28.4756, Review: English; Polish; Applied Linguistics; General Linguistics: Romanowski (2017)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-28-4756. Thu Nov 09 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.4756, Review: English; Polish; Applied Linguistics; General Linguistics: Romanowski (2017)

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Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2017 16:22:56
From: Tünde Bajzát [tunde.bajzat at gmail.com]
Subject: Intercultural Communicative Competence in English Language Teaching in Polish State Colleges

 
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/28/28-1290.html

AUTHOR: Piotr  Romanowski
TITLE: Intercultural Communicative Competence in English Language Teaching in Polish State Colleges
PUBLISHER: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
YEAR: 2017

REVIEWER: Tünde Bajzát, University of Miskolc

REVIEWS EDITOR: Helen Aristar-Dry

SUMMARY

The book entitled “Intercultural Communicative Competence in English Language
Teaching in Polish State Colleges” was written by Piotr Romanowski. It
constitutes seven chapters: the first three chapters present the theoretical
background of culture, communication and intercultural communicative
competence (ICC); the fourth and fifth chapters deal with the approaches and
techniques of developing ICC; and the last two chapters show the results of
the empirical studies carried out in Polish State Colleges. The ’Introduction’
explains the book’s focus and organization, and briefly describes each
chapter.

The first chapter of the book is entitled ‘Culture and Communication in the
Light of Intercultural Studies’ and it first discusses the history of
intercultural communication (IC). The author traces  the origins of IC back to
the 5th century BC to Herodotus and describes its development after the Second
World War in the USA. And then he compares and contrasts the factors and
reasons why IC could develop in the USA, but could not in Eastern and Central
Europe. We learn how anthropology, sociology and pragmatics helped the
development of IC, while reading about the most important scholars,
organizations and publications of the field. Research studies and the teaching
of IC started in the 1990s in Poland, the details of which are presented in
the chapter. After that the concept of culture is discussed from different
perspectives; and the Whorf/Sapir hypothesis, and the definitions of such
scholars as Clyde Kluckhohn and Florence Strodtbeck, Deborah Peck, Geert
Hofstede, H. Douglas Brown, Patrick Moran, and William B. Gudykunst are
described in detail. Then the impact of culture on IC is shown by introducing
the ideas of Jerzy Mikułowski-Pomorski, Laray M. Barna, William B. Gudykunst
and Young Y. Kim, Claire Kramsch, and Anna Lubecka. At the end of the chapter
Geert Hofstede’s classification of cultural values and Edward T. Hall’s
concepts of high- versus low-context cultures and polychronic versus
monochronic time orientations are described in detail.

Chapter Two, entitled ‘Language and Intercultural Communication’ first defines
language as a basic means of interpersonal communication by discussing the
definitions of pre-interculturalist scholars, such as Edward Sapir, Bernard
Bloch, George L. Trager, Edward T. Hall, and Noam Chomsky. The author
concludes this discussion by stating that language was designed for the
purpose of communication, and IC researchers always study language usage and
its functions. Then he reviews the models of communication and discusses the
ideas of the two main schools in the study of communication. One of them views
communication as the transmission of messages, and the other sees it as the
production and exchange of meanings. After that the author describes how
English became the language of global communication in all fields of our lives
in the past fifty years. Finally, the chapter closes with emphasizing the role
of English as the global lingua franca and its crucial importance in
intercultural communication. 

‘From Linguistic Competence to Intercultural Communicative Competence’ is the
title of the third chapter and it starts with briefly describing how the
concepts and types of competence varied between the 1960s and 2000. Then it
continues with discussing the evolutionary stages of competences from the
viewpoint of language teaching methodology. First, the concept of linguistic
competence is introduced based on the theories of Noam Chomsky, Ferdinand de
Saussure, and John Lyons. Then sociolinguistic competence is described with
the help of Dell Hymes’ ideas, leading to the discussion of Michael Canale’s
model containing four sub-competences: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse
and strategic competences. The next part of the chapter deals with the
theories of communicative competence defined by the models of Brian H.
Spitzberg, Joan Rubin, James McCroskey, Daniel Canary and Michael Cody, and
Wilga Marie Rivers. After that ICC and its components are discussed. The
author states that ICC has been the focus of several studies since the 1960s,
and ICC involves the knowledge, motivation, and skills that enable us to
communicate effectively and appropriately with people from different cultures.
Since then research studies have been carried out by Brent D. Ruben, Mitchell
R. Hammer, William B. Gudykunst and Richard L. Wiseman, Stella Ting-Toomey,
Brian H. Spitzberg, Young Y. Kim, and M. J. Collier by applying different
approaches to ICC. Finally, the chapter describes in detail the stages of
Milton J. Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, and the
author finishes this section by concluding that intercultural sensitivity is
the key variable accounting for success in IC.      

Chapter Four – ‘Intercultural Approach in Language Education’ – highlights the
role of IC in learning and teaching foreign languages by discussing three
approaches, namely ethnographic, experiential, and comparative. In language
learning the ethnographic approach concentrates on the observation and
description of the behaviours of people from a given culture, and it helps to
develop the learners’ mediating competences. On the other hand, during
experiential learning students themselves contribute to their own language
learning as they are actively involved in the process; they gain immediate
personal experiences of language, communication and culture. The comparative
approach helps learning by urging students to make comparisons between the
target culture and their own. The author closes the chapter by describing some
of the opportunities, challenges and difficulties of developing ICC in the
classroom and concludes by stressing the importance of developing ICC in the
foreign language classroom, because it offers an opportunity to prepare
students for their future intercultural encounters.     

The fifth chapter is entitled ‘Techniques for Developing Intercultural
Communicative Competence’ and describes five techniques (simulation games,
case studies, critical incidents, role plays, and culture assimilators) to
help students acquire intercultural skills in an active and authentic way.
Simulation games allow students to engage in genuine communication while they
are learning a foreign language. They can also try out new behaviours in the
safe environment of the classroom; and with the help of the simulated
life-like problems they can develop their critical-thinking and
problem-solving skills  as well. The case study technique helps students to
develop their cognitive skills, such as analysis and decision making. They
learn to identify and solve problems deriving from intercultural differences,
and make decisions while paying attention to different cultural perspectives
and their consequences. The aim of critical incidents is to confront students
with difficult problems or conflict situations they may come across in IC in
order to increase their understanding of cultural diversity. Role plays help
students to build interpersonal skills. The culture assimilator (also called
intercultural sensitizer) uses a series of scenarios containing some elements
of cultural clash or misunderstanding in order to prepare students to interact
effectively with people from different cultures. The chapter not only
describes each of the techniques, but also gives example exercises. 

In Chapter Six, ‘Investigating the Intercultural Communicative Competence of
Polish Students of English’, the author focuses on the context, objectives and
methodology of the empirical research he carried out at Polish State Colleges.
First, he describes the IC course, which aims at developing full-time English
major students’ ICC in the last (third) year of their studies. The course
contains 30 contact hours and a wide range of topics, starting with a short
historical overview, followed by the most fundamental concepts in IC. Then
students learn about cultural diversity, how to develop an ethnorelative
attitude, the role of stereotypes, the concepts of multiculturalism, the
process of communication and its basic models, the notion of sociolect and
idiolect, the verbal and non-verbal components of IC, and political
correctness. In order to make the course more efficient the lectures are
interactive, and the theoretical approaches are supplemented with case studies
and simulation games. After the detailed description of the course, the aims
of the research study are defined. One of the aims was to measure the level of
ICC of the students of English Philology at four Polish Colleges before and
after attending the IC course offered at the institutions. The other goal was
to create a cultural profile of the Polish intercultural communicator, who is
a student of English. The empirical research was inspired by the research
studies into intercultural sensitivity conducted by Milton J. Bennett,
Guo-Ming Chen and William J. Starosta, and Wolfgang Fritz and Antje
Moellenberg, and the author designed a tool to measure intercultural
sensitivity. The most often applied research methods of IC were used, namely
self-reflection, participant observation, qualitative interviews and
questionnaires. Then the questionnaire used in the study and the research
design are presented in detail. At the end of the chapter the author gives a
detailed description of the four Polish institutions where the study was
conducted, and pays special attention to the multicultural character of the
towns. 

The last chapter, entitled ‘Findings of the Investigation’ describes the
outcomes of the research. At the four institutions altogether 150 students
participated in the study and the results proved that before taking part in
the IC course the participants highly respected the values and opinions of
people from other cultures, but they needed to focus on improving their
openness and to learn how to use verbal and non-verbal cues effectively; their
low level of confidence in intercultural encounters was also detected. After
completing the IC course the findings showed that the students’ positive
attitudes towards intercultural differences increased significantly, which
proves that the participants improved their skills and became more open,
friendly and sensitive towards strangers in intercultural encounters; also
their understanding and respect of otherness increased. Furthermore, they
could adapt their behaviour more easily and effectively, their confidence in
communication grew stronger and their willingness to engage in intercultural
interactions heightened significantly. As far as the culture-specific profile
of the students is concerned the outcomes of the research proved that before
participating in the IC course ethnocentrism was the characteristic feature of
the Polish students, and they displayed denial, lack of interest and avoidance
of intercultural encounters. At the interviews they also admitted lacking
intercultural knowledge, skills and attitudes, which accounts for their fears,
uncertainty, low self-confidence and high risk avoidance. However, after
completing the IC course a shift to ethnorelativism, a positive change in
intercultural sensitivity  and self-confidence could be observed. The results
of the course evaluation questionnaire revealed that all students found the IC
course highly effective, they expressed positive opinions, and they became
motivated to pursue their studies of IC further.   

The ‘Conclusion’ summarizes the most important findings of the empirical
research. The ‘Bibliography’ section closes the book by listing the used
English and Polish scientific literature on seventeen pages.

EVALUATION

The book offers a theoretical overview of culture, communication,
intercultural communicative competence and the development of ICC and the
findings of the empirical studies carried out at four Polish State Colleges. 

One of the major strengths of the book is that it contributes to the field of
intercultural communication by providing a well-discussed and detailed
theoretical background of IC and its development. It is an outstanding book,
because the author included the works of Polish scholars, and several elements
and examples of Polish language and culture. The book is a unique combination
of theory, practice and research results. Also, the bibliography at the end of
the book offers the reader ample opportunities to further explore the topic,
which is another merit of the book. The tables and figures in the book not
only help understanding the described details but also make the book look more
attractive, interesting and enjoyable to read.  

Besides the above-mentioned advantages, the book is useful for foreign
language teachers, practitioners and educators of IC because they can find
several approaches, techniques, and practical examples they can employ in
their everyday teaching, and by adopting them they can raise their students’
motivation, make their classes more interesting and help their students’ to
further develop their linguistic and intercultural competences. 

The book is essential for scholars and researchers of linguistics interested
in intercultural communicative competence development, because of its strong
theoretical background providing several examples of scientific literature and
the detailed description of the empirical research and its findings, which
will inspire thinking, theorizing and action. As it is suggested in the book
one aspect of further research can be to carry out the same research at other
institutions in the world and compare the results; another angle can be to
carry it out among students studying at other Faculties of higher education
and compare the research findings. 
In short, the book written by Piotr Romanowski is a worthwhile read and
welcome addition to our body of knowledge on intercultural communicative
competence and its development. At the same time it is an important
contribution to the fast-evolving field of Intercultural Communication
Studies. The book is of manageable size and scope, clearly worded,
interesting, useful and opens new avenues for future research and study.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Tünde Bajzát is an associate professor at the Language Teaching Centre of
Miskolc University, Hungary. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the
University of Pécs, Hungary. She has taken part in several national and
international conferences in Hungary and abroad in Belgium, China, Finland,
Italy, Lithuania, Malaysia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, South Africa,
South Korea and the USA. She has published several articles and book reviews
in international journals, conference booklets, and online in Hungary and
worldwide. Her research interest includes: language use at the workplace,
intercultural communication, developing intercultural competence and foreign
language teaching, learning and acquisition.





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