Intercultural Teaching in the Polish Context

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to justify the idea that in order to develop learners’ capacity to use a foreign language (FL) efficiently in the global world, the long established goals of FL teaching must be reconsidered and a more open-ended intercultural (IC), process-oriented approach adopted. Thus, language training, apart from the traditional work on teaching the four skills, should focus on developing learners’ IC competence and raising their awareness of difference and diversity among representatives of various cultures. Equally important is engaging learners in the process of decentering, acquiring desirable attitudes to otherness, fostering empathy, developing their ability to mediate and promoting tolerance. In the empirical part of the paper, the results of a quantitative study aimed at creating a profile of a high school FL learner in Poland and assessing whether and to what extent FL classroom in Poland is conducive to developing learners’ IC competence is reported. The results demonstrate that IC teaching plays a marginal role in the Polish FL classroom.

Appendices

Appendix 1

1.1 Intercultural Education in a FL Classroom in Poland

A number of statements which are used to describe FL classroom from the IC perspective are given below. Read each statement and indicate by circling the right number how this particular comment refers to your FL classes. Use the following rating scale: 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree.

• 1. Thanks to FL classes I know that both language and body language have cultural connotations, e.g. people in different parts of the world differ in their perception of time, the distance kept by interlocutors during a conversation or the use of gestures.

• 2. FL education has made me aware that lack of knowledge of cultures impedes our abilities to communicate with their representatives and can lead to a wide range of communicative misunderstandings.

• 3. FL classes contribute to my better understanding of the TL culture/s.

• 4. FL classes broaden my knowledge of various cultures, characteristic of the people living all over the world, not only in the TL culture.

• 5. FL classes provide me with the information not only about history, geography, literature or art of the TL culture/s, but also about everyday habits of the inhabitants.

• 6. Thanks to FL education I know that different societies differ from each other in the systems of values or attitudes that prevail there.

• 7. FL education is conducive to reflections on cultural differences and development of observational and analytical skills.

• 8. In FL classroom we develop skills which help us communicate effectively with speakers who originate from various cultures. For example, we do exercises or tasks which require adopting linguistic and paralinguistic behavior appropriately to the situation.

• 9. FL teaching is integrated with establishing and maintaining contacts with foreigners.

• 10. FL classes develop in us openness and tolerance towards different nations and cultures, promote positive attitudes towards them and teach us perceive the world from different perspectives.

• 11. FL classes have taught me to keep under control my negative reactions, such as anger or fury towards representatives of the cultures distant from mine.

• 12. In FL classroom I have learned to avoid assessing a situation or a phenomenon impulsively or emotionally-driven.

• 13. FL education has helped me develop empathy towards people who live in different countries or originate from different cultural regions.

• 14. When I compare foreign cultures or behavior of foreigners with my own I try not to assess them.

• 15. FL classes have taught me to disagree with the opinions or attitudes of the other people in such a way that does not provoke conflicts or excludes cooperation with them.

• 16. FL classroom does not contribute to strengthening stereotypes and prejudices among us towards foreigner cultures, e.g. Scots are mean.

• 17. In FL classroom we often compare foreign cultures with the Polish one.

• 18. FL classes help us reflect on our own values and beliefs.

• 19. FL classes help us understand better our own identity and native culture.

• 20. FL education contributes to reducing our ethnocentrism.

• 21. Contacts with other cultures in foreign language classroom help us improve our self-assessment as Poles—we do not have an inferiority complex toward representatives of other cultures because we realize that Poles have their own valuable contribution to the world’s cultural heritage.

• 22. FL textbooks which we have used in the classroom so far have prepared us well to function in a multi-cultural world. Among others, they had a separate module devoted to developing ICC.

• 23. My FLteachers are/were very effective IC mediators—they make/made us aware that we live in a multi-cultural world and prepare/prepared us well to interact with foreigners.

• 24. Visits abroad (school exchange programs included) have a positive influence on my attitude and behavior towards foreign cultures and their representatives.

Appendix 2

Item	U statistics (t-test)a for the differences between mean results in the subpopulations determined by:
	Gender	The length of FL education	The number of FLs learned	Language proficiency	Intensity of FL instruction	Participating in a foreign exchange program	Having experience of living abroad
1	−0.3795	−0.9433	−1.1153	−0.7398	−2.7771	0.6391	0.2169
2	0.2249	0.7012	−1.2124	−0.7941	−2.1978	0.2118	0.0765
3	−1.5733	−0.1708	−1.2229	−0.8189	−2.4645	−1.7695	−0.6172
4	−1.1525	0.4012	0.1396	0.0920	−0.4395	0.2088	0.0692
5	−1.6638	−0.5521	−0.0266	−0.0176	−2.7139	−0.6744	−0.2267
6	−0.6360	0.5224	0.3994	0.2621	−2.2484	1.0363	0.3435
7	−1.5198	−0.4283	−0.7347	−0.4873	−1.8748	−0.1492	−0.0484
8	−1.0089	1.0740	−0.3426	−0.2259	−0.0586	−0.4272	−0.1382
9	−0.2296	−0.1384	−0.1580	−0.1042	−1.8408	−0.9659	−0.3213
10	−1.1624	1.0998	0.1720	0.1133	−1.4144	1.0650	0.3430
11	−1.7973	0.1563	−0.3124	−0.2044	−0.4171	−0.8565	−0.2775
12	−1.4107	0.3618	1.0684	0.7081	−1.2027	0.5238	0.1874
13	0.3125	1.2140	−0.7841	−0.5189	−1.9975	0.1165	0.0390
14	0.8697	−1.2613	−0.9278	−0.6154	−0.2085	−0.8379	−0.2935
15	−0.9526	0.8695	−0.7956	−0.5297	−1.7727	0.1545	0.0494
16	0.6949	0.3615	1.1769	0.7749	1.1645	−0.8278	−0.2917
17	−0.3767	1.3582	0.2092	0.1403	−1.7833	−1.3933	−0.4535
18	−0.2483	1.5526	0.7389	0.5029	−0.9162	0.4503	0.1470
19	0.0855	−0.2950	0.4434	0.2998	−1.6589	0.0440	0.0135
20	−0.7694	2.3394	0.4859	0.3230	0.5105	1.4181	0.4595
21	−2.0228	−0.0266	−0.0216	−0.0144	0.6612	0.1328	0.0404
22	−1.5121	−0.2367	−1.0464	−0.6795	−1.8884	−1.6546	−0.5387
23	−1.1943	−0.8844	1.0351	0.7035	−0.1966	0.4255	0.1449
24	4.2533	0.1335	−3.0990	−2.1818	−2.5470	5.0995	1.3050
Total	−0.5481	0.2895	−0.2441	−0.1621	−1.2188	0.0498	0.0164

1. a For the first six factors, U statistics were used, for the last one t test because of the small number of the subpopulation of the students who had experience of living abroad (n = 7).