Naslov
Foreigners but not strangers: Developing tertiary students’ cross-cultural awareness through wiki-based collaborative e-tivities

Autori
Kovačić, Andreja

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, stručni

Skup
4th ENIEDA (European Network for Intercultural Education Activities) Conference on Linguistic & Intercultural Education Negotiating and constructing European identities across languages and cultures

Mjesto i datum
Vršac, Srbija, 29.09.2011. - 01.10.2011

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Nije recenziran

Ključne riječi
intercultural communicative competence; Business English; Web 2.0; wiki

Sažetak
Owing to the developments in EU language policy and the internationalization of its academic and business domain, cross-cultural awareness and multilingualism have been recognized as assets when effective communication practices in a globalized environment are concerned. The construct of communicative competence has thus been expanded to include intercultural communicative competence as its critical constituent. The realization that intercultural encounters occur in communicative interactions has brought to attention the multiple roles of language as a vehicle of 1) defining and expressing one’s own cultural identity, 2) acquiring the knowledge, skills and beliefs required for interaction with speakers from other cultures and 3) negotiating one’s own cultural identity. All these processes are inherent to global citizens participating in the growing mobility arena. In this context, foreign language instruction can benefit largely from implementation of information and communication technologies. In particular, Web 2.0 tools and services (wikis, blogs, podcasts, social networking tools etc.), which enable language learners to generate their own content and share it with other users, are a convenient means of developing both language and intercultural skills. This equally applies to tasks that imply actual (virtual) communication with speakers from other cultures and those aimed at sensitizing non-native speakers for such interactions. In the project described in this paper students of an undergraduate Business English course were involved in online collaborative writing activities (e-tivities) aimed at providing cross-cultural comparison following the criteria and descriptions of cultures proposed by Lewis (2006). In this intensive reading and writing activity, using note taking, summarizing, paraphrasing and synthesizing, students gradually expanded their articles by comparing and contrasting values, concepts, communication patterns and ways of empathizing with persons from given countries. Eventual changes in students’ perception of their own (i.e. Croatian) culture between the initial and the final stage of the activity were also recorded.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filologija

POVEZANOST RADA