Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning Anthony J. Liddicoat and Angela Scarino A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication This edition first published 2013 © 2013 Anthony J. Liddicoat and Angela Scarino Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell. Registered Office John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of Anthony J. 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Cover image: © Nicholas Eveleigh / Alamy Cover design by Nicki Averill Design Set in 11/13pt Dante by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India 1 2013 Contents Acknowledgments viii 1 Introduction 1 Language, Culture, and Language Education 1 The Concept of Method 2 Critiques of Method 3 Moving beyond Methods 4 About this Book 7 2 Languages, Cultures, and the Intercultural 11 Understanding Language 11 Language as a structural system 12 Language as a communicative system 13 Language as social practice 13 Concluding comments 16 Understanding Culture 17 Cultures as national attributes 18 Cultures as societal norms 19 Cultures as symbolic systems 20 Cultures as practices 20 Culture for language teaching and learning 21 The Intercultural: Understanding Language, Culture, and their Relationship 25 3 Second Language Acquisition, Language Learning, and Language Learning within an Intercultural Orientation 31 Introduction: Two Families of Theories 31 Key Understandings of SLA and Language Learning within Diverse Families of Theories 33 A Brief History of the Development of Theories of Language Learning 35 The Acquisition and Participation Metaphors 40 vi Contents Expanding Learning: Recognizing the Role of Interpretation in “Moving Between” Linguistic and Cultural Systems 43 Conclusion 45 4 Language Teaching and Learning as an Intercultural Endeavor 47 Introduction 47 The intercultural in language learning 48 The Learner as Focus 51 Language learner as learner 51 Language learner as language user 52 The learner as person 54 The learner as focus: Concluding comments 56 Principles for Teaching and Learning Languages from an Intercultural Perspective 56 Practices for Intercultural Learning 59 Practices in learning 59 Conclusion 61 5 Designing Classroom Interactions and Experiences 63 Expanding “Tasks” to Focus on Interaction and Experiences 64 The Nature of Interaction 66 The Experiential Dimension 66 Considerations in Developing Interactions and Experiences 68 Examples 70 Example 1: Year 10 Chinese – examining translation 70 Example 2: Year 11 and 12 Indonesian: Developing intra- and intercultural understanding 75 Implications for Teachers and Students as Participants in Language Learning 81 6 Resources for Intercultural Language Learning 83 Textbooks as Resources for Intercultural Learning 84 Moving Beyond Textbooks 91 The Authenticity of the Resource 93 Literature as an Authentic Resource 95 Communities as Resources 97 The Classroom as a Resource 99 Selecting and Evaluating Resources 101 Adapting Resources 102 Using Resources Critically 103 Relating Resources to Each Other 104 Concluding Comments 105 7 Technologies in Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning 107 Introduction 107 Information Technologies and Intercultural Learning 108 Social Technologies and Intercultural Learning 111 Developing the Potential of Technologies for Intercultural Learning 118 Contents vii Technology as information resource 119 Technology as content contextualization 119 Technology as communication tool 119 Technology as a construction kit 120 Technology as visualization and manipulation 120 Summary 120 8 Assessing Intercultural Language Learning 123 Contextualizing Assessment and Language Learning 124 The tension between traditional and alternate assessment paradigms 124 The institutional character of assessment 127 Understanding the Process of Assessment 128 Conceptualizing 129 Eliciting 131 Judging and validating 137 The need for experimentation 140 9 Programming and Planning 143 Programs and Programming in a Traditional Perspective 143 Conceptualizing Content for Language Teaching and Learning 144 Structural understandings of content 144 Communicative understandings of content 145 Content-based language teaching 147 Concept-based understandings of content 148 Content for intercultural language teaching and learning 148 Planning for Complexity 150 Planning for Conceptual Learning 152 Long-Term and Short-Term Planning 156 Planning whole of learning 157 Planning a course 159 Planning a unit of work 159 Planning a lesson 165 The Place of Context in Planning Programs 165 Conclusion 166 10 Evaluating Language Programs 167 Nature and Purpose of Program Evaluation 168 Paradigms that Shape Program Evaluation 169 The Process of Evaluation 171 The Principles for Teaching and Learning Languages and Implications for Evaluation 174 Evaluation and Teacher Professional Learning 177 Conclusion 177 References 179 Index 195 Acknowledgments The authors and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book: Pearson Education Australia for the material from Ecco Uno! on p. 87 and Katzensprung 1 on p. 88; Cengage Australia for the material from Tapis Volant 2 on p. 90; Owen Franken for permission to publish the photographs from Tapis Volant 2 on p. 90; Plantu for the cartoon on p. 92; Rod Ellis for permission to publish the table on p. 34; Robert O’Dowd for the table on p. 113; the Australian Government for permission to reproduce material from Language Teaching and Learning: A Guide; and Stephanie Andrews, Melissa Gould-Drakeley, Marnie Foster, Catherine Moore, Jill Bignell, and their students for permission to publish examples of their work. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book. 1 Introduction Language, Culture, and Language Education The study of an additional language has long been understood as a way of coming to understand another culture and its people. As a goal of language teaching, understanding others has been prominent in educational rationales in different ways, but has often been in the background of educational practice. As the processes of globalization, increased mobility, and technological development have come to shape ways of living and commu- nicating, there has been a growing recognition of the fundamental importance of inte- grating intercultural capabilities into language teaching and learning. One of the challenges facing this integration has been to move from recognition of the need for an intercultural focus in language education to the development of practice. Early in the development of intercultural language teaching and learning, Zarate (1986) argued that the teaching and learning of culture in language education had been problematic because sufficient attention had not been given to considering what is to be taught and how. One important theme to emerge early in consideration of what and how to teach was the need to integrate language and culture in an interculturally oriented view of language education (e.g. Byram, 1991). This theme in turn has led to a rethinking of what is involved in the teaching of a second or foreign language. Kramsch (2008) argues that in the teaching of any language the focus is not only on teaching a linguistic code but also on teaching meaning. The focus on meaning involves important shifts in understanding the fundamental concerns of language teaching and learning, which do not replace traditional foci, but add broadly to them. In particular it means engaging with broader ways of understanding the fundamental concepts involved in the theory and practice of language education: language, culture, and learning, and the rela- tionships between them. To teach meaning is to actively engage with the processes involved in making and interpreting meaning. These go well beyond processes of comprehension of Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning, First Edition. Anthony J. Liddicoat and Angela Scarino. © 2013 Anthony J. Liddicoat and Angela Scarino. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2 Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning forms and structures, to consider meanings as subjective and intersubjective, growing out of not only the language in which meaning is communicated but also from the memories, emotions, perceptions, experiences, and life worlds of those who participate in the com- munication. Moreover, teaching meaning involves recognizing that as part of learning any additional language the learner inevitably brings more than one language and culture to the processes of meaning-making and interpretation. That is, there are inherent inter- cultural processes in language learning in which meanings are made and interpreted across and between languages and cultures and in which the linguistic and cultural repertoires of each individual exist in complex interrelationships. Languages and cultures in language learning are not independent of each other. Phipps and Gonzalez (2004) argue that: “The student of a language other than their own can be given an extraordinary opportunity to enter the languaging of others, to understand the complexity of the experience of others to enrich their own. To enter other cultures is to re-enter one’s own” (p. 3; emphasis in original). That is, language learning, because languages and cultures are always in complex interrela- tionship, is both an act of learning about the other and about the self and of the relationships which exist between self and other. In this book, we present a view of language education that is a complex engagement with linguistic and cultural diversity through the possibilities that a focus on meaning affords the processes of teaching and learning. We see language teaching as an art that is developed over time and which remains in a constant state of development. It is a t houghtful, mindful activity that is not reducible to prescriptions for practice. For us then, it is impor- tant to think beyond an understanding of teaching practice as method to consider how the complexity of lived experiences of linguistic and cultural diversity shape both the focus of language teaching and learning and the processes through which it happens in classrooms – what we call a perspective. To frame this idea it is useful to consider the concept of method and how it has been understood in language teaching. The Concept of Method “Method” has been a well-established construct in language education and has a long history as an organizing concept in the field. In fact, the recent history of language teaching can be understood as a series of innovations in method, and a number of established named methods have come to be recognized (e.g. Grammar–Translation Method, Audiolingual Method, Communicative Language Teaching). The distinctions between methods and the comparative advantages of different methods have become a key element in debates around language teaching. In one of the earliest formulations of method, Anthony (1963) makes a basic hierarchical distinction in his model of language teaching between approaches, methods, and tech- niques. For Anthony, an approach is an overarching category involving a set of assumptions dealing with the nature of language teaching and learning and focuses on describing the nature of the material to be taught and learned. Methods are a middle-level construct that outlines the “orderly presentation of language material” (p. 65), given a particular approach. A technique is the most local level: techniques are the particular activities or strategies Introduction 3 adopted in the classroom to accomplish a particular learning goal. In Anthony’s model, methods were viewed as procedural accounts of teaching and learning through which broader, philosophical accounts of languages teaching and learning could be enacted in classrooms. It is a point of intersection between theory and practice. In distinguishing levels of organization in language education, Anthony did not elaborate the nature of method as a construct, as Richards and Rodgers (1986) have noted. Beginning with Anthony’s model, Richards and Rodgers argue that an approach is theoretical in its orientation and becomes a method, in Anthony’s sense, through a process of design that maps theory onto practice to create an instructional system. That is, method relates to instruction and is a systematized way of implementing language teaching and learning in classrooms. This system comprises objectives for learning, principles for selecting and organ- izing content, preferred learning tasks and activities, and roles for teachers, learners, and materials. In their model, Richards and Rodgers propose three tiers, labeled approach, design, and procedures, which essentially replicate Anthony’s model and uses “method” to refer to a superordinate category that encapsulates all three levels. In this case, method becomes a tight fusing of broader philosophy and classroom practice. Richards and Rodgers’ model effectively removes some of the inherent diversity Anthony articulated in his understanding of method. For Anthony, approach was the prime organizing mechanism for language teaching, with any approach effectively gener- ating multiple methods that could translate the theoretical positions of the approach into practice. For Richards and Rodgers, however, methods are not a collection of diverse ways of enacting theoretical understandings – they are unities of thought and practice that organize how languages are taught and learned. Most conventional discussions of method emphasize the unity of method as the superordinate category, and method itself has come to be seen as a statement of orthodox practice to be adopted in order to achieve effective language learning. Critiques of Method Although the idea of method has been powerful in understanding, describing, and evaluat- ing teaching practice, it has not been without criticism. In particular, in spite of research on method in language teaching, the idea of method itself has often been accepted as either self-evident or as little more than a convenient heuristic for talking about ways of doing language teaching and learning. The lack of attention to the idea of method led Clarke (1983, p. 109) to maintain that “the term ‘method’ is a label without substance.” He noted that “method is so vague that it means just about anything that anyone wants it to mean, with the result that, in fact, it means nothing” (p. 111). In many cases, the term has been used in quite different ways and some fluidity is found in the meanings attributed to the term. The critique of method, however, has not simply focused on the vagueness of the term, but also on its utility for understanding how language teaching and learning actually happen. Stern (1983) has suggested that there is a “fundamental weakness” in the concept of method and that the complexities of language teaching could not be reduced to methods alone. He argued that the focus on the comparative benefits of methods had become