understanding. Michael Byram discusses intercultural competence (2000) as well as Karen Risager in her article Cultural understanding in language teaching (1994). The fact that English has an influence on most people’s lives and because globalisation makes it important that people are able to communicate cross-cultural give the English teachers in Danish school's responsibility to do their best to mediate between the students’ own culture and English speaking cultures. To teach cultural understanding is a subject most teachers have taught for many years, but as Byram (2000) argues it has mostly been teaching knowledge and facts about certain countries and things which are easy to test and examine. Intercultural competence and understanding have a wider
That’s why some teachers find it challenging to teach this subject. After all, It is easy to teach the obvious things like knowledge about food, traditions, history etc., but what is harder to teach are skills to interpret why people behave like they do, and in addition to that inspire students to have the attitudes and interest acquired to understand other people's perspectives in lives. I also find it challenging, but I need to find a way myself to understand and interpret the term of intercultural competence required to be the mediator in terms to build bridges to other cultures in the class. To understand what Byram discusses in his theory I think that the Iceberg Theory is useful in understanding intercultural competence. While reading about this subject I came across Edward T. Hall’s Cultural Iceberg (1976) which places all the visible aspects of culture on the top of the iceberg and all the hidden aspects beneath the water. The top of the iceberg appears to be what we see physically and often the first things we learn about other countries, e.g. when we travel such as food, nature, clothes, architecture, language, etc. Underneath the
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Cultural intelligence is the capability that could give insights on how to cope with multi-cultural situations and how to engage properly in intercultural interactions. It is the individual’s ability to interact effectively in culturally diverse situations (Brislin, Worthley & Macnab, 2006). We could consider the cultural intelligence as constantly improving concept; something we can develop over time and it is not only changes through experience, but also through knowledge as well, which includes communication with other
Influencing culture creates tranquility in a work environment that helps employees feel accepted and happier, thus creating better customer services. In the scholarly article, “Relationship Of Organizational Culture, Teamwork And Job Satisfaction In Interprofessional Teams", Korner argues that before you can have happy customers you must have happy employees. “Organizational characteristics, such as organizational culture, are important aspects for interprofessional teamwork, treatment quality and success . Studies have demonstrated that interprofessional teamwork is influenced by organizational culture.” (2). Culture is an important aspect for teamwork because employees must learn each other’s difference to better connect with them. Connecting with co-worker creates a positive environment and reflects on the employee. When customers see the smiling face of an employee, who enjoy his job the positivity reflects on the customer’s overall experience. Influencing employee’s culture helps the customer’s and employee’s experience.
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Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2011). Experiencing Intercultural Communication: an Introduction (4. ed.). London: McGraw-Hill Education - Europe.
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