Hallo meine Lieblinge!

It’s been a little tamall  since I spoke to you last but hopefully you remember what we talked about in the last blog. Carrying on from that, I want to talk a bit more about intercultural communicative competence or ICC (I can’t hack all these abbreviations). Is ICC an important part of learning a foreign language? This is something I’ve been thinking about recently as this January I’ll be going to Germany on co-op to teach for 8 months (eeek) and I’ve been asked by the organisation I’m working for to do some preparation on what I will be teaching. After a quick blog search I stumbled across a great anecdote about miscommunication among cultures that succinctly illustrates the importance of ICC alongside L2 language acquisition.

Now, the objective assessment of ICC is a controversial and tricky topic to navigate. However the general academic consensus seems to be that it is in fact possible to assess. That said, there is no “one size fits all”. Jing Zheng suggests that before ICC can be assessed the exact contents of the specific assessment must be clarified. He uses students as an example remarking that most students acquire ICC on campus. Unfortunately in universities:

“Culture testing has traditionally measured the scattered factual knowledge of culture, rather than insights or awareness of the essence of a culture.” (Zheng, 2014, pg. 74)

Although I wholeheartedly agree with this statement (Not every German culture class needs to be premised with their involvement in WW2). I do think efforts are being made through culturally immersive programmes like international Co-op and Erasmus to right this wrong. When it comes to future employability  I know that as an aspiring  German translator I will definitely need to have a bit of ICC up my sleeve. Particularly in Germany the issue of refugee integration often stems from language and cultural barriers and very often it’s simply miscommunication.

The key to ICC is also somewhat reflective. To be truly competent in intercultural communication one must first be fluent (excuse le pun) in their own culture:

“sensitivity to and awareness of one’s own (L1) culture are the lenses through which other cultures are understood, interpreted and communicated with.” (Piasecka, 2011, pg. 26)

I personally think I have benefited greatly from the incorporation of ICC in my L2 language courses. But what do you think? Is ICC an important part of your language learning career? If possible, how do you assess competence? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

Slán go fóill,

Saoirse x

Arabski, J. and Wojtaszek, A. eds., 2011. Aspects of culture in second language acquisition and foreign language learning. Springer Science & Business Media.

Zheng, J., 2014. Assessing intercultural communicative competence in college English teaching. International Journal of English Language Teaching, 1(2), p.73.