SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING

Intercultural Competence: Definition and Models

2 February 2024/ By Zineb DJOUB

In today’s world, communication has become an endless process that is no longer dependent on time, space, identity, or nation. With Internet access, people can interact, collaborate, keep connected, share ideas, and learn from each other. This virtual space has strengthened communication across boundaries for a variety of purposes within different contexts. To this end, possessing intercultural competence is deemed essential for effective communication. Education’s mission is thus to prepare students to develop the necessary intercultural competence to communicate properly and cope with the world’s diversity. To support the achievement of this goal, educators need to understand what this competence entails

Intercultural Competence definition

According to the Council of Europe (2014), intercultural competence is a combination of attitudes, knowledge, understanding, and skills applied through action.

This action enables one to understand and respect people with different cultural affiliations from oneself; respond appropriately, effectively, and respectfully when interacting and communicating with such people; and set positive and constructive relationships with them; besides understanding oneself and one’s multiple cultural affiliations when interacting with cultural differences.

This means that intercultural competence is not just a matter of knowledge to be applied within a given context, but it encompasses more attitudes, understanding, and skills that are necessary to communicate effectively in various intercultural encounters.

Likewise, Deardorff (2004) describes intercultural competence as a process in which attitudes like respect for different cultures and values, openness, and curiosity lead to cultural self-awareness, emphatic understanding of other cultures, and the ability and willingness to behave accordingly.

However, intercultural competent persons must not only know how to interact effectively and appropriately with people and the environment, but also know how to fulfill their own communication goals using this ability.

This is because such competence not only allows for interaction with different cultures, and understanding differences in values and behaviours, but also renders such interaction an enriching experience (Byram et al., 2002).

According to Erll and Gymnich (2007, cited in Praxmarer, n.d., p.19), intercultural competence includes three components:

Cognitive component:

• Knowledge about other cultures (culture- and country-specific knowledge)
• Theoretical knowledge of cultures (knowledge about the way cultures work, cultural differences, and their implications)
• Self-awareness

 

Affective component

• Interest and open-mindedness towards other cultures
• Empathy and ability to understand others
• Ambiguity tolerance

 

Pragmatic-Communicative component:

• Use of appropriate communication patterns
• Use of effective conflict resolution strategies

 

So, knowing about other cultures and owing the necessary linguistic repertoire to use words appropriately for a given communication goal do not suffice to develop this competence without being open-minded, tolerant, and displaying an interest in knowing and accepting cultural differences.

Intercultural Competence Models

Several frameworks and models describe the development of intercultural competencies. These aim to explain what intercultural competence means and how it needs to be approached to support learners in developing it.

We focus here on three models: Byram’s (1997) Model of Intercultural Communicative Competence, the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (Bennett 1986, 1993), and the Process Model of Intercultural Competence (Deardorff, 2006, 2009).

1. Byram’s Model of Intercultural Communicative Competence

Byram’s (1997) model is based on Hymes and van Ek’s model of communicative competence. According to him, intercultural communicative competence is the interplay of the affective domain (attitudes), the cognitive (knowledge), and the skill domain.

Curiosity, openness, sensitivity, empathy, flexibility, and adaptability are among the essential attitudes to become interculturally competent.

With regard to knowledge, this model identified two categories: knowledge of social groups and their cultures and knowledge of the processes of intercultural communication, i.e., how communication styles, non-verbal cues, and language may vary across cultures.

Byram (1997) suggests that individuals should not only possess factual knowledge about other cultures, but also develop the ability to interpret and relate to them, demonstrating empathy, flexibility, and a critical understanding of cultural differences.

2. Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity

Bennett’s (1986, 1993, 2004) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), is a framework that intends to explain how people experience and engage in cultural differences. According to this theory, intercultural competence advances along a developmental continuum.

There are six distinct stages individuals go through to become more open and adaptable in their approach to intercultural interactions. These are (a) denial, (b) defense, (c) reversal, (d) minimization, (e) acceptance, and (f) adaptation.

According to Bennett (2004), the Denial of cultural differences is the most ethnocentric experience where the individual displays inability or disinterest in cultural differences, followed by the Defense against cultural differences which generates positive stereotyping of one’s own culture and negative stereotyping of other cultures. Whereas, Reversal experience is when the adopted culture is regarded as superior to one’s own culture.

In the middle of the continuum, the Minimization of cultural difference seemed to be a transition from the more virulent forms of ethnocentrism to a more benign form, leading to the ethnorelative Acceptance of cultural difference.

At the heart of ethnorelativism is Adaptation to cultural differences, or the ability to shift perspectives and behaviours to effectively interact with people from diverse cultures.

In some cases, Adaptation is followed by the Integration of cultural differences into identity, demonstrating a high level of intercultural competence.

3. Process Model of Intercultural Competence

Deardorff (2006) highlights the importance of a continuous process toward intercultural competence with her Process Model of Intercultural Competence. According to her, developing intercultural competence is a lifelong process as the learner continues to learn, change, evolve, and become transformed over time.

So, this process orientation model is circular and uses arrows to indicate intersections and movement of the individual between attitudes, knowledge and comprehension, internal outcomes, and external outcomes related to intercultural interactions.

Attitudes refer to openness, curiosity, and discovery, while knowledge includes cultural self-awareness (meaning how one’s culture has influenced one’s identity and worldview), culture-specific knowledge, deep cultural knowledge including understanding other worldviews, and sociolinguistic awareness.

Concerning the skills required, these cover observation, listening, evaluating, analyzing, interpreting, and relating.

When acquiring the necessary attitudes, knowledge, and skills for intercultural competence, an internal outcome emerges, consisting of flexibility, adaptability, an ethnorelative perspective, and empathy.

The behaviour and communication of the individual in cross-cultural contexts constitute the visible outcomes or the external outcomes of intercultural competence experienced by others (Deardorff, 2009).

The takeaway

Intercultural competence goes beyond simply knowing about other cultures. It requires the ability to interact effectively and appropriately with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, while also being self-aware and adaptable.

So, there are necessary attitudes, knowledge, and skills for successful intercultural communication, as Byram suggests. Teachers need to target such elements if they aim to foster such competence.

Besides, developing students’ intercultural competence is a process that requires time, as Bennett’s model highlights. It is indeed a continuous process with several stages. Therefore, it is essential to determine which stage students and teachers have reached before designing any lesson plan.

Many researchers of intercultural competence describe the classroom experience as a process (Byram, 1997; Deardorff, 2006) where learners bring their backgrounds, experiences, and views. During such a process, learners’ reflection needs to underpin the different stages of their intercultural encounter and discovery of cultural differences.

References

Bennett, M.J. (1986). A developmental approach to training for intercultural sensitivity. Int. J. Intercult. Relat. 10:179–96.

Bennett, M.J.(1993). Towards ethnorelativism: a developmental model of intercultural sensitivity. In R.M Paige (Ed.) Education for the Intercultural Experience, (pp. 21–71). Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural

Bennett,M.J.(2004). Becoming interculturally competent. In J Wurzel (Ed.) Toward Multiculturalism: A Reader in Multicultural Education, (pp. 62–77). Newton, MA: Intercult. Resour. 2nd ed.

Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Byram, M., Gribkova, B., &  Starkey,H.(2002).Developing The Intercultural Dimension In Language Teaching A Practical Introduction For Teachers. Council of Europe, Strasbourg.

Council of Europe.(2014). Developing intercultural competence through education. Retrieved from: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/pestalozzi/Source/Documentation/Pestalozzi3.pdf

Deardorff, D.K. (2006). Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization. Journal Studies in International Education, 10(3), 241-266.

Deardorff, D.K. (2009). Implementing Intercultural Competence Assessment. In D.K. Deardorff (Ed.), The SAGE Handbook of Intercultural Competence, (pp. 477-491). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Praxmarer, P. (n.d.). Intercultural Competence: Script and Study Materials. Retrieved from https://centerforinterculturaldialogue.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/intercultural-communication-competencies-study-material.pdf