The topic of intercultural competence became more and more important. Globalization and worldwide contacts between companies, organizations and individuals need the ability to communicate in a successful way. Intercultural competence is the ability of successful communication with people of other cultures. This ability can exist in someone at a young age, or may be developed and improved as a competence.
Intercultural competence can be fostered by providing students of foreign language as many as authentic materials to study. Also, there should be a shift of emphasis in the field of linguistics, from the traditional tracks (such as syntax, phonology, or semantics, etc) to pragmatics, the use of language in socio-cultural context. That means that attention in foreign language teaching must be directed from sentence-pattern drills to functions and schemata (the knowledge of how the target language works in the real world). The excellent sources of how certain and appropriate expressions apply for certain conditions and places are moving pictures or films in which students can analyze and experience pseudo situation offered.
For both teachers and students, film is already very popular in English classrooms. Film can be a good exposure for EFL students in which dialogues, acceptability of utterances and expressions can be seen in real situation. Authentic video material serves to add fun and motivation to the language learning experience also.
While there are a number of arguments in favor of the use of films, there are also a number of concerns about its usage. Johnston (in Burt, 1999) states that video does not explain complex concepts; grammar and writing skills are not practiced; it can be a time-consuming task for the teacher having to select authentic videos and prepare appropriate activities and some shows contain inappropriate or even controversial language, content and themes.
A specific genre of television show, the situation comedy (sitcom), can be seen as a good alternative. While a film is considered as a time consuming material, a 23 minutes-duration sitcom will provide what a film might offer. Sitcoms can be manipulated by teachers to tie in with the language focus, thematic focus or to foster macro and micro skill development in the classroom. The activities designed to exploit the material will of course differ in their level of difficulty, but they should have one thing in common - allowing the students to succeed and walk away from the lesson with a sense of satisfaction at being able to understand authentic video material.
Strategies for Developing Intercultural Competence
Intercultural competence can be defined as the ability of successful communication with people of other cultures. A person who is interculturally competent captures and understands, in interaction with people from foreign cultures, their specific concepts in perception, thinking, feeling and acting. Earlier experiences are considered, free from prejudices; there is an interest and motivation to continue learning (Wikipedia.com). Intercultural competence is in relation with the capacity to understand more than what the words record in spoken or written language. It has to do with the human communication process and therefore goes beyond linguistic competence.
Stier (2006) divided intercultural competence into content-competencies and processual-competencies. Content-competencies predominantly have a one-dimensional or static character and refer to the knowing that-aspects of both the ‘other’ and the ‘home’ culture. They include knowledge of history, language, non-verbal behavior, world-views, ‘do’s and don’ts’, values, norms, habits, customs, taboos, symbols, behavioral patterns, traditions, sex roles etc. On the other hand, Processual-competencies considers the dynamic character of intercultural competence and its interactional context.
Teacher of foreign language should be aware that intercultural competence is needed as the basic ability for any interaction. It is not only necessary to have social skills, but also to improve the sensitivity and understanding for other values, views, ways of living and thinking, as well as being self-conscious in transferring one’s own values and views in a clear, but appropriate way. Lazar (2007) proposed some very simple general guidelines for language teachers and teacher trainers to develop students’ intercultural competence.
• If the teachers do have first-hand experiences from other cultures, she or he should take every opportunity to tell the students about these and elicit their reactions as well as their own similar experiences;• If the course book used contains culturally-loaded texts (most of them do by definition), make sure teachers do not only exploit these texts for grammatical analysis and vocabulary building;
• Grammar practice and vocabulary activities can be sources of cultural knowledge, means of intercultural skills development or ways to form open and accepting attitudes if teacher do not fail to add those two or three sentences that will help students understand the cultural dimension better;
• When teachers give writing tasks and tests, do not only assess students’ knowledge of grammar rules and vocabulary items but sometimes ask them to write (guided) reflective compositions about their experiences in other countries or in their home town with people from other cultures;
• Encourage students to look things up, be open, curious and non-judgmental, establish e-mail partnerships with students in other countries, participate in simulations, role-plays and ethnographic projects during language lessons and go on study trips if possible.
The Situation Comedy (Sitcom) as Source of Intercultural Moment
Sitcoms have certain characteristics that can be beneficial to foreign language learners; namely, the presence of regular, stable and consistent characters, being 30 minutes in length, being broadcast weekly, the use of naturalist filming, the use of recurring gags and slapstick humor, and having a plausible plot based on situations revolving around the ‘taboos, preoccupations, prejudices, obsessions, fads and fixations’ of current society (Brandt, 2005). Another feature of the sitcom is the standard narrative structure employed, namely:
Orientation – an account of the situation when the story begins, Complication – conflicts between characters,
Resolution – the solution to the threat,
Evaluation – the characters re-evaluate their relationship,
Re-Orientation – order is restored
In terms of linguistic benefit, sitcoms present learners with the opportunity to study language from an ‘intensely verbal form of television’ which at first may appear daunting but when broken down and presented scene by scene, can ‘present, exemplify, consolidate and revise language’ (Miro, 1998). Another benefit of using authentic videos is that television shows have a tendency to present real language that is not simplified and is spoken at a normal speed with genuine accents (Burt, 1999).
In 1990’s, Indonesian television broadcasts were overwhelmed with American sitcoms that had good responses from Indonesian viewers. Nowadays, they are overloaded with local soaps and reality shows. Thankfully, it is not so difficult to get the original and copyrighted DVD or VCD. This surely makes teachers easier to manipulate, such as rewinding or freezing certain moments, on account of teaching learning process. Examples of sitcoms that could be incorporated into the classroom are Friends, Lizzie McGuire, Hanna Montana, The Nanny, Two and A Half Man and the list continues.
First Watching Sitcoms, Then What?
Enjoying humor in sitcoms sometimes can be troublesome for some people, let alone students of foreign language. Basically, humor presented in sitcoms is pragmatic, words association or connotation, and cultural reference. Occasionally, the writer brings sitcoms into the classroom when materials are related to cross cultural understanding, such as holidays.
Things to remember, when bringing video into classroom teachers should not count on what students remember from watching the video at home and often do detailed work with particular scenes and during video showing teachers should do something with scenes, and especially with such in which a dialect, or unfamiliar expression is spoken.
Sitcoms are designed to be aired on televisions. That means there is certain available pause provided for commercial break. Teacher might use this moments (do not forget to press pause on the remote controller) for question and answer session, but make sure it’s just a couple of minutes because it can ruin the momentum. Once in a while, invite students to predict how the story will develop and end.
Several activities designed after watching sitcoms can be individual or in groups. The activities might be:
• asking students to act as film critics. This can be a preliminary activities before jumping on the intercultural discussion.
• Invite students to recollect memorable and intercultural moments in the show.
Verdict:
One of the main benefits in choosing sitcoms in the classroom to develop students’ intercultural competence is simply that sitcoms provide what real language use and culture exposure in relatively short time. This advantage will allow the learner to concentrate on the language being used and in the same time continuously being exposed to a large bank intercultural moments.
Other advantage also includes language development, improved listening comprehension skills, improved pronunciation, and exposure to non-verbal forms of communication. But teachers should be aware as well that sitcoms also has disadvantages that include the lack of exposure to grammar and writing, being time-consuming in terms of the preparation required, and contact with inappropriate themes and content.
There is no reason why sitcoms can’t be used as one of ways to develop students intercultural competence, but the key to using this type of material effectively is dependent on the creation of appropriate activities that support and develop language learning. Teachers should involve students to a discussion both in native and target language culture.
References
Belisle, Claire. 2007. eLearning and Intercultural dimensions of learning theories and teaching models. Paper submitted to the FeConE (Framework for eContent Evaluation) project.
Brandt, Sally. 2005. Can Bart, Monika, Malcolm and Jerry help English language Learners Develop Their Listening Skills? The use of sitcoms in the classroom. 18th Annual EA Education Conference 2005. Australian Pacific College, Sydney
Burt, M. 1999. Using Video with Adult English Language Learners, Eric Digest. Available on :http://www.cal.org/caela/esl% 5Fresources/digests/video.html
Canning-Wilson, C. 2000. Practical Aspects of Using Video in the Foreign Language Classroom. in The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VI. No. 11, November 2000. Available: http://iteslj.org/Articles/Canning-Video.html
Fantini, ALvino E. 2005. Exploring Intercultural Competence: A Construct Proposal. School for International Training Brattleboro. Vermont.
Lázár, Ildikó. 2007. Developing Intercultural Competence in the Foreign Language Classroom. Eötvös loránd University, Budapest. Hungary
Miro, A. (1998). Evaluating Video, [Online, accessed 27th September 2005]
http://skyscraper.fortunecity.com/networking/68/edtech/amber.html
Stier, Jonas. 2006. Internationalization, Intercultural communication and Intercultural Competence. Journal of Intercultural Communication, Issue 11.
Walker, S. 1997. Video for young learners. Available on :
http://skyscraper.fortunecity.com/networking/68/edtech/aisha2.html
www. Wikipedia.com
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