Designing Tasks for Developing
Intercultural Competence in the
oral English Classroom
JIN Limin (jinlimin@bfsu.edu.cn)
July 22, 2015 Beijing
Outline

Importance of Intercultural Competence

Components of Intercultural Competence

Intercultural Communication across the
Curriculum: The Case of Oral English
Importance of Intercultural Competence

Survival skill in a globalized world；

Important component in the goals of
undergraduate programs；

Dual tasks of foreign language majors：
Introducing the world to China and
China to the world (the ability to talk
about home culture in L2).
Components of Intercultural Competence
Knowledge：knowledge of cultural differences
and similarities, ethnocentrism, stereotypes
 Skills：communicative competence (linguistic
competence, sociolinguistic competence,
discourse competence), skills of interpreting
and relating, skills of discovering and
interacting, critical cultural awareness, skills
of talking about home culture in L2
 Disposition：openness, curiosity about other
cultures, tolerance for ambiguity, respect for
otherness, behavioral flexibility, empathy

(See Ch. 3 in Spencer-Oatey & Franklin 2010)
Intercultural Communication across the
Curriculum: The Case of Oral English
One course on intercultural
communication is not enough.
 Sporadic encounters with other cultures
through international summer schools
and study abroad programs is not
enough.
 The development of intercultural
competence should be incorporated in
the objectives of all courses when
possible.

Think English: Speaking

Speaking 1：Intercultural Conversations
（《文化之桥》）

Speaking 2：Interpersonal Discussions
（《沟通之道》)

Speaking 3：Public Speeches
（《演讲之法》)

Speaking 4：Topical Debates
（《辩论之术》)
Focus of Each book
1
2
3
4
Communication
skills
Interpersonal：
Conversations
Interpersonal：
Discussions
Theme
Campus life
Interpersonal issues
Public: Speeches Cultural and social issues
Public: Debate
Social and political issues
Goal of language teaching
To help students move from Independent
users (B1, B2) to Proficient users (C1, C2)
 The starting point is B1, the threshold
level

参见《欧洲语言共同参考框架：学习、教学、评
估》（欧洲理事会文化合作教育委员会编，刘
骏、傅荣主译，外研社，2008年）
Objectives for each unit
Three types:

Language and communication skills

Critical thinking skills

Intercultural competence
Intercultural competence：

What: knowledge, skills and disposition.

How: communication in intercultural
contexts (Book 1), reflecting on and
analyzing cultural differences in human
communication (Book 2), presenting and
analyzing issues in mother tongue
culture (Book 3 and Book 4).

NB. The broad sense of intercultural
communication.
Organization of a Unit
Opening paragraph
 Pre-class work
 Starting point

BK
Part I
1 What do you say?
2 Understanding
problems in human
communication
3 Understanding public
speaking
4 Understanding debate
Part II
What do you think?
Solving problems in
human communication
Practicing public
speaking
Practicing debate
Task design:
Task vs. exercises: Focus on meaning
vs. focus on form
 Components of a task: goal (linguistic,
knowledge and skills), input (audio,
visual, reading), context, and activities
 Authenticity: necessity to communicate
and to communicate in the target
language

Necessity to communicate in L2

Information gap, opinion gap and
reasoning gap（Prabhu 1987）

Intercultural contexts
Example 1: Can foreign policies solve
the Chinese problem
Unit 5, Dialog 1, p. 102
After a conversation comparing the
American SAT and Chinese Gaokao
comes the discussion question: Do you
think a test similar to the SAT and the
enrollment policies adopted by American
universities might be applicable in China?
Example 2: Reflecting on the advantages
of intercultural competence
Unit 5， What do you think, p. 110
With the process of globalization and the
increasing need for intercultural
communication, more and more people
around the world nowadays make the
effort to learn at least one foreign
language. What benefits might learning
a foreign language bring to us?
Example 3: Introducing the Chinese culture
Former:
 Informative speech
 Favorite dish (ingredients, cooking process)
Revised：
 Informative speech
 Favorite dish (ingredients, cooking process,
story behind)
 Context：Intercultural
Book 1: Intercultural Conversations

Organization principle: Theme syllabus
Topics related to college students’ life:
meeting new people, orientation program，
management of time, money and study，
societies and clubs, friendship, food and
etiquette, fashion, travelling, etc.
 Structure
of a Unit
 Title：A saying
or an interesting phrase.
Unit 1: A Good Beginning Is Half Done;
Unit 2: Learn the Ropes at Your College;
Unit 3: Time Flies, but You’re the Pilot;
Unit 4: A Penny Saved Is a Penny
Earned
Unit 5: A Different Language is a
Different Vision of Life
 Opening
paragraph：To stimulate
interest in the theme, followed by
specified objectives in three aspects:
- language functions (European Common
Framework of Reference for Languages,
Vantage by van Ek and Trim, 2001)
- critical thinking skills (35 dimensions
for critical thought by Paul, Binker,
Jensen, and Kreklau, 1990)
- intercultural competence
 Pre-class
work: Get the students
prepared for class. Activities: reading,
research, project such as a survey
 Starting point:
Warming-up; Activities:
questionnaire (Unit 3), picture
description, discussion, answer
questions based on audio or visual
materials.
 What
do you say:
Intercultural conversations that tell the
stories of four 1st year students in a
Chinese university: Tony (LI Teng) from
Beijing, Anna（WANG Lingling）from
Suzhou, Mike （Lao Mai）from the US,
and Lucy（Luxi) from Britain. They take
different courses and join different clubs.
They discuss problems and give advice to
each other on various topics.
Activities：from meaning to form, from
observation to use
 Understanding meaning: Listening
comprehension, activities include
answering questions, summary of main
ideas, retelling, gap filling, etc.
 Attention to form: underlining or filling
blanks with expressions for target
functions (Noticing Hypothesis, Schmidt
1990)
 Extension: Role play using the target
functions, discussions, etc.

1.
2.
3.


What do you think?
To promote thinking and discussion
on issues in college life. Unit 3:
Identifying priority
Analyzing pros and cons
Solving the problem
Assignment
Language Bank
Thank you