No 18, Vol. 6, 2000 page 8 - 13 Copyright the author and Sprogforum

Theme: Intercultural competence

,If it isn't tested. it's not taught'

The suggestion that language teaching has a cultural dimension is far from new. It dates back to the beginnings of modern language teaching in the nineteenth century, and of course to the teaching of the classics far beyond that. Unfortunately, the 'communicative turn' in language teaching, particularly in English as a Foreign Language, tended to emphasise speech act and discourse competence, rather than (socio-)cultural competence, even though this was a misinterpretation of the original definition proposed by Hymes (1972).

In the last decade, however, there has been an increasing attention to and experimentation with teaching language and culture in integrated ways, and teachers are becoming more aware of the possibilities of going beyond ,background studies' (UK) ,civilisation' France) ,Landeskunde' (Germany), i.e. not just giving information to learners about a country where the language in question is spoken. However, at the same time, emphasis on ,raising standards' in education as a consequence of increased political interest in education and economic development, has led to increased emphasis on examination results. The old saying that ,if it isn't tested, it isn't taught' is thus reinforced, and the need to assess cultural learning in some way has become ever more important.

It would be possible to illustrate these points from language teaching in a specific country, but it is also instructive to consider the work of the Council of Europe, whose ,Common European Framework' identifies and describes the competences a language learner should attempt to acquire, and also proposes a framework for assessment, in the form of a number of levels defining linguistic competence. However, the authors were not able to make proposals for levels of assessment of ,socio-cultural competence', even though in the description of competences, the Common European Framework recognises the significance of ,general competences' which include ,knowledge of the world' but also ,intercultural skills' and others. There is a risk that the Framework will be highly influential in establishing levels of linguistic competence for assessment purposes, with what it has to say about general competences being passed over, simply because of the pressures of assessment practices hitherto.

Testing and deciding what to assess

There are many kinds of assessment of which testing is just one. Tests too are of many kinds and serve many functions - diagnosis, placement on courses, for example - but are often associated with examinations and certification. Examinations and certification are of course highly sensitive issues to which politicians, parents and learners pay much attention. As a consequence, the examination of learners' competence has to be very careful and as ,objective' - meaning valid and reliable - as possible. This was the problem faced by the Council of Europe experts in the Common European Framework, and a problem that they decided they could not solve at the time.

Yet it is seems on the surface not difficult to assess learners' acquisition of information. There can be simple tests of facts, but the real difficulty comes in deciding which facts are important. Shall they, for example, learn ,facts' about social etiquette and politeness in a particular country? But then whose social etiquette, that of the dominant social class, or that of the social class or ethnic group or gender group to which they belong? Shall they learn historical ,facts', but whose version of history?

We also have a lot of experience in assessing learners' knowledge and understanding. Rather than testing recall of historical ,facts', we assess their historical understanding and sensitivity in essays where they discuss events. A similar approach is familiar to many language teachers who have also been students or teachers of literature, where the testing of recall of literary history or plots of novels has largely given way to assessment of insight and sensitivity to literary texts.

Intercultural competence

The problem lies however in the fact that knowledge and factual recall are only one dimension of the competence which the Common European Framework calls ,socio-cultural' but which others would define differently and call ,intercultural competence' (Byram and Zarate, 1997; Byram, 1997).

Briefly, intercultural competence involves five elements:

• Attitudes: curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and belief about one's own.
• Knowledge: of social groups and their products and practices in one's own and in one's interlocutor's country, and of the general processes of societal and individual interaction.
• Skills of interpreting and relating: ability to interpret a document or event from another culture, to explain it and relate it to documents from one's own.
• Skills of discovery and interaction: ability to acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to operate knowledge, attitudes and skills under the constraints of real-time communication and interaction.
• Critical cultural awareness/political education: an ability to evaluate critically and on the basis of explicit criteria perspectives, practices and products in one's own and other cultures and countries.

In short someone with some degree of intercultural competence is someone who is able to see relationships between different cultures - both internal and external to a society - and is able to mediate, that is interpret each in terms of the other, either for themselves or for other people. It is also someone who has a critical or analytical understanding of (parts of) their own and other cultures - someone who is conscious of their own perspective, of the way in which their thinking is culturally determined, rather than believing that their understanding and perspective is natural.

Assessing knowledge is thus only a small part of what is involved and what needs to be assessed is learners' ability to step outside, to make the strange familiar and the familiar strange, and to act on that change of perspective.

Most difficult of all is to assess whether students have changed their attitudes, become more tolerant of difference and the unfamiliar. This is affective and moral development and it can be argued that even if we can assess it, we should not be trying to quantify tolerance. I would agree with this if assessment implies quantification and a judgement made by a teacher or examiner on a student, but this is only one kind of assessment. If however, assessment is not in terms of tests and traditional examinations, but rather in terms of producing a record of learners' competences, then a portfolio approach is possible and in fact desirable (Byram, 1997).

Using a portfolio as a basis for assessment

Together with the Common European Framework, the Council of Europe is developing a European Language Portfolio.

It will have three parts:

• the Passport section provides an overview of the individual's proficiency in different languages at a given point in time; the overview is defined in terms of skills and the common reference levels in the Common European Framework; it records formal qualifications and describes language competencies and significant language and intercultural learning experiences; it includes information on partial and specific competence; it allows for self-assessment, teacher assessment and assessment by educational institutions and examinations boards; it requires that information entered in the Passport states on what basis, when and by whom the assessment was carried out.
• The Language Biography facilitates the learner's involvement in planning, reflecting upon and assessing his or her learning process and progress; it encourages the learner to state what he/she can do in each language and to include information on linguistic and cultural experiences gained in and outside formal educational contexts; it is organised to promote plurilingualism i.e. the development of competencies in a number of languages.
• The Dossier offers the learner the opportunity to select materials to document and illustrate achievements or experiences recorded in the Language Biography or Passport.

In the portfolio the notion of self-assessment is to be introduced and this can include self assessment of intercultural competence. It might consist of the following format, which reflects the definition of intercultural competence given above. The format in this case is intended for learners in Upper Secondary or Higher Education.

A record of my Intercultural Experience - in language: (learner inserts language) - place, period of time, age: A. Feelings Ways in which my curiosity and interest were aroused: (examples from ordinary daily life, especially when they made me re-consider my own culture) Periods when I felt uncomfortable/homesick (what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible) Periods when I felt at home and comfortable (what made me feel like this, with particular examples if possible) B. Knowledge The most important things I learnt about family life and/or life at school The most important things I have learnt about the country, the nation, the state where I stayed - in the present and in its past What I have learnt about customs and conventions of talking with people (topics which interest them, topics to avoid, how to greet people and take leave from them) C. Actions Incidents or problems which I resolved by explaining different cultures to people, helping them see the points of view of different cultures and how misunderstandings can happen. Examples of times when I have had to ask questions and work out my own answers (from ,asking the way' to understanding cultural customs and beliefs)

As well as or instead of the above:

A self-assessment of my Intercultural Experience A. Interest in other people's way of life I am interested in other people's experience of daily life, particularly those things not usually presented to outsiders through the media. Example: I am also interested in the daily experience of a variety of social groups within a society and not only the dominant culture. Example: B. Ability to change perspective I have realised that I can understand other cultures by seeing things from a different point of view and by looking at my culture from their perspective. Example: C. Ability to cope with living in a different culture I am able to cope with a range of reactions I have to living in a different culture (euphoria, homesickness, physical and mental discomfort etc) Example: D. Knowledge about another country and culture I know some important facts about living in the other culture and about the country, state and people. Example: I know how to engage in conversation with people of the other culture and maintain a conversation Example: E. Knowledge about intercultural communication I know how to resolve misunderstandings which arise from people's lack of awareness of the view point of another culture Example: I know how to discover new information and new aspects of the other culture for myself Example:

Literature

Byram, M. 1997. Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Byram, M. and Zarate, G. 1997. Definitions, objectives and assessment of sociocultural competence. In: M. Byram, G. Zarate and G. Neuner Sociocultural Competence in Language Learning and Teaching. Strasbourg: Council of Europe
Hymes, D., 1972. On Communicative Competence. in: J. B. Pride and J. Holmes (eds.), Sociolinguistics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, pp. 269-93.

The next full-text article in this issue of Sprogforum is:

Karen Risager:
The teacher's intercultural competence

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