Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence: Revisited

192 Pages·2020·1.473 MB·English

by  Prof. Michael Byram

Teaching and Assessing
Intercultural Communicative
Competence
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Teaching and
Assessing
Intercultural
Communicative
Competence
Revisited
2nd edition
Michael Byram
MULTILINGUAL MATTERS
Bristol • Blue Ridge Summit
DOI https://doi.org/10.21832/BYRAM0244
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Names: Byram, Michael, author.
Title: Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence:
Revisited/Michael Byram.
Description: 2nd edition. | Bristol; Blue Ridge Summit: Multilingual Matters, [2021] |
Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “This revised edition of
Michael Byram’s classic 1997 book updates the text in light of both recent research and
critiques and commentaries on the 1st edition. The book is an invaluable guide for
teachers and curriculum developers, taking them from a defi nition of Intercultural
Communicative Competence through planning for teaching to
assessment”— Provided by publisher.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2020033219 (print) | LCCN 2020033220 (ebook) | ISBN
9781800410237 (paperback) | ISBN 9781800410244 (hardback) | ISBN 9781800410251
(pdf) | ISBN 9781800410268 (epub) | ISBN 9781800410275 (kindle edition)
Subjects: LCSH: Language and languages—Study and teaching. | Multicultural
education. | Intercultural communication—Study and teaching. |
Communicative competence.
Classifi cation: LCC P53.45 .B96 2021 (print) | LCC P53.45 (ebook) | DDC
418.0071—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020033219
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020033220
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13: 978-1-80041-024-4 (hbk)
ISBN-13: 978-1-80041-023-7 (pbk)
Multilingual Matters
UK: St Nicholas House, 31–34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK.
USA: NBN, Blue Ridge Summit, PA, USA.
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Copyright © 2021 Michael Byram.
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For my teachers – illuminations from the past
For Marc, Max, Hugo, Sophie and Maya – lights into
the future
The nations must understand one another and quickly, and without the
interposition of their governments, for the shrinkage of the globe is throw-
ing them into one another’s arms.
E.M. Forster Notes on the English (1920)
The Commission has put greater emphasis on one of the four pillars that
it proposes and describes as the foundations of education: learning to live
together, by developing an understanding of others and their history, tra-
ditions and spiritual values and, on this basis, creating a new spirit which,
guided by recognition of our growing interdependence and a common
analysis of the risks and challenges of the future, would induce people to
implement common projects or to manage the inevitable confl icts in an
intelligent and peaceful way. Utopia, some might think, but it is a neces-
sary Utopia, indeed a vital one if we are to escape from a dangerous cycle
sustained by cynicism or by resignation.
Learning – The Treasure Within ‘The Delors Report’ (1996)
Contents
Foreword ix
Karen Risager
Preface (2020) xiii
Preface (1997) xvii
Introduction 1
The Tourist and the Sojourner 1
Teaching and Assessment 3
Intercultural Communicative Competence 3
Teaching and Assessing ICC: A Framework 6
What this Book is … 8
What this Book is Not … 9
1 Defi ning and Describing Intercultural Communicative
Competence 12
Introduction 12
Communicating Across Linguistic and Cultural
Boundaries and Frontiers 12
Communication and Interaction 23
Teaching Intercultural Communication in Context 28
Assessment in the Context of Intercultural Communicative
Competence 32
Conclusion: The Language Learner as ‘Ethnographer’
and/or as ‘Applied Linguist’ 33
Coda: Intercultural and Pluricultural Competence 34
2 A Model for Intercultural Communicative Competence 40
Introduction 40
Describing Intercultural Communication and the
‘Intercultural Speaker’ 42
Attitudes 44
Knowledge 46
Skills 48
Intercultural Communication in Operation 50
Acquiring Intercultural Communicative Competence in an
Educational Setting 54
vii
viii Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence
Relating Intercultural Competence to Communication 59
Intercultural Competence Defi ned in Terms of Objectives 61
The Developmental Factor 67
Questions of Power in Intercultural Communication 69
Coda: Moral Relativism, Pluralism and Human Rights 72
3 Objectives for Teaching, Learning and Assessment 82
Introduction 82
Formulating Teaching, Learning and Assessment
Objectives 83
Acquiring Intercultural Competence 91
A Comprehensive Model of Intercultural (Communicative)
Competence 96
Coda: Mediation 99
4 Curriculum Issues 103
Introduction 103
Concepts of Progression 104
A Threshold of Intercultural Communicative Competence? 105
Planning a Curriculum for Intercultural Communicative
Competence 107
Two Contrasting Examples: Teaching French in an East
Coast Region of the United States and English in
Taiwan 110
Lesson and Course Planning 119
Coda: Intercultural Citizenship and the Teacher’s Ethical
Responsibilities 121
5 Assessment 126
Introduction 126
Assessing the Five ‘Savoirs’ 128
Purposes for Assessment 142
Assessing Levels of Intercultural Communicative
Competence 145
Conclusion 147
Coda: Measurement of Intercultural and Related
Competences 148
6 Conclusion 153
Appendix: Glastonbury Public Schools Project 156
References 159
Index 170
Foreword
This book is a revisited version of the very infl uential book published in
1997 (Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence).
During the 24 years that have passed since then, the importance of com-
munication and cooperation across the world has become ever more evi-
dent. Educational authorities, materials developers and teachers
worldwide need tools for ensuring that learners – children, young people
and adults – develop the necessary competences in intercultural commu-
nication: intercultural communicative competence. The present book is
such a tool, and it is both highly useful and full of refl ections.
For those who know the 1997 book, I can say that the core models
have not changed in their structure: the well-known model of the fi ve
components of intercultural competence and the full model of the combi-
nation/integration of communicative and intercultural competence. What
is new is a revised defi nition of some of the components and the introduc-
tion of a wealth of extra refl ections and explanations, notes and codas
which make clear how the models and the suggested implementations
should be understood in the light of the complexities of the world today
and of advances in the fi eld of language and intercultural education.
Furthermore, some misunderstandings of the original text are dealt with
and clarifi ed.
The focus in the book is on intercultural communicative competence
in relation to language teaching, particularly foreign language teaching.
Thus, the focus is on learners’ ability to relate to and communicate with
people who speak a diff erent language and live in a diff erent country.
However, as Michael Byram emphasises, most countries are multicultural,
multi-ethnic and multilingual, and therefore foreign language teaching
should also enable learners to relate to and communicate with people in
their own country. This means that, although the practical examples in
the book mainly relate to the fi eld of foreign language teaching, the
abstract models, and to some extent the detailed lists of objectives and
methods of assessment, may be used in connection with all kinds of lan-
guage teaching, including second language teaching (e.g. for immigrants)
and in many diff erent contexts. The importance of institutional and geo-
political contexts for the implementation of the framework is frequently
underscored in the book.
ix
x Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence
Michael Byram occupies a central position in the fi eld of language and
intercultural education, and his concept of intercultural communicative
competence has infl uenced curricula and teacher education in many parts
of the world. Underlying this concept is a complex view of the language
learner, including three interconnected facets:
• a person with an open mind;
• a person with the curiosity and courage of the ethnographer;
• a person with the engagement and responsibility of the citizen.
These three facets (or ideals) have always been present in his work (includ-
ing the 1997 book), but the idea of the language learner as an engaged and
responsible citizen has been emphasised more and more strongly through-
out the years.
The fi rst facet is very basic and rests on the conviction that learning a
language is not just learning a set of skills but is an opportunity to develop
as a person (cf. the German concept of Bildung). Teaching should be
designed to off er learners opportunities to challenge their views of the
target language and its users, to become aware of and refl ect on possible
stereotypes and prejudices concerning target-language countries and peo-
ples and, if possible, to replace or supplement them with more valid
knowledge, personal experiences and intercultural interaction in the
target language.
The second facet derives from Michael Byram’s early inspiration from
social anthropology and ethnographic practice: the language learner
could be imagined as a person who is – or prepares to be – a kind of eth-
nographer. He or she observes people’s practices in a target-language com-
munity, tries to learn their language, participates in everyday life,
interprets narratives and documents, refl ects on norms, beliefs and values,
and in the process learns something about him- or herself.
The third facet draws on the fi eld of citizenship education – across
subjects and including language teaching. In this perspective, the language
learner is not only seen as a person with the curiosity and courage of the
ethnographer but as an engaged and responsible citizen, in the classroom
as well as in life after school. Learning a language is an opportunity to
develop as a citizen with intercultural communicative competence, taking
the vantage point of ‘the other’ to analyse one’s own country and people,
with a view to changing it for the better. This was an important idea in
the 1997 book since the central component of the intercultural compe-
tence model was ‘critical cultural awareness’. However, this part has been
developed much more in the present book as a result of Byram’s extensive
work with intercultural citizenship in the intervening years, including his
contributions to the Reference Framework of Competences for
Democratic Culture (Council of Europe, 2018).
The present book, then, takes intercultural competence in a more
politically-oriented direction and with an emphasis on criticality.
Foreword xi
I welcome this very much, and am reminded of Michael Byram’s and my
collaboration in the 1990s on a joint English-Danish project on ‘Language
Teachers’ Identity in the Process of European Integration’ (published as
Byram & Risager: Language Teachers, Politics and Cultures, Multilingual
Matters, 1999). That project had a clear political dimension as it investi-
gated language teachers in Denmark and England with regard to their
views of Europe and European integration, and how this was related to
their actual teaching of the target languages (a project which is highly
interesting to revisit today in the light of Brexit and related movements in
other countries in the EU).
In his comments on models and implementations, Michael Byram
mentions many diff erent issues of the contemporary world and also warns
against Eurocentrism. Indeed, the present book is part of a movement
towards greater awareness of the cultural content of language education
in terms of the problems and issues that are taken up, analysed with a
critical mind and perhaps selected for active engagement inside and out-
side the school. Our world is packed with serious problems: climate
change, inequality, poverty, racism, sexism, hunger, war, disease, etc. –
problems that require collaboration across borders and across languages.
Language subjects have a special role to play in the education of the global
citizen with intercultural communicative competence. And with respect
to Michael Byram’s own work, one can truly say that he has walked-the-
talk, since collaboration across borders and across languages has always
been his hallmark.
The book comes out in a time of growing global awareness of our
world as the home of a multitude of diff erent voices, interests and lan-
guages. Through social media and other channels, many people get their
information about what is going on in other parts of the world and become
aware of shared interests and visions. The recent worldwide mobilisations
of not least young people in relation to global issues – e.g. Prides, the
Occupy movement, Pussyhat Women’s March, School strike for climate,
Extinction Rebellion, Black Lives Matter, etc. – suggest that this is the
time to acknowledge the importance of intercultural communicative com-
petence for all, not just for travelling but for understanding, discussing
and fi nding new ways of transnational collaboration and change.
Karen Risager
Roskilde
June 2020