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Intercultural awareness: an approach to teaching language and culture in ELF

Intercultural awareness: an approach to teaching language and culture in ELF
Intercultural awareness: an approach to teaching language and culture in ELF
Does culture have a role in teaching English as a lingua franca? This paper takes the position that cultural contexts are a significant element of all communication, whether through an L1 or lingua franca. Therefore, teaching a language for communication will inevitably involve teaching culture, whether consciously or subconsciously. However, the cultural contexts associated with ELF are diverse, fluid and hybrid. Thus, just as ELF has entailed a move away from the native speaker norms of grammar, phonology, vocabulary and pragmatics, it will also necessitate a move away from the notion of a target culture associated with the traditional native speaker countries such as the US and the UK. Instead, successful communicators in ELF must be equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to mediate between varieties of culturally based communicative practices and references. Intercultural awareness (ICA) is an attempt to model how speakers make use of this knowledge and these skills in a context specific way in the fluid settings of ELF communication. The paper will also offer a number of suggestions for developing ICA in classroom settings, focusing on ELT in an expanding circle environment.
Baker, Will
9f1b758c-e6e0-43ca-b7bf-a0d5e1387d10
Baker, Will
9f1b758c-e6e0-43ca-b7bf-a0d5e1387d10

Baker, Will (2010) Intercultural awareness: an approach to teaching language and culture in ELF. The Third International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF3), Austria, Republic of, Austria. 21 - 24 May 2010.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Does culture have a role in teaching English as a lingua franca? This paper takes the position that cultural contexts are a significant element of all communication, whether through an L1 or lingua franca. Therefore, teaching a language for communication will inevitably involve teaching culture, whether consciously or subconsciously. However, the cultural contexts associated with ELF are diverse, fluid and hybrid. Thus, just as ELF has entailed a move away from the native speaker norms of grammar, phonology, vocabulary and pragmatics, it will also necessitate a move away from the notion of a target culture associated with the traditional native speaker countries such as the US and the UK. Instead, successful communicators in ELF must be equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to mediate between varieties of culturally based communicative practices and references. Intercultural awareness (ICA) is an attempt to model how speakers make use of this knowledge and these skills in a context specific way in the fluid settings of ELF communication. The paper will also offer a number of suggestions for developing ICA in classroom settings, focusing on ELT in an expanding circle environment.

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More information

Published date: May 2010
Venue - Dates: The Third International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF3), Austria, Republic of, Austria, 2010-05-21 - 2010-05-24

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 180975
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/180975
PURE UUID: 9f17d3df-1395-4c5e-ba4d-f9d0b6d4c19a
ORCID for Will Baker: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0533-2795

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 13 Apr 2011 08:57
Last modified: 02 Apr 2022 01:42

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