Developing Intercultural Competence in Teaching English as a Foreign Language

master's thesis

• Author: Nicole Combaj
• Mentor: Marija Andraka (mentor)
• Committee member: Ivana Cindrić (član povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Alenka Mikulec (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Teacher Education; (Chair of English Language Teacher Education); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2018-07-12, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Interdisciplinary Humanistic Studies; Teaching Methods in the Humanistic Sciences

Abstract

The purpose of this graduation thesis is to first present the basic theory regarding the development of intercultural competence in teaching English as a foreign language, namely language, culture, the teaching process and documents dealing with intercultural competence in ELT. The focus of this thesis is on teaching culture in Croatian primary schools. The research was conducted in two primary schools in Zagreb. One of them is settled in the rural area and the other in the urban part of the city. The number of pupils that participated was 75, 40 of which were girls and 35 were boys. 37 of them were the fourth-grade pupils and 38 were the eighth-grade pupils. A questionnaire consisting of three parts was used. The first part aimed at the participants’ personal information using mostly closed-ended questions, the second part contained open-ended questions about culture-related knowledge and the third part had a Likert-type scale. The pupils independently completed the questionnaire.
The aim of the research was to discover possible links between the grade the pupils attended or the area where they lived with the amount of present stereotypes about English-speaking countries. The hypotheses were that there would be no difference in the amount of stereotypes between the pupils who lived in the rural area and those that lived in the urban area (hypothesis 1), but that more stereotypes would be expected among the pupils in the eighth-grade than among the pupils in the fourth grade (hypothesis 2). The results have shown that there is no significant difference in the amount of present stereotypes according to neither the grade the participants attended nor the area where they lived. Nevertheless, general knowledge of the culture of the English-speaking world showed to be at a lower level than expected. The EFL teacher should focus more on using literature another culture-related contents while teaching.

Abstract (croatian)

Svrha ovog diplomskog rada je najprije predstaviti osnovne teorijske postavke vezane uz razvoj međukulturne kompetencije u nastavi engleskog kao stranog jezika, odnosno jezika, kulture, nastavnog procesa i dokumenata koji se bave međukulturnom komepetencijom u nastavi engleskog jezika. Rad je usredotočen na poučavanje kuluture u hrvatskim osnovnim školama. Istraživanje je provedeno u dvije osnovne škole u Zagrebu. Jedna je od njih bila smještena u seoskom, a druga u gradskom okruženju. Broj učenika koji su sudjelovali je 75, od kojih su bile 40 djevojčice, a 35 dječaci. 37 od njih bili su učenici četvrtog razreda, a 38 su bili učenici osmog razreda.
Koristio se upitnik sastavljen od tri dijela. Prvi dio sadržavao je podatke o učenicima koji su se ispitivali pomoću pitanja zatvorenog tipa, drugi dio je bio sastavljen od pitanja otvorenog tipa o određenim znanjima povezanih s kulturom zemalja engleskog govornog područja i treći je dio sadržavao Likertovu skalu. Učenici su ga samostalno ispunjavali.
Cilj istraživanja bio je otkriti moguću povezanost između razreda koji učenici pohađaju i mjesta stanovanja s količinom stereotipa koje učenici imaju o zemaljama engleskog govornog područja. Hipoteze su bile da ne postoji razlika između količine streotipa pri usporedbi učenika koji žive u seoskom području niti onih koji žive u gradskom dijelu (1. hipoteza), ali da je više stereotipa pristuno među učenicima osmog razreda nego među učenicima četvrtog razreda (2. hipoteza). Rezultati su pokazali da ne postoji značajna razlika u količini ustanovljenih stereotipa niti s obzirom na razred koji učenici pohađaju niti s obzirom na mjesto stanovanja. Ipak, opće znanje o kulturama engleskog govornog područja pokazalo se slabijim od očekivanog. Stoga bi se učitelji engleskog jezika trebali bi više usredotočiti na upotrebu književnosti i drugih sadržaja povezanih s kulturom prilikom poučavanja.

• Keywords: intercultural competence; culture; language; teaching EFL
• Keywords (croatian): međukulturna kompetencija; kultura; jezik; nastava engleskog
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:147:797363
• Study programme: Title: Integrated Undergraduate and Graduate University Programme of Study of Primary Teacher Education and Integrated Undergraduate and Graduate University Programme of Study for Primary Teacher Education with English and German Language; Study programme type: university; Study level: integrated undergraduate and graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra primarnog obrazovanja (magistar/magistra primarnog obrazovanja)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Access restricted to students and staff of home institution
• Created on: 2018-07-13 07:32:00