Exploring and Assessing Intercultural Competence - Center for ...

Exploring and Assessing Intercultural Competence
- impossible to immerse myself in the local culture with being able to speak
- would probably have been ripped off all the time too
(SA14)
- host language very important
- enables one to take part in conversations
- improved to level of political discussions
- important in order to communicate and to understand people
- otherwise nuances get lost
- in contact with Quechua but didn’t learn it
- people who did not speak Spanish were not integrated or were excluded from conversations
- English sometimes used as a means of communication
Summary
For the plurilingual Swiss volunteers, learning the host tongue was assumed. Since all of them
had already acquired three languages, learning a fourth was a natural (and perhaps easy)
progression, in contrast with the monolingual British volunteers who were amazed that they
could indeed learn and indeed communicate in another tongue (their first time). Given this
background (and the insights typical of multilingual individuals), learning Spanish was expected
and it is interesting that the Swiss volunteers focused their comments more on details of how they
learned and of improving accent rather than marvel at their accomplishments. Overall, the Swiss
volunteers achieved higher proficiency levels than their British counterparts (of whom only 2
achieved levels of “structural accuracy”) while 5 of the Swiss volunteers exceeded this level.
Aside from proficiency, all alumni gained important insights about the significance of being able
to speak the host language and its relevance to their experience. Here’s what 6 British volunteers
and 1 Swiss volunteer said in their own words during interviews (combined and consolidated
where possible):
(BV6+I) “Communication, which means not only to speak but also to listen and watch
differences and characteristics . . . helped in many ways, especially with my family. At the
beginning, I felt as a child because I wouldn’t understand most things. This wouldn’t let me know
how to react before many different situations that changed as I got more experienced in the
language and culture. Learning of the host language helped me overcome this ambiguity.”
- communication helped in many ways
- helped to know how to react in different situations
- learning host language helped overcome ambiguities
(SV3+I) “(Language) important to have intercultural success. . . . It would have been impossible
to perform my duty without Spanish. . . . if I hadn’t been capable of communicating with (the
kids I worked with), my work would have failed.”
- important to intercultural success
- impossible to perform my duty without it
- if not capable of communicating, my work would have failed
-language is the key to everything, to communicating and understanding the local culture, to
overall success (7)
-it opened a new world of opportunities and experiences (1)
-language was vital/very important to my success (7)
Center for Social Development
Washington University in St. Louis
36