Problems for Teachers of Culturally Diverse Classes: Investigating Strategies and Activities to Embed Intercultural Metalanguage in an Australian ‘Internationalized’ University Context

Abstract

Throughout this self-designated `internationalization' of Australian universities, Anglo-Euro-Western educators have continued to position students from Asian cultural, language and educational backgrounds as deficient, unable to think critically or to participate in discussions. Meanwhile, feelings of loneliness and alienation have persisted in Asian international students enrolled in Australian and other Anglo-Euro-Western universities. The study describes a `loop process', developed over time through theory-informed pedagogical practice and continuous critical reflection by the educator-researcher. It reports on a problem-oriented approach aimed at enabling the ideas, perspectives and knowledges of all students, including those of commonly marginalized and silenced international students, to contribute to the learning and teaching pool. The cultural-intercultural problems experienced by the educator-researcher in teaching diverse cohorts in Australian university contexts are outlined. The strategies and activities implemented to ameliorate these are described. The chapter then presents the findings of this theoretically informed pedagogical investigation. Finally, implications of the research study for teachers of related areas such as CLIL/content and language integrated learning, FL/foreign language teaching, TESOL/teaching English to speakers of other languages and teacher education are discussed. These include embedding intercultural metalanguage and a teacher-driven, critically reflective, problem-responsive and context-appropriate model of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) development. The model of ICC drawn on and adapted in the study is Byram's 1997 model of intercultural skills, knowledge, attitudes (Byram, Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence, Multilingual Matters, Clevedon, 1997) and affect (Byram et al., From principles to practice in education for intercultural citizenship, Multilingual Matters, Clevedon. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uws/detail.action?doc=4722509, 2016), supplemented by Byram's (Mod Lang J 94(ii):317--321, 2010) subsequent linking of this concept with Himmelmann's (Concepts and issues in citizenship education: a comparative study of Germany, Britain and the USA. In Alred G, Byram M, Fleming M (eds), Education for intercultural citizenship. Concepts and comparisons. Multilingual Matters, Clevedon. Retrieved from http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/19879497, 2006) conceptualization of Demokratielernen, `where the emphasis [is] on learning to be and act in a democracy' (Byram et al., From principles to practice in education for intercultural citizenship, Multilingual Matters, Clevedon. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uws/detail.action?doc=4722509, 2016, p. xxi).