Intercultural Competence: Voices from Turkish FL Contexts

1
(Inter)cultural Competence Voices from Turkish
FL Contexts

• Serkan GERIDÖNMEZ
• sgeridon_at_anadolu.edu.tr

2
Culture and Language Teaching

• Sercu (2005)
• Learning a foreign language means getting into
  a world that often has a different culture than
  your own
• Council of Europe (1997)
• Foreign language teaching can no longer be
  regarded as mainly a linguistic task. Teachers
  are now required to teach intercultural
  communicative competence

3
Culture and Language Teaching in Europe

• Establishing a common framework across Europe
• Teachers and students ideas about the
  integration of culture into foreign language
  classrooms across Europe
• Sercu (2005) FL teachers in Belgium, Bulgaria,
  Poland, Greece, Spain and Sweden
• Byram and Risager (1999) EFL Danish and British
  Teachers

4
The Aim of the Study

• To collect data about the ideas of people from
  different backgrounds on the use of culture in
  foreign language teaching in Turkey
• To provide some insights for possible future
  implementations of more intense culture
  integration in foreign language contexts in Turkey

5
The Subjects of the Study (Teachers)

• 13 Teachers of English (University Level)
• 6 Teachers of German (University Level)
• 7 Teachers of French (University Level)
• 11 Teachers of English (High School Level)
• Total 37 teachers

6
The Subjects of the Study (Students)

• 22 Prospective teachers of English
• 11 Prospective teachers of German
• 22 Prospective teachers of French
• 20 EFL students (Intensive English Program at
  university level)
• Total 75 Students

7
Total Number of Subjects

• 37 Teachers 75 Students
• 112 subjects
• (in 8 different groups)

8
Methodology

• Questionnaire developed by the researcher
  inspired by Sercu (2005) and Byram and Risager
  (1999)
• An overall analysis of items in percentages for
  all of the subjects
• Comparison of the results among and within groups
  for possible differences and similarities
• Administered in Turkish
• 5-point Likert scale Multiple Choice

9
The Number of Visits to Other Countries

• 51.7 never been abroad (majority being
  students)
• Order for teachers (from more to less)
• Teachers of German (University Level)
• Teachers of French (University Level)
• Teachers of English (University Level)
• Teachers of English (High School Level)
• Quite low percentage (54,5 never been abroad)
  for high school level EFL teachers

10
The Number of Visits to Other Countries

• Order for Students (from more to less)
• Prospective Teachers of French
• Prospective Teachers of German
• Prospective Teachers of English
• EFL Students (IEP)
• Extremely low percentages for prospective
  English
• teachers and university level EFL students
• Higher percentages for prospective German and
  French
• teachers

11
Interaction with Foreigners Frequency and
the Channels used

• The order of frequency (from more to less)
• Sometimes 33
• Rarely 28.5
• Often 21.4
• Always 10.7
• Never 5.3
• relatively more contacts with foreigners by
  teachers than students the groups with the most
  frequent contacts being German and French
  teachers and least being High School EFL Teachers

12
Interaction with Foreigners Frequency and the
Channels used

• The Channels Used
• (From most popular to least)
• Face to face 77,6
• E-mail 63,3
• Telephone 25,8
• Snail mail 8,9
• Lower percentage for High School EFL Teachers in
  face to face communication and through email

13
The Activities done to Encourage Interaction with
Other Cultures and their People in Foreign
Language Classrooms

• International Student Exchange Programs 60,7
• Opportunities for interaction with foreigners in
  schools 58,8
• Extra cultural information by teachers 50,8
• Texts about other cultures 50
• Nothing is done 11.6
• Relatively low percentages by EFL students and
  high school EFL teachers and higher percentages
  for extra cultural information by teachers of
  German and French

14
The Reasons of Communication Problems with
Foreigners

• Lack of Vocabulary Knowledge 61,6
• Lack of Cultural Information 34,8
• Lack of Grammar Knowledge 3,5
• High percentage for lack of vocabulary
  knowledge by university level EFL students and
  High school EFL teachers and Teachers of French

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The Reasons for the Increasing Demands for
Learning about Other Cultures

• Globalization 65,1
• EU integration 60,7
• International student exchange programs 59,8
• More opportunities to go abroad 53,5
• No increase in demand 4,4
• Relatively lower percentages for prospective
  English teachers and EFL students and relatively
  higher for German and French group

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The Reasons for not Integrating Culture Teaching
in Foreign Language Teaching

• Teachers lack of cultural knowledge 58,9
• No time left due to grammar teaching 56,2
• Teachers believe unnecessary 45,5
• Students believe unnecessary 35,7
• Negative attitudes by students 34,8
• Appropriate materials unavailable 22,3
• No difference between teachers and students
• Quite high percentage for No time is left due to
  grammar teaching by High School EFL teachers

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The Reasons for Integrating Culture Teaching in
Foreign Language Teaching

• Positive effect on second language development
  70,5
• More effective communication with foreigners 61,6
  
• Preparing students for multicultural environments
  57,1
• Impossibility of teaching language without
  teaching culture 41
• More tolerance towards other cultures 33,9
• Teaching involuntarily due to presence in
  syllabi17,8
• Higher percentages for more effective
  communication with foreigners and second language
  development
• Relatively higher percentages for all items by
  teachers of German and French
• Relatively lower percentages for all items by
  High School EFL teachers

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The Foreign Culture Related Topics that should be
Taught in Foreign Language Classrooms

• Cultural Differences 88,3
• Tourism 83
• Art 79.4
• Social Values 76,7
• Geography 75,8
• Educational Systems 75
• Foods and Drinks 74,1
• Daily Life 73,2
• National holidays 66,9
• Festivals 66,9
• Body Languages 66
• Successes in Science 64,2
• Stereotypical Citizens 60,7
• Moral Values 60,7
• History 55,3
• Religious Holidays 47,3
• Political Systems 42,8

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The Foreign Culture Related Topics that should be
Taught in Foreign Language Classrooms

• Less support for all items in general by EFL
  students, prospective English teachers and High
  School EFL Teachers
• Quite great support by German and French group
  for all topics
• More support by teachers than students for Food
  and drink, Body languages and Stereotypical
  citizens
• More support by students than teachers
• for Tourism, Art Educational systems
  and Success in science

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General Statements about the Integration of
Culture into Foreign Language Teaching

• Statements mostly agreed on by the subjects
• Importance of teaching culture
• (Statement 1 / 69,5 )
• Presence of cultural information in textbooks
  (Statement 3 / 70,5 )
• Motivation-promoting effect of learning about
  target cultures
• (Statement 4 / 76,7 )
• Lack of cultural information as the reason of
  communication breakdowns
• (Statement 5 / 66,9 )

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General Statements about the Integration of
Culture into Foreign Language Teaching

• Statements mostly agreed on by the subjects
• Facilitative effect of cultural information in
  fostering communication
• (Statement 10 / 81,1 )
• Necessity of the inclusion of cultural
  information in foreign language teaching syllabi
• (Statement 12 / 67,7 )
• Necessity that foreign language teachers should
  display positive attitude towards target culture
  (s)
• (Statement 13 / 71,4 )

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General Statements about the Integration of
Culture into Foreign Language Teaching

• Statements mostly agreed on by the subjects
• Teachers role to prepare students for
  multicultural contexts
• (Statement 14 / 82 )
• Necessity of teachers to have a good command of
  target culture
• (Statement 15 / 68,7 )
• Prejudice reducing effect of learning about
  other cultures
• (Statement 16 /76,7 )

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General Statements about the Integration of
Culture into Foreign Language Teaching

• Statements with relatively higher disagreement
• Native speakers being more successful FL
  teachers
• (Statement 7 / 42,2 - Undecided 20, 5)
• Possibility of teaching language without teaching
  culture
• (Statement 11 / 49,9 )
• Presence of texts from native cultures in text
  books
• (Statement 17 / 57,1 )

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General Statements about the Integration of
Culture into Foreign Language Teaching

• Statements with inconsistent distributions
• Necessity for language teacher to have been
  abroad
• (Statement 2 / Disagreement 33 - Undecided
  12,5 and agreement 51,7 )
• Necessity of going to target language country for
  effective learning
• (Statement 6 / Disagreement 29,4 - Undecided
  14,2 and agreement 56,2 )

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General Statements about the Integration of
Culture into Foreign Language Teaching

• Statements with inconsistent distributions
• Necessity of culture teaching as out-of-clas
  activities
• (Statement 8 / Disagreement 21,3 - Undecided
  39,2 and agreement 41 )
• Using target culture names in examples given in
  the foreign language classroom
• (Statement 9 / Disagreement 22,2 - Undecided
  24,1 and agreement 49,9 )

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Conclusion

• Mostly supportive approach toward the integration
  of culture by all subjects
• Limited contact with other cultures except all
  university level teachers
• The higher frequency of contacts leading to more
  positive attitudes toward the integration of
  culture in FL classrooms
• Availability of activities to promote
  intercultural communication in second language
  classrooms
• Importance of vocabulary knowledge in
  intercultural communication more than cultural
  information

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Conclusion

• Integration of culture mostly for communication
  and language development purposes
• Ignoring culture mostly for technical and
  procedural limitations
• Reluctance for some topics in second language
  classrooms
• Increasing demand for intercultural information

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Conclusion

• More cautious groups High School EFL teachers,
  prospective English teachers and EFL IEP students
• More supportive groups University level EFL,
  German and French teachers and prospective German
  and French teachers