Intercultural Competence and Communication Skills
What is Intercultural Competence?
Intercultural competence is the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately with people of other cultures. Intercultural competence is also called “cross-cultural competence” In conclusion it is a balance, intuitively adapted, among four parts: -Knowledge (about other cultures and other people’s behaviors).-Empathy (understanding the feelings and needs of other people).-Self-confidence (knowledge of one’s own desires, strengths, weaknesses, and emotional stability).-Cultural identity (knowledge of one’s own culture)
UNIT2.Casual/extensive listening vs. Focussed/intensive listening
In real life there are two ways in which we often listen:-Casual listening (extensive): sometimes we listen with no particular purpose in mind, and often without much concentration. (listen the radio)—-Focussed listening (intensive): we listening for a particular purpose, to find information we need to know. In these situations we listen more closely and we listen for the most important points or for particular information. (listen someone explaining something)
Processing strategies involved in listening
The processing strategies involved in listening are similar to those employed in reading, as they are decoding skills. Those processing strategies, as with reading, can be: –Bottom-up strategies: – Text based-The listener relies on the language in the message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning.
(Listening for specific details) –Top-down strategies: – Listener based;-The listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language. This background help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next. (Listening for the main idea).
Make a list of the main listening skills
THE LITERAL LEVEL (literal identification)
Phonological
Control of the phonological system to discriminate sounds.
Syntactic
Recognition of grammatical structures.
Lexical
Recognize the meaning of words sentences.
Other skills
Comprehension of something general (global comprehension)
THE INFERENTIAL LEVEL (related to the comprehension of the text)
Inferential
-inferring meaning, -guessing meaning-speaker´s attitude-deducing meaning-predicting what the speaker will say next.
Textual
Making connections between the parts of the text:-recognising discourse markers -recognising cohesive devices-recognizing different styles CRITICAL LEVEL Making assumptions, drawing conclusions, making evaluations. CREATIVE LEVEL -Handling verbal and non-verbal communication strategies-Identifying conversation fillers, hesitations and discard them. UNIT3In comparing spoken and written language, what differences does interaction add? –
Speaking is interactively co-constructed which expects of the speaker a broader range of skills to build meaning than in written discourse. -Continuous meaning co-construction: Native speakers as well as L2 (second language) speakers are involved—while interacting—to produce meaningful exchanges on an ongoing or continuous basis. But in writing, meaning is established through a determined or fixed wording. -Use of repair strategies: In speaking, self-repairs are frequent. In writing, the writers have enough time to decide what to write and what to omit.
What is speaking?
Speaking is a productive skill. It involves constructing a message, communicating the message, and interacting with others. Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information. Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experience, the physical environment, and the purpose for speaking (Cunningham, 1999)
Speaking skills
We can summarise the skills and knowledge involved in the following way:-
Linguistic competence:
using grammar structures accurately; selecting vocabulary that is understandable and appropriate for the audience, the topic being discussed, and the setting in which the speech act occurs Sociolinguistic competence:
assessing characteristics of the target audience, including shared knowledge or shared points of reference, status and power relations of participants, interest levels, or differences in perspectives.
Strategic competence:
applying strategies to enhance comprehensibility.
Discourse competence:
interconnecting utterances to form a meaningful text.