Experiential B.E. Teaching/Learning: Intercultural and Communicative Approaches Combined Oleg Tarnopolsky, Svitlana Kozhushko and Valentyna Zhevaga

The category of learning contents (what we teach and our students learn) The intercultural approach The category of learning methods (how we teach the selected contents and how our students learn such contents) Communicative language learning The emphasis on the intercultural approach in today’s B.E. teaching reflects the shift in learning contents – from teaching and learning the language (English) as a means of business communication to teaching and learning those cultural aspects that make such communication (in English) culturally appropriate and pragmatically possible between representatives of different cultures.

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE Linguistic competence (component) Sociolinguistic/Sociocul tural competence (component) Pragmatic competence (component) The intercultural approach requires the shift in learning contents focus – from the focus on linguistic competence to the focus on sociolinguistic/sociocultural and pragmatic competences/components. If the intercultural approach is used in conjunction with communicative language learning that certainly influences organizing communicative language learning in B.E. courses (what learning activities and in what sequence should be used, what the overall structure of the course should be, etc.) but it does not change the essentials of the communicative language learning approach.

Questions concerning successful implementation of the intercultural approach in conjunction with communicative language learning: 1. Putting each of the approaches into their proper places making the intercultural approach responsible for the learning contents and communicative language learning for the best ways (methods, learning activities) of teaching and learning such contents. 2. Harmonizing in the best possible manner the intercultural approach and communicative language learning as equally important approaches, each of which is responsible for different but equally important aspects in organizing a B.E. course: what to teach (the intercultural approach) and how to teach it (communicative language learning). The answers to both questions can be found in experiential B.E. teaching and learning.

The experiential approach in ESL/EFL teaching/learning presupposes learners’ acquisition of communication skills through the experience of practical activities modeling real- life activities This is why the approach is especially helpful in ESP, including B.E., teaching and learning because professional activities and professional communication in English are modeled giving learners opportunities of acquiring English professional communication skills through experience in such professional communication. Thus, in experiential learning second or foreign language acquisition is achieved through using it for communication designed for ensuring extra- linguistic activities. In the process of experiential learning the language itself is acquired subconsciously (that is with much less effort) as a by-product of those extra-linguistic activities.

Experiential teaching/learning may be considered as especially appropriate for using in conjunction with the intercultural approach. It is so because no other modification of communicative language learning provides such broad opportunities for making students experience definite culture-specific and culture-dependent situations of business communication in English. And, through experiencing them, they consciously and subconsciously learn or acquire certain patterns of culture-specific and culture-dependent communicative behavior and culture-specific and culture-dependent communication strategies that are most adequate in the given communicative conditions modeled in the classroom.

The learning activities most characteristic of experiential teaching/learning in B.E. teaching: 1. Simulating (role-playing) business activities requiring communication in the target language (for instance, simulating negotiations with foreign business partners). 2. Brainstorming business issues in the target language. 3. Case-studies of business situations done in the target language. 4. Group discussions of business issues in the target language. 5. Project work (developing business activities-oriented projects in the target language). 6. Students’ presentations on business issues in the target language. 7. Library and Internet search for business information in the target language for using that information when doing business activities-oriented learning tasks (such as project work).

The learning activities in the preceding slide best suit the basic requirements to B.E. experiential teaching/learning because However, to harmonize the experiential teaching/learning activities with the intercultural approach, a definite sequence of such activities should be followed. 1. They allow faithful modeling of those business activities, business communication, and business communication situations where business people will, with a high degree of probability, need English for completing their professional tasks. 2. All these activities can easily be based on whatever content matter related to business activities that needs to be learned (including the intercultural content matter). 3. Though the learning activities under discussion are mostly oriented at speech production, doing them is impossible without speech reception. It concerns not only library and Internet search which is entirely reception-based. The selected principal types of learning activities, probably like no others, ensure the integrated development in the B.E. course of all the four basic target language communication skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

The advocated approach unites the intercultural approach and communicative language learning (represented by its experiential teaching and learning modification) into one integral whole where the intercultural approach determines the contents of learning and communicative language learning determines the methods of learning the given contents through students’ practical experience in B.E. communication. As a result, the advantages of both approaches are joined together multiplying the overall positive effect.