Showing 3 results for Interculturality
Volume 0, Issue 0 (2-2024)
Abstract
The present research study aimed to investigate the pragmatic awareness, attitudes, and practices of nine upper secondary English teachers in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms, with a focus on the intercultural aspects of the subject. Using a phenomenological methodology, the study conducted nine semi-structured interviews with English teachers of upper secondary students. Teachers demonstrated a high level of awareness of pragmatics, particularly when presented with pragmatic input based on syllabi formulations. The awareness suggested a recognition of the importance of pragmatic competence in language learning. Teachers incorporated pragmatics into their teaching methods. Pragmatics was used as a tool for fostering metacognitive conversations about language, helping students understand the appropriateness of certain phrases or words. Teachers aimed to make students aware of why people communicate in certain ways. The understanding of the reasons behind communication choices was deemed important for both teachers and students. Teachers perceived the intercultural dimensions of the English subject as crucial. Issues such as monocultural teaching groups, filter bubbles, and the rise of difficult conversations were highlighted. Teachers found using students' first languages to be an important tool for understanding and scaffolding their learning of English. The incorporation of pragmatics in the EFL classroom not only benefits language development but also serves as a facilitator in developing an understanding of other people. The study suggested a link between pragmatic awareness and intercultural competence in language teaching.
Volume 12, Issue 3 (8-2021)
Abstract
Following a case study research design, the present paper reports on a cross-cultural project (called Ibunka2019), in which the author monitored his English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing classes. The project is an email-based exchange among learners of English from six countries (Algeria, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, and the Netherlands). For data collection, the Algerian participants’ emic perspective was accessed via their self-reports, gained by a post-project online survey; besides, their messages produced as well as the discussions with them during and after the project made valuable retrospective data for the present study. Particularly, the study discusses the merits of the project relative to the writing module, manifestations of learner autonomy, and the challenges encountered. Moreover, it tackled other relevant issues, namely the integration of interculturality, EFL learner mindset, and lingua franca perspective. This study adds to the scarce literature within the Algerian context on telecollaborative EFL teaching and learning
Abbas Manoochehri,
Volume 21, Issue 1 (1-2014)
Abstract
Modern Europe witnessed a historical simultaneity as the result of which , not only Europe ruptured from its own past, rather a forced attachment to the non- European's future was also forged. This historical "development" has been narrated in the "colonial discourse". On the other hand, for the non–Europeans, however, a different historical simultaneity took place. Hence; the colonized/non -Europeans found themselves forcefully ruptured not only from their own selfhood, but also thrown in an imposed 'state of nature' dispossessed of their identity. This historical experience has been narrated in the "post-colonial discourse". The current paper is an attempt to host a 'meeting' between the colonial and the post-colonial discourses.