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Intercultural Approaches to ELT
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chology for its theoretical insights. An intercultural approach continues to
draw upon these disciplines, but gives equal weight to other areas of
research and practice in the humanities and social sciences. Some of these
disciplines, such as anthropology and literary studies, are well established;
others, such as media and cultural studies, are relatively young and still devel-
oping. Since the theoretical frameworks that have stimulated intercultural
approaches are diverse, and potentially bewildering, much of the remainder
of this chapter seeks to summarise them and clarify their contribution.
Much recent work on the intercultural approach to second language
education has been done in state schools and colleges, particularly in
Europe, and in courses and seminars sponsored by state institutions such
as the British Council. An intercultural approach has been slower to impact
upon ELT in the commercial sector. The commercial sector clearly is not
motivated by exactly the same ideological considerations that govern state
education. Modern languages education in state schools usually has to
conform to goals that explicitly embed foreign language teaching in a
broader humanistic curriculum. For example, a Working Group preparing
modern language teachers in England and Wales for a revised national cur-
riculum defined the curricular aims of modern languages teaching in a
manner wholly in accord with the goals of an intercultural approach. The
Working Group proposed that learners should have the opportunity to:
•
appreciate the similarities and differences between their own and cul-
tures of the communities/countries where the target language is
spoken;
•
identify with the experience and perspective of people in the coun-
tries and communities where the target language is spoken;
•
use this knowledge to develop a more objective view of their own
customs and ways of thinking. (DES, 1990: 3, cited in Byram
et al.
,
1994: 15)
Such goals are more likely to be part of a liberal state-sponsored educational
curriculum than a commercially driven one. However, there are benefits for
the commercial sector in adopting and possibly adapting aspects of an
intercultural approach. The skills of social observation and explanation that
are taught in the intercultural classroom give a coherent rationale for the
teaching of the traditional ‘four skills’. Communicative language teaching has
always demanded that classroom activities have a
purpose.
An intercultural
approach gives teachers and learners a clearly defined and consistent set of
purposes. Furthermore, while a fully developed intercultural approach, as
such, has not yet been systematically or widely adopted by commercial
language schools, many English language teachers will nevertheless
An Intercultural Approach to Second Language Education
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recognise in the contents of this book aspects of what they already do.
Many teachers have a long-standing interest in cultural activities, and their
interests and individual experience of some of the ‘tributary disciplines’ of
the intercultural approach (such as literary or media studies) no doubt will
have led them to adopt some of the practices described in this book. Indeed,
most English language teachers will recognise the possibilities afforded by
the intercultural approach as an extension of their current methods, and a re-
examination of the rationale governing them. The intercultural approach
does not seek to replace or undermine the advances made by task-based
learning or learner-centred curricula (see, for example, Nunan, 1988; Willis,
1996 and the various contributions to Carter & Nunan, 2001). Rather, it seeks
to build on these advances, and to channel them towards useful and realistic
goals. Few learners achieve ‘native speaker’ linguistic competence. Many,
however, can achieve the valuable skills of observation, explanation and
mediation that contribute to ‘intercultural’ communicative competence (cf.
Byram 1997b).
This book recognises the wide diversity of English language teaching
throughout the world, and consequently does not seek to detail a single,
all-purpose approach to meet all situations and requirements. Over the
past few decades, there rightly has been a suspicion of ‘one size fits all’
approaches to second language education. Charges of ‘linguistic imperial-
ism’ have been brought against those who impose competence in English
as a prerequisite to access to broader education (cf. Pennycook, 1994;
Phillipson, 1992). Critics argue that the adoption of ‘English through
English’ policies in certain contexts encourages economic and educa-
tional dependence on textbooks and teachers from anglophone countries.
The adoption of an intercultural approach cannot hope to equalise the
patterns of economic domination and subordination that characterise
international relations. Nevertheless, its reflective stance can encourage
learners to be critically aware of the roles that different languages play in
their lives. The
inter
cultural element of this kind of second language
education also requires teachers and learners to pay attention to and
respect the home culture and the home language. Learning materials
have to incorporate aspects of the home culture, and non-native teachers
become particularly valued for their own ability to move between the
home and target cultures.
This book, then, does not provide a series of ‘ready to use recipes’ for
those wishing to adopt an intercultural approach. It offers instead a sys-
tematic outline of the main principles of an intercultural approach, an
‘intellectual history’ of the influences upon it, and some practical examples
of how to implement an intercultural approach in ways that complement
current ‘communicative’ practices. To begin, we shall consider the main
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Intercultural Approaches to ELT
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research disciplines that have provided insights into intercultural language
education.
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