Authentic Materials and Tasks as Mediators to Develop EFL Students’ Intercultural Competence

This article reports on a study carried out in a foreign language course at a private Colombian university. Its purpose was to identify the role of authentic materials and tasks, based on cultural topics, in the development of intercultural competence in third-level English students. The pedagogica...

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Main Author: Alix Norely Bernal Pinzón
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Asociación Colombiana de Profesores de Ingles 2020-01-01
Series:HOW
Subjects:
Online Access:http://howjournalcolombia.org/index.php/how/article/view/515
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author Alix Norely Bernal Pinzón
author_facet Alix Norely Bernal Pinzón
author_sort Alix Norely Bernal Pinzón
collection DOAJ
description This article reports on a study carried out in a foreign language course at a private Colombian university. Its purpose was to identify the role of authentic materials and tasks, based on cultural topics, in the development of intercultural competence in third-level English students. The pedagogical implementation of the activities was designed under criteria proposed by Cortazzi and Jin (1999) to evaluate the material with cultural content. In regard to intercultural competence, Byram’s (2002) dimension of intercultural communicative competence was the support for planning and implementing the tasks. In this qualitative action research study, two surveys, one interview, and teacher field notes were used to collect data. Findings indicate that students were able to understand interculturality, to show respect for other cultures, and to demonstrate interest in getting to know other societies. Likewise, the students reported their willingness to be open to discussing topics related to cultural aspects.
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spelling doaj.art-f4def475dec849b7a864bc36948ebe112024-03-30T09:39:42ZengAsociación Colombiana de Profesores de InglesHOW0120-59272020-01-01271Authentic Materials and Tasks as Mediators to Develop EFL Students’ Intercultural CompetenceAlix Norely Bernal Pinzón0Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia This article reports on a study carried out in a foreign language course at a private Colombian university. Its purpose was to identify the role of authentic materials and tasks, based on cultural topics, in the development of intercultural competence in third-level English students. The pedagogical implementation of the activities was designed under criteria proposed by Cortazzi and Jin (1999) to evaluate the material with cultural content. In regard to intercultural competence, Byram’s (2002) dimension of intercultural communicative competence was the support for planning and implementing the tasks. In this qualitative action research study, two surveys, one interview, and teacher field notes were used to collect data. Findings indicate that students were able to understand interculturality, to show respect for other cultures, and to demonstrate interest in getting to know other societies. Likewise, the students reported their willingness to be open to discussing topics related to cultural aspects. http://howjournalcolombia.org/index.php/how/article/view/515authentic materialsintercultural competenceauthentic taskscultural content
spellingShingle Alix Norely Bernal Pinzón
Authentic Materials and Tasks as Mediators to Develop EFL Students’ Intercultural Competence
HOW
authentic materials
intercultural competence
authentic tasks
cultural content
title Authentic Materials and Tasks as Mediators to Develop EFL Students’ Intercultural Competence
title_full Authentic Materials and Tasks as Mediators to Develop EFL Students’ Intercultural Competence
title_fullStr Authentic Materials and Tasks as Mediators to Develop EFL Students’ Intercultural Competence
title_full_unstemmed Authentic Materials and Tasks as Mediators to Develop EFL Students’ Intercultural Competence
title_short Authentic Materials and Tasks as Mediators to Develop EFL Students’ Intercultural Competence
title_sort authentic materials and tasks as mediators to develop efl students intercultural competence
topic authentic materials
intercultural competence
authentic tasks
cultural content
url http://howjournalcolombia.org/index.php/how/article/view/515
work_keys_str_mv AT alixnorelybernalpinzon authenticmaterialsandtasksasmediatorstodevelopeflstudentsinterculturalcompetence