Жамият ва инновациялар –
Общество и инновации –
Society and innovations
Journal home page:
https://inscience.uz/index.php/socinov/index
The importance of Intercultural Communicative Competence in
teaching foreign languages
Raime ISMAILOVA
1
, Mushtariy QURBONOVA
2
, Diana KHABIBRAKHMONOVA
3
National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirzo Ulugbek
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Article history:
Received March 2021
Received in revised form
20 March 2021
Accepted 15 April 2021
Available online
20 May 2021
The article deals with the role of intercultural competence in
the process of teaching foreign language and examines how it
allows intercultural communicators to understand and respect
individuals they perceive to have different cultural affiliations; to
respond appropriately, effectively and respectfully when
interacting and communicating with such individuals; to
establish positive and constructive relationships in foreign
language speaking atmosphere. Moreover, appropriate
approaches were analyzed from the point of effectiveness.
2181-1415/© 2021 in Science LLC.
This is an open access article under the Attribution 4.0 International
(CC BY 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.ru)
Keywords:
Competence,
intercultural communicative
competence,
communication,
cultural awareness,
communicative approach.
Chet tillarini o'qitishda madaniyatlararo kommunikativ
kompetensiyaning ahamiyati
ANNOTASIYA
Kalit so’zlar:
kompetensiya,
madaniyatlararo
kommunikativ
kompetensiya,
aloqa,
madaniy ong,
kommunikativ yondashuv.
Maqolada chet tillarini o'qitish jarayonida madaniyatlararo
kompetensiyaning o'rni haqida so'z yuritilib, madaniyatlararo
kommunikatorlarga ular turli madaniy aloqalarni qabul qilgan
shaxslarni anglash va hurmat qilish imkoniyatlari qanday
berilganligi; bunday shaxslar bilan aloqa qilishda va ular bilan
muloqot qilishda tegishli, samarali va hurmat bilan javob berish;
chet tilida so'zlashish muhitida ijobiy va konstruktiv
munosabatlarni
o'rnatish.
Bundan
tashqari,
tegishli
yondashuvlar samaradorlik nuqtai nazaridan tahlil qilindi.
1
Lecture at the Foreign Philology faculty, National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirzo Ulugbek
e-mail: ismailovar72@mail.ru
2
Lecture at the Foreign Philology faculty, National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirzo Ulugbek
e-mail: charlotta0103@gmail.com
3
Lecture at the Foreign Philology faculty, National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirzo Ulugbek
e-mail: idivovibi@gmail.com
Жамият ва инновациялар – Общество и инновации – Society and innovations
Special Issue – 4 (2021) / ISSN 2181-1415
900
Важность
межкультурной
коммуникативной
компетентности в обучении иностранным языкам
АННОТАЦИЯ
Ключевые слова:
компетентность,
межкультурная
коммуникативная
компетентность,
коммуникация,
культурная
осведомленность,
коммуникативный подход.
В статье рассматривается роль межкультурной
компетенции в процессе обучения иностранному языку и
исследуется, как она позволяет специалистам по
межкультурному общению понимать и уважать людей,
которые, по их мнению, имеют различную культурную
принадлежность; реагировать надлежащим, эффективным
и уважительным образом при взаимодействии и общении с
такими
людьми;
устанавливать
позитивные
и
конструктивные отношения в атмосфере общения на
иностранном языке. Более того, соответствующие подходы
были проанализированы с точки зрения эффективности.
Teaching culture and developing intercultural skills have become fashionable
phrases in foreign and second language pedagogy in the last ten years. However, this is
hopefully not only a superficial and quickly passing fad since many language teachers and
researchers have established that the primary aim of second and foreign language
acquisition is to enable learners to communicate with people coming from different
linguistic and cultural backgrounds in a multicultural world. Since there is an increasing
need to be able to deal with cultural diversity effectively and appropriately, students also
need to acquire intercultural communicative competence. Therefore, we can see that while
teaching linguistic skills, second and foreign language instructors should also integrate a
variety of cultural elements in their language lessons[1].
The knowledge about the target culture is necessary to communicate successfully.
This includes having a working knowledge of art, but also an understanding of the political
and educational system, as well as history and geography of the target countries.
Intrecultural communication aims to prepare students to familiarize them with traditions
and customs of the other country and to make sure they can communicate with native
speakers.
Linguistic competence alone is not enough for learners of a language to be
competent in that language. Language learners need to be aware, for example, of the
culturally appropriate ways to address people, express gratitude, make requests, and
agree or disagree with someone. They should know that behaviors and intonation patterns
that are appropriate in their own speech community may be perceived differently by
members of the target language speech community. They have to understand that, in order
for communication to be successful, language use must be associated with other culturally
appropriate behavior.
In many regards, culture is taught implicitly, imbedded in the linguistic forms that
students are learning. To make students aware of the cultural features reflected in the
language, teachers can make those cultural features an explicit topic of discussion in
relation to the linguistic forms being studied. For example, when teaching subject
pronouns and verbal inflections in French, a teacher could help students understand when
in French it is appropriate to use an informal form of address (tu) rather than a formal
form of address (vous)—a distinction that English does not have. An English as a second
Жамият ва инновациялар – Общество и инновации – Society and innovations
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language teacher could help students understand socially appropriate communication,
such as making requests that show respect; for example, “Hey you, come here” may be a
linguistically correct request, but it is not a culturally appropriate way for a student to
address a teacher. Students will master a language only when they learn both its linguistic
and cultural norms.
Some teachers and researchers have found it effective to present students with
objects or ideas that are specific to the culture of study but are unfamiliar to the students.
The students are given clues or background information about the objects and ideas so
that they can incorporate the new information into their own worldview. An example
might be a cooking utensil. Students would be told that the object is somehow used for
cooking, then they would either research or be informed about how the utensil is used.
This could lead into related discussion about foods eaten in the target culture, the
geography, growing seasons, and so forth. The students act as anthropologists, exploring
and understanding the target culture in relation to their own. In this manner, students
achieve a level of empathy, appreciating that the way people do things in their culture has
its own coherence.
It is also important to help students understand that cultures are not monolithic. A
variety of successful behaviors are possible for any type of interaction in any particular
culture. Teachers must allow students to observe and explore cultural interactions from
their own perspectives to enable them to find their own voices in the second language
speech community[2].
For many teachers, culture teaching and learning is a relatively new and unfamiliar
venture, especially in the framework of our model of culture learning. The problem is
compounded by a lack of concrete examples of how to teach for intercultural competence
and by teachers’ mistaken belief that they need to be culture experts. Rather, we hope
teachers will come to share the view so perceptively expressed by Kane that, “By being the
one invested with the knowledge and authority, the teacher’s responsibility is to invite -
and join - the students in challenging unexamined beliefs and stereotypes”. Teachers can
become guides and partners in a process of culture learning and discovery with their
students, rather than culture expert upon whom their students exclusively rely for cultural
knowledge.
Some very simple general guidelines for language teachers and teacher trainers:
- If you do have first-hand experiences from other cultures, take every opportunity
to tell your students about these and elicit their reactions as well as their own similar
experiences;
- If the course book you use contains culturally-loaded texts (most of them do by
definition), make sure you do not only exploit these texts for grammatical analysis and
vocabulary building;
- Even grammar practice and vocabulary activities can be sources of cultural
knowledge, means of intercultural skills development or ways to form open and accepting
attitudes if you do not fail to add those two or three sentences that will help students
understand the cultural dimension better;
- When you give writing tasks and tests, do not only assess your students’ knowledge
of grammar rules and vocabulary items but sometimes ask them to write (guided)
reflective compositions about their experiences in other countries or in their home town
with people from other cultures;
Жамият ва инновациялар – Общество и инновации – Society and innovations
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- Encourage your students to look things up, be open, curious and non-judgmental,
establish e-mail partnerships with students in other countries, participate in simulations,
role-plays and ethnographic projects during language lessons (see concrete ideas below),
and go on study trips if possible[3].
The role of culture in foreign language teaching materials: an evaluation from an
intercultural perspective
Textbooks used in foreign language (FL) instruction are primarily designed to
facilitate language learning, but they cannot simply do that since language learning is
inseparable from its cultural context. As Cunningsworth states, “A study of language solely
as an abstract system would not equip learners to use it in the real world”
(Cunningsworth). For that reason, it is usually expected that FL teaching materials (TM)
should include elements of the target language culture. Moreover, many documents
analysed by Byram highlight three general goals of FL instruction:
- the development of communicative competence for use in situations the learners
might expect to encounter;
- the development of an awareness of the target language;
- the development of insight into the foreign culture and positive attitudes toward
foreign people.
But as Byram stresses, these three aims should be integrated. The extent and ways
of incorporating cultural aspects in FL instruction vary in different TM, and therefore it is
important for the FL teacher to know what to look for in a particular language textbook in
order to decide if it is suitable for attaining the aforementioned goals.
There have been two main approaches in the history of foreign language teaching:
a) the study of language based on the rules, and b) the study of language-based
communication.
The first approach is conducted with the help of grammar-translation system in the
process of foreign languages teaching. According to it, the process of teaching is based on
the study of grammar and vocabulary with the next generation of the transition to the
formation and decoding of the speech (reading and understanding spoken speech). Using
the rules and vocabulary of the language, students must re-create (generate) a new
language. The way of learning the language was passing through a huge number of errors
that reduced any interest in its study. Experience has shown that this approach is not very
effective.
The second approach is performed through communication. It is considered more
effective, although contains a number of disadvantages. Lack of awareness of the foreign
language rules both extends the process of study and reduces the quality of the foreign-
language speech[4].
As a result, there has been a convergence of these two approaches of teaching a
foreign language. That is, the unity of language rules and actions has been experimentally
proved. The main action being developed with the help of a foreign language is a
communication process, or speech communication. In the process of communication there
is not only an exchange of views and feelings, but also the development of linguistic
resources. Language rules perform an auxiliary function showing the use of linguistic
phenomena in speech[5].
Thus, a foreign language can be considered as a means of developing communicative
competence. This means the ability to adequately clothe communication goals and
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strategies of their achievement into proper language forms, as well as the ability to use the
rules of speech etiquette and social behavior in the situations of intercultural
communication, where updated knowledge of the situational and social-cultural contexts
is actual.
Culture must be fully incorporated as a vital component of language learning.
Second language teachers should identify key cultural items in every aspect of the language
that they teach.
References
1.
Brown H.D. (1986). Learning a Second Culture In Valdez (1986).
2.
Trevisani. Intercultursl Empathy and Emotional Empathy combined. 2005
3.
Byram, M. & Risager, K. (1999). Language Teachers, Politics and Cultures.
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
4.
Byram M. Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence.
1997.
5.
Kramsch C. Language and Culture. 1998
