Intercultural competence as an aspect of the communicative ...

argued forcefully for the integration of cultural knowledge and intercultural competence
into the foreign language curriculum’ (Schulz 2007: 10). Consequently, there has been a
number of approaches for integrating culture in language teaching (e.g., Byram, Zarate
1997; Crawford-Lange, Lange 1984; DeCapua, Wintergerst 2004; Kramsch 1993, Seelye
1993). Yet, there has not been any consensus as to how culture should be ‘defined
operationally’ (Schulz 2007: 10) in foreign language learning when it comes to objectives
and assessment. The sheer vastness of culture makes it impossible to tell the learner
everything they need to know about the target culture.
The view that culture is ‘everything […] is precisely what makes the concept of
culture nearly unmanageable’ (Morillas 2001: 297). A more realistic goal is to attune
(Corbett 2003) learners to the possibility of difference, and explore how ‘decentring from
one’s own taken-for-granted world can be structured systematically in the classroom’
(Byram, Fleming 1998: 7) and in that way create a ‘sphere of interculturality’ (Kramsch
1993). Culture learning should be ‘the process of acquiring the culture-specific and
culture-general knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for effective communication and
interaction with individuals from other cultures [engaging] the learner cognitively,
behaviorally, and affectively’ (Paige et al. 2003: 177). There should be ‘a systematic
framework for teaching culture and language together, in which the relationship between
them is explicitly explored with learners’ (Baker 2011: 4). This view of culture learning
shows that there has been a shift in perspective of culture learning. From an additional
language skill, learning of facts and information, culture now has more importance in
terms of learning objectives and outcomes. This is also a step away from the ethnocentric
approach ‘which focuses on mechanical communication beyond which learners retain
their own system of thought and perception of the world’ (Geoghean 2010: 144).
Liddicoat et al. (2003) also claim that language and culture interact with each
other in a way that culture connects to all levels of language use and structures; i.e. there
is no level of language which is independent of culture. The interconnection of language
and culture is important for language learning (Figure 2.1), as culture should be included
in all aspects of language learning – from general text structures to prosody and kinesics.
As a consequence, learners would not be ‘fluent fools’ (Bennett 1997), as ‘without
cultural insight and skills, even fluent speakers can seriously misinterpret the messages
they hear of read, and the messages they intend to communicate can be misunderstood’
(Pesola 1991: 331).
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