ICIS Newsletter - February 2020 (Plain Text Version)
|
||
|
In this issue: |
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Sharon Tjaden-Glass, Sinclair Community College, Dayton, Ohio, USA
ICIS Community, Although intercultural communicative competence (ICC) has emerged as an in-demand soft skill for employability, a lack of research persists regarding the development of ICC in both teachers and students in EFL settings. What theoretical frameworks can guide teachers in their ICC development? What strategies can EFL teachers and students use to continue to develop their ICC? Although these are useful questions to consider when understanding the development of ICC, I think it’s important to embed all of these questions in the larger context of globalization. What are the stories of EFL teachers who, as they struggle with the development of their own ICC, feel compelled to help their students develop their ICC? In this issue of InterCom, we present two feature articles from the EFL context. The first article, coauthored by Thao Nguyen from Vietnam National University and Tung Vu from the University at Albany, SUNY, reports on the results of a study of Vietnamese teacher education students who applied Kolb’s experiential learning framework to their classroom teaching, noting how this framework facilitated the development of students’ ICC in addition to increased self-confidence. In a separate article, Tung Vu shares some findings from a separate case study on the development of ICC in a Vietnamese EFL teacher of young learners. Vu’s case study sheds light onto the particular struggles and complexities of teachers of young learners in Vietnam, as well as the role that teacher agency plays in their professional development. What we see in this issue of InterCom is that intercultural learning can place learners into vulnerable spaces as they consider intersections of cultural ambiguity and difference. For those in an EFL setting, that vulnerability increases as communication occurs in a foreign language, which adds additional complexities to the development of ICC. Intercultural learning is messy business. But I believe that those who enjoy the work of intercultural learning recognize the beauty of this messiness and ambiguity. We revel in discovering a new way to see something familiar. Sometimes, dare I say, we even enjoy being wrong! Those who do intercultural work thrive on curiosity and embrace the questions. As we enter into a new year and a new decade, I hope that you find that thing that piques your curiosity and drives you deeper into intercultural learning. Happy New Year!
Sharon Tjaden-Glass, MA TESOL, is an instructional media designer for the Division of eLearning at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, USA. Previously, she taught ESL in U.S. higher education, where she first became interested in developing intercultural communication programs for her international students. Her current research interests include the intersection of intercultural communication and listening, instructional design, and OER. |
|