Earticle

In recent years, discussions among linguists and language educators related to World Englishes (WEs) and English as an International Language (EIL) have begun to focus more on what Lee (2012) and Sifakis (2004) call English as an Intercultural Language (EIcL). In this case, English usage and education is viewed as a universal, dynamic, and multidimensional means of communicating local cultural values and meanings and is less dependent on standardized forms of the language as used in Kachru’s (1992, 1998) inner circle. EIcL promotes intercultural communication, often between non-native speakers in the outer and expanding circles, that is constructive, functional, inductive, critical, and comparative in nature. While several studies regarding theoretical aspects of EIcL have been conducted, less has been written about the practical application of teaching and learning strategies that can promote EIcL in the classroom. The purpose of this study is to do just that – to discuss a number of activities and methods, in this case in the university EFL classroom in the Republic of Korea, that can enhance learners’ awareness of and ability to use EIcL. Several general concepts of EIcL pedagogy are discussed as well as implications of the teaching and learning strategies and recommendations for further research.

This study focuses on developing intercultural competence (IC) among preservice teachers in a teacher education program in Thailand. I used a socio-cultural lens to view language and culture as inseparable elements, where culture is largely unconscious and better understood as the combined aspects of concrete and abstract meanings. Cultural competence can be integrated into language learning and should be reoriented towards developing cultural awareness of and sensitivity toward the cultural aspects that learners may not be aware of. The paper provides a background that will lead to the development of a stance toward IC, and discusses the findings resulting from the implementation of the IC instructional activities for preservice teachers. The suggested pedagogical implications are hoped to be shared to other professionals, especially those in teacher education programs.

This paper addresses the problem of cultural and native language interference in English language acquisition made by Vietnamese learners. It is commonly acknowledged that language is a part of culture and that it plays a very important role in it. Nevertheless, the priority given to the place of culture as a significant component in language teaching has not been equally the same in different approaches and methods of foreign language teaching. This paper explores the role of culture in language teaching and the importance of the integration of culture into the teaching of language in modern approaches to language teaching for some specific cultural interference.

This paper examines the use of English in two South Korean television dramas. These dramas ostensibly represent the way contemporary South Koreans incorporate English speech into their daily lives. Data was collected from the first five episodes of each drama, with the dataset consisting of approximately ten hours of spoken discourse. The findings suggest that English is frequently used for various communicative purposes among young South Koreans originating from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds. This study demonstrates that the functional inclusion of multiple utterances in English in television dramas is necessary; suggesting that the use of English is ever present in the everyday speech of S. Koreans and acts as a discursive and social communication resource for contemporary S. Koreans.