CULTURAL AWARENESS AND INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES

As we review the latest approaches to the teaching of languages (communicative, action-oriented, task-based language learning, experiential learning) we would like to discuss an often neglected aspect in language teaching and learning: cultural and intercultural awareness. In this paper, we describe salient features of culture (high, popular, mass, professional, family and religious) as a social construct in the anthropological sense (Hall, 1966, 1981) and argue that communicating in a foreign language must include intercultural competence. We challenge the common approach that solely considers the teaching of culture as a set of historical facts or as an inventory of a country's national accomplishments (i.e. in literature, architecture, visual arts, etc.) that can often lead to shaping stereotypes. We then present our own taxonomy of cultural identity areas (family unit, social network, beliefs, education, and national space), and demonstrate how these can be applied in a heterogeneous classroom environment. As we highlight the different components of intercultural communicative competence (linguistic competence, sociolinguistic competence, discursive competence and intercultural competence) we also emphasize the critical role that non-verbal language plays in intercultural communication. Our objective is to propose several practical activities where we use students' own cultural experience in order to have them engage in enriching intercultural exchanges which ultimately lead them to better understand the Other.