The icEurope project aims to enhance intercultural communication among European students through the use of English as a lingua franca, fostering awareness of the relationship between language and culture. It involves collaboration among students from Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, and Turkey, utilizing Moodle for online activities and teacher training workshops. The project emphasizes developing intercultural communicative competence and provides resources for educators to implement these strategies in their teaching.

1. icEurope Intercultural Communication in Europe a Comenius Web Collaboration Project to foster intercultural communication in Englishwww.iceurope-project.euKurt Kohn & Claudia WarthUniversity of TübingenApplied English Linguisticskurt.kohn@uni-tuebingen.declaudia.warth@uni-tuebingen.deWith the support of the EU Lifelong Learning ProgrammeGrant 142672-LLP-1-2008-1-DE-COMENIUS-CMP

2. ContentsAbout icEuropeThe theoretical and methodological backgroundWhat we have accomplished so far (in the 1st year of the project)References & websites

3. About icEuropewww.iceurope-project.eu

4. About icEurope: the Project4 classes (10/11th grades) from 4 countries (BG, HU, IT, TR)English as Lingua Franca (ELF)Aims: raising awareness of dynamic relationships between language and culture

5. linking intercultural and language knowledge

6. enable learners to use own lingua franca (English) to express or negotiate cultural concepts in authentic contact situations Web collaboration in international online teams in Moodle: intercultural activities that link to English language strategies and means

7. Project consortium

8. How you can participateUse the icEurope materials & the Moodle platform for your teachingParticipate in one of our free regional workshops (in BG, DE, HU, IT, TR) for teachers, trainers, university (teaching) students or others interested

9. How it all started: the motivation behind icEuropeThe pitfalls of international contacts… … leaving the foreign language classroomOther customs, roles, notions, concepts, taboos…“Everything‘s different”Anxiety & uncertaintyCulture no longer as in the textbookOther ways of addressing problems Darn school exchange!Managing language barriers

10. The Theoretical & Methodological Background

11. Intercultural communicative competence: different components

12. Intercultural communicative competenceA working definition (based on Byram):Someone with some degree of intercultural competence is someone who is ableto see relationships between different culturesis able to mediate, that is interpret each in terms of the otherit is also someone who has a critical or analyticalunderstandingof (parts of) their own and other culturesis conscious of their own perspective, of the way in which their thinking is culturally determined, rather than believing that their understanding and perspective is natural.

13. Byram’s model of intercultural communicative competence (ICC)

14. ICC, yes, but:How can we realize all this in our foreign language?How do we show attitudes in English?

15. What are linguistic strategies to mediate interculturally with the help of English?

16. How can we express understanding, curiosity or awareness in a language that is not our first language and in a culture that is not our own?

17. How does “communicative competence” come in here?Communicative competence of non-native speakersScope of explanation Why/how do speakers from the same speech fellowship manage to understand each other?

18. Why/how do speakers from different speech fellowships manage to understand each other?

19. Why/how do emotional factors play a role in supporting or reducing communicative success?Models of communicative competence Dell Hymes (1972): accuracy – appropriateness – feasibility – probability Canale & Swain 1980, Canale 1983: grammatical – socio-linguistic – discourse - strategiclimited explanatory powerCoping with cognitive & emotional divergences Cooperation & face Cooperative imperative – territorial imperative (Widdowson 1979)

20. To ensure communicative success, cognitive and emotional divergences require appropriate cooperative interventions. Everyday communication – intercultural communication Everyday communication and intercultural communication are not different in kind.

21. Intercultural communication is often characterised by special types of cognitive and emotional divergence and thus may require special cooperative interventions.Cooperative interventionsCommunicative purpose in relation to divergences noticing and ascertaining divergences – and related linguistic-communicative moves

22. exploring divergences – and related linguistic-communicative moves

23. reducing divergences – and related linguistic-communicative movesCommunicative macro functions exchanging information – and illocutionary realisations

24. discussing a controversial topic – and illocutionary realisations

25. specifying/clarifying procedures

26. solving a problem – and illocutionary realisations[Different types of interaction and different levels of complexity]

27. Intercultural contact tasks for our icEurope explorationsTask designfrom simple to complex (in terms of purpose and function)

28. from emotionally neutral to emotionally loadedResearch objectives to analyse cognitive & emotional divergences and related cooperative interventions

29. to determine ELF deficiencies and learning needs

30. to develop and evaluate pedagogical modules icEurope designTheoretical & methodological considerations overviewDidactics (didactic models &reflections on FLA)E-learningCMIFLL:Computer-mediated intercultural foreign lang. learningCALLeDidacticsFLA / FLTdesignIntercultural Communication Theories(the nature of IC/C)Intercultural Foreign Language Learning(how ICC-FL is acquired)ConstructivismRich learning environm.Construct. task designAutonomyAuthenticitySocial exchangeCulturein the EFL classroom‘is vs. should be‘‘Linguaculture‘: Language strategies to express intercultult. concepts Communicative comp.Other approachesByram‘s INCA modelCooperative interventions & strategiesEthnographyCA / Intercultural Discourse AnalysisAssessment / Evaluation Criteria