Language Awareness Forum 3 Intercultural Awareness and Global Citizenship French 102 Copyright Virginia M. Scott 2012 All Rights Reserved

LAF 3 Series Overview  This is the third of 3 presentations designed to make you think about second language learning.  We believe that developing language learning awareness can enhance your second language learning experience.  Like the previous presentations, this one begins with guiding questions and ends with discussion topics.  After this presentation you will write a 1 ½ page reaction to an article.

LAF 3 Guiding questions  What would it mean to develop “intercultural awareness”?  Do you want to develop intercultural awareness? Why? Why not?  What classroom learning experiences might promote intercultural awareness? (Picasso, 1925)

Review In LAF 1 we explored the ways language learning may shape a person’s identity. In LAF 2 we explored what it means to be bilingual. In LAF 3 we will consider the terms 1) multicompetence and 2) third space in the context of developing intercultural awareness. LAF 3 L2 user

LAF 3 Multicompetence Multicompetence is a notion, or a framework, developed by a British linguist (V. Cook), that accounts for a person’s knowledge of language – both first language and a developing understanding of a second language. Instead of thinking about individual languages as being separate in the mind of one person, this framework proposes that all the languages a person knows interact, mutually influencing and being influenced by each other.

Multicompetence Research on people who know and speak two (or more) languages shows that there is a great deal of cross- linguistic influence between the languages. Although one language may be activated during listening and speaking, the other language(s) remain(s) operational in the background. A person with a multicompetent mind is able to look at all the languages he/she knows and uses with new awareness. LAF 3

Multicompetent L2 user A multicompetent L2 user stands between two languages even when apparently only using one. FRANÇAISENGLISH LAF 3

Third space A linguist at Berkeley (C. Kramsch) has proposed the idea that studying a second language involves language crossing, or “living, speaking and interacting in between spaces, across multiple languages or varieties of the same language.” This notion is referred to as a third space, or a privileged position located between one’s own language/culture and the target language/culture. Standing in this privileged space gives a person a new understanding of both languages and cultures.

LAF 3 Third space First space Second space

LAF 3 Third space C1 C2

Comment on this quote: “… the ability to acquire another person’s language and understand someone else’s culture while retaining one’s own is one aspect of a more general ability to mediate between several languages and cultures, called cross- cultural, intercultural, or multicultural communication” (Kramsch, p. 81). LAF 3

So, learning French … … promotes multicompetence – or the capacity to draw on the resources of two (or more) languages. … helps you situate yourself in a third space from which you can view both your own language and culture and the target language and culture with new appreciation. LAF 3

Multicompetence & intercultural awareness … … can be transferred to other languages and cultures. LAF 3

In summary, intercultural awareness means … LAF 3 … being ready to use L1 and L2 in settings where the language and culture are unfamiliar. … being sensitive to cultural similarities and differences. … accepting ambiguity. … recognizing the value of one’s position in a privileged “third space.” … feeling like a member of the global community.

LAF 3 Final discussion topics… Read the article Interculturalism or multiculturalism? Charles Taylor (McGill University, Montreal, Canada) Write a 1 ½ page essay answering these questions:  What particular understanding do the people in Québec have of the notions “interculturalism” and “multiculturalism” ?  How does this LAF presentation help you understand the article?

Bibliography Cook V. (Ed.) Portraits of the L2 User. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and culture. New York: Oxford UP. Scott, V. (2010) Double Talk: Deconstructing monolingualism in classroom second language learning. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Train, R. W. (2002). The (non)native standard language in foreign language education: A critical perspective. In C. Blyth (Ed.), The sociolinguistics of foreign-language classrooms (pp. 3-39). Boston, MA: Heinle. Wei, Li (ed.) The bilingualism reader. New York: Routledge. LAF 3