Thao Nguyen, University of Foreign and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam Tung Vu, University at Albany-SUNY, USA

According to Byram and Fleming (1998), intercultural communicative competence is defined as communicators’ capabilities to interact effectively and appropriately with people of culturally diverse backgrounds. The aforementioned problems in the Vietnamese context call for the implementation of more efficient approaches that will enable effective language teaching and learning, thus increasing learners’ language competence. The introduction of Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning has enabled teachers to raise student awareness on authentic acquisition and dynamic instruction. However, there exist a limited number of Vietnamese studies in relation to experiential learning for future teachers. This case study will report on the effect of experiential learning on future teachers’ perceptions of intercultural communication in EFL classrooms, which is important because teachers can emancipate and enact their instruction effectively according to learners’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds as well as learning resources.

The Conceptual Framework

Experiential learning, according to Kolb (1984), can be understood as a process to develop learners’ knowledge in which experience is central to inspire learner development. The model aims at giving learners opportunities to engage their intrinsic motivation and educators ways to develop teaching methodologies in response to their students’ needs (Marion, 2001). In this regard, it can be understood that the mediating experience offers room for learners to collaborate and negotiate meanings by engaging with authentic communities of practice.

According to Kolb (1984), the four major stages of the learning cycle are as follows:

● Concrete Experience: If learners feel able to understand and become aware of the connection between their learning and social experience, they become potentially motivated to engage with class activities.

● Reflective Observation: Once they are interested in actively engaging with activities, they are willing to reflect on past experiences to help them engage with the new experiences.

● Abstract Conceptualization: After they have a growing understanding of new knowledge which is in line with their past experiences, they start to form a new concept of how to make such knowledge in real contexts according to their own ways.

● Active Experimentation: They exercise their knowledge gradually until it becomes their own source of knowledge. It appears that they are confident with such new knowledge and continue with a new process of knowledge acquisition.

In Vietnamese EFL classes, communication seems to account for a minor goal because test-driven knowledge is dominant, even in teacher education programs. Rather, teacher educators should be evaluated on whether they can work with culturally diverse students and respond to their varying capabilities. In this research, we argue that Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning is an effective instructional paradigm that can reinforce teachers’ perceptions and actualization of how to be engaged in intercultural communication. It is vital that teachers are skilled in effective communication in culturally diverse settings.

We see that intercultural communicative competence can help address one of the reform’s goals. That is, Vietnamese learners are expected to use language effectively in multilingual and multicultural contexts (Le & Barnard, 2019). Referring to Vygotsky’s (1962) stances on how social contexts mediate foreign language learning, learners’ poor communication skills could be attributed to their decontextualized knowledge. In response to Kolb’s (1984) proposal of experiential learning, our case study explores the following question: “How does experiential learning improve Vietnamese English teachers’ perceptions of intercultural communicative competence?”

Methodology

During February and May 2019, we invited 86 intermediate-level first-year EFL teacher education students (TESs) from distinct Vietnamese cultural groups in a Northern Vietnamese university to participate in this study. TESs returned with signed consent forms for voluntary participation. Over 3 months, groups of three to four students were responsible for assigned tasks, which involved weekly class presentation and discussion, monthly poster designs, and noncommercial published works. Our research consisted of qualitative data (researchers’ observation notes, learners’ reflective entries, and nine semi-structured interviews) and quantitative data (5-point Likert questionnaire). However, based on the primary focus on qualitative data, the study was centered on four distinctive areas of social life: food specialties, festivals, travel, and work culture.

Findings and Discussions

In this study, we report on the qualitative data, with Participants 1 to 9 as the nine ordered TESs. Both of us reviewed data sources of our own practice and in turn categorized them into thematic sections, but always open to new insights which were unknown in the prior studies. After we finished our coding process separately, we both concluded that the most common themes comprise culture shock, cultural understanding, cultural knowledge, teaching culture, communicate across cultures, and so on. As we finalized, we decided to present two primary themes, representing participants’ perception and actualization of participating in intercultural communication.

Encouraging TESs' Intercultural Responsibility

Although the presentation workshare allowed TESs to collaborate with each other, it imposed some problems related to cultural responsiveness. The first two phases of the model were obvious. The participants felt and reflected, which aligned with concrete experience and reflective observation, respectively. At first, three of the nine participants experienced culture shock when other members in their group disagreed with the selection of the topic and activities. For example, there was unequal cultural division, leading members from advantaged areas (whose hometowns were in urban communities) to demonstrate more confidence and dominance to take full control of the discussion, while disadvantaged members (whose hometowns were in rural areas) were marginally passive and felt they had no room for personal voices. Some other common problems included unequal workload among members, tardiness, and irresponsibility with group work. Some groups experienced disagreement and serious conflicts in terms of choosing a topic, activities, and workshare, leading to one’s control over the others.

On the other hand, regarding acknowledging “otherness,” some TESs benefited from respectful working habits and mutual understanding. They learned about their friends’ hometowns; local accents; unique features for describing local people (to a certain extent); personal enthusiasm and disciplines; and how to balance work styles, such as the convenience of working online or offline. In the interview, Participant 3 stated that she considered “respected different viewpoints, which is necessary…” and, “why Northern, Middle, Southern Vietnamese taste Phở [a Vietnamese flat-rice-noodle soup made of broth and herbs served with beef or chicken] and Bún Bò Huế [a Vietnamese round-rice-noodle soup made of multi-flavored paste served with beef] differently.” Participant 6 stated that she negotiated knowledge with her peers about how to manage travel-related topics. Additionally, the participant 6’s peers were likely to explore why and how she had changing attitudes toward her peers’ perspectives on “why [her] group mates compared destinations according to budget, weather and individual preferences” (Class observation). Fortunately, she did not tend to see peers from more privileged areas (e.g., high socioeconomic status) as more confident than those from underprivileged areas (e.g., low socioeconomic status) but saw the interaction as an opportunity to understand others better. In this regard, what we find valuable are the ways that Participants 3 and 6 came to think about how to approach and adapt existing knowledge into their project after they observed and reflected. Clearly, they initially considered knowledge as abstract and generalized (for abstract conceptualization), but they later seemed able to contextualize knowledge of food and travel topics.

To recap, TESs increased in their ability to exercise teacher agency to communicate verbally and nonverbally with people from diverse ethnic groups with varying characteristics. According to the 3 final weeks’ field notes, more than two-thirds of participants, instead of demonstrating ethnocentrisms, viewed culture as dynamic and others’ cultures worthy of being discovered. This resulted in reciprocal interaction and mutual support for personal growth.

Serving Up-to-Date Instructional Approaches for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners

Nearly 90% of TESs saw benefits of being presenters, which facilitated their confidence to speak publicly. Through experiential learning, TESs acquired a wealth of linguistic and communicative knowledge. Participant 1 recognized the gaps in his current linguistic and cultural knowledge. He recognized this emerging knowledge through activities on communicative effectiveness via an intercultural communicative approach, which was critically “absent in my last years’ classes or they had” but not critically studied (Observation). To demonstrate, Participants 4 and 8 explored Northern Vietnamese popular festivals and traditional customs, but they had no idea about where these festivals and customs had originally come from and what human values those traditions represent. From observing and reflecting, their knowledge deepened, and the ways they organized their information as real teachers eliminated some cultural misunderstanding.

In terms of skills, TESs learned research skills in addition to public speaking as stated in the first theme. As correlated with our observation notes, they built up their confidence and developed speaking abilities in English and sensitivity toward their interlocutors. Specifically, they appeared competent at connecting researched knowledge and personal skills to present ideas based on personally observed ideas and solving arising problems (e.g. overcoming inconfidence, anxiety, technical issues) while public speaking (e.g. when presenting topics as class activities) . On top of that, five interviewees were able to improve their speaking abilities. As Participant 7 reflected on experiences with his new English traveler, he judged his friends’ daily language use to be easy to understand for his low listening proficiency. This made him more confident to exercise his culturally responsive vocabulary and body language. In addition, Participant 9, as a proficient user of English, strongly recommended reflective practice to other coworkers. She shared that when she is a teacher, she will advise her students to hear more of their own voices as a way to theorize new areas of understanding related to festivals in their local customs. She informed a number of mechanisms in instructional design in which she was able to frame her prospective students’ repertoires and self-efficacy in effective learning. As such, she is in favor of technology that facilitates learner motivation and intercultural engagement. This is well represented as a last phase of Kolb’s (1984) model, which is, “active experimentation - doing,” which resonates with teachers’ sense of model comprehension. As shared by participant 2, other teachers are similarly cognizant of paying more attention to examining students’ understanding and emotional reactions because what defines an effective teacher is their ability to lead a constructive, facilitating, and motivating class .

To recap, all of the TESs shared that Kolb’s (1984) model trained them to become independent thinkers and confident communicators. More importantly, our participating teachers also shared their desire and willingness to assist their future students in having positive experience similar to their learning opportunities as learners in the teacher education program. Our teacher students were supposed to develop cultural knowledge and teaching skills to prepare them for their teaching career. As they reflected on their past learning, they posited that they would have had positive reactions to actively making changes in their teaching practices. Consequently, they intend to transform their future students, so that those students can enjoy learning English in sociocultural environments.

Conclusion

The study demonstrates the application of experiential learning via Kolb’s (1984) framework. It shows that language teacher education can focus more on TESs’ experiences and shift attention to intercultural communication to prepare TESs for cross-cultural communication. Such experience allows TESs to appreciate students’ cultures, create new knowledge, and facilitate their growth of academic and professional skills. These experiences would empower TESs to reflect on becoming change agents for their career prospects. There also exist some limitations to this study, such as a small number of participants. Future research should consider pedagogical approaches in training related to TESs’ intercultural sensitivity and teaching skills for diverse student populations. However, this experiment has generally showed that experiential learning is an effective instructional approach for teacher education.

References

Byram. M., & Fleming, M. (1998). Language learning in intercultural perspective: Approaches through drama and ethnography. Cambridge University Press.

Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice-Hall.

Le, V. C., & Barnard, R. (2019). Building teacher capacity for ELT in Vietnam: Ways forward. In V. C. Le, H. T. M. Nguyen, T. T. M. Nguyen, & R. Barnard (Eds.), Building teacher capacity in English language teaching in Vietnam (pp. 184–196). Routledge.

Marion, T. (2001). Translating learning style theory into university teaching practices: An article based on Kolb’s experiential learning model. Journal of College Reading and Learning, 32(1), 68–85.

Vygotsky, L. (1962). Thought and language. The MIT Press and John Wiley & Sons.

Tung Vu, MA, is a research assistant at the University at Albany - SUNY, USA. He is interested in intercultural communication for teacher education.