Developing Students’ Intercultural Communicative Competence For Academic Mobility Purposes

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of developing students’ intercultural communicative competence for intercultural exchanging programs which are a natural feature of global education and a necessary experience for a future professional. The article reveals the idea of academic mobility and discusses its tasks and challenges in general and in Irkutsk State Agrarian University named after A.A. Ezhevsky in particular. It proves that for efficient participating in international exchange programs students should obtain a certain degree of intercultural communicative competence. Comparative analysis of this competence with the relating phenomena showed that it has a complex characteristic which enables students to interact successfully with the representatives from the culture of a target language. The structure of intercultural communicative competence has been specified with particular criteria. Each criterion has been identified by certain descriptors so as to assess students’ level of intercultural communicative competence. Some difficulties of developing students’ intercultural communicative competence for academic mobility purposes have been pointed out, namely, writing a CV and a letter of motivation. A teaching technique for training certain intercultural students’ skills for academic mobility has been designed and tested. The technique consists of four subsequent steps (motivational, educational, practical (independent) and correctional) and proved to be effective.

Keywords: Academic mobilityforeign language acquisitionintercultural communicative competenceintercultural skills descriptorsteaching techniqueTOEFL

Introduction

Science and education being open and international by nature require constant collaboration with knowledge and practices exchange between scholars and professionals all over the world. Globalization processes facilitated communication between countries on scientific bases, and students got an opportunity to easily spend an academic year abroad or participate in short-term seminars and summer schools. The aim of academic mobility is binary. First of all, it is a necessity of introducing multistep credits/modules educational system and unifying state educational standards with the European ones (in the frames of Bologna Process). Secondly, it is a possibility to improve the quality of higher education by exchanging experience and getting broader opportunities beyond state boarders (Bogoslovsky & Pisareva, 2007). Such a practice ensures students’ greater demand as future professionals at the labour market and increases their chances to get a better job.

The development of international relationship with the universities of Europe and Asia is very dynamic at Irkutsk State Agrarian University. The University cooperates with the Universities of Life Sciences of Poznan and Warsaw (Poland), University of Lion (France), Agricultural University of Inner Mongolia (China), Chonbuk National University (Korea), Agricultural University of Madrid (Spain). Students have an opportunity to study at these universities during 1-2 semesters due to correlated curricula. Besides, the university offers an international educational bachelor and master’s programs of double degree together with the Henan University of Animal Husbandry and Economics (Zhengzhou, China). As a result of these training programs students obtain two diplomas simultaneously. Moreover, there are numerous possibilities for the students to get a two-week summer internship in Finland, Denmark, Great Britain, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Kazakhstan and other countries. The University also takes part in Erasmus Academic Mobility Program.

Despite of such ample opportunities and awareness of their importance for one’s personal and professional development, not so many students are ready to participate in international educational programs. One of the major obstacles preventing them from such an experience is lack of necessary language proficiency (communicative competence). For a student of non-linguistic specialization it takes time and great effort to acquire a foreign language at a certain level. However, even having mastered it well enough for studying purposes, the program applicants have particular difficulties living abroad, as they constantly have to solve everyday situations, work in an international team, be tolerant, think critically, interpret and relate, and analyse facts and events from the perspectives of two cultures: one’s own and the target one. It is obvious that teaching students a foreign language for academic mobility purposes, it is more appropriate and advisable to develop their intercultural communicative competence, which is a much broader and deeper phenomenon than just a communicative competence.

The article describes one of the techniques of developing students’ intercultural communicative competence with the aim of effective participation in academic mobility.

Problem Statement

Academic mobility can be regarded as one of the forms of education, connected with the students’ migration to another educational establishment for a limited period of time. Eventually, a student has to return to his home university to complete his education and get a diploma.

According to the classification, academic mobility can be differentiated by its entities – students and teachers; by its objects – studies, research, advanced training and professional development, experience exchange; by forms – real and virtual; by extent – regional, state, international (Bogoslovsky & Pisareva, 2007).

Bologna Declaration points out two types of academic mobility: vertical and horizontal. Vertical mobility assumes student’s completing education and getting a degree in a foreign university, whereas horizontal mobility means studying there within a limited period of time (a term or an academic year) (Bologna declaration, 1999). Academic mobility being a key point of Bologna Declaration is rather difficult and challenging for implementing (Gafurova & Tverdohlebova, 2010).

Scientists (Bogoslovsky & Pisareva, 2007; Martynenko & Zhukova, 2008) identify a number of tasks to be solved for organizing academic mobility at a certain establishment of higher education:

• creating and developing of grant system for students and teachers;

• improving of organizational mechanisms and documental support of academic mobility;

• providing students with comprehensive information about educational possibilities in other countries and universities;

• stimulating and motivating learning foreign languages, international relations and communication;

• integrating educational programs and study schedules with foreign universities;

• developing and maintaining cooperation with other universities;

• creating infrastructure for foreign students’ support;

• creating necessary social and residential conditions;

• working out inner system of academic mobility assessment;

• organizing regular competition for participating in educational exchange programs.

Most of the above mentioned tasks are being successfully fulfilled at Irkutsk State Agrarian University. Practice of developing academic mobility at the university showed that the major problem is connected with students’ language proficiency, as probably in most specialized non-linguistic universities.

To complete an international program a student should know not only a foreign language (communicative competence), but also the cultural background of the country in which he/she is going to study. Moreover, a student should obtain particular knowledge and skills (apart from communicative ones) to be an effective intercultural communicator. Thus, it is more appropriate to talk about intercultural communicative competence.

Research Questions

In various ELT literature we find the references to such notions as communicative competence, intercultural competence and intercultural communicative competence. Each of these phenomena is regarded as a goal of a foreign language acquisition.

Analysis shows that communicative competence implies certain language and socio-cultural knowledge and skills letting the individual to act properly in communicative situations (Safonova, 1996). The principle task of the communicants in this case is to create a common meaning of the on-going event (Yelizarova, 2001). Beside language proficiency, this competence is aimed at acquaintance with some socio-cultural background. Thus, the student becomes oriented at the target culture and perceives the facts as granted. He/she does not always realize and take into account the fact that his/her own view of the world is sometimes drastically different from that he/she deals with.

Effective intercultural communication requires initiating of the process of “dialogue of cultures” in students’ minds (Bakhtin, 1986). In this case it is more appropriate to talk about intercultural competence, which assumes the ability of an individual to conduct intercultural communication taking into consideration the fact of differences between the two cultures (Byram, 1997; Fantini & Tirmizi, 2006; Skopinskaya, 2009). The authors also emphasize developing such qualities of the communicators as tolerance, openness, friendliness, strategic of interaction and feedback, leaving behind language proficiency, however (Ruiz & Spínola, 2019). It was Byram (1997), who noted that intercultural competence refers to people’s “ability to interact in their own language with the people from another country and culture,” while intercultural communicative competence takes into account language teaching and focuses on “the ability to interact with people from another country and culture in a foreign language” (Byram, 1997, p.71). Thus, teaching language and culture for academic mobility purposes we should aim at intercultural communicative competence in the case of which a student will be able to build relationships while speaking in the foreign language; communicate effectively, taking into consideration his own and the other person’s viewpoint and needs; mediate interactions between people of different backgrounds, and strive to continue developing communicative skills.

In recent years, scientists have taken numerous attempts to merge the two competences – communicative and intercultural ones – and introduce a new phenomenon of intercultural communicative competence. This competence, in general sense, “implies the ability to realize, understand and interpret the two world views – one’s own and that of a target language – in their interconnection and on this foundation to execute the process of intercultural communication” (Intercultural Language Education: Lingua-didactic Strategies and Tactics, 2014, p. 69). The individual in this case acts as a mediator between the two cultures (Sercu, 2004).

Purpose of the Study

There is a large amount of approaches and analyses of the intercultural communicative competence structure (Alptekin, 2002; Byram, 1997; Chen & Starosta, 1996; Kim, 1995; Sercu, 2004; Spitzberg, 2000). Most of the authors distinguish three aspects / criteria in the structure: cognitive, motivational and behavioural.

Cognitive aspect includes skills and abilities to realize common and specific in the two world views through comparing and contrasting, comprehending and embracing the discrepancies in the norms, values, behavioural patterns during intercultural communication. At the same time a student should be able to reveal intercultural universals and analyse them.

Motivational aspect characterizes acquisition of human values of a multicultural society, respect to intercultural mismatches, and tolerant and non- stereotypical attitude to the representatives of the other culture and motivation to intercultural interaction.

Behavioural aspect involves ability to understand the significance of intercultural contradictions, and to form non-categorical opinions; high level of cognitive independence and activity, self-satisfaction, frequency and quality of applying of the knowledge in practice.

We have worked out a number of descriptors for each criterion with the help of which we can assess the level of students’ intercultural communicative competence development (Table 01 ).

The level of intercultural communicative competence development can be considered optimal if 100-91% indicators for each criterion are revealed. 90-75% indicate a satisfactory level, 74-60% – elementary. Below 60% the level is very low (unsatisfactory).

The purpose of our research is to design a teaching technique that will enable a teacher to affect these spheres.

Research Methods

Observations and discussions with the students preparing to participate in academic mobility let us make some very important conclusions about the process of language teaching with the aim of developing students’ intercultural communicative competence for academic mobility purposes. The first thing each applicant should do is prove his/her level of language proficiency passing one of international English language tests (IELTS, TOEFL, KET, PET, FCE, CAE, CPE, BEC, etc.) and getting a corresponding certificate. Due to a very limited number of a foreign language training hours on the curricular, students have to attend various additional language courses and learn a foreign language independently. As a result, most of them pass the exam quite successfully. The next stage is to compose Curriculum Vitae (CV) or a resume and a portfolio which will include awards, certificates, and prizes in studies, science and sports. Beside this, a student has to write a motivation letter, describing research and professional projects he/she participated in, working experience and other achievements relevant to the Program and proving the fact that he/she is the best candidate. The CV and motivation letter are considered some of the most difficult and crucial documents to submit, as they require the knowledge of a particular strategic and tactics for their composition.

Findings

The technique of teaching students to write a CV and a motivation letter consists of four steps: motivational, educational, practical (independent) and correctional. Below, each step is carefully described form the standpoint of must-be-achieved goals, ways of teacher-student / student-student interactions, methods used and tasks and exercises fulfilled.

Conclusion

In this paper, the value of intercultural communicative competence for academic mobility has been studied. The paper addressed the question of why the acquisition of intercultural communicative competence is important in higher education, especially for student exchanges. It defined intercultural communicative competence and provided analytical information about its various components. The implications of this information for assessment purposes are also discussed. Finally, a technique of developing students’ intercultural communicative competence has been developed. The described technique has been tested on the students of Economics at Irkutsk State Agrarian University. The results show essential rise in students’ motivation to studying the English language, growth of their confidence and assertiveness, wish to analyse and find out cultural peculiarities and contrasts and consider them when working in an intercultural team.

References

1. Alptekin, C. (2002). Towards Intercultural Communicative Competence in ELT. ELT Journal, 56(1), 57-64.
2. Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). Jestetika jazykovogo tvorchestva [Esthetics of Language Creativity]. Iskusstvo.
3. Bogoslovsky, V. I., & Pisareva, S. A. (2007). Razvitie akademicheskoj mobil'nosti v uslovijah mnogourovnevogo vuzovskogo obrazovanija: metodicheskie rekomendacii dlja prepodavatelej [Development of Academic Mobility in a Multilevel University Education: Methodological Recommendations for Teachers]. RSPU.
4. Bologna declaration. (1999). Joint Declaration of the European Ministers of education Convented in Bologna on the 19th of June 1999. http://www.bologna-bergen2005. no/Docs/00Main_doc/990719bologna_declaration
5. Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. Multilingual Matters.
6. Chen, G. M., & Starosta, W. J. (1996). Intercultural communication competence: A synthesis. Communication yearbook, 19(1), 353-383.
7. Fantini, A. E., & Tirmizi, A. (2006). Exploring and Assessing Intercultural Competence. World Learning Publications. Paper 1. http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/worldlearning_publications/1
8. Gafurova, N. V., & Tverdohlebova, T. V. (2010). Possibilities of the Realization of the Bolognia’s Process. Siberian Pedagogical Journal, 8, 25-32.
9. Intercultural Language Education: Lingua-didactic Strategies and Tactics. (2014). Strategic Guidelines of Intercultural Linguistic Education. Tareva, E. G.
10. Kim, Y. Y. (1995). Cross-Cultural Adaptation. An Integrative Theory. In R. L. Wiseman (Ed.). Intercultural Communication Theory (pp. 170-194). Sage.
11. Martynenko, O. O., & Zhukova, N. V. (2008). Academic Mobility in Russia: Nowadays Problems and Nearest Prospects (A Viewpoint from a Regional Institution of Higher Education). Integration of Education, 2, 3-10.
12. Ruiz, M. R., & Spínola, N. O. V. (2019). Improving the Intercultural Communicative Competence in English language students. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 52-64. http://www.immi.se/intercultural/nr49/ruiz.html
13. Safonova, V. V. (1996). Learning Languages for Intercultural Communication in the Context of Dialogue of Cultures and Civilizations. Istoki.
14. Sercu, L. (2004). Assessing intercultural competence: a framework for systematic test development in foreign language education and beyond. Intercultural Education, 15(1), 73-89.
15. Skopinskaya, L. (2009). Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence: Test Construction Issues. Synergies Pays Riverains de la Baltique, 6, 135-144.
16. Spitzberg, B. H. (2000). A Model of Intercultural Communication Competence. Intercultural Communication: A Reader, 9, 375-387.
17. Yelizarova, G. V. (2001). Developing Students Intercultural Competence in the Process of Teaching Foreign Language Communication (Doctoral Dissetation). VAK Dissertations and Theses database. (RGB OD, 71:02-13/200-0).