1. Introduction
2. Framework of reference
3. Three dimensions of ICC
4. Methods of assessment
5. Steps in assessing ICC 
6. Assessing ICC 
7. Levels of ICC proficiency  
8. Conclusion
9. References

8.1 Limitations

We entered the domain of ICC assessment with cautiousness.  Because culture is a mediating factor that is not easily defined or understood, there can be a large part of subjectivity in its teaching and even more in its assessment. It is like approaching a field of research not well defined. What is culture? What components can be assessed? Is everything to be assessed? There are so many questions that still have to be clarified and have not been addressed yet. We needed a conceptual framework of reference. We based the assessment of ICC on the model developed and validated among 200 young adults (Lussier & al., 2004-2007).  It could be used as guidelines to educators, curriculum developers, textbook editors, teachers in the classroom and evaluators.

Furthermore, world-wide communication and the new development of technologies have created a "transnational culture". We already know that people use words differently in different countries. There are more and more misunderstandings of the meaning of the same word. For that reason, assessors have to be cautious and rely more on techniques such as self-evaluation and evaluation based on progress, continuous and formative evaluation.

Moreover, when assessing ICC, on the basis of any textbook or even with Mirrors and windows, there is always the possibility that some teachers will have been teaching within the book and others beyond the book. This is a crucial issue.

8.2 Survey instruments to assess teachers' competence in ICC

We know that language teachers are conveyors of cultural representations from various information sources: syllabuses, teaching materials, selection of texts and their own experiences. But do they use such sources to develop intercultural competence on the part of the learners? The teachers are the social actors as well as instructors, but do they see themselves as cultural mediators? Although all language teachers have some intercultural experiences, are they aware of them? Although they interpret intercultural communication situations in their classes, do they take into account the development of a new identity that the learner is confronted with? Do they adopt strategies to exploit, negotiate or even provide solutions when there are tensions or misunderstandings between groups of learners?

We also know that by its very nature, the teaching and learning of a modern foreign language embodies the presence of another culture and contact with otherness in the development of cultural representations. Therefore, should it be as important to aim to enlarge the opening window onto other cultures as to develop linguistic competence? What is the teacher's role in pursuing such aims? Have they been trained for it? Can they play this role? Do they want to do it? What place do they give to the teaching of ICC?

To obtain answers to such questions we need to question teachers. We can conduct interviews but they are time consuming when we want to question a large number of teachers. Most of the time a written questionnaire is the most efficient instrument to gather more information in a short period of time.

We present two different survey instruments as guidelines to educators who would like to administer a survey to teachers or other educators involved in language teaching to assess their own ICC under the heading "Our research articles".  Here is a short summary of the aims and contents of the two surveys.

(a) Survey on "Representations of others and other cultures in the context of the initial and ongoing training of teachers". 

Lussier, D. & Urbanicova,V. et al. (2004), in Cultural mediation in language learning and teaching, European Centre for Modern Languages. Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, Chapter 7: 181-214. 

Lussier, D. & Urbanicova,V. et al. (2004). Les représentations des Autres et des autres cultures dans le contexte de la formation initiale et continue des enseignants. In Médiation culturelle et didactique des langues. Centre européen pour les langues vivantes. Éditions du Conseil de l’Europe, Strasbourg, Chapitre 7 : 191-223.

The survey was part of a research project funded by the European Centre for Modern Languages and the Council of Europe. The aim was to find out if teachers are able, given their training and cultural experiences, to be social actors in the development of intercultural competence, to act as cultural mediators or even attribute such a role to themselves in the way that they teach modern languages.

It had been decided that a written questionnaire would be the most efficient instrument to gather all the information that was needed from different countries and in a short period of time. To develop such a questionnaire we needed a conceptual framework taking into consideration needs and interests of the different teachers and trainers involved. We held brainstorming sessions with them to voice their expectations and needs. The questions turned on the initial and ongoing training of teachers and the cultural representations teachers are able to develop through their plurilingual and pluricultural experiences.

The framework chosen as a working basis (Lussier, 1997) comprises three major dimensions. The first one is to obtain a knowledge profile in terms of training, competence and actual experiences. The second gives a behavioural profile adapted by teachers in their teaching approaches and methods, learning activities and learning strategies. The last one aims at the attitudinal profile of teachers taking into consideration their understanding and acceptance of other cultures and of their role as helping learners to negotiate and mediate conflict-ridden situations.  
  
   Table 1: Conceptual framework / Profile of teachers' cultural 
    representations and competences in teaching a foreign language

With this framework in mind, teacher trainers were able to produce questions/items. None of them were gratuitous, that is, every question was function of the conceptual aspects to be investigated. All were congruent and relevant to the framework.

From the survey among Slovak teachers working in standard secondary level classes it was possible to sum up the linguistic and cultural practices in the following way: for example, they travel to get to know other cultures, half of them have travelled to a foreign country for at least a fortnight. They generally read foreign newspapers and watch television. We were able to make two observations: 1) the teachers appear to be already open to the teaching of culture and the development of intercultural competence; and 2) they are unable to say, in terms of pedagogical procedures and coherent logic, what means need to be given greater importance in order to embrace all the dimensions of the interacting concepts of ICC.

(b) Survey on "Ways of assessing ICC in the Russian
Federation" Ksenia Golubina, Moscow State Linguistic
University, Russia

The survey, as a written questionnaire, looked at the ways of assessing intercultural communicative competence in the Russian Federation. The questionnaire was administered to modern language teachers and teacher trainers at 33 educational establishments.  The aim was to identify guidelines, instruments and tools currently used to assess ICC at secondary and tertiary levels of language instruction. The results reflected a wide range of professional opinions, personal reflections as well as pluricultural and plurilinguistic experiences. It gave a new input in terms of initial education and ongoing training to teachers and teacher trainers at various levels of instruction. (cf. copy of the written questionnaire and results are under the heading "Our research Articles/Golubina)

8.3 Websites, books and dictionaries and Encyclopaedias

Educators who would like to get more information can also consult different sources of reference such as websites, books and dictionaries/encyclopaedias. For example,

(a) Websites:

• Portfolio of Intercultural Competence / INCA project on intercultural   competence assessment
  edited by the Council of Europe, Education and Culture,
  Leonardo da Vinci, European  training for the UK. It provides employers and employees with a definitive record of progress.
  References: INCA Assessor Manual
• http://wikipedia.org/wiki/
  Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikipedia Foundation Inc..  You can search for any definitions by adding the word you are looking for after at the end of the website. For example, if you want information on «tolerance» you click:  http://wikipedia.org/wiki/tolerance.
• http://www.richmond.edu/~terry/middlebury/testgloss.html
  This website provides definitions in reference to the terminology used in educational assessment.
• xenoreference.ca
  It contains a bibliography which includes more than 2500 references. These are presented by authors in alphabetical order. They are also classified according to the following categories: discourse analysis, cultural awareness, intercultural competencies, cultural studies, intercultural communication, ethnicity, identity, language and culture, cultural mediation, social psychology and cultural representations. It is linked to the research project «Cultural representations, intercultural communication and ethnic identity funded by the Ministry of Heritage Canada (2000-2003) and The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2003-2007) and  irected by Denise Lussier, Ph.D. McGill University. It is dedicated to graduate students, educators and researchers involved in these fields of interest or research. 

(b) Books

• Common European Framework of Reference for Languages:
  Learning, teaching, assessment
  edited by the Council of Europe (2001). United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press: The last chapter, chapter 9, is on assessment. The concepts of validity, reliability and feasibility are defined. There are items on levels of proficiency, types of assessment, etc.
  Appendix A gives the steps to develop proficiency descriptors and illustrative scales of descriptors.

c) Dictionaries/Encyclopaedias

• Routledge Encyclopedia of Language teaching and learning edited by Michael Byram (2004). Routledge Editor, London.
  It includes definitions of culture-awareness, cultural studies, intercultural communication, intercultural competence, intercultural training, task-based teaching and assessment
• Dictionnaire de l’altérité et des relations interculturelles edited by Gilles Ferréol and Guy Jucquois (2003). Paris: Armand Collin. It includes definitions and descriptions in French of terms such as: alterity, citizenship, cultural identities, integration, interculture, multiculturalism, cultural pluralism, social representations, stereotypes….)

next chapter: 9. References