Transcript What is ICC? - Federal Business Council, Inc.

Assessing Intercultural
Competence & Its Correlation
In Language Proficiency
Achievement through an Online
Questionnaire
Ling Robben
DLI-LTD Hawaii
What is ICC?
Intercultural competence is able “to see
relationships between different culturesboth internal and external to a societyand is able to mediate, that is interpret
each in terms of the other, either for
themselves or for other people.” –Micheal
Byram
What is ICC?-cont.
“The general ability to transcend
ethnocentrism, appreciate other
cultures, and generate
appropriate behavior in one or
more different cultures”
Bennett, Bennett, and Allen, 2003
“The Third Place”
Dr. C. Kramsch: the educators should provide
students with opportunities to help them
define and design for themselves their “the
third place” or “the third culture”, a sphere of
interculturality that enables language
students to take an insider’s view as well as
an outside’s view on both their first and
second cultures. It is this ability to
find/establish /adopt this third place that is at
the very core of intercultural competence.
What is GPP?
“General Professional Proficiency” ILR: 3
At HLC: Chinese & Korean
6-8 students from different military
services as well as NSA civilians are
selected to engage in an immersion
language instruction program up to 24
weeks at the HLC.
Goal: reach DLPT 3, 3 in reading and
listening.
Selection Procedure
1. Nominated by teachers or/and units
based on most recent DLPT scores: 2+,
3 (3, 2+)
2. Two years left in HI on the contract
3. DA
4. An essays about target language
country in English, viewed by educated
English speakers
5. A face to face OPI
6. A full review by the HLC administration
Components of GPP
The program consists of four iterations
of 6 weeks in additional to a course at
the UH:
1. PBI (post basic instructions) developed
by CD
2. A combination of NCS courses:
proficiency & performance oriented
3. Directed studies
A Hypothesis
students’ intercultural
competence developments affect
their language proficiency
progressions
Assessing ICC in GPP
Byram’s Model: European Language
Portfolio
1. Passport
2. Language Biography
3. The Dossier
The Questionnaire
1.Before
2. After
Assessing ICC in GPP, cont.
How do we decide there is a correlation
between ICC and language proficiency?
1. Micheal Byram’s Model
2. A questionaire
The questionnaire
• The questionnaire is design for students in GPP to
assess their own intercultural competence. It also
enable the teachers to collect data to establish a
correlation between this intercultural competence
and language proficiency as the students progress
through the program.
• The questions are designed following the FLO
topics. Students access them through
Blackboard/Discussion Board or/and
Wordchamp.com.
• A sample of questions is included in the handouts.
Sample questions
• G2: Today’s Shanghai is said to be “the city on wings
and wheels”. How do you understand this statement?
• C1: How do you understand the statement: “Buddhism
is not a religion, but rather a way of life”?
• E 2: “China and America’s relationship in today’s
economic globalization is like a marriage.” (BBC
documentary: the People’s Republic of Capitalism”)
What is your interpretation of such a statement?
• P 1: Throughout the Chinese history, Emperors built
and added on to the Great Wall of China. Yet Tang
Dynasty (618–907), “largely a period of progress and
stability” (Wikipedia), one of the most prosperous
dynasties did build the Great Wall!
Sample questions-cont.
• Instead it’s “Silk Road” opened the trade between
China and the west. Chinese culture flourished and
further matured (Wikipedia). Please comment the
contrasted foreign policies.
• ST 1: It is said that a large number of scientists in
America today are Chinese. If you were a scientist in
China, would you have left China to come to
America? If so, what would have been your reasons
for leaving?
• M2: According to Sun Tzu (BC 554-496), “know the
self, know the other, thus victory is guaranteed.” How
do you understand this basic principle of “the Art of
War”, and what do you think the implications of such
a principle in today’s war of intelligence?
Suggestions & Questions