Developing general cultural awareness in a monocultural English as a foreign language context in a Mexican university: a wiki-based critical incident approach

Abstract

This article explores what the 'intercultural turn' might mean in the case of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). The discussion is contextualised in what has been termed the 'expanding circle' of English and focuses on an English as a foreign language (EFL) class in a Mexican university, a context where the full implications of a shift from EFL to English as a lingua franca (ELF) have yet to be addressed. We consider how the intercultural turn might be understood in this Mexican context and then present the rationale for, and design of, a technology-based (wiki) extra-curricular pilot project which adopted less of an EFL/cultural and more of an ELF/intercultural approach. We evaluate the evidence from this small-scale project in terms of students' developing general cultural awareness and suggest that this type of project, an example of the intercultural turn, might be more widely applicable in similar 'expanding circle' EFL contexts. IntroductionOver the last three decades, foreign language education has seen significant cultural and intercultural 'turns'. These turns, and the moves within them (Fay and Davcheva 2005: 147), tend to manifest themselves differently at specific times, in particular contexts and within the various language teaching specialisms (Fay and Androulakis 2011). Our discussion here considers these turns, and especially the most recent, from the perspective of a small-scale teaching of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) project situated in a Mexican university.Such intercultural turns within TESOL have been partly shaped by the discussions of the complexities of the global English language phenomenon and the teaching implications of these complexities. These discussions were clearly evident in the 1980s (e.g.

Managing English culture in semi-military academy

“…By being aware of different cultural aspects and the inseparability of language and culture, students and staff can develop a deeper understanding of English culture. Furthermore, developing general cultural awareness through encounters with popular Anglophone culture can enrich the English language learning experience for students, as proposed in the study on developing cultural awareness in a Mexican university (Vences & Fay, 2013).…”