In this last issue of InterCom before the TESOL convention, we’d like to offer you a little preview to pique your interest in some great ICIS-sponsored events, namely the Academic Session and InterSection panels. Check out the abstracts below for more details.

Academic Session: "TESOL as Intercultural Communication"

Thursday, March 27, 1–3:45 pm, Room PB 256

TESOL has focused on language for communicative competence and perhaps subsumed culture under linguistic considerations. However, in the context of global contact among diverse communities today, some scholars feel that intercultural competence should be the dominant paradigm within which language concerns should be addressed. How can we re-envision theories and practice in TESOL to involve culture as a central concern? How would our pedagogical practices change in relation to the emerging realizations of culture in the context of globalization?

Carrying Experience and Identity Into New Cultural Scenarios
Adrian Holliday, Canterbury Christ Church University, England

Intercultural competence has its roots in the existing linguistic and cultural competence we all bring from our home environments. We need to help students explore and make use of this experience—to carry their cultural identities into new domains with English and make it their own. We must also work with them to put aside the prejudices that come from long-standing us/them perceptions of English and culture.

The Predicament of Culture in Neoliberal Multiculturalism
Ryuko Kubota, University of British Columbia, Canada

The traditional notion of culture as primordial and bounded has been challenged by postmodern anti-essentialism and hybridity. While this problematization has been recognized in TESOL, these postmodern ideas now resonate with the ideology of neoliberal multiculturalism, posing a predicament. A pluralist understanding of culture requires critical awareness of this complicity.

What Is Intercultural Competence?
Gayle Nelson, Georgia State University, United States

The native speaker paradigm has dominated work in TESOL and applied linguistics for several decades, often under the umbrella of communicative competence. Researchers and English language teachers focused on the development of native speaker norms and fluency so students could effectively interact with native speakers of English. As English became an international language with nonnative speakers of English interacting with each other much more frequently than with native English speakers, the communicative competence paradigm was called into question. In looking for a theory or concept that represents the current reality of English language use, some have proposed intercultural competence. The problem is that there is no consensus in the field about what we mean by intercultural competence. Dell Hymes provided a foundation for communication competence. As yet, we have no similar consensus about intercultural competence. Byram has laid out one model. In this presentation I look at theories and definitions of intercultural competence from the fields of intercultural communication, psychology, education, and applied linguistics and attempt to relate them to pedagogical practices. This discussion is informed by views of culture that do not equate culture with nation state.

Intercultural Competence in the EFL Classroom: What Do I Focus On?
Don Snow, Shantou University English Language Center, China

While there is growing consensus that English language teachers should try to enhance students’ intercultural competence, there is less agreement on what this actually means for English classes. Intercultural competence is a very broad concept that includes literally hundreds of specific skills, attitudes, and types of knowledge, far more than even the most zealous teacher could include in an English course which, obviously, also has other goals to address. One key question faced by English language teachers is: Which aspects of intercultural competence should I focus on in the limited time I have available? Drawn from the experience of writing a textbook designed to teach both English and intercultural competence, this presentation immodestly offers a limited list of intercultural skills and habits which English courses can and should help students build, focused primarily around the basic communication act of interpreting the messages sent by others. The presentation is followed by discussion, and probably a little controversy.

Researching and Facilitating Intercultural Competence: Views from Intercultural Rhetoric
Ulla Connor & Ana Traversa, Indiana University – Purdue University, Indianapolis, United States

This presentation will offer a theoretical and practical argument for preserving culture at the core of the conversations surrounding research on the dimensions of spoken and written discourse and their applications to intercultural communication in instructional and professional contexts. We explore the notion of culture in TESOL by presenting three responses to current critiques of culture: a strong defense of culture, recommendations for an alternative construction and application of culture, and partial reformulations of culture informed by intercultural rhetoric. Finally, we will illustrate pedagogical applications of the reformulations of culture in TESOL practice, more specifically in ESP contexts.

InterSection: "Building Intercultural Competence in the Classroom: Equipping Young Learners"

Friday, March 28, 9:30–11:15 am, Room OB 201

ICIS is excited to serve as the primary Interest Section in coordination with both Applied Linguistics and Elementary Education Interest Sections to bring convention attendees an informative, diverse array of perspectives on the topic of intercultural competence. The distinguished panel will address questions such as: What do we mean by intercultural competence? Why is it important in education? How can we help students to develop this ability? And how does this affect identity in young learners, families, and communities?

We are honored to have Adrian Holliday, Joe McVeigh, Thomas Nakayama, and Bonny Norton each bringing unique strengths and experiences to the panel. Dr. Holliday of Canterbury Christ Church University will share from his own experience and recent article on how we can take advantage of learners existing cultural and linguistic backgrounds and empower them to draw from such experiences to inform English language teaching and learning. He says, “from an early age we all engage with and negotiate cultural difference within the small culture formation of everyday life. This experience needs to be researched and employed.”

Dr. Nakayama, of Northeastern University, will further challenge us to reconsider intercultural communication and bring it from, where he views it, being commonly situated at the margins of language and shift our focus instead to “the potential contributions of intercultural communication and its focus on intercultural competence to language issues.” As he points out, “intercultural communication scholars have problematized the notion of intercultural competence and this reconfiguration may have important implications in education.”

Joe McVeigh, of Middlebury College, and Dr. Bonny Norton, of the University of British Columbia, will move the discussion to research and practice with young learners and implications and practical applications for teachers and young learners in regions throughout the world. As research advisor on the African Storybook Project, Bonny “will discuss the ways in which digital storytelling in the mother tongue and English can help young learners in African classrooms strengthen their intercultural identities across local and global borders. Data is drawn from the innovative African Storybook Project, which seeks to promote the multilingual literacy of children across sub-Saharan Africa through the development and use of open-access digital stories.” Joe sums up the contributions and sets our expectations for a practical, “user-friendly, lively” panel where we can “explore culture together.”

Remember, this is your IS and we are counting on seeing many of you at the InterSection and our Academic Session! And for those of you that want even more togetherness (and why not?!), we will have our annual meeting and social on Thursday night. Times and locations for these and other ICIS TESOL events are in the sidebar of this newsletter. Stay tuned and stay connected for all the latest plans and details.