Developing Intercultural Competence

teacher education students blogging while abroad

Kimberly L. Tohill and Orrin T. Murray Penn State University

Intercultural Competence

• a curious and open attitude

• general knowledge of social groups and norms of another culture

• skills for interpreting interactions and relating to one's own culture

• skills for developing and improving one’s knowledge of a culture through discovery 

• an ability to critically evaluate both one’s own and another culture

Byram (1997)

ICC•vital for second language teachers -

increasingly necessary for all teachers

•hard to define in practice

•a personal and transformative process

•use of teacher education programs to promote

Digital tools support ICC

development•promote reflection

•reconcile contradictions through reflection

•increase authenticity

•access to feedback

•sustained conversations

looking for ICC development

•Intercultural Development Inventory

•Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory

•Intercultural Competence Assessment project

context• 7 females–4 Spanish, 2 French, 1 German at least

10 weeks

• Spain, Ecuador, France, or Germany

• standard equipment: MacBook

• Internet access

• tasks and production of digital artifacts

• blog with prompts, video conferences, inquiry activities, language learner autobiography

modified ICC

Adapted from Byram (2000)

Reconfiguration of Byram’s (2000) Definitions

findings

•attitudes: curiosity and openness toward new culture

“I was completely surprised that my host mother did not have a

TV”

“I am fascinated by the differences found within

the language. For example when I traveled

to Barcelona, my Spanish was not

recognized since they speak Catalan.”

findings

•knowledge: apparent and conceptual

“… elections in France are pretty different than

those in the States. There are two tours, or

rounds, of elections...The votes are then counted,

and there is a new person in charge. The

votes are always manual; the French don't

really believe in electronic voting and it's

safety”

findings

•skills: the ability to do something

“I will randomly start talking to

locals in order to gain language

experience, and I have actually

made friends by doing this. I think this is extremely necessary in any

situation.”

 re

role of technology

•electronic tether that allows timely reflections in a public virtual space

•ability to engage in "conversation"

•public blogs = audience

•situated in authentic context

To view this presentation

and download the full paper, please visit:

http://www.spanish-plaza.com/aacte2013