Korean English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Teachers

Belief on Intercultural Communicative Competence

Hyejin Yoon

Abstract

English is no longer a language only for people who have it as a native language, rather it

is an international language used for communication between people who come from different

cultures. More than other teachers, English teachers should comprehend the nature of

international language, and then help students to acquire intercultural communicative

competence (ICC). This is a qualitative pilot study. I collected data regarding a Korean English

teachers knowledge, skills, and attitudes on ICC. I conducted an interview. The participant is

regarded as an expert at English and culture teaching in Korea. Based on findings, I could decide

that the participants current ICC profileknowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding ICCdoes

not yet meet those envisaged for a foreign language and intercultural competence teacher.

Introduction

English is no longer a language only for people who have English as native language,

rather it is an international language used for communication between people from various

language and cultures. Today, we have close ties with other countries in most areas of human

activity such as politics, economics, society, culture, and education. To successfully cooperate

and communicate one another, language skills have been considered as being essential.
However, one of the serious obstacles is a lack of adequately perceiving communication

partners cultures, which can cause misunderstandings and conflicts. Therefore, teachers

should encourage students to be successful members of the international community, and to

do that, especially in language class, it is necessary to integrate language and culture.

Globalization creates many challenges for teacher education, including the need for

training pre- and in-service language teachers to have intercultural communicative competence

(ICC). To fulfill new tasks in English education, the qualities of foreign language teachers need

to be refreshed and refocused. Zhao (2010) argued that a new generation of teachers is

required, teachers that are able to act as global citizens, understand the global system, and

deliver a globally oriented education (p.429). Also, Levy and Fox (2015) contended that on top

of content knowledge, teachers should show their expertise in culturally pertinent pedagogical

skills and have a language proficiency, understanding linguistic diversity and theories for second

language acquisition. That is, English teachers should comprehend the nature of international

language and help students to acquire ICC.

Moreover, Kramsch (2004) defined a language teacher as a trans-cultural go-between

who can lead more globally oriented language education. In a similar meaning, language

teachers are intercultural mediators who acquired knowledge of how to interact with people

from other cultures (Byram, 1997). As a result, foreign language teachers need to have

pertinent knowledge, skills, and attitudes so as to execute the role of trans-cultural go-

betweens and intercultural mediators. Teacher education organizations should train pre- and

in-service teachers to be competent in communication with heterogeneous people (Sercu,

2006; Byram & Fleming, 1998).

 Justification

The role of learning culture should be extended to support students to perceive the

world more widely. By virtue of culture education, students can experience penetration that

occurs between individuals at the interpersonal level as people from different backgrounds

come together to collaborate in the pursuit of a common goal (Cushner, 2015).

The trend of teaching culture in language classes is reflected in the curriculum of Korean

English teaching. In the 2009 revised the National Curriculum, English was defined as

international language and a part of a toolkit enabling effective communication among people

with different cultural backgrounds and languages. The modified English education curriculum

is meaningful in that it highlights the necessity of culture education in developing

communication strategies, which is distinguished from traditional aspects of education in

Korea. Thus, as Korean education reforms are implemented, it will be important to assess

whether and how Korean English teachers are teaching ICC.

Literature Review

Sercu (2006) investigated foreign language (FL) teachers beliefs on the cultural aspect

of their FL teaching practices and the teaching of intercultural competence. The research

started from the perception that there was a precondition to transform transformed teachers

convictions on IC and alter their teaching practice, and it was diagnosing what teachers knew

about ICC, how they taught ICC and how they reacted to ICC in the present circumstances. The

researcher collected data from 424 teachers from 7 countries. The questionnaire contained
questions regarding participants convictions on ICC and language and culture teaching practice.

Thanks to Sercus efforts, people could perceive FL teachers self-concepts and IC teaching

practices and the relationships between them. Sercu examined whether FL teachers

professional profiles were meeting the formal standards generated in the theoretical literature

regarding the foreign language and intercultural competence teacher. According to the

findings, FL teachers knowledge, skills, and attitude were still insufficient to satisfy the

standard.

Dooly and Villanueva (2006) discussed the role that teacher education can play in

advancing the European Unions objective of raising intercultural awareness through education.

They had a critical approach on the current cultural mix (p. 225) and contended that

European society should show determination to change their attitude toward and skills in living

with their neighbors. For the project, 160 undergraduate student teachers who came from

different countries and cultures were involved, in an 8 weeks intensive course in which a core

topic was intercultural communication. Participants were drawn from primary schools and

each group shared life experience, school practice, and academic work with people who came

from different cultures. Based on findings, the researchers determined that the teacher

trainees demonstrated more open-minded perspectives on diversity and more increased

awareness of the need for developing their own intercultural awareness and communication

skills. Therefore, through study, the authors were able to demonstrate that teacher training

programs would help to shape, construct new understandings held by the future teachers and

to help construct more professionalism in the educational system by facilitating mutual

understanding and respect for other individuals and cultures(p. 237-238).

 Purpose and Research Questions

The purpose of this study is to explore a Korean English teachers cultural professional

profile comparing the specifications devised in theoretical literature with respect to the foreign

language and intercultural competence teacher.

This study seeks answers for the following questions. The general research question was:

Does ICC of Korean English teachers meet the standards suggested by literature?

To be specific, there are the following sub-questions.

1) How can foreign language teachers current knowledge on ICC be characterized?

2) How can foreign language teachers current skills on ICC be characterized?

3) How can foreign language teachers current attitude on ICC be characterized?

Methodology

This is a qualitative pilot study in which I collected information regarding a Korean

English teachers knowledge, skills, and attitude on ICC. I conducted an interview for about 1

and half hour.

Participant

The participant was a female 43 years old. She is teaching 3rd grade students and has

been teaching English for 18 years. She was one of the writers for 3 rd and 5th grades national

English textbooks. In addition, she collaborated in a project for developing the 2009 national
standard of K-12 students English achievement. She was also selected by the Seoul

Metropolitan Office of Education as a mentor and supervisor in teaching English.

She is working for a public school which is associated with UNESCO. The UNESCO

Associated Schools Project Network (ASPnet) refers to UNESCO Associated Schools and it is a

global network. The school in which the participant is teaching has established a cooperative

relationship with other foreign schools. The schools exchange teachers and students to

observe and experience different educational environments and cultures. These exchanges

take place approximately every years. Furthermore, each semester, the school designated two

days as Culture Days, when students can learn about other cultures by wearing the target

cultures traditional costume, making and eating traditional food and attending information

sessions which are held by an employee of the target countrys embassy.

Interview

The intent of the interview was to gather information regarding the ICC of a Korean

English teacher and determine if her ICC met standards. It was one time interview and was

conducted through Skype. The interview lasted almost 80 minutes and was recorded and

transcribed. After the interview, a summary sheet was completed, including an overview of the

main points of the interview, initial thoughts, and questions that arose during the interview.

After the face-to-face interview, I asked following questions via e-mail.

Data Analysis
 After the interview was transcribed, I conducted an open or initial coding for the

interview, an interview summary sheet. I used descriptive coding techniques during the open-

ended coding: topics were knowledge, skills, and attitudes.

Findings

Teachers knowledge

FL teachers should be accustomed to cultures that are related to the foreign language

they teach. Also, they should contact foreign cultures not only frequently but also variously. In

addition, a good understanding of ones own culture and general traits of other cultures is

required for them to help students to recognize and understand similarities and differences

between cultures. Also, teachers need to know stereotypes that students possess and know

how to address these in class. Teachers who have ICC know various ways to select pertinent

learning content, activities and teaching materials.

According to findings, the respondent who taught English thought she was familiar with

the US culture because she continued to contact media such as CNN and Huffington post. She

knew the fact that culture and language should be integrated in class. When I asked about her

belief on the integration culture and language in class, she gave a relatively long and detailed

answer. In addition, she mentioned that she tried to find appropriate teaching material and

learning activities outside the textbook, because she did not think the textbook was adequate

to teach culture.

However, when she was asked to explain what culture is to know her culture-general

knowledge, she hesitated to answer and then gave a short answer like culture was a life itself.
When it comes to her own culture, she could not offer a detailed answer, mentioning this

question is the most difficult to answer. She saw herself as a participant, saying my culture is

natural to me when I tried to assist her in answering by giving some examples. In the question

regarding students stereotypes, she said that they do not have stereotypes. From the above,

I could estimate the extent of the participants knowledge partially approaches the standard.

The respondents ICC knowledge seems to stay at a superficial level: even though she knew the

fact that culture was important in language class, she did not know why culture played a crucial

role in international setting, and how much stereotypes disrupted students in becoming global

citizens who were equipped with ICC.

Skills

When it comes to skills, teachers should be able to address learners stereotypes, and

aid them to make connections between cultures. They also should be able to select pertinent

teaching materials and modify these material contents that interrupt achieving the goals of ICC

learning. Teachers should employ experiential approach to culture education.

The participant considered learning culture as a seasoning in language classes

that would be boring to students. Thus, she taught cultures by using interesting sources such as

songs, video clips, and pictures and designed field trips to the US army base to activate

students ICC learning. At English camps and Culture Days, she prepares activities related to the

target
culture such as cooking traditional food and wearing traditional clothes, so students can have

opportunities to experience a foreign culture. Furthermore, she annually led some students to

visit foreign schools, which had sisterhood relationships with their own. Through the events,

students had chances to join the foreign school classes and visit historical places and museums

for 4 or 5 days.

However, in this discourse, as the participant talked about culture, it referred to almost

foreign culture and big C culture; she did not include her/students own culture and small c

culture. Thus, she did not prepare learning activities with respect to comparing cultures and

practice other activities aiming at the acquisition of intercultural skills such as critical reflection

on sources of information.

Attitudes

Teachers should be favorable to the fact that they need to value cultural dimensions in

language learning. Foreign language teachers should willingly take account of students

convictions on and attitudes toward different cultures and deal with pupils stereotypes in class.

The findings suggest that the respondent was favorably disposed toward teaching ICC in

foreign language class. However, she did not seem to know pupils stereotypes, simply

believing they just liked to learn foreign cultures.

Coding

Codes
Supporting Quote(s)

Theme Sub-themes
Knowing that culture is associated with language is a tool to understand people and the world, and
Knowledge language language is the most crucial factor of culture.
I know one of the objectives of the national curriculum is to teach
culture in language classes. Culture is an important element to
teach. So, when I wrote national English textbooks, I tried to include
cultural factors. I spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of
cultural aspect I would introduce to students such as garage sale,
goody bag, thanksgiving party etc. I think if I didnt write the
textbooks, I would have been unaware of how important culture
was in language class. Because cultural factors are placed at the 6th
session. (The textbooks consist of 12 chapters and there are 6
sessions for each chapter. It is common to skip the very last part of
a chapter)
In the past, I taught English referring to guidebooks for teachers,
not national curriculum of English education, so culture was easily
disregarded by me. But when I wrote national textbooks, I had to

Knowing own culture well and possess
culture-general knowledge
Having contacts with other cultures
frequently
consider the national English curriculum. So, I came to know the
importance of culture.
language is a tool to understand people and the world, and
language is the most crucial factor of culture.
I believe that learning foreign language is to communicate with
others. At least learners should be able to talk and listen to what
they want to say and listen.
I believe that learning foreign language is to communicate with
others. At least learners should be able to talk and listen to what
they want to say and listen.
I think a purpose of learning second/foreign language is to open to
people who came from different countries and to have intention to
understand otherness and to learn other cultures. With
multicultural perspectives, understanding different cultures is one
of the learning and teaching aims.
My mother culture is so natural: I have acquired my culture. I never
thought about it in detail.
My children are Korean/American and attend school at an
American Army base so I come into contact with American culture

Knowing stereotypes that students possess
Knowing how to address the stereotypes in
class
Knowing how to select appropriate content,
learning activities, and materials
Helping students relate own culture to
foreign cultures
Skills
Using appropriate teaching materials
Adjusting selected materials
all the time. I am able to watch CNN and other news aggregators
such as the Huffington post.
I dont feel that my students have stereotypes of the American
culture.
N/A
I dont think textbook is enough to teach culture, because the
portion of culture is small. So many teachers tend to think culture is
not important. I tried to find other sources about cultures.
N/A
Around Thanksgiving day, I searched and collected data related to
Thanksgiving for example its history and traditional food by
showing pictures and video.
I usually use power point to introduce culture.
I tried to teach culture in every class. For example, I almost always
played pop songs during the break.
I dont think textbook is enough to teach culture, because the
portion of culture is small. So many teachers tend to think culture is
not important. I tried to find other sources about cultures.

Using experiential approaches
Being favorable toward the integration of
ICC teaching
Attitudes
Being willing to understand students
perceptions and attitudes toward foreign
cultures.
When I design English camp during summer and winter vacations,
I tried to include cooking class. We made American food such as hot
dogs.
There is an American army base by my school. So, I designed a field
trip to the army base. The army base was a kind of small US. We
stopped by a hamburger place and had burgers, and saw traffic
signs, and especially I explained the stop sign that we dont have.
I strongly believe that culture should be integrated in language
class. Language roots in culture.
I am very curious about different cultures. When I travel a foreign
country, I try to eat local food.
When I saw a Muslim, I came close to her and asked what made
her come here.
When I meet foreigners, I am not hostile to them. I think we can be
friends.
I dont feel that my students have stereotypes of the American
culture.
 Reflection

At first, I intended to interview my former colleague who is teaching English at a high

school. However, my friend and I concluded that by interviewing a high school teacher I could

not achieve the aim of this study regarding a brief glance at a Korean English teachers cultural

professional profile. It is because high school English teachers might not teach culture: Korean

high school education concentrates too heavily on the college-entrance exam to teach cultural

dimensions to introduce students to the place of cosmopolitan cultural identity with a

willingness to engage with the other (Gunesch, 2015). Therefore, my friend introduced her

friend to me who is teaching English at an elementary school where I could learn that in

elementary school, students are supposed to learn culture aligned to the national English

education curriculum. When I prepared for the interview, I was excited to have an opportunity

to see whether Korean English teachers integrate culture in language class, if they teach, what

kind of cultural aspects they include in their teaching contents and materials and how they

stimulate students to have cultural perspective. Considering the participants profilewriting

national text books, teaching at a UNESCO school, and mentoring for English teachers, it was

not unreasonable for me to assume that she would have exceptional knowledge regarding

culture education and ICC.

After analyzing data, I thought that we shared a similar conviction on language-and-

culture teaching: even though we were aware of the importance of ICC, we had barely learned

about ICC in depth. She mentioned that she was educated for a short period of time with

regard to the fact that language learning should be viewed in an intercultural perspective

(Sercu, 2006). Due to the lack of a deep understanding of cultural dimensions in language
classes, teachers inclined to focus on the surface of culture. When the participant offered

examples of her teaching contents on cultureThanksgiving party, garage sale, goody bag, I

wanted to clarify the reason why she selected those superficial factors of culture. I thought she

might have students brain development and the complexity of ICC in mind, because she was

teaching young students in 3rd grade and they were too young to perceive little c culture which

was invisible. However, she said that there was no intention to select foreign food, festivals,

and fashion and the making difference in response to students brain development was in

learning activities complexity.

Suggestions

For the development of Korean English education, a lot of people have been studying

cultural approaches to language education and suggesting various recommendations.

However, through this study, I realized that further efforts are needed to put the theories of IM

and ICC into practice. Through Skelton and Phuong Mai and his colleagues articles, we can be

informed two different positive directions toward achieving IM and ICC.

Skelton (2015) investigated reasons why international mindedness is so demanding to

achieve and so puzzling to learn and teach by virtue of examining recent works on the

development of the social brain. In his article, International Mindedness and The Brain, he

argued that in order to increase students a sense of the other from them, teachers should

develop curricula that are deeper, more challenging and more related to the continuum of

which international mindedness is a part (p. 85). Thus, Korean educators need to set learning

targets based on students abilities at the different ages and stages of their development,
resisting the temptation to design courses of study that build in cognitive overload and thinking

carefully about the possibilities for students to experience the shock of cultural differences

(Skelton, 2015).

Phuong-Mai (2009) argued that all teaching methods initiated in different cultures

should be aligned with the learners values which should be determined through rigorous

assessment. After observing cultural conflict in employing cooperative learning theory in

Vietnamese class, they insisted this method needs to be researched, re-examined and

reconsidered in relation to its operation in differing cultural contexts (p. 871). Therefore,

when Korean educators develop curricula regarding IM and ICC, they should not just directly

apply a teaching methodology reflecting Western values to the Korean education field but

analyze its compatibility with the Korean culture and then adjust it.

Reference

Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Philadelphia:

Multilingual Matters.

Byram, M. & Fleming, M. (1998). Language learning in intercultural perspective: Approaches

through drama and ethnography. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Cushner, K. (2015). Development and assessment of intercultural competence. In Hayden, M.,

Levy, J., & Thompson, J. (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Research in International

Education (pp. 200-216). London: SAGE.

Dooly, M. & Villanueva, M. (2006). Internationalization as a key dimension to teacher

education. European Journal of Teacher Education, 29(2), 223-240.

Gunesch, K. (2015). Cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitan cultural identity as a model to enrich

international education. In Hayden, M., Levy, J., & Thompson, J. (Eds.), The SAGE

Handbook of Research in International Education (pp. 200-216). London: SAGE.

Kramsch, C. (2004). The language teacher as go-between. UTBILDNING & DEMOKRATI, 13(3),

37-60.

Levy, J. & Fox, R. (2015). Pre-service teacher preparation for international settings. In Hayden,

M., Levy, J., & Thompson, J. (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Research in International

Education (pp. 200-216). London: SAGE.

Phuong-Mai, N., Terlouw, C., Pilot, A. & Elliott, J. (2009) Cooperative learning that features a

culturally appropriate pedagogy, British Education Research Journal, 35(6), 857-875.

Sercu, L. (2006). The foreign langue and intercultural competence teacher: the acquisition of a

new professional identity. Intercultural Education, 17, 55-71.

Skelton, M. (2015). International mindedness and the brain: The difficulties of becoming. In

Hayden, M., Levy, J., & Thompson, J. (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Research in

International Education (pp. 200-216). London: SAGE.

Zhao, Y. (2010). Preparing globally competent teachers: A new imperative for teacher education.

Journal of Teacher Education, 61, 422-431.