Intercultural Competence in an EFL Context

Abstract

隨著全球化的趨勢及英語教學溝通式教學法之風行，英語學習者「能力」之定義亦逐步由語言能力演變為溝通能力、文化能力、跨文化能力，直至晚近的跨文化溝通能力(Moran2001)。其中跨文化溝通能力是不限於目標語，而是指不論溝通國家為何，均能表現得宜的一種放諸四海皆率的有效溝通能力。然而在一個英語為外國語的國家如台灣，英語教室中之英語學習者通常來自於單一的語言文化背景(national/ethnic culture)，如何在英語課程中討論跨文化議題，進而訓練跨文化溝通能力是英語教學者的一大桃戰。本文將就跨文化溝通能力中的文化意涵切入跨文化能力之教學目標，進而提出如何落實跨文化溝通能力於EFL情境中。論文將就跨文化溝通能力之教學內容、教學方式提出建議並融入終身學習及自主學習理念。

With the trend of globalization and the popularity of Communicative Language Teaching the definition of learners` \"competence\" has evolved from language competence to communicative competence to cultural competenceto intercultural competence to intercultural communicative competence (Moran2001). Intercultural communicative competence refers to the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations regardless of the cultures involved (Samovar et al. 1998; Lusting and Koester 1999). However in an EFL country like Taiwan where learners in the English class are mostly mono-cultural and mono-lingual how to deal with cross-cultural issues and provide cross-cultural communicative competence training has been a challenge to language educators. This paper focuses on how to teach intercultural communicative competence in an EFL context. The paper starts with the goal of intercultural communicative competence from discussing the meaning of \"culture\" in intercultural communicative competence. Then the content and teaching methods integrated with the concept of life-long learning and learner autonomy are discussed.