L5 Intercultural Competence

Activity 1.5

I. What is "Intercultural Competence" (I.C.)?

The United States Army Research Institute has defined it as “a set of cognitive, behavioural, and affective/motivational components that enable individuals to adapt effectively in intercultural environments”. D.K. Deardoff  defines intercultural  competence as  “the ability  to  develop targeted knowledge,  skills  and attitudes that  lead to  visible behaviour and communication that are both effective and appropriate in intercultural interactions.” Therefore, Intercultural Competence is the ability for successful communication with people of other cultures. This ability can be existing already at a young age,or be developed and improved thanks to willpower and competence. The bases for a successful intercultural communication are emotional competence, together with intercultural sensitivity.

In other words, it is the ability to communicate appropriately and effectively with people of other cultures. On the other hand, the constituent elements of intercultural competence are:

II. Is I.C. important for communication?

Intercultural competence is not only important for communication, but it is crucial because of the global world in which we live.This is due to the fact that the world is nowadays interconnected. Therefore, cultural competency is vitally important to effectiveness in a variety of areas including healthcare, education, public services, law enforcement, libraries, customer service, and other business functions. In fact, being sensitive to cultural influences on others may even improve your relationships at home, and in the community. 

Due to our cultural beliefs we often make assumptions which can lead to misunderstandings and breakdown in communication.

Avoiding misunderstandings is particularly important in international negotiations, and this has brought about a fair amount of research.

III. How does I.C. relate to identity?

Speaking the same language does not imply sharing the same cultural habits, values and beliefs. In other words, we live in a cosmopolitan world in which people from different nationalities live in the same country; therefore we can find people from different cultures in the same places, even though they speak the same language.

L2 CEFR for Languages- Assessment and ELP 9/12/2016

EULP Activity 3.1 - CEFR for Languages Group Discussion

1. What is the CEFR for Languages?

It is a series of standards for describing language ability published by the Council of Europe in 2001 and one of the two main outcomes to the EU Language Policies. 

2. What are the main aims of the CEFR for Languages?

There are three main aims: the focus on development of language policies, the coordination of European members' language policies and the promotion of dialogue among decision-makers. However, they also support the design of curricula, teaching programmes, learning materials, and assessment instruments.

3. How many levels are described in the CEFR for Languages?

There are six levels: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. Levels A2, B1 and B2 can be subdivided adding a plus in each one, so there are A2+, B1+ and B2+.

4. How would you implement the CEFR descriptors in your classroom?

Every time we do an activity in which we take into account the assessment grid of the CEFR and we adapted the activity to the level of our students, we are implementing CEFR descriptors.

EULP Activity 4.1 - European Languages Portfolio (ELP)

1. What is the ELP?

The European Languages Portfolio is a complex instrument for self-assessment of language competences in accordance with the reference levels introduced by the Council of Europe. In other words, it is a “document” which provides information about the language learner’s communication competences in several languages.

2. Which three components are included in the ELP?

•  Language passport which summarises its owner’s linguistic identity, language learning and intercultural experience and it records its owner’s self-assessment against the self-assessment grid in the CEFR.

•  Language biography which provides a reflective accompaniment to the ongoing processes of learning, using second languages and engaging with the cultures associated with them. It uses “I can” checklists for goal setting and self assessment.

•  Dossier which collects evidence of L2 proficiency and intercultural experience and it supports portfolio learning.

3. What are the main aims of the ELP?

·       To stimulate lifelong language learning in a spirit of tolerance and respect for cultural and linguistic diversity.

·       To empower the learner by transferring the responsibility.

·       To provide a basis for consistent (self-) assessment of communication competences.

·       To allow learners to present their language skills certifications in any language.

4. How would you implement a portfolio system or some aspects of it in a secondary EFL classroom? 

The main way of implementing it is through projects because they are something complete, they include all the skills or at least two of the four skills, Moreover, they develop a higher level of responsibility in the student. A project could be a play, a research in school about a topic or a blog.

EULP Activity 5.2 - European Languages Portfolio (ELP)

Look at the descriptors below (taken from the CEFR) and decide where they belong in the boxes:

•(i) Can introduce himself/herself,  asking and answering questions about personal details, such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. A2 spoken interaction. 

•(ii) Can summarise information from different spoken and written sources, reconstructing arguments and accounts in a coherent presentation. B1 spoken production.

•(iii) Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help. A1 spoken interaction. 

•(iv) Can express himself / herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in more complex situations. C2 spoken interaction. 

L1 EU Policies and Initiatives 2/12/2016

EULP Activity 1.1 - Group Discussion

I- What do you think is the role of the EU Policies in Education?

Each EU country is responsible for its own education and training systems. Therefore, EU policies are designed to support national action, in order to do so, they unify the standards of criteria and they promote different ways of learning. Moreover they develop quality in education promoting the mobility of citizens, designing joint study programmes and making a commitment to promote life-long learning for all citizens of the Union

 II- What do you understand by EU Language Policies?

The policies that promote learning and teaching of foreign languages and the mobility of citizens. However, sometimes people could not travel or could not pay for education so the EU funds educational, vocational and citizenship-building programmes as well as it collaborates with inter-governmental projects. 

III- Can you name any EU initiative related to Language Learning?

The Erasmus Programme, the International Relations Programme or the Bologna Process, whose purpose is to create a European higher education area by harmonising academic degree structures and standards, as well as academic quality assurance standards.

IV- In your opinion,

-What are the main factors driving EU Language Policies?

 The two main factors are economic and political reasons. Although there are a lot of programmes that promote learning, at the end they only cover economic necessity such as the need of a job and the opportunity to get it in a different country.

-What factors make people want to learn a language?

As it is said before, people have the need of a job and they learn languages in order to get one or get a promotion in their current job. Of course, this is a generalisation and there are people who want to learn languages because they want to discover new cultures, new lands or even because they are interested in learning something new. 

-What factors make people defend a specific Language Policy?

It could be that many factors affect the way you think about a specific Language Policy such as economic, political and social reasons. Economic reasons because they provide grants which benefits people who cannot afford to travel abroad; political reasons since people think better about the political parties whose invest in educational programmes and social reasons due to the importance of being able to communicate with people around the world.

EULP Activity 2.1 - Group Discussion

I-How many languages do you speak, apart from your mother tongue or L1?

-Laura: I can speak 4 languages: Spanish, Catalan, English and German, but I normally speak in Spanish.

-Verónica: I speak 3 languages apart from my mother tongue: Catalan, English and French.

-Borja: I speak Spanish nativelike. In terms of foreign languages I speak English rather fluently, I have a quite rusty B2 level in French and an extremely basic knowledge of Welsh.
-Patry: I can speak Spanish, Catalan and English. I also know a bit of French and Portuguese. 
-Lourdes: I speak 3 languages apart from my mother tongue (Spanish): English, Catalan and German.

II-Is your mother tongue your L1?

-Laura: Yes, my mother tongue is Spanish and Spanish is my L1.

-Verónica: Yes, my mother tongue is Spanish and my L1 too.

-Borja: Indeed. Catalan is both my L1 and my mother tongue. 
-Patry: Spanish is my mother tongue and also my L1.
-Lourdes: Yes, Spanish is both my mother tongue and my L1.

III-Are there things you find easier in one language than the other?

-Laura: Of course, the easiest language for me is my mother tongue, but Spanish and Catalan are easier in terms of pronunciation. English is easier in terms of syntax. 

-Verónica: Absolutely. There are different aspects that I have taken into account. If we are talking about pronunciation Spanish is easier but if we are referring to grammar English is the easiest of all. The most difficult for me is French. I speak with my family in Spanish and I only use the other languages if a person addresses me in that language; so, it is easier for me to express myself in Spanish since I use it with more frequency.

- Borja: Yes, there are. I find it easier to express myself in Catalan as it is the language I prefer to use in most communicative situations; the language in which I feel, love and share my feelings. Despite being quite a complex language in terms of grammar, syntax and spellings, I have always tried to be aware of its norms so as to try and use it correctly. I do not find Spanish difficult but I rarely use it, only employing it with those people who cannot understand my language. Surprisingly enough, I had never used Spanish as much as I did last year living in the UK and teaching it. Regarding English, I feel quite comfortable using it and I would say English is the language with which I prefer to write academic and literary texts. In terms of French, I believe its spellings are extremely difficult and anarchic but due to its similarities with Catalan, it is quite easy to speak. Finally, I have never used Welsh in real life situations but I would not even be able to get by with my scarce knowledge. 
- Patry: The easiest language for me is Spanish (obviously). As it is a Latin language I find a lot of similarities between Spanish, Catalan, French and Portuguese. Thanks to this factor, it is quite easy to guess the meaning of some words as they are similar, but, at the same time, they have some difficult aspects. Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese pronunciation are easier than French pronunciation. Regarding English, its syntax is very easy, but it has some words that are difficult to pronounce and to use.

- Lourdes: The easiest language for me is Spanish because it is my mother tongue. I speak too Catalan, but I prefer to speak Spanish because it is the language that I use since I was a child. I only used Catalan when I was at school. Regarding English, I prefer to use it when I write academic texts. This is because I have more experience writing in that language than in Spanish. Furthermore, I am more comfortable speaking in English than in German. because I find German very difficult to pronounce. 

IV-In terms of language use,

  1-How would you describe the society you live in? Are the people in that society plurilingual?

Here in Valencia, the society is very diverse. We have different social status, people with economic difficulties, people in a medium and people who has a lot of money. Moreover, there are people from different countries. We have a big Chinese and Rumanian population, and immigrants from other foreign countries. The two co-official languages are Spanish and Valencian. 

Therefore, there are people who are plurilingual because immigrants are able to communicate in their mother tongue and in our two co-official languages. However, in many cases there are people who claim to be plurilingual but they cannot speak or write properly in all the languages.

  2-How would you encourage ‘bilingualism’ in your classroom?

First of all, it is important to show students and parents that bilingualism has a lot of benefits for the students such as the increase of possibilities to get a job or the opportunity to communicate with people from other countries.

Regarding to the English classroom, we can use their mother tongue in order to support the explanations that they do not understand. So, at the end, students will create links between some features of their L1 and other languages but they also will be able to distinguish the unique characteristics of the new language.

  3-Do you feel some languages have a higher status in the classroom?

Of course. Even though there are two co-official languages and the legislation established both equally there are a particular tendency to consider that Spanish has a higher status than Valencian.

In fact, many people consider Valencian as a minority language and the government is more worry about including other languages as English than supporting Valencian.

L.3 Global English and English Varieties 16/12/2016

Activity 1.3 – English as a Global Language (EGL).

Warm up group discussion. Working in groups, please, discuss and answer the following questions:

1. What is a global language?

A widely learnt and spoken language, that is, a language spoken and learnt by a large number of people as a second language. And also a language which is used by international organizations.

According to David Crystal, "a language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country. This role will be most obvious in countries where large numbers of the people speak it as a first language. 

1.1 Is it the same as a “lingua franca”?

It is in so much as it allows the creation of bridges between communities, nations, cultures and peoples who do not share the same native language. Thus, is a tool that unites this globalised world and is of special interest in the field of economics, politics, diplomacy and administration as well as a tool of social cohesion. 

2. Do you think that English can be considered as a “lingua franca”?

Indeed. Actually, English is the language that more easily comes to mind when talking about global languages and examples of lingua franca. It does tick all the boxes in the definition of what a lingua franca is at it is used internationally to build bridges between communities. It is widely used in the economic field to facilitate the trade between people who do not share the same native language, thus demolishing all communicative barriers. It is also the main language employed in the diplomatic sphere, having an essential role in international organisations such as the UN or the EU. 

3. Name other languages, from present or past times, which you think are, or were, global languages.

No other language in the history of humanity has ever held such a globalised role as that of Latin which was used through the centuries as a communicative tool uniting half the world. This responded to the hegemonic power of the Roman empire. Other global languages might include French, although to a lesser extent, during the Norman Invasion of 1066 but especially during the Colonialist era of the 19th and 20th centuries. 

4. In your opinion, what factors make a language become a global language?

A high number of speakers worldwide but most importantly the use made by economic and political powers. It is also worth mentioning that global languages throughout history arose as a means to record culture and knowledge and also to spread that knowledge to the world. 

Activity 2.3- ENGLISH VARIETIES. 

1. What English varieties can you think of?

When talking about English varieties it is virtually impossible to list all of them due to the countless varieties and subvarieties existing across the Globe. Nonetheless, there are some varieties that powerfully come to mind when acknowledging the richness of the English language. These include: 

- British English: and some varities such as RP English, Welsh, Scottish, South Western, Cockney, Brummie, Scouse, Geordie...

-American English: GAP, Southern American English, Black Vernacular...

- Irish

- Indian 

- Jamaican

- South African

- Australian

- Etc.

2. Provide a brief account of the main differences between British and American English.

There are countless differences between British and American English and they are of different natures. These include:

a) Pronunciation differences: 

- The R being rolled in American English and usually voiceless in British English.

- The pronunciation of the letter T between vowels in America and the tendency to unvoice it in British English.

b) Spellings:

- ou vs o in words such as colour/color, neighbour/neighbor

- s and z in suffixes including -ise/ize, -sation/zation... e.g. organisation/organization

c) Some words such as garbage (AM) vs rubbish (BR), lift (BR) vs elevator (AM), make out (AM) vs get off (BR)...

d) A more melodic intonation in British English as well as a more purist attitude towards language. 

e) Etc.

Teaching English for Gifted Students

16/12/16. 1st Activity

What is Giftedness?

According to the National Association for Gifted Children, 

“Gifted individuals are those who demonstrate outstanding levels of aptitude (defined as an exceptional ability to reason and learn) or competence (documented performance or achievement in top 10% or rarer) in one or more domains. Domains include any structured area of activity with its own symbol system (e.g., mathematics, music, language) and/or set of sensorimotor skills (e.g., painting, dance, sports).”

Source: National Association for Gifted Children

Myths about Gifted Students!

"Gifted children are elitist"                                   "Gifted students will do fine on their own"

      "Gifted students obtain good marks"                              "They can succeed without help"

                                     
                                       "They naturally want to be social isolates"             

               "Their parents are very passionate"                                                  

                             

                                                                       " They will become eminent adults"

                             

Student diversity

It is needed a school of quality : Equitable and inclusive school for everyone.
Teacher´s work:
     - They have the obligation to detect the giftedness (the tests start at the age of 6). 
     - They have to promote excellence and facilitate the educational resources which allow student´s knowledge to arrive as far as possible. 

Problems

Lack of motivation                                                      non-existent capacity of effort

Low productivity                                                         fear of failure

Dropout                                                                      zero tolerance to frustration

Solitude                                                                      negative "Pygmalion effect"

low self-esteem                                                          bullying

rebelliousness                                                            concealment of talent

Influential factors in the development

    Motivation               creativity                   environment                     emotional measure

What calls our attention is that they are very curious, their behaviour is hyperactive, the kind of questions they ask, their interests and their grades. 

Intervention strategies 

          Ordinary: grouping, enrichment and curricular adaptations.
          Extraordinary: acceleration
   
          Measurements: the content to teach, how to evaluate and how adapt homework

2nd Activity

There are a great number of activites that will encourage gifted students:

· Compact the curriculum and provide enrichment activities

· Make the curriculum student-centered

· Try to maximize your students’ potential by expecting them to do their best.

· Teach interactively

·  Provide opportunities for gifted children to interact with other gifted children across grade levels and schools through competitions or collaborative projects

·  Involve students in academic contests.

·  Allow gifted children to create and publish a class newspaper to distribute

·  Provide plenty of opportunities for gifted children and average children to engage in social activities

Recommendations for teachers

Projects for gifted students

09/12/2016

It is 9th of December in the morning. 

We are shown a funny video which as the title says, shows the importance of being bilingual. This video is a wonderful metaphor of the importance of learning languages, since as the video perfectly shows, knowing a language can "save us from many situations" (literally and metaphorically).

    After that, we are shown a power point presentation titled Learning languages to live. This title is a perfect definition of all the members of this group. Why? Because languages are our passion, WE ARE ALL IN LOVE WITH LANGUAGES. ♡

    First we started with a warm up quiz to show the importance of English nowadays which is a global language. And after that, we started a discussion about global languages:

- Which factors do you think that make a language to be 'global'?     

    · A high number of speakers.

    · Economic and political powers.

- What could be a definition of Global language?

A widely learnt and spoken language, that is, a language spoken and learnt by a large number of people as a second language. And also a language which is used by international organizations.

- How does David Crystal defines Global language?

According to David Crystal, "a language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country. This role will be most obvious in countries where large numbers of the people speak it as a first language - in the case of English, this would mean the USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, several Caribbean countries, and a scattering of other territories."

    Then, we watched a video about David Crystal as well and we had to answer some questions:

- Do we need to teach English as a "global" language to learners? Yes, because there's a wide variety of non-standard variations and if not, they would think that the only English they are going to encounter is the British standard English that they have learnt in the classroom. How can we do it? By means of teaching comprehension (listening and reading comprehension).

- Should we focus on the receptive skills? Why/why not? Yes, we should focus on listening and reading because of the non-standard variations we willl find in the street or in written sources such as newspapers, journals and Internet websites, therefore, the more the student realizes that most people in the world don't speak RP, don't speak general American, but they speak different accents, the better.

    Finally, we got involved on a debate on:

THE ROLE OF ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE

English is a very important language because it can help us to communicate in almost any part of the world. It is spoken almost everywehere, so it is a tool which allow us to communicate everywhere. Therefore, it is a lingua franca that in a way unites us all in this global world as well as it is a tool of social cohesion.

Moreover, it does not only allow us to communicate with people from all over the world, but it can also be used as a means to denounce injustices from the world and it is the dominant language in the sciences and research in scientific fields, so that it can be accessible to everyone.

However, despite the importance of this global language, we MUST NOT forget minorized languages which "are not that important", but we NEED TO PROTECT THEM and make use of these languages so that they do not disappear.

Our first collaborative project consisted on researching on the most influential linguistic theories that have influenced Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Thus, the classroom was divided into eight groups so as to cover as many linguists as possible. In groups, we had to look for information about a given linguist which included their nationality, preceding and following linguists, main influences, some linguistic hypotheses and the application of their findings into the classroom. With respect to the latter, this was probably the most enriching element of this project as it provided us with lots of ideas to put into practice everything that these relevant linguists suggested. In this way, despite seeming a rather theoretical project at first sight, it had some practical interesting applications that will contribute to our development as EFL teachers. 

THE PROJECT PROCESS: a collaborative approach. 

- Choice of linguist: in our case, Vygotsky. 

Presenting our project.

- Distribution of the job into main parts: historical background + preceding theorist (Borja); main theories: zone of proximal development (Lourdes) and the relationship between language and thought (Laura); implications in EFL teaching and applications in the classroom (Patricia and Verónica).

- Putting all together, reviewing each other's part followed by a collaborative discussion to come up with an ultimate version. 

- Designing the PPT that is to be used for the presentation. 

- Presenting it to our peers, peer assess other groups as well as being peer assessed. 








Having dealt with Vygotsky's sociacultural theory in this project, it is rather convenient to talk about the important role of collaboration in education. This is so, because Vygotsky considered that social interaction was the main element triggering the cognitive development of an individual. This translated to the classroom implies the implementation of collaborative work both between teachers and learners. 

Collaborative learning supports the idea that knowledge is a social construct and that in order to acquire and construct that knowledge, social interaction is essential. For this approach to succeed, students should work in pairs or groups and the layout of the classroom should be in a way that facilitates this interaction. 

Studies have proved the numerous advantages of collaboration in education, which include that it:

- Implies the development of higher-order thinking skills as well as leadership and oral communicative competences. 

- Boosts the self-esteem of the student and encourages them to be independent and responsible of their own learning. 

- Prepares for real life social interaction and fosters solving problems skills. 

- Significantly decreases academic underachievement. 










Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) is of the most influential linguists. He was born in present-day Belarus and remained unknown for some decades until the end of the Cold War, when his work was rediscovered. He is considered to be the founder of the sociocultural theory. 

His main preceding linguist is Piaget. Despite both emphasising the importance of social interaction in the process of cognitive development, there are some differences in the way they approach this. The main differences are rather self-explanatory and can be found in the following table: 

The implications of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory in the classroom are various and of incredible interest. His findings suggest that the educational system should promote collaborative work since according to his theory of the zone of proximal development, there are things that students can learn by themselves and other things they can only learn by interacting with their peers. Thus, by providing plenty of opportunities of collaborative work, we are ensuring that our students are reaching their whole academic potential. 

Furthermore, Vygotsky advocates for the scaffolding of knowledge. Translating this to the classroom, this entails that the needs of all our students should be catered for and that activities and content should be scaffolded, that is to say, they should be of increasing difficulty but also with increasing extra support. The idea is that all students acquire the same competences by offering enough individualised support.