Abstract
The iterative and reflective process of intercultural learning, for both instructors and students, is key to questioning our own assumptions and underlying values as well as those of our discipline. We propose a framework for the longitudinal integration of intercultural competence (IC) throughout the curriculum and share how we are beginning to implement this framework across language curricula in the context of a diverse modern language department. This framework foregrounds attention to the constructedness of identities and to the revision of mental models of different cultures, while nurturing an openness to change within oneself. It challenges learners through experiential learning to develop their self-awareness, tolerance for ambiguity, strategies for dealing with discomfort, and understanding of cultural value orientations.
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Notes
- 1.
We are using the term self-identity to highlight the notion that this identity emerges from the student and their development and is not based on external perceptions of certain characteristics.
- 2.
Although the statements adopt Byram’s term ICC, they do not address whether ACTFL accepts the definition and ethical commitment that Byram’s term entails within his own work, and therefore their own stance vis-a-vis ethical normativity is somewhat ambiguous.
- 3.
Byram’s work has served as the basis for a variety of initiatives by the European Commission and the Council of Europe in creating both assessment tools (INCA) and pedagogical materials (AIE) made freely available online.
- 4.
By designating relationship building as a component of IC, we move beyond the “effective and appropriate” formulation of IC to argue that long-term relationships across lines of cultural difference are of value in and of themselves, thus including in our definition something of the citizenship emphasis typical of Byram’s ICC.
- 5.
The brief presentation differs in its form in different semesters depending on the program’s staffing with a language assistant who works with students outside of class on preparing brief presentations and on pronunciation and vocabulary training.
- 6.
Other interculturalists may recognize in this approach the influence of the DIE model formulated by Milton and Janet Bennett (Paige et al. 2012, pp. 115–17), as well as the Council of Europe’s Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters (2014). Both of those methods, in turn, draw much from Phenomenology as it has influenced the social sciences over the twentieth century, leading to the standard approach of Describe-Interpret-Analyze in the human sciences (“Phenomenology”).
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Brunow, B., Newman, B. (2020). A Developmental Model of Intercultural Competence: Scaffolding the Shift from Culture-Specific to Culture-General. In: Criser, R., Malakaj, E. (eds) Diversity and Decolonization in German Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34342-2_8
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