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What does this mean….?

Language learning does not mean linguistic competence(Chomsky) or communicative competence (Hymes) only, it embraces Intercultural Competence too(Byram)

“Crossing the Cultural Boundaries:Developing Intercultural Competence of Prospective Teachers of English Shashini R. Tennekoon Pasdunrata National College of Education Sri Lanka

I would deal with What is intercultural competence Why it is important to my working context What I found about IC What I wanted to find out through my study What I did How I did it What did I find The implications of what I found and My conclusions

What is intercultural competence? “the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately across cultural boundaries” Darla Deardroff ( 2004)

Why IC is important to my working context? Sri Lanka is a pluralist society trying to recover from damages done during ethnic clashes in the past Segregated school system but Salient opportunity for English teachers Teacher-student understanding for optimal learning-Requires intercultural sensitivity “the ability to successfully teach students who come from different cultures other than your own” (Diller & Moule, 2005, p. 2)

What I found about IC It involves knowledge, skills, and attitudes based on five dimensions (Byram,2003) Skills (savoir comprendre) Interpret and compare Knowledge (savoirs) Knowledge about ‘other’ and ‘own Education (savoir s’engager ) Critically evaluate Attitudes (savoir être) Openness and curiosity Skills (savoir apprendre/faire) Acquire new knowledge (and apply in real time)

Five Factor Model

Cultural sensitivity is a developmental process which moves the individual from (Bennet,2004) ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism Denial ➝ Defense ➝ Minimization ➝ ETHNOCENTRISM Acceptance ➝ Adaptation ➝ Integration ETHNORELATIVISM

DMIS Process Model

Pyramid Model Intercultural competence develop by degree, and having components at the lower levels of competency enhances the upper levels. (Deardorff ,2006)

Pyramid Model

Process Model

What I wanted to find out through my study To evaluate the prospective teachers' current perceptions on cultural diversity and determine whether they are more inclined towards ethnocentrism or ethnorelativism  To broaden the knowledge on how the specially designed curriculum on teaching English Language skills based on intercultural material help to develop intercultural competence of prospective teachers of English.

To identify the effectiveness of the activities used in the curriculum in developing intercultural competence of the student teachers  To propose an alternative course of action for the teacher educators to follow based on my experience when teaching English language skills which would be more beneficial to students teachers produced by National Colleges of Education in their future role

Pre test-intervention-post test model What I did Mixed method approach Action research Pre test-intervention-post test model Intervention based on specially designed intercultural syllabus

Observation check list + Field notes (Non participant observer) How I did it Questionnaire Observation Observation check list + Field notes (Non participant observer) Reflective journal (researcher) Student diaries (participants)

They have a strong attachment to their culture What did I find students' cultural perceptions have more inclination towards ethnocentrism They have a strong attachment to their culture They seem to be having a sturdy influence from their religion rather than language

Mean Score Based on Ethnicity Tamil - 34 Muslim - 39 Sinhala Buddhist - 29.1 Sinhala Roman catholic - 19

students possess limited knowledge of other ethnic and religious cultures despite their existence together in the island for hundreds of years This was especially evident in the Sinhala group they also being the group with the poorest knowledge of language of the other two groups The reason could be that they do not need second language of the country for their survival

the respondents have scored high marks in the questions related to adaptation stage of the intercultural competence continuum showing their willingness to adapt to other cultures may be because Sri Lankan culture is based on the concept of peaceful living that hates violence The scores reveal that almost all the participants fall into the minimization stage of the IC development process which supports the principle 'live and let live'

Students responded positively to the activities in the intercultural syllabus

Some of these activities dealt with enhancing knowledge of other cultures the assumption was that greater intercultural knowledge may instill greater intercultural competence the observations confirmed that they generate superficial descriptions that fostered negative stereotyping in the research participants

Conclusions Intercultural competence very important for teachers handling CALD students Help developing intercultural citizenship necessary in a pluralist society Extensive intercultural interaction promote social harmony

References Bennett, M. J. (2004). . Toward multiculturalism: A reader in multicultural education In Wurzel, J. (Ed.). (2nd ed., pp. 62-77). Newton, MA: Intercultural Resource Corporation Byram, M. (2003) Teaching languages for democratic citizenship in Europe and beyond. In Brown, K. and Brown, M. 2003. (eds.) Reflections on citizenship in a multilingual world. London: CILT: 15-24 Deardorff, D.K. (2006). Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization. Journal of Studies in International Education,10, 241-266 Krajewski,S. (2011). Developing intercultural competence in multilingual and multicultural student groups. Journal of Research in International Education Sabine (10)137-153 Premier,J.A. (2010) Preparing Pre-service Teachers for Multicultural Classroom. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 35( 2),35-48 Sara Rubenfeld, S.,Richard, C., Vinograd,J., Lussier,D., Amireault,V. (2007). Becoming a cultural intermediary: a further social corollary of second-language learning. Journal of Language and Social Psychology (26): 182 Spooner-Lane, R., Tangen, D., Louise, K.M. Hepple, E.,Carrington, S.(2013) Building Intercultural Competence One “Patch” at a Time. Education Research International, (10),1-9  Susan G. Sample(2013) Developing Intercultural Learners Through the International Curriculum. Journal of Studies in International Education, retrieved February2013 from http:/jsi.sage.pub

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