Durham E-Theses Developing Intercultural Competence in English Language Teachers: Towards Building Intercultural Language Education in Colombia PENA-DIX, BEATRIZ,MARIA How to cite: PENA-DIX, BEATRIZ,MARIA (2018) Developing Intercultural Competence in English Language Teachers: Towards Building Intercultural Language Education in Colombia, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12619/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Abstract Developing Intercultural Competence in English Language Teachers: Towards Building Intercultural Language Education in Colombia Beatriz Peña Dix This research is a qualitative exploratory, constructivist study that aims to investigate Colombian (public sector) English language teachers’ existing or prospective intercultural communicative competence (ICC) to understand their teaching profiles and then to be able to build upon them. To achieve my aims, teachers’ perspectives on culture and interculturality are explored based on the underpinning assumption that there is a need to transform language education in Colombia and move forward from the «cultural turn» to the «intercultural turn». Within this vision of language teaching, teachers can become, in a near future, intercultural mediators who enlarge the objectives of contemporary language teaching to build Third Spaces for dialogue and negotiation through English. This study is motivated by one main research question: how do Colombian English language teachers’ current practices, beliefs, and professional self-concepts relate to an envisaged profile of the intercultural English language teacher? This question is embedded in the research aim of providing a comprehensive understanding of current English language teaching in Colombia, including teachers’ experiences and perspectives on culture and interculturality. While exploring the literature on ICC, insight was gained into how the teaching of languages becomes a natural scenario to develop ICC and the transformed role of the language teacher as an agent of change and pedagogical progress in transnational and global contexts (Crozet, 2017; Guilherme, 2002, 2007; Porto & Byram, 2015; Risager, 2000, 2007; Sercu et al., 1 2005). The empirical findings show that teachers feel positively disposed to intercultural competence English language teaching (IELT), but their approaches to culture are mainly essentialist and nationalist, based on communicative language teaching (CLT) approaches. Despite efforts and infrequent demonstrations of IELT, their profile does not meet yet the expectations pertaining to the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are desirable for IELT. However, they have a positive disposition to advance towards IELT. Based on these findings, a tripartite model and a statement of philosophy were proposed to help English language teachers move forward towards ICC. Finally, this investigation provides valuable insights into the status quo of ICC and ELT in Colombia and has practical implications for ELT education programmes, teachers and policy makers who are interested in reanalysing ELT in Colombia. 2 Developing Intercultural Competence in English Language Teachers: Towards Building Intercultural Language Education in Colombia By Beatriz Peña Dix In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctorate in Education School of Education January 2018 3 Table of Contents Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………… 1 Title page…………………………………………………………………………………... 3 Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………...4 List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………….10 List of Figures ……………………………………………………………………………. 11 Abbreviations ……………………………………………………………………………...12 Declaration…………………………………………………………………………………13 Statement of Copyright…………………………………………………………………….14 Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………..15 Dedication………………………………………………………………………………….17 Chapter 1. Introduction. Towards intercultural English language teaching in Colombia: Challenging roles and tasks in the English language classroom………….18 1.1.Key assumptions underlying this research…………………………………………….19 1.2.Gauging the feasibility of the study……………………………………………………21 1.3.The context of the study……………………………………………………………….23 1.4.Suggestions from other international research………………………………………...25 1.5.Colombia entering post-conflict times………………………………………………...25 1.6.The research objectives………………………………………………………………..27 1.7. The research questions………………………………………………………………..28 1.8. Definition of key terms……………………………………………………………….29 1.8.1. Culture………………………………………………………………………….29 1.8.2. Interculturality………………………………………………………………….30 1.8.3. Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in English language teaching……………………………………………………...30 1.8.4. Cultural awareness (CA) and Critical cultural awareness (CCA)……………...31 1.8.5. Intercultural citizenship ………………………………………………………..32 1.9.Organization of the study……………………………………………………………...33 4 Chapter 2. Teaching English in Colombia: Language policies and research on culture and intercultural language teaching…………..………….…35 2.1.Colombia’s linguistic situation: An overview……………………………..………….35 2.2.Understanding language educational policies in Colombia…………………………. 40 2.3.English language teaching as a national agenda…………………………………… 41 2.3.1. The English Language Syllabus, 1982-1990 (Programa de Inglés)………… 42 2.3.2. The COFE Project, 1991-1997 (Proyecto COFE)……………………...…… 43 2.3.3. The General Education Law or Law 115 of 1994 (Ley General de Educación)……………………………………………………… 44 2.3.4. Curricular Guidelines for Foreign Languages (Lineamientos Curriculares Lenguas Extranjeras, 1999)………………………. 41 2.3.5. The National Bilingual Colombia Programme (Plan Nacional de Bilingúismo (PNB), Colombia Bilingüe)…………………….. 45 2.3.6. Project for Strengthening Foreign Language Competency Development (Proyecto de Fortalecimiento al Desarrollo de Competencias en Lenguas Extranjeras, PFDCLE)………………...………………………………. 48 2.3.7. National English Language Programme (Programa Nacional de Inglés, 2015-2025)………………………………….… 49 2.4.Influence of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in Colombia………… 50 2.5.Developing language teacher education that fosters reflection and criticality……… 52 2.6.The Colombian National Ministry of Education (MEN) and language and culture teaching…………………………………………………………………...…………. 54 2.7.The Colombian experience: local research on developing intercultural competence in Colombia……………………,……………………………………………………. 55 2.8.Concluding the chapter………………………………………………………………..58 Chapter 3. Literature review: The Cultural and intercultural dimensions in English language teaching ………………………………………………………………61 3.1.Reflections on culture and ELT……………………………………………………….61 3.2.Approaching definitions of culture…………………………………………………… 63 3.3.The inextricable relationship between culture-and-language 5 Teaching…………………………………………………………………………….. 65 3.4.Culture teaching approaches…………………………………………………………. 67 3.4.1. The traditional paradigm……………………………………………………… 69 3.4.2. The culture studies paradigm…………………………………………………. 69 3.4.3. The culture as practices paradigm……………………………………………. 70 3.5.Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC): A brief background and implications for ELT………………………………………..71 3.5.1 Some history in a nutshell ……………………………………………………...72 3.5.2. Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) vis-à-vis language teaching…………………………………………………………………….. 75 3.6.Preconditions to achieve intercultural perspectives in ELT………………………….. 76 3.6.1. Active construction……………………………………………………………. 77 3.6.2. Making connections…………………………………………………………… 77 3.6.3. Social interaction………………………………………………………………. 78 3.6.4. Responsibility…………………………………………………………………. 78 3.6.5. Reflection……………………………………………………………………... 79 3.7.Critical Cultural Awareness (CCA)………………………………………………….. 82 3.8.ICC language teaching pedagogies and the intercultural language teacher…………. 84 3.8.1. ICC language teaching pedagogies…………………………………………… 84 3.8.2. The intercultural language teacher…………………………………………….. 87 3.9.Research on ICC language teachers and teaching……………………………………. 91 3.9.1. On pre-service and in-service teachers’ cultural and intercultural awareness ………………………………………………………….. 92 3.9.2. ICC in preservice education and practicum abroad………………………….... 93 3.9.3. Research into in-service teachers’ understandings of culture and the intercultural………………………………………………………………. 94 3.10. Concluding the chapter………………………………………………………….... 96 Chapter 4. Methodological approach ………………………………………………… 98 4.1. The research framework……………………………………………………………. 98 4.2.The choice of qualitative research (QR)…………………………………………….. 100 6 4.3.The overall research perspective …………………………………………………….. 102 4.4.The nature of research questions…………………………………………………….. 102 4.5.Methods of data collection…………………………………………………………… 103 4.5.1. The on-line written questionnaire……………………………………………… 103 4.5.2.