Intercultural Learning: A Promising Pedagogy in the New Millennium

Abstract

In a multicultural context, most of the common problem among individuals is that people hold an ethnocentric perspective, as they tend to idealize their own culture and ignore cultural differences. In this regard, interculturalism has come into play as it encourages ethno-relative perspective in that it stresses the importance of openness to and acceptance of different beliefs, values and customs (e.g., Coulby, 2006;Lentin & Titley, 2011;O'Cinneide, 2012;Jokikokko & Karikoski, 2016).This intercultural trend has brought a new language approach called "Intercultural Learning" that aims at promoting intercultural competence in EFL classrooms and prepare EFL learners to meet the requirements of such a globalized world. The thrust of the argument in this paper is that culture courses should not be a place where learners are exposed only to the target culture; it should rather be a place where learners can experience cross-cultural situations, reflect on their experience, and act as intercultural speakers/mediators with the ability to communicate and interact appropriately and effectively in different intercultural situations. It offers insights into the challenges that lead to the emergence of intercultural learning. It also gives an account of the importance of culture in language learning. The paper discusses intercultural learning pedagogy, as it defines the notion of intercultural learning, discusses its principles and explains the key element of intercultural learning "experiential learning" and how it is implemented. It also provides implications for teachers at the university level.

Speech Acts of Requests: A Case of Indonesian EFL Learners

“…It might be related to EFL teaching in Indonesia where auxiliaries "can" and "could" are often used and emphasized more in the classroom for performing requests. The learners usually acquire the knowledge of foreign cultures from the surroundings, including in the classroom (Echcharfy, 2019). Also, overemphasis on linguistic forms rather than on communicative functions of the language might encourage Indonesian EFL learners' have limited acquisition of other expressions except using "can" and "could" to deliver requests.…”

Intercultural learning in pandemic era

“…In this case, the different cultures and languages did not influence the teaching and learning process. Linked with this result, Echcharfy (2019) argues that intercultural learning can help the students' awareness of different cultures in the teaching and learning process.…”

The Effectiveness of the Intercultural Learning Materials in Teaching English Drama

“…This finding is also lined with previous research by Riefani et al (2020), who found that learners who are given intercultural understanding have higher knowledge of understanding different cultures. In addition, intercultural learning is effective learning material for teaching and learning for EFL in multicultural contexts (Benson, 2015;Echcharfy, 2019;Garcia & Garcia, 2016;Haas, 2019;Morganna, 2017).…”