5.1 Central workshop report

INCORPORATING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION TRAINING IN LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION - ICCinTE
ECML, Graz, October 12-16th 2004
Workshop report, by Ildikó Lázár

Background and rationale

Intercultural communication has often been in the focus of attention in the field of language pedagogy in the last two decades. However, intercultural communication training is still not systematically incorporated in the curriculum of most teacher training programs in Europe. Since it is obviously of great importance to increase intercultural understanding in a multilingual and multicultural world, training teacher educators to incorporate intercultural competence in language teacher education would have a beneficial multiplying effect.

The ICCinTE project builds on previous research and development carried out within the framework of project 1.2.3 of the first medium-term program of the ECML. In fact, it is a continuation of that work in that the subsequent training workshops as well as the planned research and development will be based on the research articles* and the intercultural communication textbook**  produced by the team and the participants of the previous project.

   *Lázár I. (Ed.) (2003) Incorporating Intercultural Communicative 
     Competence  in Language Teacher Education. European
     Centre  for Modern Languages. Council of Europe Publishing 

   **Huber-Kriegler, M., Lázár, I. & Strange, J. (2003) Mirrors and 
     Windows, an intercultural communication textbook. European
     Centre for Modern Languages. Council of Europe Publishing

Description of the workshop

Aims and objectives

The central workshop on incorporating intercultural communication in teacher education was held at the ECML in Graz on October 12-16th 2004. The main aim of the workshop was to set off a cascading process for a more systematic integration of intercultural communicative competence in teacher education. The sessions were designed so that our presentations informed participating teacher educators about the theoretical background of intercultural communicative competence and also gave practical interactive training in developing ICC. In addition, participants were provided with guidelines to conduct research in the fields of materials development and the assessment of intercultural competence. Specific objectives included:

• to promote a cascading process by training teacher educators to incorporate the theory and practice of intercultural communication training in their teaching so they are enabled to hold similar training sessions or courses for colleagues in their home countries;
• to adapt already existing ICC materials (Mirrors and windows) to French for use by French-speaking trainers and teachers, and to develop further teaching materials that promote intercultural learning;
• to survey and classify ICC assessment tasks and develop an assessment booklet/website to supplement Mirrors and windows for users of the textbook.

The central workshop included a number of presentations on the results of project 1.2.3 of the first medium-term program of activities of the ECML, including information on qualitative and quantitative studies on the current role of culture in language teaching as well as an introduction to Mirrors and windows / an intercultural communication textbook. In addition, there was a session on defining key concepts in order to reach a common understanding of the terminology used in the project.. Furthermore, the team held presentations on the possible goals and types of ICC courses, the potentials of materials development and the advantages and difficulties of assessing intercultural competence.

Participants

There were 28 cooperative professionals from 28 European countries participating at the workshop. Nine participants held short presentations on their areas of expertise in ICC:

• Materials evaluation from an intercultural perspective / Liljana Skopinskaja (Estonia)
• Intercultural Activities textbook / Michaela Čaňková (Czech Republic)
• An ICC course at the University of Craiova / Daniel Ivanus (Romania)
• Intercultural courses at Sofia University / Siyka Gergieva (Bulgaria)
• ICC in Greece / Aglaia Galanopulou (Greece)
• ICC in EFL through discourse analysis and conversation practice / Ksenia Golubina (Russia)
• Reflections on languages in an intercultural context / Gerlind Vief-Schmidt (Germany)
• Promoting tolerance of diversity through literature / Veronika Rot Gabrovec (Slovenia)
• ICC and non-fiction texts / Naira Manukyan (Armenia)

After the first two workshop days of theoretical input, the participants formed three networks in order to continue the training, materials writing/adaptation and ICC assessment initiated by the facilitating team. Most sessions on the last three days of the workshop were group sessions according to the participants' areas of expertise and their interests:

Networks

Network 1	Main focus: training
designing and holding intercultural communication workshops (national training events = NTEs) in the participants' home countries;

Network 2	Main focus: teaching materials
adapting the textbook Mirrors and windows to French;writing further intercultural materials, using songs, videos and literature;

Network 3	Main focus: assessment
creating an inventory of assessment tasks to evaluate intercultural competence (to supplement Mirrors and windows).

Preview of the next stages of the project

Seventeen participants opted for holding national training events on ICC in their home countries, 2 volunteered to assist in the adaptation of Mirrors and windows to French, 3 wish to develop further teaching materials and 9 participants committed themselves to creating a collection of appropriate assessment tasks to supplement the above textbook. Some of the participants wish to be involved in the work of several networks. Hopefully the electronic exchange of ideas and sharing of results will help cross-fertilize the work to be carried out by all three networks until we can meet again at national training events or the next network meeting in October 2005.

We would like to thank all our participants for their professional contributions, patience and sense of humor and we are also grateful to the ECML staff and the interpreters for their continuous assistance.

The ICCinTE team: Martina Huber-Kriegler (Austria), Denise Lussier (Canada), Gabriela S. Matei (Romania), Christiane Peck (Germany), Ildikó Lázár (coordinator / Hungary)
 
Attachment to the central workshop report 1

Network 1

Designing and holding National Training Events (ICC workshops) in their home countries before the end of 2005

Tentative plans:

A (series of) short session(s)
Efrosyni Tofaridou / Cyprus
Tuija Anttila / Finland
Milica Bilic-Stefan / Croatia
Marisa Bonanno / Malta

A (series of) one-day workshop(s)
Beate Hilde Lia / Norway
Romualda Liutkuviene / Lithuania
Anastasia Turani / Albania
Blerta Ilijazi / FYR of Macedonia
Carin Soderberg / Sweden

2-day workshops
Gerlind Vief-Schmidt / Germany
Aglaia Galanopoulou / Greece
Patricia von Munchov / France
Anna Grigoriadis / Austria
Naira Manukyan / Armenia
Aina Kačkere / Latvia
Agnes Samu / Hungary
Michaela Čaňková / Czech Republic
Renata Kowalska /  Poland
Anna Hlavnova / Slovakia

Coordination and co-facilitation:
Martina Huber-Kriegler / Austria (for Norway, Lithuania, Albania, Macedonia?)
Gabriela S. Matei / Romania (for Slovakia, Poland, Sweden?)
Ildikó Lázár / Hungary (for the Czech Republic, Latvia, Armenia, Greece?)

Attachment to the central workshop report 2

Network 2a / Adapting Mirrors and windows to French

Proofreading, adapting and editing the French version of Mirrors and windows, an intercultural communication textbook. 

Participants:
Aglaia Galanopoulou / Greece
Efrosyni Tofaridou / Cyprus

Coordinator:
Ildikó Lázár / Hungary

Possible place and date for an editing meeting: Graz, October 14-15th 2005

Network 2b / Additional ICC materials to Mirrors and windows

Target audience: 

1. Teachers  (P /S /T?)
2. Students (via teachers/case studies / photocopiable materials)

Content

• Guidelines on how to use any material available/suitable to implement what M&W have already brought  / from the point of view of the content and methodology (~ follow-up material)
• Case studies/Praktisches Beispiel to show how this has been used in practice (piloted materials)
• Bibliography & Resources

Format

Brochure + CD ROM

Participants:
Marisa Bonanno / Malta
Veronika Rot Gabrovec / Slovenia

Coordinator:
Christiane Peck / Germany

Possible place and date for an editing meeting: Graz, October 14-15th 2005

Attachment to the central workshop report 3

Network 3

Surveying and classifying ICC assessment tasks and developing an assessment booklet/website to supplement Mirrors and windows for users of the textbook

Participants:
Silvia Wiesinger / Austria
Carin Soderberg / Sweden
Guadelupe de la Maya Retamar / Spain
Anne Comerford / UK
Liljana Skopinskaja / Estonia
Ksenia Golubina / Russia
Daniel Ivanus / Romania
Siyka Chavdarova / Bulgaria
Peter Weiss / Iceland

Coordinator:
Denise Lussier / Canada

Questionnaire for surveying ways of assessing ICC in each country to be filled in and sent to Denise Lussier by January 31st 2005.

Possible place and date for a network meeting: Graz, October 14-15th 2005