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5.0 Intercomprehension, foreign language
teaching and foreign language learning
When the project first began, the following working definition
of intercomprehension was formulated:
a broad approach to language teaching and language learning
which embraces a positive view of linguistic and cultural
diversity and which aims to motivate pupils to recognize
and activate their explicit and implicit linguistic and
cultural knowledge and skills in order to develop their
general language competence
The definition includes both the teacher and his/her role
as a motivator in the language classroom and the learner and
his/her efforts to exploit his/her overall linguistic and
cultural competence.
As the project progressed, and based on the
findings in the classroom, awareness-raising was singled out
as the most essential facet of intercomprehension. The development
of language and culture awareness seems to be the major task
both for the teacher and the pupil. For the pupil it seems
to be a question of developing his/her awareness by recognizing
certain intercomprehension factors, for the teacher a question
of developing his/her abilities to motivate for recognition
of these factors. In this way intercomprehension can be viewed
differently depending on whether it is seen from the pupil's
or the teacher's point of view. The student teacher needs
to include both these angles in his/her language studies.
5.1 Intercomprehension and foreign language teaching
It has until quite recently been an aim in foreign language
instruction to motivate the learner to develop (near) native
speaker competence. The concept of native speaker competence
is, however, a diffuse concept. Kramsch (1998) raises the
question "Who is a native speaker?" and presents several approaches
to illustrate it. She claims that ..."the dichotomy between
native versus non-native speakers has outlived its use" (p.
27) and concludes her discussion by stating
In our days of frequent border crossings, and of multilingual
multicultural foreign language classrooms, it is appropriate
to rethink the monolingual native speaker norm as the target
of foreign language education. As we revisit the marked
and unmarked forms of language usership, I propose that
we make the intercultural speaker the unmarked form, the
infinite of language use, and the monolingual monocultural
speaker a slowly disappearing species or a nationalistic
myth. (p. 30)
Byram and Risager (1999 : 153) also refer to the non-native
speaker as an intercultural speaker and describe him/her as
" ...a person who is capable of perceiving and explaining
cultural and linguistic differences, and of making use of
this capability in communication".
These two descriptions see the intercultural speaker from
different angles: Kramsch does not specify that the speaker
should be able to explicitly state any differences in language
or culture, whereas Byram and Risager include such specification
in their notion of the intercultural speaker. This difference
could be an interesting issue to discuss from an academic
point of view. However, from a practical point of view the
notion of the intercultural speaker as a speaker who makes
use of whatever implicit or explicit resources he/she can
mobilize to understand and to communicate in a foreign language,
is more fruitful and viable, and complements the Council of
Europe notion of plurilingualism quoted in section 2.0 above.
In the foreign language classroom it will be the task of the
teacher to motivate pupils to make use of all their abilities
in order to comprehend language, and gradually produce language.
To do so the teacher's own language and culture awareness
should have reached a level where he/she is able to explain
differences, without necessarily using such explanations in
class. But the pupil's position is one of developing such
awareness, with the teacher's constructive feedback as a strong
motivating factor.
5.2 Intercomprehension and foreign language learning
The notion of the plurilingual intercultural speaker applied
to the foreign language classroom makes sense if it includes
the total range of abilities that a learner mobilizes. If
we take this view, the learner can be characterized as an
intercultural learner, for whom it may be an aim to
develop intercultural competence.
How then, can the learner develop intercultural competence?
And is the development of intercultural competence a desirable
aim? Risager states that intercultural competence ..."refers
to and supplements the concept of communicative competence,
and therefore includes a skills dimension". (Risager
2000 : 161). Intercultural competence is furthermore associated
with assessment criteria. The concept of cultural awareness,
she suggests, may be a better term, since it is more general
and non-technical, and caters for a wider set of interpretations.
If the notion of competence is closely associated with skills
and assessment criteria, then this shift from "competence"
to "awareness" to describe a wider range of factors in the
language and culture teaching process is not only a useful
shift, but offers also a better and more to the point way
of labelling what actually seems to take place in the language
classroom where intercomprehension ideas and methods govern
the activities.
The experiments described in chapter 4 indicate that degree
of recognition seems to be crucial when it comes to how much
the individual pupils can transfer of insight, knowledge and
skills from one language to another. Based on the classroom
experiments we carried out, we found that it may be relevant
and convenient to describe such degree of recognition in four
areas: language, culture, genre, and theme.
Pupils recognize and identify words and phrases
they can compare with words and phrases they know in their
mother tongue or other languages. In primary school the mother
tongue is the most important source of reference, but gradually,
as experience and knowledge of other languages than the mother
tongue increases, so will also the chances for making use
of more languages than the native language.
Many fairytales, songs and games represent
a common European cultural heritage, and this common frame
of reference makes it easier to understand various European
languages. In section 4.5 the recognition of a socio-cultural
rather than a cultural feature was mentioned. Learners, particularly
young learners, will have implicit rather than explicit socio-cultural
knowledge to draw on in many contexts. For example when working
with a theme like "family and friends" such implicit knowledge
will be useful.
Genre can play an important part, in the sense
that for example recognition of structural features like sequencing
and repetition in e.g. fairytales and songs seem to strengthen
recognition of language and culture.
Theme seems to have a similar positive and
strengthening effect. By combining theme and cross-curricular
activities, even more recognition and understanding will probably
be the result.
These four aspects of recognition: language,
culture, genre and theme represent a holistic approach to
language learning. They also represent a methodology that
on the one hand links language and culture, and on the other
the individual's experience and cognitive level of development
to his/her linguistic and cultural learning process. The young
learners need a high degree of recognition of specific examples
or cases in all four areas, while more mature learners have
the capacity for generalization and conscious comparison between
languages.
The following figure illustrates the interrelationship
between learning - awareness - experience - in the language
and culture teaching process. It can also be seen as an illustration
of the role of the teacher on the one hand and the role of
the learner on the other. The two actors have a common goal:
development of language and culture awareness. The learner
will develop his/her awareness through recognition of one
or more intercomprehension factors; the teacher will develop
his/her awareness through motivating the learner to recognize
them.
Byram, M. (1990: 20): Figure 2.1 The language
and culture teaching process
(click on picture for larger version)
At the end of the project period, therefore, intercomprehension
was defined as
a broad approach to language teaching and language learning
which embraces a positive view of linguistic and cultural
diversity and which aims to motivate pupils to recognize
and activate their explicit and implicit linguistic and
cultural knowledge, skills and experience in order to develop
their general language and culture awareness.
This definition caters for awareness-raising, which we found
was an essential element in the notion of intercomprehension,
and also for the learner's prior knowledge and skills as a
decisive factor in the process of learning foreign languages.
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Classroom experiments
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