Tony Young

Intercultural Communicative Competence: Exploring English Language Teachers' Beliefs and Practices.

This paper reports on an investigation into the beliefs and practices of experienced teachers in the USA, UK and France relating to the application of a model of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) to English language programmes. Broadly, ‘intercultural’ approaches to language learning and teaching are strongly advocated in both the recent theoretical applied linguistics literature and in curricular guidance in frameworks such as the Council of Europes Common European framework of reference for languages. However, little prior empirical research has addressed the extent to which such approaches are actually operationalised. The investigation was multimethodological, combining diaries, focus groups, and questionnaires. Byrams language-pedagogical model of ICC was the specific focus. Findings indicated a general consensus across locations, with an apparent disparity between teachers’ attitudes to and beliefs about ICC and their current classroom priorities. Most reported beliefs that supported the relevance of interculturality to their work and stressed that ‘good’ learners and teachers tended to exhibit high intercultural competence. However, they also suggested that ICC was given relatively little emphasis in syllabi which were negotiated with learners. Participants also identified and discussed a lack of support, in testing, in textbooks, and in institutional syllabi, for effective and appropriate approaches to ‘culture learning’ and interculturality.

Which English? Whose English? An investigation of ‘non-native’ teachers' beliefs about target varieties

This study explored the beliefs of ‘non-native English speaking’ teachers about the usefulness and appropriacy of varieties such as English as an International Language (EIL) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), compared with native speaker varieties. The study therefore addresses the current theoretical debate concerning ‘appropriate’ target models of English in different contexts worldwide. Participants were asked to reflect on their experiences both as learners and as teachers of English and to consider which variety or varieties of English they had learned, and which variety, if any, they chose or were ‘told’ (by education authorities or curricula) to teach. In addition, participants were asked for their views on the attractiveness and usefulness of the different varieties, as well as their views on the nature of EIL/ELF. Finally, we asked teachers to consider which model(s) were likely to predominate in their teaching contexts in the future. Results indicated that teachers may work without any clear idea of ‘which English’ was the target. Teachers also reported a pragmatic perspective on varieties of English, with a need to believe in a ‘standard’ form of the language, even though this does not correspond to the reality of Englishes which are in use worldwide.

Communication, discourses and interculturality

Communication is generally realised through social action in the form of interpersonal discourse. Social action can make implicit and/or explicit claims about the various associated, and perhaps conflicting, collectivities to which those involved in a given communicative event are affiliated (cf. Scollon & Scollon, 2001). However, a substantial amount of commercially produced literature in the field of crosscultural communication (CCC) and inter-cultural communication (ICC; much aimed at students in higher education) inclines towards the formulaic or rhetorical, tending to be reductionist, essentialist (Holliday, Hyde, & Kullman, 2004) and simplistic; and is often based on a priori (yet unjustified and unjustifiable) assumptions of ‘cultural’ difference (Piller, 2007). There is, then, in much of the literature available to students of ICC or CCC a tendency to ignore the inherent complexity of interdiscourse communication and the concomitantly critical issue of context (see, for example, Goodwin & Duranti, 1992). This special issue of Language and Intercultural Communication (LAIC) has its origins in a colloquium of the same name which we convened for the 41st annual meeting of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (for which the above statements largely constituted the thematic call to participants). The colloquium brought together a group of researcher-educators with an interest in interculturality and interdiscourse communication. All share, to some degree, dissatisfaction with currently prevailing models of ICC applied in higher education, especially regarding training and research in ICC aimed at students in the field. The colloquium proposed a series of papers to consider interdiscourse communication from a range of positions, with the specific aim of considering ways in which interaction informs, shapes and reflects the (social and cultural) make-up of discourse participants, in different contexts, the complex nature of which might be summarised as the ‘Other is in Us and we are in the Other’ (Kramsch, 2001, p. 205). In particular, we are interested in contributing to the debate on interculturality as realised through interdiscourse interaction. Interculturality is seen here as a dynamic process by which people draw on and use the resources and processes of cultures with which they are familiar but also those they may not typically be associated with in their interactions with others. This may mean that people implicitly question aspects of their own and each other’s cultures, but can also lead to innovation and the adoption and adaptation of features derived from other cultural contexts. Thus, we aim to redress the imbalance frequently located in notions of language and cultural categorisation that view these as coterminous in CCC and ICC literature. This issue appears at a time when the study of CCC and ICC is a rapidly expanding field, in the UK. This is evidenced by the increasing number of CCC and ICC programmes being offered at universities in Britain. Since 2000 the number of modules and courses now available at UK institutions of higher education has expanded exponentially. Much of the motivation for this relates to the rise in Language and Intercultural Communication Vol. 10, No. 3, August 2010, 181 188

Developing a carer communication intervention to support personhood and quality of life in dementia

ABSTRACT Dementia and dementia care present huge and growing challenges, both to individuals and to societies worldwide. In the United Kingdom, the context for the study reported here, recent key policy initiatives have highlighted problems in care provision, noting a lack of appropriate carer guidance, and an overemphasis on strictly biomedical interventions. Communication practices which support agency and empowerment have been identified as areas for particular improvement. A number of communication training and guidance packages are currently available, but these exhibit shortcomings, including a lack of user input and cross-referencing to other communications theory or to relevant empirical evidence; a lack of individualisation; and high context-specificity. In general, their uptake and level of application to care is very low. As a response, the study described here developed a new communications intervention characterised by the direct involvement of a broad spectrum of lay and professional stakeholders. This inter-group dialogue produced an agreed free-to-users, user-informed and user-relevant dementia communications toolkit (DEMTEC), which is empirically supported and adaptable to different socio-cultural and care environments. We detail the conceptual background to the toolkit, the inclusive and iterative methodology for its formulation, and how it can be used to help support ‘personhood’ and quality of life and to challenge the socially-constructed ‘othering’ of people with dementia.

Teaching and learning culture on English language programmes: a critical review of the recent empirical literature

Abstract A new exploration of the teaching and learning of culture in English language teaching and learning is overdue, given the particular importance of approaches to culture and intercultural communication in the teaching and learning of the ‘global language’. The review undertaken here finds a growing body of literature exploring culture as a context for and background influence on English language teaching and learning. However, comparatively little research literature explores the actual ‘learning of and about culture’ on English language programmes worldwide. There is some empirical evidence, detailed and discussed here, that culture is not approached in the classroom in a principled, active and engaged manner, and that this lack of engagement may have a detrimental effect on learning. Where it is approached actively, there are indications that a nonessentialised, critical, mediating, ‘intercultural’ approach may have a positive effect on learning. Although this approach informs much of the curricular underpinning for language teaching in Europe, its application to classroom practice here and elsewhere is found to have been the subject of little empirical research, especially in the case of English language teaching and learning. A research agenda to investigate this applicability is therefore outlined.

The effects of cross-cultural communication education on international students' adjustment and adaptation

The recent increase in the provision of cross- and intercultural education for sojourners has not been matched by commensurate research into its effects on participants. Evaluation, where undertaken at all, has been largely confined to expatriate business contexts and has tended to be undertaken pre-sojourn. Crucially, evaluation has not engaged with the adaptation, adjustment and performance of sojourners related to their actual lived experience of adjustment, or with any key outcomes of sojourns. In response, this mixed-method, two-stage study explored both the adjustment and adaptation of student sojourners, with a particular focus on those studying cross-cultural communication (CCC). In stage one, analysis of results of ‘international’ postgraduate students (N = 680) at a UK university over a five-year period indicated that those doing a degree in CCC tended to perform significantly better over different measures of academic achievement than a closely comparable peer group following a similar programme which lacked a specific focus on CCC. Stage two tracked longitudinally the academic adjustment experiences of 18 students of CCC over the course of their programmes. Findings provided a fine-grained view of the experience of academic adaptation and adjustment, and hitherto rare indications of how and why CCC education might ‘work’.

Towards a Code of Practice for Effective Communication With People With Dementing Illnesses

In this article, the authors highlight the need for a Code of Practice (CoP) to address the communicative needs of people with dementia and their formal and informal carers. The authors also detail a proposed CoP, as well as an innovative and inclusive consultation process through which the authors and other stakeholders will produce a complete final working version. The authors produced a three level framework for a proposed CoP. Level 1 is a statement of beliefs and principles underlying a person-centred and empowering approach to effective communication with people with dementia. Based on this, Level 2 consists of components of communication strategies and considerations for effective communication. The authors have produced three examples of level 2 components, and these are detailed here. Level 3 of the proposed CoP will consist of practical and individualized advice on actual communication with people at various stages of dementia. The authors also outline a regime for empirically testing the efficacy of the CoP in different contexts, and discuss implications for research and for communication practices in health care contexts.

DemYouth: Co-Designing and Enacting Tools to Support Young People's Engagement with People with Dementia

There is a growing body of research examining the role of technology in supporting the care of--and relationships surrounding--people with dementia, yet little attention has been given to how this relates to younger family members. We conducted a qualitative study based on a series of 6 co-design workshops conducted with 14 young people who had personal experience with dementia. Initially, our workshops focused on understanding the difficulties that young people face when engaging, interacting and being with people with dementia. Initial analysis of workshop data informed the design of three digital tool concepts that were used as the basis for user enactment workshops. Our findings highlight the young peoples desire to be more involved in their family discussions around dementia and a need for them to find new ways to connect with their loved ones with dementia. We offer a set of design considerations for future systems that support these needs and reflect on some of the complexities we faced around engaging young people in this difficult topic of discussion.

Learning Styles in Multicultural Classrooms

The construct of learning style is at the very centre of current pedagogical thought, with over 300 studies using ‘learning style’ in lists of keywords in the period 2000–06 (Thompson Scientific 2006). Learning style indexes and inventories represent attempts to construct tools for getting to grips with learners’ sensory characteristics and their psychosocial and cognitive involvement in their studies (De Vita 2001). Much of the pedagogical literature describing teacher — learner interaction in recent years has put increased emphasis on learner autonomy, learner independence and on the role of teacher as facilitator. An understanding of learning styles is seen as an important element in attempts to centre learning around the learner, moving away from a largely methodological focus. Taxonomies of learning styles also frequently serve an important role in curricular innovation, guiding innovation into areas where it is most likely to be compatible with learners’ style preferences.

The Adoption of Non-Heritage Names among Chinese Mainlanders

Abstract When studying English or through the medium of English, some mainland Chinese students adopt non-heritage names. This phenomenon has arisen as a result of language contact in an increasingly interconnected world. Our paper investigates reasons for the adoption of non-heritage names among Chinese students and the kinds of functions that these names are seen to fulfill. We surveyed 156 English linguistics majors. Our findings indicate that most of those surveyed use non-heritage names. These appear to serve interrelated roles and can also be associated with Chinese nick-naming. In addition, the names in our sample seem to reflect aspects of students’ lives that are relevant in specific contexts, and these contexts both shape and are shaped by participants’ use of given and non-heritage names.