Broadening Minds: Exploring Intercultural Understanding in Adult EFL Learners

Abstract

Our current globalized world has become a space where many cultures are in permanent contact. Now, we are living in an interconnected world that requires us to be tolerant with others. This article describes some processes through which adult EFL learners developed intercultural understanding. This research aimed to provide clear examples of how significant and necessary it is to give foreign language learners the chance to become aware of the foreign culture while they are becoming proficient in the target language. In addition, this paper also accounts for some kinds of intercultural connections the students make between their native culture and the target one. Through a careful analysis of the data collected, this qualitative case study shows that by implementing different types of pedagogical strategies the students are able to go beyond superficial ideas about the target culture which help them become more open-minded towards other forms of perceiving reality.

Culture-Related Issues in Teacher Education Programs: The Last Decade in Colombia

“…This opens room for a frank discussion with other stakeholders such as school principals, pre-service teachers in practicum, and students, which would guarantee that the PDP is rooted in the specificities of every context. In this regard, Ramos-Holguín et al (2019) assert that, "In the training of future language teachers, the curriculum, in order to promote intercultural spaces, will be required to be negotiated with the participants and, thus, to integrate their communities in said processes" (p. 65, author's translation) as it would not make much sense in promoting policies for otherness without actually taking the other into account (Cruz, 2007).…”

Formación de formadores de lenguas extranjeras en educación intercultural por medio de una comunidad de práctica

“…En los medios universitarios, no han dejado de aparecer estudios que buscan incorporar una perspectiva intercultural a la enseñanza de lenguas y a la formación de maestros de esta disciplina. Así las cosas, algunos trabajos han abogado por la integración de la competencia intercultural en la clase de lenguas (Serna, 2016); a través del estudio de las representaciones de las culturas (Cruz, 2007;Hernández y Samacá, 2006); por medio de la literatura ( Gómez, 2013), en las situaciones de movilidad (Viafara y Ariza, 2015); o a partir del estudio de las representaciones, los discursos o las experiencias de los futuros maestros de lenguas con la interculturalidad (Agudelo, 2007;Álvarez y Bonilla, 2009;Arismendi, 2014Arismendi, , 2016Bacca, 2014;Delgadillo, 2016;Olaya y Gómez, 2013;Soler, 2016). Todos estos trabajos revelan impactos muy positivos en la toma de conciencia de los estudiantes sobre asuntos relacionados con la diversidad lingüística y cultural, la conciencia de la relación con el Otro, así como el desarrollo de actitudes de descentración y de reflexión crítica; los autores abogan por proseguir con este tipo de estudios en el contexto universitario colombiano.…”

English Teachers’ Subjectivities: Contesting and Resisting Must-be Discourses

“…It is worth mentioning that the growing interest in subjectivity from different perspectives (feminist, psychoanalytic and postmodern theories) has pushed -in several fields-a type of research interested in the self-reflective activity (Atkins, 2005) of individuals to understand how these cope with day-to-day pressures and difficulties, contemporary, affected by a system of reasoning that promotes efficiency, competition and normalized identities (techniques of domination) and trying to understand how individuals exercise some actions (techniques of the self) to reach a self-governing existence in which they meet their own aspirations Although in the ELT field, the interest in identity as an analytical category has served to explore some aspects of subjectivity (Castañeda- Peña & Ubaqué, 2017;Guerrero & Meadows, 2015;Pennington, 2015;Cheung, 2015;Guerrero & Quintero, 2013;Viafara, 2016;Arcila, 2007); few studies have been devoted to analyzing it as a practice of self-understanding and self-governance. In this sense, this research is a contribution to the ELT field from the line constitution of subjects, subjectivity and resistance practices to examine Colombian English Teachers' struggles in their quest for giving sense to their life and work in a context full of suspicion, criticism and public scrutiny.…”