JOURNAL REVIEW: Towards Intercultural Communicative Competence in ELT

 

Title: Towards Intercultural Communicative Competence in ELT

Journal: English Language Teaching

Volume and Page: Vol.56, Page. 57-64

Year: 2002

Writer: Cem Alptekin

Reviewer: Mifta Ireza Nur Apriant

 

Based on a critical review of selected relevant studies, this journal discusses about the validity of the pedagogic model based on the native speaker-based notion of communicative competence. With its standardized native speaker norms, the model is found to be utopian, unrealistic, and constraining in relation to English as an International Language (EIL). It is utopian not only because native speakership is a linguistic myth, but also because it portrays a monolithic perception of the native speaker's language and culture, by referring chiefly to mainstream ways of thinking and behaving. It is unrealistic because it fails to reflect the lingua franca status of English. It is constraining in that it circumscribes both teacher and learner autonomy by associating the concept of authenticity with the social milieu of the native speaker. A new notion of communicative competence is needed, one which recognizes English as a world language. This would encompass local and international contexts as settings of language use, involve native–nonnative and nonnative–nonnative discourse participants, and take as pedagogic models successful bilinguals with intercultural insights and knowledge. As such, it would aim at the realization of intercultural communicative competence in ELT.

The conventional model of communicative competence, with its strictadherence to native speaker norms within the target language culture,would appear to be invalid in accounting for learning and using aninternational language in cross-cultural settings. A new pedagogic modelis urgently needed to accommodate the case of English as a means ofinternational and intercultural communication.

This model should take into account the following criteria:

1 Successful bilinguals with intercultural insights and knowledgeshould serve as pedagogic models in English as an InternationalLanguage (EIL) rather than the monolingual native speaker.

2 Intercultural communicative competence should be developed amongEILlearners by equipping them with linguistic and cultural behaviourwhich will enable them to communicative e¤ectively with others, andalso by equipping them with an awareness of di¤erence, and withstrategies for coping with such di¤erence (Hyde 1998).

3 The EIL pedagogy should be one of global appropriacy and localappropriation, in that it should prepare learners ‘to be both global andlocal speakers of English and to feel at home in both international andnational cultures’ (Kramsch and Sullivan 1996: 211).

4 Instructional materials and activities should involve local andinternational contexts that are familiar and relevant to languagelearners’ lives.

5 Instructional materials and activities should have suitable discoursesamples pertaining to native and nonnative speaker interactions, aswell as nonnative and nonnative speaker interactions. Discoursedisplaying exclusive native speaker use should be kept to a minimum,as it is chiefly irrelevant for many learners in terms of potential use inauthentic settings (Widdowson 1998).

It is time for ELT to consider the implications of the international statusof English in terms of appropriate pedagogies and instructional materialsthat will help learners become successful bilingual and interculturalindividuals who are able to function well in both local and international settings.

 

Advantages

-Journal, contains background and preliminary research.

- The abstract is clear, so that just by reading the abstract, the reader can find out the results of the research

-The conclusions made are detailed and clearly explained

 

Deficiency:

-Difficult language to understand

-Writing space is irregular

Name: Mifta Ireza Nur Apriant

Class: 4E

Major: English Education

Lecturer: Yuna Tresna Wahyuna,SS., M.Hum.