THE INTERCULTURAL SPEAKER'S COMPETENCES

Abstract

This article is a plea for the introduction of the intercultural approach in teaching Romanian for foreigners. It is important both for the awareness of cultural differences and for the acquisition of intercultural communication competence. In the European linguistic area this competence holds an important place in teaching modern languages. The work approaches concepts such as intercultural communication, intercultural speaker and intercultural communication competence. The method used is the focus group, which allowed for data collection regarding foreign students' perceptions of the communication with native students and of intercultural speaker's competences. The article analyses foreign students' attitudes in the communicative act with Romanian students from the perspective of an intercultural context."

Headnote

Abstract: This article is a plea for the introduction of the intercultural approach in teaching Romanian for foreigners. It is important both for the awareness of cultural differences and for the acquisition of intercultural communication competence. In the European linguistic area this competence holds an important place in teaching modern languages.

The work approaches concepts such as intercultural communication, intercultural speaker and intercultural communication competence. The method used is the focus group, which allowed for data collection regarding foreign students' perceptions of the communication with native students and of intercultural speaker's competences.

The article analyses foreign students' attitudes in the communicative act with Romanian students from the perspective of an intercultural context."

Keywords: intercultural speaker, communication, teaching foreign languages.

Litterature review

The theoretisation of intercultural communication is done for the first time by Edward T. Hall1 in 1959, in his work "The Silent Language". In this work the concepts of time and space have an important role in the communication between persons from different cultures. For example, punctuality is understood differently by a Mexican in comparison to a British individual. If the Mexican is 15 minutes late for a business meeting, the British person will arrive at the appointed time and, most probably, will interpret the Mexican's delay as a sign of disrespect, unless he/she is trained in intercultural matters and aware of cultural differences. Equally, the space, understood as the comfortable distance between interlocutors may lead to misunderstandings in a discussion between representatives of different cultures. It is necessary to become aware of one's own cultural values as well as of the foreign interlocutor's. That is why, the concepts of miscommunication and misunderstandings are among the key concepts of intercultural communication. Miscommunication arises from the unfamiliarity with the interlocutor's cultural framework and his/her cultural values. Moreover, misunderstandings are based on faulty decoding or misinterpretation of speaker's message.

Effective intercultural communication, as a process, is produced when the interlocutors from different cultures are aware of their cultural differences and act as mediators, continuously negotiating the conveyed messages. According to Gerhard Maletzke2 and Ulrike Litters3 intercultural communication is a process of communication between individuals who are aware of the cultural differences between them, and it is also an interpersonal, direct and unmediated type of communication.

The concept of intercultural, in comparison with the term transcultural refers to the phenomena and exchanges which take place when representatives of two or more cultures meet. Transculturality characterises both societies and individuals and involves the infusion of elements of a foreign culture into one's own. On the other hand, the concept of multicultural refers to the coexistance of many cultures inside a social system (nation, community, school classroom, etc).

The intercultural approach describes the intercultural speaker as having the following skills: to compare various perspectives, to analyse reactions, and to manage problems and conflicts. He/she is a mediator, a person who can decentre from his/her own visions, prejudice, and values and who can move closer to the interlocutor's cultural framework of reference. In the societies with enough mobility, the individual experiences may take the form both of the quality of "guest" and "host".

The intercultural speaker model is an ideal one which the foreign language learners and teachers aim to achieve. It is a dynamic model, which doesn't have a fixed aim, because the competence to mediate in different contexts, to distinguish between various cultures, to understand different perspectives and to self-reflect on one's own identity is a continuous process.

The intercultural approach is an intermediary way, a third virtual space where the interlocutors recreate a common cultural code. In this intermediary space the interlocutors negotiate meanings, interpret and reinterpret the communicative act so that this is an effective one, based on mutual respect, understanding and tolerance.

According to Juliane House4 an intercultural speaker is that person who managed to create his/her own intermediary space between his/own culture and another culture which he/she is familiar with.

In our view, an intercultural speaker has acquired intercultural communication competence both by experience and by education. The table below presents an ideal competence profile of the intercultural speaker, based on the literature reviewed and on our own research:

In teaching foreign languages it is known that learners do not need to know only grammar or vocabulary, but to be able to use the language adequately in different social and cultural contexts.

The concept of intercultural communication competence was introduced in the Council of Europe's works and it is described in Michael Byram's book "Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence". Briefly, intercultural communication competence involves the acquisition and use of the following resources: knowledge, skills and attitudes, which are interrelated.

There are two types of necessary knowledge:

Ø Knowledge about social and cultural groups (social group's products and practices) referring to both speaker's culture and the interlocutor's. As this type of knowledge cannot be acquired only during a language class, unless a pluricultural approach is used, there is the alternative of extending the intercultural approach to various subject matters such as history, sociology, geography and others. Besides the knowledge acquired in the formal educational environment, the intercultural approach opens doors to the exterior world (the society, the mass media etc), where the learner may find the necessary knowledge. This is learned both consciously and unconsciously in the process of socialisation.

Ø Knowledge about the interaction processes at society and individual level. This refers to socio-linguistic and sociocultural knowledge, which refers to interaction norms in a given context, non-verbal and paraverbal elements.

The affective dimension refers to two types of attitudes:

Ø Curiosity and openness to others

Ø Wish to eliminate lack of trust in other cultures and trust in one's own culture, which is translated by wish to overcome negative stereotypes and bias, as well as ethnocentric/ xenocentric views.

Regarding the skills, respectively the behaviour dimension, Byram differentiates between three categories:

Ø Capacity to interpret a document or an event from another culture, to explain it and to put it in relation to documents from one's own culture

Ø Capacity to acquire new knowledge about a culture, it's practices and to use the knowledge, attitudes and skills in real communication.

Ø Critical cultural awareness: this involves the capacity to assess critically and based on explicit criteria cultural practice and products of one's own culture and other cultures.

Intercultural communication is a dynamic process, which involves movement from one cultural space to another. Intercultural communication competence does not limit itself only to culture, but it involves cognitive, affective, operational adaptability of the inner system of an individual to all intercultural communication systems. For Byram, Nichols, & Stevens6, the intercultural speaker shows willingness to relativise his/her values, beliefs and behaviours, thus, assuming these are not the only correct ones.

Method

In our research we organised two focus-groups with foreign students of the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, the Faculty of Engineering in Foreign Languages. In both focus-groups we had 7 students, who spoke English at intermediate and upper-intermediate levels. The focus groups were held in English.

The objectives of the focus-groups were:

- knowing the students from personal data point of view and languages spoken;

- identification of participants' prior intercultural experience;

- knowing the foreign students' interest of interaction with the Romanian students' and their attitude before diversity;

- knowing the foreign students' perceptions regarding the intercultural speaker's competences.

Results

Following the analysis of the students' answers we find that the participants have two types of attitudes before diversity: positive and negative ones. The participants with negative attitudes have less prior experience abroad, before coming to Romania or they have biased expectations from the host society. These state for example that in their country things are different, in term of bureaucracy, and cannot accept that in Romania it is possible to be different. This shows an interpretation of culture taking into account one's own cultural frame of reference and applying it to the host culture. This also shows an inability to decentre from one's own culture.

Other students use language stereotypes such as "the Romanians do not have respect for foreigners". A stereotype represents the generalisation of an individual feature to a whole nation. All generalizations or language stereotypes are proof of miscommunication, which is one of the main reasons for failure to communicate effectively in intercultural environments. These findings show the need to introduce intercultural approach to teaching foreign languages, which makes students aware of cultural differences and deal with them.

Regarding intercultural speaker's competences, the foreign students consider that it is important for both interlocutors to speak a common language, preferably English. Moreover, the foreigner should speak the target language at conversational level and should know and understand the native interlocutor's lifestyle.

The main reason why the degree of interaction in the university group between the foreign students and the Romanian ones is reduced is, in the foreign students' opinion, their low level of Romanian language competence and culture shock. For the students who originate in non-UE countries the culture shock is more intense because the cultural distance is more significant. These participants feel the need of a wider openness from the Romanian students' part, who may both help them better integrate and speak the target language. This need is based on a misunderstanding of the Romanian students' attitude. The perceived Romanian students' lack of cannot be generalized and, instead, it represents a stereotype. It is supposed that the Romanian students speak English very well (since they study in English at the Faculty of Engineering in Foreign languages) and thus the communication between them may take place, unless there was no intention or reluctance to communicate on part of the foreign students. On the other hand, the possible foreign students' reluctance was noticed by the teacher of foreign languages. The foreign students seem to interact more with their conational colleagues or even with other foreign students. This interaction can be translated as by a safety feeling of the foreign students to communicate with their colleagues who find themselves in the same situation.

From among the teaching methods which teachers may implement in order to increase de degree of interaction between foreign and Romanian students, the most efficient ones are the intercultural project, group work, role plays and simulations.

Conclusions

The intercultural approach involves the comparison and reflection both on one's own culture and on the target culture. Therefore, language teachers shall help learners identify their own cultural values, reinterpret them by comparing them with other cultural values, shall offer opportunities to investigate cultural complexity and shall promote interest for other cultures.

The current practices of teaching and learning foreign languages focus on interculturality and reconsider the teaching objectives by taking into account the intercultural speaker's competences, capable of adapting, mediating in multicultural contexts. Since fluency is not enough to communicate effectively with persons form different cultures, the teaching approach focuses more on the combination language-culture. The teaching of foreign languages considers language an instrument of expressing one's culture that seeks to express the way in which the interaction between representatives of different cultures is performed.

Footnote

1 Edward Hall, The Silent Language, New York, Doubleday & Company, 1959.

2 Gerhard Maletzke, Interculturelle Kommunication zur Interaktion zwischen Menschen verschiedener Kulturen Westdeutscher Verlog, Opladen 1996, p.37.

3 Ulrike Litters, Interculturelle Kommunication aus fremdsprachendidaktischer Perspective, Nan Verlag, Tubingen, 1995, p.20.

4 Juliane House, What is an intercultural speaker? In E.A. Soler and M.P Jorda. Intercultural language Use and Language Learning. The Netherlands. Springer, 2007.

5 Objective culture is referred to in the humanistic sense, as cultural heritage made of literary-artistic and monumental works of a community. Subjective culture bears the anthropological meaning given to culture interpreted as a certain lifestyle of a society/community. This comprises mentality, traditions and customs, dress codes, cultural values, behaviour patterns, lifestyle, the discursive implicit etc.

6 Michael Byram, Nichols, A., & Stevens, D. (Eds.), Developing Intercultural Competence in Practice. Tonawanda, NY. Multilingual Matters, Ltd, 2001.

References

REFERENCES

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