Intercultural competence as an aspect of the communicative ...

(Hammer et al. 2003:425). In spite of tolerance of people at this stage, they ‘are unable to
appreciate other cultures because they cannot see their own culture clearly’ (Bennett
2004: 67).
The research done with this model and the instrument that assesses the
intercultural experience shows that this stage is a transition between the ethnocentric and
ethnorelative stages. Still, this stage belongs to the ethnocentric side, since one’s own
culture is seen as central, behaviours of other cultures tend to be explained by the frame
of one’s culture, because there is not ‘cultural self-awareness’ (Bennett 2004). As a
consequence, ICC learners should be taught to perceive that their beliefs and values are
influenced by the context and, therefore, one needs to be able to perceive alternatives to
that context.
In the stage of Acceptance learners recognize the possibility of different cultural
norms with one’s culture seen just as one of many. Culture-general categories are created
in order to show a range of relevant cultural contrasts among cultures. Bennett calls this
‘cultural self-awareness’ (Bennett 1993: 50). Bennett (2004) points out that cultural
knowledge about a particular culture is not of any value for this stage, purporting that
‘people need to have a “critical mass”’ (Bennett 2004: 69)of information about another
culture in order to apprehend the worldview, and that even that amount of information is
useless unless basic minimization issues have been resolved. Also, individuals at this
stage might fall pray to political correctness, trying to show a liking of another culture,
since they should not think that IC sensitivity and competence are connected to agreeing
with others’ values as uncritical agreement is a characteristic of an ethnocentric view
(Bennett 2004).
An important issue when progressing though the stages is to be able to see value
relativity across cultures, that is, being able to see how different values differently
organize experience while being able to ‘maintain ethical commitment’ (Bennett 2004:
69).
At the stage of Adaptation individuals know enough about another culture to be
able to shift a frame of reference and modify behaviour to fit its norms, be able to engage
in empathy and from this stage progress into biculturality or multiculturality. People at
this stage can show empathy, and are able to make a whole ‘shift’ in all three domains –
cognitive, affective and behavioural. Individuals can understand other cultures and adapt
their behaviours and feelings according to a particular situation.
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