The Importance of Intercultural communication in the english classroom

by Cristian David Ariza Quitian

Intercultural communication should not only be a crucial element when teaching in

multicultural settings but also as well as important in contexts where the necessity to

understand cultural backgrounds in the classroom becomes essential. No teacher who is, at

least, sensible to student’s backgrounds has ever regarded their past stories or personal

information with disdain. They are, at some extent, praised for the same reason of that a

foreigner eager to understand different cultures; he is compelled to examine the target

culture to grasp their understanding and mediate its differences from of our own.

The education system should then encourage the comprehension of culture inside

the classroom because the belief that teachers are dealing with a monocultural context is no

longer acceptable, for in the colombian context we often see that the variable culture is

mixed due to migration issues and the last option available

The importance of culture inside the classroom​ ​has become a potential issue in

recent years. Some approaches on FLT (Foreign Language Teaching), have already

contemplated culture as cornerstone on a curriculum level that comprises culture awareness

as a must. It is not a surprised that studies like the ones of Lavrenteva, Evgenia

Orland-Barak (2015) seek for understanding the treatment of culture at a national level in

official documents that concern curriculum. Their analysis among other critical findings
suggests that when approaching intercultural competence, at least among the documents

examined, there is a certain preoccupation on “the dimensions of knowledge and attitudes

rather than skills”. The study points out how the cultural objectives are viewed and are

condensed into three themes “appreciating cultural diversity, raising cultural awareness and

reinforcing students’ positive cultural identity”(p. 677).

The need, as already seen, is stated, but how does culture intervene inside the

classroom? Some attempts have been done to bring this issue on the table. And when we

speak about real culture issues,the learning of languages has a say into the matter. CLIL

(Content and Language Integrated Language) started as an approach to involve students to

a more closer relation with the language, adding content to make it more “easier and to

improve the motivation of the students involved” (Oprescu, 2015, p. 1).

As Oprescu(2015) highlights Culture identity is also a main focus to explore in

contexts like ELT given that language is an important element to constitute an identity

among a culture.

Although CLIL did not consider culture at first and was rather taken into

consideration slowly, the implementation of culture was in part owed to the basic

requirements consolidated by The Common European Framework of Reference for

Languages (CEFR, 2001) which states how “In an intercultural approach, it is a central

objective of language education to promote the favourable development of the learner’s

whole personality and sense of identity in response to the enriching experience of otherness

in language and culture”(p.1).

 But what is more interesting about CLIL is not the seemingly usage of content, is

the unique opportunity to bring to the classroom elements that shape culture. Which is the

focus of study that Rodríguez & Puyal (2012) delves into by proposing the usage of literary

texts as a means to foster intercultural competence. According to their article, “The use of

literary texts can promote reflection on cultural differences, develop understanding of the

home culture, and consequently enhance more tolerant and open attitudes towards other

cultures”(p. 4). Furthermore, for these authors the approach that CLIL does on content is

the perfect opportunity for students to be aware of cultural perspectives in the english class.

As we have seen so far the importance of applying culture and intercultural

competence in the classroom is justified, for the same fact that a deeper understanding of

ourselves, as a unique cultural identity, could give us the proper insight to comprehend

others cultures. The english classroom has the potential to succeed in the aforementioned as

it could make use of content that treats with cultural topics. The role that teachers plays

should not be regard only as a cultural referent but as a correlator able to be sensible

towards, not only the english culture but student’s own culture.

REFERENCES

Monica, O. (2015). Cultural Identity Through CLIL. Romanian Journal of English Studies, 

Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp 34-39 (2015) VO - 12, (1), 34. 

https://doi.org/10.1515/rjes-2015-0005 
Council of Europe. (2001). the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages 

: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Council of Europe, 1–273. 

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190514000221 

RODRÍGUEZ luisagr@usal.es, L. M. G., & PUYAL miriambp@usal.es, M. B. (2012). 

Promoting Intercultural Competence through Literature in CLIL Contexts., 34(2), 

105–124. Retrieved from 

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ofm&AN=84617557&lan

g=es&site=ehost-live 

Lavrenteva, E., & Orland-Barak, L. (2015). The treatment of culture in the foreign 

language curriculum: an analysis of national curriculum documents. Journal of 

Curriculum Studies, 47(5), 653–684. Retrieved from 

http://10.0.4.56/00220272.2015.1056233 

 
https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/rjes/12/1/article-p34.xml

http://www.ugr.es/~portalin/articulos/PL_numero21/14%20%20Silvina.pdf

Speaking of culture in the classroom

STUDIES THAT SUPPORT THE THESIS

REFERENCES