Freda Mishan & Tamas Kiss - Developing Intercultural Language Materials-Routledge (2024)

DEVELOPING INTERCULTURAL
LANGUAGE MATERIALS
Developing Intercultural Language Materials puts intercultural competence

at the forefront of the learning agenda. It unpicks its underlying theory and
provides a framework and practical methodologies for practitioners, provid‑
ing a toolkit for them to create their own learning materials and design their
own classroom activities to nurture intercultural competence.
This innovative book showcases some of the new ways language teach‑
ers in practice successfully integrate this essential skill into their curricula.
Directions for further research, pulling out recurring threads in this book,
such as critical pedagogy and cultural sensibility, offer opportunities for pro‑
fessional development.
This research‑grounded and action‑oriented text is essential reading for
language and cultural studies practitioners who want to help their students
thrive in today’s multicultural world.
Freda Mishan has over forty years’ experience in TESOL. Her research
and publications are primarily in materials development, including the de‑
velopment of intercultural language learning materials, ESOL, and blended
learning.
Tamas Kiss works as an associate professor at Sunway University, Centre

for English Language Studies, in Malaysia. He has been involved with lan‑
guage teacher education programmes in Europe, the Middle East, South
Asia, Latin America, and South East Asia.
Research and Resources in Language Teaching
Series Editors: Anne Burns, University of New South Wales, Australia
and Jill Hadfield, Unitec Institute of Technology, New Zealand
Research and Resources in Language Teaching is a groundbreaking se‑

ries that aims to integrate the latest research in language teaching and learn‑
ing with innovative classroom practice. Books in the series offer accessible
accounts of current research on a particular topic, linked to a wide range of
practical and immediately usable classroom activities.
Critical Thinking
Gregory Hadley and Andrew Boon
Becoming a Reading Teacher

Connecting Research and Practice
Jane Spiro and Amos Paran
Pragmatics in Language Teaching

From Research to Practice
Júlia Barón, María Luz Celaya and Peter Watkins
Confident Speaking
Theory, Practice and Teacher Inquiry
Christine C. M. Goh and Xuelin Liu
Developing Intercultural Language Materials

Freda Mishan and Tamas Kiss
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/

Research‑and‑Resources‑in‑Language‑Teaching/book‑series/PEARRLT
DEVELOPING
INTERCULTURAL
LANGUAGE MATERIALS
Freda Mishan and Tamas Kiss

Designed cover image: © Getty Images | wildpixel
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/multi‑cultural‑society‑
royalty‑free‑image/1294445980
First published 2024
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2024 Freda Mishan and Tamas Kiss
The right of Freda Mishan and Tamas Kiss to be identified as authors of
this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Names: Mishan, Freda, author. | Kiss, Tamas (Associate professor), author.
Title: Developing intercultural language materials / Freda Mishan and Tamas Kiss.
Description: New York, NY: Routledge, 2024. |
Series: Research and resources in language teaching | Includes bibliographical
references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2023042192 | ISBN 9781032651354 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781032651378 (paperback) | ISBN 9781032651385 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Language and languages—Study and teaching. |
Teaching—Aids and devices. | Multicultural education.
Classification: LCC P53.15 .M57 2024 | DDC 418.0071—dc23/eng/
20231103
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023042192
ISBN: 9781032651354 (hbk)

ISBN: 9781032651378 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781032651385 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781032651385
Typeset in Galliard
by codeMantra
CONTENTS
Forewordxi
Series editors’ preface xiii
Acknowledgements xv
Part I From research to implications 1

Introduction 2
Outline of the book 3
Intercultural competence in language teaching
coursebooks 4
‘Localisation’ 8
Section 1: Core concepts and influences 11
Contextualising intercultural competence 11
Towards a conceptualisation of ‘culture’ 11
Culture, language, and identity 13
Intercultural communication and L2 identity 16
The context for intercultural competence 17
Multiculturalism, interculturalism, and
nationalism 17
Education in the 21st century 20
The digital environment 22
Towards a conceptualisation of ‘intercultural
competence’ 25
The role of affect and cognition in (intercultural)
learning 28
vi Contents
Section 2: Analysing intercultural materials 35

Materials analysis/evaluation 35
Methodological frameworks 35
Content analysis 36
Critical discourse analysis (CDA) 37
Semiotic analysis 39
Section 3: Complex dynamic systems and intercultural
learning 42
What are complex dynamic systems? 42
Types of systems 42
Characteristics of complex dynamic (learning)
systems 44
Complex dynamic systems and education 47
Culture as a complex dynamic system 49
Intercultural learning in a complex dynamic
system 50
A framework for the design of intercultural learning
materials 52
Conclusion 57
Part II From implications to application 65

Introduction 66
Activity Set (A): materials evaluation tasks for
practitioners 70
1. Evaluation checklists 71
Content analysis 72
2. Locally‑used materials 72
3. Enact: learn Languages through culture 74
4. ‘The Human Library’ 75
5. ‘Class Human Library’ 76
6. Semiotic analysis: levels of meaning‑making 77
Critical discourse analysis: working with texts 79
7. Texts from language coursebooks 79
Activity Set (B): learner activities for fostering
(critical) cultural awareness 82
8. Greetings 82
9. Intercultural handball 83
10. ‘You’re late!’ 84
11. Interpreting the visual 85
12. A picture paints a thousand words 87
Contents vii
13. Culture iceberg 89

14. ‘Combo‑culture’ 90
15. View through a different lens 92
16. Cooking class 94
17. Small cultures 95
18. Six degrees of separation 96
19. I DIVE 97
20. The Johari Window of culture 98
21. The ‘Smelly socks’ group 100
22. The Cultura project 101
23. Identity boxes 103
24. A‑land versus Zed‑land 104
Literature: the written and spoken word 107
25. The universal language of poetry 108
26. ‘Don’t sleep, there are snakes’ 110
27. Story circles 112
28. Story exchange 115
29. Pop culture 116
30. Short films: directed viewing and thinking
activity 118
31. Empathy museum website: ‘a mile in my shoes’ 121
Learner‑generated materials 122
32. Memes 123
33. Comic strips 126
34. Cultural video exchange project 127
Activity Set (C): Materials development activities 130
Intercultural materials development:
actualising the principles 130
35. Activity order 132
36. Deconstructing the materials design
framework 132
Complex dynamic systems features: sensitivity to
initial conditions 134
37. Using semiotic analysis 135
38. Reflection tasks 136
39. Organising content 136
40. Working with initial conditions 137
Complex dynamic systems features: non‑linearity 138
41. Working with non‑linearity: categorisation 139
Complex dynamic systems features: dynamic change
and feedback loops 140
viii Contents
42. Working with dynamic change and feedback

loops: dynamic grouping 142
43. Working with dynamic change and feedback
loops: the importance of input 142
Complex dynamic systems features: unpredictability
and emergent learning 143
44. Working with unpredictability and emergent
learning 144
Complex dynamic systems features: openness 145
45. Working with openness 146
implementing the framework 147
46. Template for the design of intercultural learning
materials 147
Activity Set (D) Adapting materials to fit cultural
contexts 149
47. Materials adaptation template 150
48. Focus on intercultural awareness‑raising 151
49. Adapting a global coursebook 152
50. Repurposing coursebook visuals 152
Conclusion 154
Part III From application to implementation 159

Introduction 160
The status of intercultural competence skills in
curricula worldwide 160
Principles for integrating intercultural skills in the
curriculum 164
1. Prepare 164
2. Integrate intercultural learning 166
3. Introduce cultural content 166
4. Start with the learners 166
5. Understand the context 167
6. Be flexible 167
7. Be creative and develop learners’ creativity 167
8. Encourage/allow translanguaging in the
classroom 168
9. Focus on process, not product 168
10. Use open‑ended tasks 168
Contents ix
11. Create an environment based on openness and

trust 169
12. Address the affective, not only the cognitive 169
13. Bring the world into the classroom 170
14. Move learning beyond the classroom 170
Integrating intercultural materials into the
curriculum: Vignettes from the field 170
Context 1: Primary school 171
Context 2: Secondary school 178
Context 3: Tertiary level: English for academic
purposes (EAP) 182
Context 4: ESOL/ESL/EAL 185
Context 5: Business English 191
Context 6: Teacher training 192
Classroom techniques for integrating intercultural
skills 195
Conclusion 198
Part IV From implementation to research 203

Introduction 204
Intercultural competence training in teacher
education 204
Research methods for investigating intercultural
learning and materials 205
Action research 206
Observation 209
Questionnaires and surveys 211
Interviews 211
Focus Group Discussion 211
Tests 212
Content analysis 212
Critical discourse analysis (CDA) 213
Researching intercultural competence: areas of
focus 213
Materials in use – how are intercultural materials
used? 214
Project 1: Learner engagement with materials 216
Project 2: What do you see? 217
Project 3: It’s a matter of time 219
Cultural sensibilities 219
x Contents
Project 4: Researching gender balance in the

classroom 222
Project 5: Creating cultural third spaces in the
multicultural classroom 223
Critical pedagogy 226
Project 6: Critical pedagogy reflection: coursebook
illustrations 228
Student‑developed learning materials 229
Project 7: Design of a learner‑generated materials
project 232
Assessment of intercultural competence 233
Project 8: How competent are you? 234
Project 9: Reflection on assessing intercultural
competence 234
Conclusion 237
Conclusion241
Index 245
FOREWORD
Not remotely concerned

Nightly, the tanks in Iraq roll down my streets
Spectres of African hunger haunt my inglenook
Plague and pestilence assail me as I face
Neat newscasters in suburban studios
Each solemn smile an uncomfortable reminder
Of man’s inhumanity to man
And with one lazy click
I can make it all go away
Martin Eayrs, April 20221
Books are not written in a void. We are fully aware as authors that personal
experience and cultural backgrounds will have shaped our thinking. Lay‑
ered onto this are national and global events that will have influenced our
writing. In the case of this book, its writing has been overshadowed by two
world‑changing events, a global pandemic and a war in Europe.
The pandemic saw many millions of people worldwide isolating in their
homes, working, transacting business, educating their children, and endeav‑
ouring to maintain social relationships with friends and family via electronic
communication networks such as the application Zoom. The ‘Zoom phe‑
nomenon’ has been a critical feature of the pandemic; people have been
obliged to resort to it, and have recognised its ease of use and employed it
in ingenious ways. Such networks have been used for everything from stag‑
ing international choirs and concerts to conducting transnational business
xii Foreword
meetings, online schooling, and socialising with family and friends. An

unforeseen consequence of the pandemic has thus been, paradoxically, in‑
creased and enhanced cross‑cultural communication on a global scale, albeit
situated in the online environment. It could never have been imagined that
this worldwide shift online and onto social media would mean that war
would be abruptly thrust onto our screens, allowing us to witness its human
impact at closer proximity than ever before. It has, what is more, added a
grim dimension to Zoom’s repertoire; political and humanitarian appeals.
It is of little consolation to us that this book’s core rationale, how im‑
portant intercultural understanding is to our welfare as a race, has been
powerfully reinforced by having sprung from, and being situated within,
these traumatic universal experiences. It is our sincere hope that the ideas in
this book might make some small contribution to promoting an altruistic,
globally concerned pedagogy.
Note
1 Reproduced with permission: ‘Not remotely concerned’ by Martin Eayrs
The Pity of War: The Poetry is in the Pity
Collected and edited by Alan Maley
PeacheyPublications.com
SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE
About the series

Research and Resources in Language Teaching is a groundbreaking series
whose aim is to integrate the latest research in language teaching and learn‑
ing with innovative classroom practice. The books are written by a part‑
nership of writers, who combine research and materials writing skills and
experience. Books in this series offer accessible accounts of current research
on a particular topic, linked to a wide range of practical and immediately
useable classroom activities. Using the series, language educators will be
able both to connect research findings directly to their everyday practice
through imaginative and practical communicative tasks and to realise the
research potential of such tasks in the classroom. We believe the series repre‑
sents a new departure in language education publishing, bringing together
the twin perspectives of research and materials writing, illustrating how re‑
search and practice can be combined to provide practical and useable activi‑
ties for classroom teachers and at the same time encouraging researchers to
draw on a body of activities that can guide further research.
About the books

All the books in the series follow the same organisational principle:
Part I: From Research to Implications

Part I contains an account of current research on the topic in question
and outlines its implications for classroom practice.
xiv Series editors’ preface
Part II: From Implications to Application

Part II focuses on transforming research outcomes into classroom
practice by means of practical, immediately useable activities. Short
introductions signpost the path from research into practice
Part III: From Application to Implementation
Part III contains methodological suggestions for how the activities in
Part II could be used in the classroom, for example, different ways in
which they could be integrated into the syllabus or applied to different
teaching contexts.
Part IV: From Implementation to Research
Part IV returns to research with suggestions for professional develop‑
ment projects and action research, often directly based on the ma‑
terials in the book. Each book as a whole thus completes the cycle:
research into practice and practice back into research.
About this book

Educators are increasingly concerned with preparing their students for life
in today’s globalised world, aware that language learning alone is not suf‑
ficient for intercultural understanding. This book offers pathways to creat‑
ing learning materials which nurture intercultural competence; openness to
other cultures underpinned by insight into one’s own. Like all the books
in this series, it moves from research to practice. It unpicks the intricate
concepts of culture and the intercultural and uses them as the basis for
its ‘framework for developing intercultural learning materials’, along with
the theory of Complex Dynamic Systems – which accounts for that un‑
predictable transformation that we know as ‘learning’. This framework is
implemented in the second part of the book to devise and offer a diverse
range of intercultural learning activities. Along with activities for teachers to
familiarise themselves with the concept, and ideas for developing their own
materials, comes the centrepiece, a broad set of intercultural activities for
classroom use. The logical next step, how to integrate intercultural objec‑
tives into the curriculum, is explored in Part III, and the book concludes
with directions for researching interculturality in the classroom.
We hope that you will find this series exciting and above all valuable to
your practice and research in language education!
Anne Burns and Jill Hadfield (Series Editors)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors and publishers acknowledge the following sources of copyright

material and are grateful for the permissions granted.
Part II, Figure 2.6 and Part IV, Figure 4.2: Page 90 of Headway Inter‑
mediate Students Book, 5th Edition, Soars, L and Soars, J. © Oxford Uni‑
versity Press, 2019. Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press.
The poem ‘Not remotely concerned’ by Martin Eayrs, from the an‑
thology The Pity of War: The Poetry is in the Pity, edited by A. Maley ©
PeacheyPublications.com, 2022. Reproduced by permission of the author
and publishers.
The authors would like to acknowledge the support and feedback of the
series editors, Anne Burns and Jill Hadfield.
They are also grateful to the many respondents to the 2020–2021 in‑
tercultural materials research study. Particular thanks go to those who gave
permission for their vignettes, materials, photographs, and/or sections of
their publications to be reproduced in this book: Erzsébet Ágnes Békés,
Michelle Benson, Julie Choi & Hayley Black, Sergio Durand, Anne Marie
Kavanagh, Susan Schärli Lim, David D. Perrodin, and Muhammad Nazmi
Bin Rosli.
Freda Mishan would like to thank the University of Limerick Faculty of
Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Modern Languages
and Applied Linguistics under whose auspices this book was conceived and
its writing begun.
Freda would also like to thank her co‑author, Tamas, for his insight
and wisdom, and for much‑needed support at times when her enthusiasm
xvi Acknowledgements
waned. Freda is indebted to members of her family, her son Reuben, her
husband Kevin, and her sister Rachel, for their endless encouragement and
patience – and, as ever, to her late father and muse, Ezra (EJ Mishan).
For his part, Tamas would like to thank his wife Hazel, an inspiration in
many ways, and his co‑author Freda for their help and support.
Both authors acknowledge the true inspiration for this book – the thou‑
sands of students in and from many different countries whom they have
met, taught, and learned from over their years as teachers.
Part I
FROM RESEARCH TO IMPLICATIONS
DOI: 10.4324/9781032651385-1
2 From Research to Implications
Introduction
At the conclusion of the 2018 soccer (football) world cup, South African
political commentator and comedian Trevor Noah caused some French
outrage by quipping “Africa won the world cup”, alluding to the number
of the French team’s players of African descent. Rebuked subsequently by
the French ambassador that the players were French, Noah replied that this
detracted from their African heritage and that French‑African duality was an
essential part of their identity. In the Irish sitcom, The Young Offenders, the
teenage hero Conor is talking to Linda, the black daughter of the school
principal (who is white). He asks her “are you adopted?”. When she replies,
in a native Cork accent “why are you asking?” he answers helplessly, “You…
you look adopted”. Indeed, looks can be deceptive. When one of this book’s
authors, Tamas, a native Hungarian, conducted a teacher training workshop
in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2006, one of the participants asked him: “Are you
British?” to which he replied “No”. Then came the surprising follow‑up
question: “Are you sure?” Of course, he was certain he was not British, hav‑
ing been born in Hungary to Hungarian parents and holding a Hungarian
passport. Only years later when he got his DNA tested to trace his ancestry
did he learn that he is indeed 11% English. Such anecdotes illustrate the
complex networks of multiculturalism in today’s world, and which are a
lived reality for many societies.
This is thus a world that is shrinking, not only superficially as a result of
high‑speed travel but also due to the twin influences of accelerated global
migration and social and mass media that ‘virtually’ knit together all cor‑
ners of the earth. However, while multiculturalism is a fact of life for many,
genuine intercultural understanding between peoples and cultures lags be‑
hind these societal changes. Intercultural tensions, racism, and discrimina‑
tion are, unfortunately, still rife in societies around the world. Striving to
overcome these to achieve social inclusion and integration depends on a
‘meeting’ of languages and cultures. In the context of societal diversity, un‑
derstanding and accepting different cultural norms – known as intercultural
competence – is an essential skill in oiling the wheels of social interaction.
This is particularly crucial today in countries finding themselves newly host‑
ing high numbers of diverse immigrant communities as a result of seismic
geopolitical events of the last decade. In the context of the concerns of this
book, teaching newcomers the host country’s language via learning materials
that promote intercultural competence both recognises the normalisation of
societal change and prepares learners for the experience of multiculturalism.
At the same time, such training for students of second or foreign languages
is essential to raise awareness and understanding of the differences and simi‑
larities between their culture/s and those of the language/s they aspire to
From Research to Implications 3
speak. In fact, it is the shortcomings in – and indeed shortage of – materials

in this field that inspired this book, and which serve as its starting point.
Outline of the book

This book is conceived as an intercultural materials development ‘toolkit’, a
resource for intercultural materials development, offering both theoretical
grounding and a practical guide to designing learning materials, to fulfil
this perceived gap. It offers language practitioners the critical, research, and
practical tools to develop materials situated within, and thus relevant to,
their own contexts. It is seen as being used in diverse language teaching
settings, ranging from monocultural groups learning a single second or for‑
eign language to learners from multicultural and multilingual backgrounds
learning, perhaps, a third or fourth language.
The four‑part structure of this book moves from theory to practice. The
first part, Core concepts for designing intercultural materials, explores the
theoretical concepts at the heart of the book, culture and intercultural com‑
petence. It seeks to reach contemporary and practical conceptualisations
that can be used in the pedagogical sections of the book. Section 2 of Part I
homes in on materials development itself, using as a route into this, materials
evaluation frameworks such as content analysis and semiotic analysis. Section
2 concludes with a practical framework for the development of intercultural
materials. This is based on principles drawn from the concepts presented in
Section 1, intercultural competence and Complex Dynamic Systems Theory
(CDST). CDST, we argue, offers a fresh look at intercultural learning and
reflects current trends in Second Language Acquisition (SLA).
Part II, Developing materials for intercultural competence, is the practical
heart of this book, the promised ‘toolkit’ for designing activities intended
to foster intercultural awareness. Here the activities are staged, starting with
ones for teachers/materials developers, intended to promote critical aware‑
ness of the content and pedagogy of existing published textbooks. The sec‑
ond stage offers intercultural awareness‑raising activities for both teachers
and learners. The final stage offers principles, structures, and practice for
teachers developing intercultural materials, as well as tips for adapting and
exploiting existing textbooks.
In Part III, Integrating Intercultural competence materials into the cur‑
riculum, we propose how intercultural activities of the type offered in Part
II can be included in the curriculum in different contexts. In doing this, we
draw on the experiences and examples of intercultural competence teaching
in international situations. This is complemented with practical examples
from the field of language teaching. These describe widely varying degrees
of institutional support for the teaching of intercultural competence skills in

terms of materials and how these materials are integrated into the curricu‑
lum, and vignettes from an international research study carried out by the
authors (2020–2021) serve to showcase innovative and creative pedagogical
practice ‘on the ground’.
The final part, Part IV, is both a conclusion and a beginning. Intercul‑
tural competence – ‘Where to go from here?’ explores directions for both
academic and practitioner research in what is considered an urgent and bur‑
geoning area for materials development.
Intercultural competence in language teaching

coursebooks
The impetus for studying language within its cultural contexts came to
the fore (in modern times at least) in the 1980s, with Byram’s work on an
integrated language and culture pedagogy (e.g. Byram, 1994, 1997) and
numerous publications in this area in the context of Modern Foreign Lan‑
guages (MFLs) in the pan‑European context. A seminal outcome of this
work was the concept of ‘intercultural competence’ (IC) (a concept central
to this book which will be examined below). Apart from its enormous im‑
pact in the field of cultural studies and beyond, this should have made for
significant adjustments in cultural content and its treatments in language
teaching materials. This has been seen to an extent in the academic realm
and in high‑level curriculum design in some countries (such as Argentina,
New Zealand, and some Scandinavian countries). But how far has it actu‑
ally effected change in the language teaching materials which are often the
learner’s first glimpse into the target language culture?
This can be examined via academic materials evaluation studies, such as
ones discussed later on. However, it is as – if not more – important to
consider the perceptions of coursebook users themselves. We believe that
it is imperative that both teachers and learners are invited to voice their
concerns and experiences about the cultural offerings within their language
materials – particularly given language practitioners’ high dependence on
published language teaching coursebooks.
Teachers drive textbook use; they use their professional judgement to
critically evaluate their materials, mediating and adapting them to fit their
teaching context. McGrath (2013) reviews a body of published research
that reveals what teachers like or do not like about materials and what they
would like to see in them. Aspects that emerge from such studies reveal
teachers’ commitment to critical evaluation of their materials, and how they
see this as part of their professional duties. With respect to the treatment
of culture in coursebooks, this is obviously context‑dependent. A frequent
complaint from teachers using global coursebooks in parts of the world that
are distant from the cultural roots of such books is that they are not relevant
to their learners and cannot meet local needs. Even where used in the (Eng‑
lish) context in which they are rooted, global coursebooks can be consid‑
ered by teachers as “culturally inappropriate and irrelevant” with inaccurate
“representation of the world” (Norton & Buchanan, 2022, pp. 56–57).
Teachers are critical of global textbooks whether they have the power to
choose their own materials, or when the coursebook is set by ministries of
education and the like; teachers show themselves to be well capable of criti‑
cally evaluating this material, as studies from places as diverse as Iran, China,
Algeria, Egypt and Malaysia reveal.
Like their teachers, language learners (particularly adults) have a healthy
critical attitude to their learning materials – even though they are rarely
consulted. A famous study conducted by McGrath (2006) eliciting learner
images of English language coursebooks threw up everything from a Bi‑
ble, map, or helper to a barrier, sleeping pill, or devil. That coursebooks
can be dull and predictable with inadequate treatment of cultural fac‑
tors (the latter voiced in an evaluation of an Iranian coursebook, Khoda‑
bande & Mombini, 2018) is a common lament of the learners constrained
to use them. A contemporary shift towards learner‑centredness has seen
some consultation of this neglected cohort, with a movement towards
learner‑generated materials (see for example, Choi & Nunan, 2022 and
Part IV of the book).
Critiques from language coursebook users ‘at the chalk face’ can be seen
to feed into the metrics for textbook treatment of culture. Karen Risager,
who has conducted some of the most well‑known work on this area, sum‑
marises the ‘ground rules’ for this as follows:
The writer(s) of the textbook must try to avoid representations of cul‑

ture, society and the world that are incorrect, outdated, overly simplified
superficial or stereotypical, or socially culturally or geographically biased.
On the other hand, positively: the writers should compose a textbook
that is inclusive as well as power‑sensitive; it should include many coun‑
tries of the world.
(Risager, 2018, p. 219)
Let us then examine how well contemporary language coursebooks fit the
positive and avoid the negatives in this regard. Starting with coursebook
evaluation studies then, a number of comprehensive studies of language
coursebooks have revealed not only inadequate but often ‘problematic’
coverage of culture and the intercultural. The overall findings of a study
on German, French, Spanish, Danish, English, and Esperanto textbooks
by Risager (2018) were that the representations of culture in the textbooks

were problematic in that they tended to homogenise, languages and com‑
munities, and had a limited focus on intercultural competence. The findings
of an analysis of French, Arabic, and German language textbooks were not
dissimilar; “nation‑state ideologies and tourism discourse prevail in how the
textbooks imagine language learners and communities, and they fail to rep‑
resent the complex identities and cultures of language users and learners”
(Uzum et al., 2021, p. 1). This type of oversimplified ‘touristic’ portrayal
of culture is a critique often levelled at English language coursebooks. In
the context of teaching a language such as English which is an international
lingua franca it would be hoped that coursebooks steer clear of stereotyping
and an over‑emphasis on English‑speaking cultures and highlight its lingua
franca role, a mediator between different cultures and peoples. This brings
us to a particular issue in language coursebooks from countries with colo‑
nial pasts, such as Britain, Spain, and France, which are notorious for their
neglect, or even revisionism, of their histories. The only vestiges of Britain’s
colonial past to be seen in typical ‘global’ ELT coursebooks, for example,
are the (minority) non‑white populace found in them – with such figures
tending to be middle‑class, with white‑collar jobs, and with few representa‑
tions of the working classes where many immigrants remain. A more omi‑
nous treatment of a colonial past can be perceived in the German textbook
analysed by Uzum et al. (2021) which “mentions immigrants in Germany
but does not discuss how people with a migrant background are embedded
within the social networks of Germany, and ends up casting immigrants as
perpetual others” (Uzum et al., 2021).
Post‑colonialist attitudes are only one aspect of a broader, underlying
issue in the teaching of language and the language coursebook. Even more
than education in general, language teaching is never an ideologically neu‑
tral endeavour, and its textbooks are:
Sociocultural materials, they are the products of complex, selective processes

reflecting political decisions, educational beliefs and priorities, cultural re‑
alities and language policies. As such, language teaching and learning are
not ideologically neutral practices; they are located within complex webs of
political and historical contexts and sociolinguistic practices, all of which is
mediated through the textual and visual world of textbooks.
(Curdt‑Christiansen & Weninger, 2015, p. 1)
Language teaching and the materials used for it are thus products of diverse
and at times conflicting influences; the policies and ideologies of the coun‑
try in which the language is taught, the country where the materials are
produced, and attitudes to the target language itself.
Given this ideological burden, it is perhaps, unsurprising that the produc‑

ers of language textbooks opt to play safe and pay only ‘lip service’ to the
notions of culture, multiculturalism, and intercultural competence. Culture
tends to be represented in superficial and simplistic terms as elements of
‘the three Ps’, cultural products (including art, literature, cuisine), practices
(based on value systems, including aspects such as dress, behaviour, and
rituals), and perspectives (value systems and ideologies which both influence
and draw on the previous two).
The coursebook Headway produces a typical example: “‘Hi, I’m Erika Nord‑
strom. I’m Swedish. I live in Malmo in the South of Sweden. I’m a product
quality manager for IKEA’” declares a young blonde woollen‑clad woman
(Soars, Soars, & Hancock, 2019, p. 10).
As this example illustrates, this type of simplification represents an essential‑

ist view of culture – that people have a set of characteristics which make
them what they are.
Essentialism is particularly dangerous in the context of learning about
other cultures. The perception that other cultures can be simplified into
“an underlying common core set of values, beliefs, and behaviours in a
given country” (Byram & Masuhara, 2013, p. 145) can lead, at worst, to
‘othering’ (“reducing a group of people to a negative stereotype”, Hol‑
liday, 2018, p. 17). Especially in the case of English language textbooks, it
can cultivate a ‘Western’ perspective that implicitly denigrates non‑western
countries and cultures. Texts on overseas charities in (often former‑colonial)
countries which are quite common in English language coursebooks can
(unwittingly) do this.
An example is in English File (2019, p. 20) in which a text on the Ugandan

charity Adelante Africa describes how British and Spanish volunteers set
up the charity, and pictures orphans, children of colour, together with its
(white) British secretary.
Observing cultural treatment like this in language coursebooks (even, one

might note, in ones for international markets) highlights how wary mate‑
rials writers need to be of risking patronising other peoples and cultures,
or of any sort of “West versus the rest” discourse (the term is Holliday’s,
2019).
‘Localisation’
A practice that would seem to avoid such abuses is the producing of so‑called
localised or local coursebooks. The rationale for ‘localisation’ is that locally
produced books favour the ‘source culture’ (the region where the course‑
book is to be used) and can be more relevant to and culturally appropriate
for the learners there (for a cogent argument, see Ates (2012) describing the
production of three series of ELT books in Turkey). A half‑way house be‑
tween local and global coursebooks are ‘versioned’ editions of well‑known
coursebook series, such as a Spanish and a Middle Eastern version of the
coursebook Headway, published within and for countries other than ones
where the target language is the L1.
Further Reading
Norton, J., & Buchanan, H. (2022). Versioning coursebooks. In J. Norton &

H. Buchanan (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of materials development for
language teaching (pp. 307–321). Abingdon: Routledge.
It might be pointed out that the terminology (‘local’) is itself somewhat

patronising, implying that the default context for producing a language
coursebook is solely the country where the target language is spoken as an
L1. Indeed, this view might be held responsible for the advent of British
and American‑published ‘global’ ELT coursebooks designed for the inter‑
national market with variable relevance to the different places in which they
are used (for more on this, see Mishan, 2021). Language coursebooks have
long been produced in cultures other than those where the TL is spoken,
without controversy. Nevertheless, the internationalisation of English has
meant that the need for the language is geographically widespread prompt‑
ing ‘localisation’ practices in the context of ELT coursebooks. The most
successful examples are those produced by teams of local practitioners and
experienced materials writers, sometimes under the auspices of the coun‑
tries’ ministries of education. There are many examples of this; Bolitho
(2008) describes projects in places such as Romania, Russia, and Uzbeki‑
stan; a collaboration between the Tunisian ministry of education and the
British Council to produce the Teaching for Success Tunisia coursebooks
is reported in Rached and Zayer (2021), and Tomlinson and Masuhara
(2017) give a summary of international examples.
Localisation and versioning are not, however, without their own pitfalls.
A fundamental issue is positioning the TL within the local culture in an au‑
thentic way. Situating a TL – such as English – within an L1 culture where
it is not a part of that culture, inevitably detaches it from its culture and can
ultimately strand the language in “culturally neutral” territory (Tajeddin &
Teimournezhad, 2015, p. 180). A case in point is Iran, where English is
seen as an international language, “a vehicle for academic attainment and
international communication” (Tajeddin & Teimournezhad, 2015, p. 189)
but for socio‑political reasons, the preference is to distance the language
from English‑speaking countries – so coursebooks tend to foreground in‑
ternational culture with “no allusion to a particular culture” (ibid.). The
example of Iran brings us full circle to the covert socio‑political agendas un‑
derlying the portrayal of culture within L2 coursebooks mentioned earlier,
which we come back to time and again in this book.
Yet, even in the most localised and seemingly homogeneous contexts, the
language classroom can be seen as a (inter)cultural space with learners rep‑
resenting a diverse array of subcultural affiliations while upkeeping, at the
same time, a dominant culture to which they all belong. Therefore, even if
culture is seemingly ‘neutralised’, intercultural learning and dialogue within
the classroom, among the learners, reflects reality.
This brief overview of the diverse positioning of culture within language
coursebooks exposes the need for critical perspectives on culture within the
materials we offer to our learners. It provides the springboard for the con‑
cept of ‘intercultural competence’ that is central to this book.
Before we start, there are two important caveats to what we argue and
what we present in this volume. The first is an inescapable paradox that no
book on ‘interculturality’ can avoid – relativism. This is influenced, first of
all, by its authors, by the pedagogies they have absorbed unconsciously, due
to their backgrounds, and by those they embrace consciously as a result
of their research and experience. At a deeper level lie their cultural back‑
grounds with embedded values, beliefs, and ideologies. We thus acknowl‑
edge that as authors, it is unavoidable that we will have projected something
of our own selves on to what is presented in the book. These ‘selves’ involve
mixed nationalities/ethnicities: one author is a British‑born Irish citizen
with Jewish heritage settled in Ireland, and the other is Hungarian‑born and
a Hungarian citizen, who has been living in Southeast Asia for over a dec‑
ade. His recent DNA analysis revealed that he is of a very mixed ancestry:
East European, Balkan, Iberian, English, North‑West European, and Jewish
(he may have an intercultural dialogue when he talks to himself).
Second, the very matter of the book, language education, cannot be
considered neutral, apolitical, or free from ideology (see, for example,
Curdt‑Christiansen and Weninger (2015) Language, ideology and educa‑
tion). Textbooks written to teach language are themselves imbued with the
ideology of the social, cultural, historical, and political contexts in which
they are produced, making them de facto sociocultural materials. As such,

everything from the learning content to the teaching methodologies and
discourses around language and culture are rooted in their sociocultural
origins. This, goes, of course, for this book as well. A book, what is more,
written in English, a language associated with colonialism, imperialism, and
aggressive globalisation (see, for example, Linguistic Imperialism (Phillip‑
son, 1992) or The cultural politics of English as an international language
(Pennycook, 2017)).
We endeavour to overcome these delimitations by practicing what we
preach in this book. Armed with (self) awareness and reflectivity, embracing
a post‑positivist and essentially non‑linear approach, we attempt to reach
beyond our cultural restraints, striving for objectivity, balance, breadth, and
perspective.
Section 1: Core concepts and influences

Contextualising intercultural competence
Since Michael Byram proposed his seminal model of Intercultural Com‑
municative Competence (Byram, 1997), sparking a preoccupation with in‑
tercultural competence and, indeed, a veritable new field, the world and our
understanding of culture and education have changed significantly; “Across
the globe, migration, travel, business and international education are facili‑
tating face‑to‑face intercultural contact. Advances in technology (e.g. the
internet, social networking sites) are also making it easier to link people
virtually in different parts of the world” (Jackson, 2012, p. 1). Globalisation
of business and education has further facilitated intercultural communica‑
tion, not necessarily between L1 speakers of a language and its L2 or foreign
language users, but between people from different language backgrounds
for whom an L2 – in most cases English – has become the lingua franca. As
Matveev (2017, p. 4) says, “global communication transcends geographi‑
cal boundaries” and this links people closer to each other than ever before.
With such influences in mind, in this section, we contextualise the notion
of intercultural competence within what we see as the key contemporary
influences upon it:
• Globalisation, multiculturalism, and nationalism

• Education in the 21st century
• Intercultural communication and L2 identity
• The digital environment.
We start, however, by exploring the concept underpinning the central con‑

cern of the book; the complex and fluid notion of ‘culture’ itself.
Towards a conceptualisation of ‘culture’

Conceptualisations of culture, of course, have filled books, and they vary
widely in their scope and focus, depending in large part on the discipline in
which they are applied (e.g. sociology, psychology, anthropology, ethnogra‑
phy, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics). For the purposes of this book, we
seek to establish a contemporary understanding of culture that can act as a
conceptual foundation for its focus, intercultural competence. Our concern
here is therefore not to try to ‘define’ culture, but to explore the com‑
plex and dynamic relationships between culture, context, learning, and the
individual.
This seminal conceptualisation of culture, from the 1960s, makes a use‑
ful starting point. Goodenough (1965) saw culture as a personal cognitive
(and affective) representation of its constituents; “culture is not a material

phenomenon; it does not consist of things, people, behaviour, or emotions.
It is rather an organisation of these things. It is the forms of things that
people have in mind, their model of perceiving, relating, and otherwise in‑
terpreting them” (Goodenough, 1965, p. 36). That culture is within, rather
than external to, an individual, makes it, in a way, perceptible through “the
minutiae of everyday life” (Johnson & Rinvolucri, 2010, p. 8) such as our
attitudes to time‑keeping, boarding a bus or waiting for service at a bank or
hotel reception. How we perform such everyday practices varies from cul‑
ture to culture and reveals patterns of behaviour that are inevitably rooted
in our culturally‑based values and beliefs about how things should be done.
Trivial though they may seem, then, the minutiae of daily life are effectively
cultural practices which expose the shared sets of values and ideologies that
anchor a society. Some of these culturally‑directed rituals and routines are
what Holliday terms ‘universal cultural processes’ (Holliday, 2019) – eat‑
ing, family interaction, and celebrating, for example. Using ‘universal cul‑
tural processes’ as a prism through which to ‘read’ a culture would seem to
offer (one) authentic, accessible approach to reflecting on and characterising
it in pedagogy, and this is trialled in some of the activities in Part II. Mak‑
ing the concept ‘accessible’ does not equate to simplifying or reducing it of
course; no matter how wide or narrow a lens we use for our exploration of
culture, it will reflect the same levels of complexity and fluidity.
Indeed, fluidity would seem to characterise the cultures of today’s ever‑ac‑
celerating movements and intermingling of populations. Such patterns of
movement definitively undercut any old‑fashioned, simplistic idea of ‘cul‑
ture’ based on heritage or nationality; a 2020 TV advertisement for HSBC
bank (available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFlnCLI1MDE)
captures this contemporary conundrum:
Where are you from? It’s a tricky one. Is it where you were born? Or where
your parents were born? Or where your great great great … grandparents
were born? Is the answer in your passport? Is it where you grew up? Could
it be where you found yourself? Or is where your heart is? Perhaps the
question is not where are you from – but where do you feel at home?
So while concepts like nation, country, citizenship, heritage, ethnicity, lan‑

guage, race, and identity can all be seen as aspects of culture, they cannot be
said to determine it. Just as we need language to portray our identity, lan‑
guage itself cannot truly express who we are due to its arbitrary and abstract
nature. An aspect such as language, therefore, is one of the means by which
culture manifests itself, but there is no direct, single language culture corre‑
spondence. This is particularly demonstrated in a language such as English
which operates in a global context, where it is used variously as a second
language (e.g. India, Pakistan, Hong Kong), a first language (e.g. Britain,
the USA), and a lingua franca within vastly diverse geographical areas and
‘cultural’ environments. The same can be said, of course, of other languages
spread globally as a result of colonialisation and migration such as French
and Spanish.
The colonialism of yesteryear has today given way to the contemporary
phenomenon of globalisation with its accelerated movements and intermin‑
gling of peoples. This has led to multiculturalism and multilingualism be‑
ing more the norm today than monolingualism/monoculturalism. This is
complemented, in a way, by the ‘virtual multiculturalism’ of the online en‑
vironment: “today’s learners – especially those learning online – are exposed
to too many cultural influences to be able to reduce their identities to na‑
tional origins, particularly given the growing multilingual and multi‑ethnic
makeup of so many countries today” (Godwin‑Jones, 2019, p. 12).
Culture, language, and identity

With the online environment in the mix, ‘deterritorialization’ as Kramsch
(2014) calls it, means that elements like identity become increasingly fluid.
They can no longer be defined in terms (solely) of national, cultural, or
linguistic affiliation. Rather than something that can be roughly generalised
along societal, geographic, or linguistic lines, then, culture is envisaged as
intrinsically dynamic and hybrid: “culture is not a fixed, stable institutional
reality that individuals belong to by virtue of having been socialised in it
and that pre‑exists the individual” (Kramsch, 2014, p. 42). Linguistic and
cultural identity become more and more a factor of individual choice and
something that is constructed in relation to interaction with others, ideas,
and values. In this complex web of relationships, connections are fluid and
may change, contributing to the constant redefining the self as a cultural
being. Hence, culture is always more than the component parts of which it
is formed. Culture emerges from the many elements that contribute to its
existence, and even these represent highly complex phenomena.
This characterisation of culture appears to be at odds with traditional
ones, particularly with how it is situated in the basic context of this book; lan‑
guage teaching. The general perception that drove the movement towards
incorporating cultural studies into language education in the 1980s, was
that there was a fundamental symbiotic relationship between the language
that we were teaching and ‘culture’, that needed to be taken into account.
Hence, we have Byram, arguing from the cultural studies standpoint, that:
Language is not simply a reflector of an objective cultural reality. It is

an integral part of that reality through which other parts are shaped and
interpreted … it follows that to teach language without culture is funda‑
mentally flawed and to separate language and culture teaching is to imply
that a foreign language can be treated in the early learning stages as if it
were self‑contained and independent of other sociocultural phenomena.
(1991, p. 18)
Meanwhile, going even further back, cognitive psychology had given us the
Sapir–Whorf hypothesis (the linguistic relativity hypothesis) (first published
in Whorf, 1956) which conceived that language encodes culturally specific
content and affects the way people think. In the words of its conceiver: “The
world is presented as a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be
organized by our minds – and this means largely by the linguistic system in
our minds” (Whorf, 1956, p. 213).
This would seem, at its most basic, the ultimate justification for incorpo‑
rating culture into language teaching. The language‑thought correspond‑
ence that Sapir‑Whorf posits, however, gets more slippery in the context of
the multilingualism that is increasingly a characteristic of today’s world, as
we have noted above. This is pursued in the discussions on multilingualism
and multiculturalism later on.
What is clear though from even this cursory look at how the lan‑
guage – culture relationship has been conceived over the years is that this
very much depends on the (disciplinary) perspective. Where identity comes
into the mix, it tends to be the sociological and sociocultural perspectives
that we look to – as we see below.
Further Reading
Barkhuizen, G., & Strauss, P. (2020). Communicating identities. United King‑

dom: Taylor & Francis.
We have observed that simplifying cultural identity as a homogeneous and

static concept based on nation‑state, ethnicity, geography, gender, language,
etc. misrepresents what constitutes identity in today’s world. Recent con‑
cepts of cultural identity such as ‘cultural hybridity’, which refers to how
linguistic, cultural or ethnic ‘mixing’ can lead to a new, hybridised cultural
identity, are becoming increasingly appropriate to today’s mobile generation.
One such category is Third Culture Kids (TCK) or Global Nomads

(GN), referring to children and young adults who have been exposed
to new cultural experiences and raised in countries different from their
‘home’ cultures. We use inverted commas here as ‘home’ is a difficult con‑
cept to define for TCKs/GNs since when they return to their country of
origin – sometimes referred to as ‘passport home’ – they often feel unable
to fit in and find themselves on the edges of two (or more cultures) belong‑
ing neither here, nor there (Schaetti, 2015). They may be called ‘rootless’,
‘confused’, and ‘arrogant’ by some, but in reality, they usually have a much
better and “deep understanding of the complexity of the human condition”
(Schaetti, 2015, p. 799) than their ethnocentric peers who grow up in a
fairly monocultural environment.
The process of identity shift further complexifies how culture, identity,
and language are connected to each other. Risager (2007, p. 15), for exam‑
ple, points out that in Central and Eastern Europe, “fertile ground can be
found for ideas about the inseparability of language and (ethnic) culture”
and thus language serves as a cultural identity marker. In other parts of the
world, however, this would not be the case due to different histories both
at the cultural and the individual levels. In Southeast Asia, for example, it
is very common to find people with multicultural and multilingual back‑
grounds who have a more practical view of language. As a Peranakan (Chi‑
nese Malaysian) friend once explained, they used different languages for
different purposes: Hokkien was used in connection with food and cooking,
infused with loan words from other local languages; English was used to dis‑
cuss politics; and Malay was used for official business and most schoolwork.
How they viewed the connection of language and culture was completely
different from how, for example, a Hungarian would do.
To summarise our exploration of the concept of culture so far, given the
multiplicity of aspects that influence it and how far it eludes definition, it
would seem easier to describe culture in terms of what it is not than what
it is. We can no longer equate ‘culture’ directly (if we ever could) with as‑
pects like nation, country, citizenship, heritage, ethnicity, language, race,
or identity in today’s increasingly multicultural and multilingual world. In‑
stead, culture is conceived as a fluid, dynamic, and even multiple concept
which exists as much within the individual as external to them. This con‑
ceptualisation of culture has to be flexible enough to encompass the idea
that multiple cultural, subcultural, and sometimes hybrid cultural identities
can exist within one language community (and in one classroom) – as well
as the converse. Culture, therefore, can perhaps best be conceived as an
ever‑evolving process, a reflection of the living, shifting interplay of peo‑
ples, environments, geopolitics, and global relations. Conceiving culture
like this, as something constantly regenerating in the ongoing globalisation
and internationalisation of today’s world, makes cultural awareness more

important than ever in driving (intercultural) communication, education,
international commerce, and other such elements of society.
In the next sections, we look more closely at the phenomena that have
led the ability/ies needed for intercultural communication – intercultural
competence – to be such an important contemporary concern and we con‑
clude our working definition of it. However, one further aspect of identity
needs to be explored first, given the pedagogical concerns of this book, and
that is the identity of the L2 learner.
Intercultural communication and L2 identity

The earlier discussion on the complexities of the relationship between iden‑
tity, language, and culture begs the question of how these operate in the
development of learners’ L2 identity. L2 identity refers to the subtle shifts
learners experience as they come to view themselves as L2 learners and
speakers – and it is often seen as one of the measures of language learning
success. It is also a gauge of learners’ developing intercultural communica‑
tion skills. There is no doubt that the experience of being exposed to other
cultures, other ideas, and ways of thinking prompts an individual to reflect
on their own values and positions in the world. As a Persian proverb says, ‘a
new language is a new life’ (‫)یک زبان جدید یک زندگی جدید است‬, an opportunity to
think, feel, and express oneself in new ways. Yet, shifting to and embracing a
different, often more complex identity, is not a straightforward process.
Research has shown that the development of an intercultural self “evolves
from a way of understanding and acting that is egocentric, ethnocentric, and
cognitively simple to one that includes a broader range of perspective” (Berg,
2015, p. 229). It is indeed not a simple process and is characterised, especially
at the beginning, by denial, protesting against, and minimising differences be‑
tween the perceived ‘us’ and ‘them’ as most learners are convinced that the way
they look at and interpret the world, i.e. through their own values and cultural
filters, is the only true reality (Carr‑Ruffino, 2015). When they are prompted
to think about and question these realities, they often feel uncomfortable as
they may have to revise and reconsider ideas they have held to be true and
unquestionable and even the core values underpinning their belief systems.
The implications for activities such as those proposed in this book are
that when working with materials that aim to develop learners’ intercultural
competence, practitioners need to pay attention to the different values and
perspectives students bring to the classroom. They need to be aware of the
potential conflict learners may feel between the values and beliefs of their
L1/C1 identity and their developing L2 identity. (See Part II activities such
as 15 ‘View through a different lens’ and 20 ‘The Johari Window of culture’
for techniques for sensitive handling of this).
The context for intercultural competence

Multiculturalism, interculturalism, and nationalism
An ever‑shifting global population, migrating for economic, political, or
humanitarian reasons, has made for an increasingly heterogenous world.
Models for managing these immigration patterns have evolved over the
years – as well as providing a fruitful area of contention for sociologists. In
essence, “multiculturalism is a response – or a set of responses – to diversity
that seeks to articulate the social conditions under which difference can
be incorporated and order achieved from diversity” (Hartmann & Gerteis,
2005, p. 222). This was the conceptual framework for the multicultural
model to emerge in the 1970s:
Multiculturalism … defends the idea that the societal institutions need to

provide the same degree of respect, recognition and accommodation to
the identities of ethnocultural minority groups as they traditionally have
to the majority group. In order to prevent the obligation or expectation
that the minority speak the language of the majority, or adopt its cus‑
toms and lose their distinctiveness, multiculturalism favours all sorts of
minority measures or group rights to protect and/or promote linguistic,
ethno‑cultural and religious diversity.
(Levrau & Loobuyck, 2018, p. 3)
For how this traditional model of multiculturalism fared, we can look to

two of the most well‑known examples, the United Kingdom and the United
States. The UK has traditionally pursued an ‘assimilationist’ model of mul‑
ticulturalism, which is (theoretically) designed to respect incoming cultures
while at the same time merging them into the host culture. This has resulted
in an ‘uneasy’ multicultural and consequently multilingual society. There is
a tension between acknowledgement of multilingualism at an institutional
level – with leaflets being provided in different languages in social service
offices for example – and a government requirement for a level of English
proficiency for citizenship. It is interesting to compare this to the European
position. As multiculturalism and multilingualism overtake monolingualism
and monoculturalism in today’s world, as we noted earlier, “within multi‑
lingual Europe, a widespread assumption is that in a global society, mono‑
lingualism is a dangerous anachronism” (Torres & Tarozzi, 2020, p. 15).
The American multiculturalist agenda, meanwhile, was born of a differ‑
ent exigency in the mid‑1960s, the challenge of racism and integration.
Immigration reform to address this in 1965 resulted in high rates of im‑
migration over the following half century (with inevitable socio‑political
consequences, see below). In America and elsewhere in popular discourse
today a common connotation of multiculturalism is a negative one, placing

multiculturalism in opposition to social cohesion. This may hark back to a
view of multiculturalism as a system based on an essentialist view of culture,
which, by recognising diversity, highlights cultural difference. It has tended
to be replaced (theoretically at least) by the so‑called intercultural model,
which hinges on “social interaction, contacts between people of different
backgrounds and shared membership” (Levrau & Loobuyck, 2018, p. 2)
aimed at integrating migrants into the host culture, with ensuing citizen‑
ship. The model’s emphasis on the meeting of cultures and interpersonal
contact is in line with our focus in this book. It is the intercultural model
that has been the approach advocated in Europe, via directives from Euro‑
pean bodies such as the Council of Europe. European countries clearly need
direction in this regard, due to accelerating accession – 12 countries have
joined since 2004 almost doubling membership of the union – as well as
geopolitical events that have seen unprecedented waves of migrations from
outside and even within the continent of Europe.
For successful models of interculturalism, one can look at an example
such as Quebec, whose ‘harmonisation’ practices of accommodating di‑
versity have often been held up as “one of the most substantive models
designed in a North American society” (Torres & Tarozzi, 2020, p. 12).
The model held that newcomers to Quebec were to be “welcomed without
being expected to assimilate to the majority culture as long as they accept
certain basic conditions” (Kircher, 2014, p. 223). However, its success is
often seen as a factor of Quebec’s secularism and its existing tradition of
citizenship rights. The paradox of different models of integrating diversity
is that they are developed within and in response to particular societal at‑
titudes which by their very existence dictate the models’ effective operation.
Despite the success stories of Quebec, which portray the welcoming attitude
of society in general, language teaching materials, written specifically for
immigrants, seem to use a different approach. These textbooks are critical
of how migrants are covertly encouraged to assimilate through redemp‑
tive narratives (Gulliver, 2010) which mainly portray success stories of as‑
similation and do not portray the difficulties or the negative experiences
immigrants may face. In his research, Gulliver (2010) identified 40 stories
that portray how newcomers settle down in Canada and found that stories
which had an ambivalent or negative outcome were marginally represented.
While this may be the case across Canada, through the discursive strategies
used in these textbooks, the authors seem to legitimise success stories, while
difficulties and failures are marginalised.
Models of integration have, moreover, been stress‑tested by the 21st

century’s waves of migration. These have increased hostility towards the
cultural pluralism embodied in the various models of multiculturalism,
and fuelled nationalism. In the US, the anti‑immigrant stance of Donald
Trump’s presidency between 2016 and 2020 saw fierce debates about the
protection of borders and draconian anti‑immigration measures.
Turning to Europe, the European Union was conceived as a panacea for
the ills that nationalism had visited on Europe in the form of a world war.
It is ironic that being part of such a union came to be felt by some with
nationalist tendencies, as weakening national solidarity, diminishing self‑de‑
termination, and marginalising member states as being merely part of the
EU ‘mega‑state’ (Duroy, 2020). The present‑day neo‑nationalism which
we see in countries such as Hungary, Poland, and France is characterised
as “informed by essentialist … ethno‑cultural and linguistic perspectives on
identity” (Duroy, 2020, p. 994). (Neo)nationalism thus feeds on such per‑
ceptions of difference and ‘otherness’ to portray immigrants as some sort of
societal threat. This emphasises the need for intercultural learning materi‑
als to be part of the education system to develop learners’ critical cultural
awareness and enable them to differentiate between ideas and ideology.
This perspective is vividly expressed by one of the protagonists in the novel

Apeirogon (McCann, 2020), albeit referring to the ‘other’ here as ‘the en‑
emy’; “People [are] afraid of the enemy because they [are] terrified that their
lives might get diluted, that they may lose themselves in the tangle of know‑
ing each other” (McCann, 2020, p. 279).
The result of neo‑nationalist social policy agendas influencing government

policy is, of course, strong anti‑immigration policies of the type enacted in
post‑EU Britain and elsewhere. While the early 21st‑century focus for this
anti‑immigration stance was incomers from Muslim countries, a new and
terrifying locus of neo‑nationalism emerged on the continent of Europe at
the time of writing this book, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
This situation is a far cry from the ‘mutual intercultural understanding’
embedded in the models of multiculturalism/interculturalism (ostensibly)
framing societies in Europe and elsewhere as sketched above. In reality, this
crucial ingredient is too often missing. In Britain, for example, despite the
existence of linguistically and culturally ‘superdiverse’ cities, accounts of dis‑
crimination against people speaking languages other than English in public
spaces are not uncommon and intensified from the time when Britain initiated
its withdrawal from the EU in 2016 (Cooke, Bryers, & Winstanley, 2019).
“Some people don’t like when you speak Polish outside. My friend in the su‑
permarket was told to speak English when she was talking to her daughter”
(from Cooke, Bryers, & Winstanley, 2019, p. 146).
The media’s role in inciting intercultural mistrust is as irrefutable today as
it has always been. Historically, we can look to examples such as the influ‑
ence of the press in driving antisemitic public opinion in the Dreyfus affair in
19th-century France, or the use of the media to propagate Nazi propaganda
in 1930s Germany. The mistrust of ‘the other’ permeating the right‑wing
British press that nailed the coffin of Britain’s membership of the EU in 2016,
the anti‑Chinese resentment raised at the start of the coronavirus pandemic
in 2020, and today’s social media ‘echo‑chambers’ of racism, bring us right
up to date. How intercultural misunderstanding is one root of intercultural
mistrust is demonstrated by another contemporary example from Hungary.
With the arrival of refugees from Syria in 2015, there were media reports
(e.g. on the news sites hvg.hu or 444.hu) that food provided for them by the
Immigration and Asylum Office was refused. The officers did not understand
why the ‘ungrateful’ refugees would throw the food out and shout abuse
at them – until it was pointed out that the canned poultry pâté contained
‘industrial bacon’ as one of its ingredients and which, thus, is forbidden food
for the Muslim refugees.
Such episodes stem from a general ignorance about other cultures and a lack
of skills/understanding of how to tackle intercultural encounters. While
education may seem to be too facile a ‘get out clause’ for developing in‑
tercultural understanding and tolerance of diversity, it is a direct avenue of
influence. Let us look at 21st‑century practices in education and examine
their potential in this regard.
Education in the 21st century

The end of the 20th century saw unprecedented changes in many fields of
life due mainly to technological advancements and processes of globalisation
as we emphasised earlier. Education is one of the areas which experienced
reforms in its delivery practices and also a paradigm shift in general. Old
educational norms of equipping students with functional literacy and nu‑
meracy skills, traditional lecture‑type delivery of content, and the fact that
students should study in the confinement of the classroom were brought
under scrutiny. The development of technology tools – not necessarily for
educational purposes – prompted teachers to think about their applicability
in their classrooms, taking learning to areas, both physically and virtually,
where it has never been before.
Globalisation increased the movement of trained professionals across the

world and politicians started to realise that a similar move would be ben‑
eficial for education as well. In the European Union for example, there was
strong political will to improve student mobility. This resulted in the launch
of the European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University
Students (ERASMUS) programme, an initiative to expand the learning ex‑
periences of tertiary students beyond the borders of their own countries.
The programme has been highly successful and, although there have been
some variations in regional participation, it was extended in its scope. ER‑
ASMUS+ was launched in 2014 to include collaboration between students
and institutions beyond the EU. With such increased student mobility – not
limited only to EU programmes, but including other organisations (e.g.
Fulbright, EdOdyssey, GoAbroad, etc.) and also geographical contexts,
two phenomena that have an impact on intercultural learning increased in
prominence are Transnational Education (TNE) and English Medium In‑
struction (EMI).
TNE is the realisation that not all students are mobile; therefore, knowl‑
edge should be made mobile. By definition “the mobility of knowledge lies
at the heart of TNE; it crosses, transects, and overcomes the parochialism
and embeddedness of national education systems, to deliver educational
programmes to students who are both culturally and spatially removed from
home” (Waters & Leung, 2017). TNE thus refers to an educational setup
in which learners are studying (sometimes virtually), in a different country
from the awarding institution, but in an environment which is infused with
the educational philosophy and practices of that institution. This means that
although they may not leave their homes, they are immersed into a new cul‑
tural learning experience which is further accentuated by the fact that most
TNE institutions offer their programmes in English via the mechanism of
English Medium Instruction (EMI), the use of English to teach academic
subjects in countries where the first language is not English.
The broadest globalisation initiative for education is UNESCO’s (2014)
framework Global Citizenship Education (GCED). GCED is intended to
“empower learners to engage and assume active roles, both locally and
globally, to face and resolve global challenges and ultimately to become
proactive contributors to a more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure
and sustainable world” (p. 14). This concern is reflected in global citizen‑
ship skills being given precedence as the first of eight characteristics defining
‘quality learning’ by the World Economic Forum (2020).
The idea of global citizenship (GC) is far more holistic and abstract than
national citizenship, with its legal and geographical boundaries. In transcend‑
ing national and cultural borders, the concept implies a critical perspective
not only on language and culture but on the power dynamic between them,
and the societal issues this creates. GC has been conceived as an ethos “a set
of ethical principles underscoring the connection between democracy, social

justice, equity and solidarity” (Tarozzi & Torres, 2016, p. 14). Thus, Global
citizenship or Intercultural citizenship education extends far beyond what
could at this stage be considered outmoded concepts of language and culture
education: “GCE is an educative concept … grounded in the assumption that
today people in the process of learning live in a global context and, even if in
an unequal way, interact at a planetary level” (ibid., p. 11).
These worthy educational aspirations have, inevitably, been taken up as
‘business opportunities’ as the tertiary education sector spotted the poten‑
tial of markets like China and the Middle East and did their utmost to attract
people from there. Universities in Britain host thousands of Chinese students
each year – a record 151,690 came to the UK in 2022 and over 125,000
came from India and Southeast Asia (Study in UK, 2023). The situation
has been similar Europewide, with over 303,000 Chinese students reported
pre‑pandemic, in 2015, in countries including France, Sweden, Germany,
and Ireland (Xinhua, 2019). In the USA too, China is the number one ori‑
gin country for international students, representing 31% of all international
students in 2016. This may, however, shift in the light of recent changes in
the country’s educational and migration policies. In 2014, Chinese overseas
students accounted for 14% of all international students in the world.
However, the management of diversity and cultural differences in
third‑level institutions appears, overall, to be inadequate. ‘Cultural prepa‑
ration’ offered to Chinese students in preparation for exchange to Britain,
for example, is basically learning facts about the UK that have little cultural
value for everyday life. Support for Chinese students at UK Universities,
while improving as understanding has developed of the multiple problems
they face including emotional, cultural as well as academic issues, remains
insufficient (this is the conclusion of a 2006 report on universities in the
UK, for instance). In other parts of the world, such as the USA, many
universities do not provide adequate initiatives to sufficiently help interna‑
tional students adapt to life in a new country. Reports on the integration
of international students into their new environment in places like the UK,
Australia, New Zealand, and the USA suggest that lack of engagement be‑
tween international and domestic students remains an issue. In some situ‑
ations, international students still tend to socialise only among themselves,
in monocultural groups, or as an international student body, thus not fully
exploiting the intercultural potential of the overseas experience.
The digital environment

As we have discussed above, one of the key drivers of globalisation is tech‑
nology. The first e‑mail was sent only 50 years ago by Ray Tomlinson
(O’Regan, 2018) and in that relatively short timespan, our communication

patterns have changed tremendously. It is without doubt that the develop‑
ment and spread of information technology and digital communication has
changed not only the ways we interact with each other but also how we un‑
derstand and enact cultures in our everyday lives. With the move to a more
global cultural village, we have had to reinterpret what it means to belong
to a cultural group. The boundaries between how we have understood ‘us’
and ‘others’ have been shifting as “representations of other cultures on the
internet have made the foreign both more familiar and more stereotypical”
(Kramsch & Uryu, 2012, p. 213). This has led to the creation of ‘third
spaces’ or ‘third places’ where distinct national cultures do not exist any‑
more and hybridity is the norm.
Communication technology has indeed brought the world closer to‑
gether and it has shaped how we use language in our everyday communica‑
tion. It has also had an impact on education and created opportunities for
language learning to go beyond the physical boundaries of the classroom.
The outside world is now available to learners in an instant and the internet
has taken them to places where they have never dreamt of going – and to
where some of them will never ever venture. This has brought about new
educational formats, such as online intercultural exchange, “engaging lan‑
guage learners in interaction and collaborative project work with partners
from other cultures through the use of online communication tools such as
e‑mail, videoconferencing and discussion forums” (O’Dowd, 2007, p. 4).
This way of learning offers students the opportunity to engage and commu‑
nicate with people from all over the world while they negotiate and partici‑
pate in knowledge construction. Moreover, online communication can lead
to learners constructing an identity as a user of the second language beyond
the classroom – as a global citizen, in other words.
The idea of the internet as an intercultural space inspires educators in
the field. Holliday (2016, p. 257), for example, sees the internet itself as a
culture, “a place where culture is created and recreated”. Therefore, he goes
on, it is not surprising that a new branch of ethnography, virtual ethnog‑
raphy, i.e. the study of the “sociocultural dimensions of the internet” is a
thriving new field. If so, what does this mean for the language teacher? And
for our context, what does it mean for intercultural communication? How
will concepts like ‘cultural hybridity’ and ‘third places’ fit – and/or be af‑
fected by – the online environment? More prosaically, how can practitioners
tap into the ‘natural’ multiculturalism of the online environment to nurture
intercultural competence?
Educators were not long in spotting the potential of social media plat‑
forms such as WhatsApp, Twitter, or Facebook which offer groupings
based on common interests and a shared environment to any and all online
inhabitants. These have been seen, in fact, to offer virtual versions of the
sort of aspirational ‘third spaces’ discussed above, where cultural hybridity
is the norm. What is more, they are perfectly authentic, as Godwin‑Jones
(2019, p. 12) argues, citing Benson and colleagues:
In our real world and virtual lives, we are inevitably drawn into member‑
ship in small cultures that develop and dissolve spontaneously. Those
groups can have influences—sustaining or temporary—on our values and
behaviors […] Cultural norms and behaviors are not static and, in fact,
in learning a new language, learners “may be modified by their ongoing
engagement with target language cultures” in a bidirectional process.
(Benson, Chik, & Lim, 2003, p. 24)
The potential of the digital world to influence cultural perspectives would

seem to be a reality, especially given the increased online presence of the
current generation who go so far as to blend the ‘real’ and the ‘virtual’ in
a continuous bidirectional feedback loop. This tendency was undoubtedly
accentuated (at the time of writing this book) by months and months of
online learning and other activity as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic
of 2020–2021. Moreover, the online activity of this generation has transi‑
tioned markedly from the written word to visual representation, via artefacts
like memes and short videos (hence the rise of the video‑sharing social net‑
working service TikTok during the 2020s).
A crucial aspect of navigating the digital world, and one which as educa‑
tors we cannot neglect, is, therefore, (critical) digital literacy. Digital literacy
was traditionally defined along the lines of “the individual and social skills
needed to effectively interpret, manage, share and create meaning in the
growing range of digital communication channels” (Dudeney, Hockly, &
Pegrum, 2013, p. 2). However, the skill of evaluating online information
critically was seen as essential considering the overload of information us‑
ers encounter, hence ‘critical’ digital literacy. In expanding it to fit this new
environment, another change was that ‘literacy’ became ‘literacies’, to dis‑
tinguish it from its traditional conceptualisation as a static phenomenon.
Going further, today’s (critical digital) ‘literacies’ are not merely skills of
‘consumption’ but ones of ‘production’, embracing online creativity – of
everything ranging from language use to remixing, to creating avatars and
gaming. The concept has nevertheless not subsumed the traditional idea
of literacy which still seems to prevail in language classrooms, especially in
foreign language classrooms, or ones that emphasise functional literacy such
as writing for academic purposes.
‘Critical digital literacies’ can be broadly glossed as abilities to discern,
evaluate, and understand as well as to create meanings encoded in the
different forms of media that make up the online environment. It is, in

particular, the multimodal characteristics of this environment that have re‑
quired this extension of the concept of literacy. Multimodal online con‑
tent – in the form of audio, audio‑visual, graphic as well as text in multiple
genres – delivers meanings on many different levels, as will be elaborated
in the section on Semiotics later on. Such content contains sociocultural
realities that “depict particular ideological and cultural values both overtly
and covertly” (Kusumaningputri & Widodo, 2018, p. 51) and can only
be accessible to learners if they are trained both in the skills of digital lit‑
eracy and have intercultural competence. Critical digital literacies, therefore,
equip students working online with “the ability to travel across diverse com‑
munities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and
following alternative norms” (Jenkins, 2009, p. 4).
As communication networks spread across and among global communi‑
ties, critical digital literacy has become an essential 21st century life skill; and
given the normalisation of technology use in the classroom, there is a clear
need for training in these skills across the curriculum at all educational levels.
Critical digital literacy is just one in the armoury of skills required to
function effectively in the increasingly globalised world we have portrayed
here. It can be seen as part of an overarching skill set that we conceive as
intercultural competence – which we pursue below.
Towards a conceptualisation of ‘intercultural competence’1

The theoretical concept at the heart of this book is interculturality, which
can be understood as a process of critically interrogating (perceived) cul‑
tural differences (Holliday, 2019), that is, acquiring a critical awareness
of our own and (an)other culture/s and achieving a positioning between
them. In terms of skills, this is commonly described as intercultural com‑
petence, a concept that has been heavily theorised and described. Seminal
early work in this area is Byram’s (1997) model of intercultural commu‑
nicative competence (ICC) (see Figure 1.1). This broke down intercultural
competence as consisting of a combination of linguistic, sociolinguistic, and
discourse competences that enabled effective and appropriate communica‑
tion between people from different countries, cultures, and L1s. The ICC
model sparked many others over the years, and itself has been endlessly
interpreted and redefined, in particular, in recent years, to keep in step with
the globalised world of increasingly multilingual populations that we have
characterised above. As we noted there, this has seen the emergence of con‑
cepts such as intercultural citizenship, (e.g. Byram, 2014) global citizenship,
and even ‘digital citizenship’, referring to increased habitation of that thriv‑
ing intercultural space, the internet. Indeed, the terminology around the
FIGURE 1.1 Model of ICC (Byram, 1997, p. 73)
competences required for intercultural interaction has proliferated to the

extent that over 50 different terms are now in use (Fantini, 2020).
In the light of such evolutions in the terminology and concepts, there is
clearly a need to re‑assess the notion of intercultural competence if we are
to arrive at a useable, contemporary model that we can apply to the design
of materials. Using Byram’s still‑influential 1997 ICC model as the ‘base‑
line’ (represented in Figure 1.1), if we look to its core, we find that ‘com‑
petence’ is comprised of what Byram terms ‘savoirs’ (from the French to
know): a set of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and awareness relating to how
we learn about cultures. Byram has always insisted on the centrality of the
last ‘savoir’, (savoir s’engager) cultural awareness, or as he conceives it criti-
cal cultural awareness (CCA); “an ability to evaluate, critically and on the
basis of an explicit, systematic process of reasoning, values present in one’s
own and other countries and cultures” (Byram, 2021). With a revision from
its original definition to emphasise the importance of systematicity in evalu‑
ation, and that it is effectively an analytical skill, CCA remains symbolically
FIGURE 1.2 A+ASK Model: Dimensions of Intercultural Competence (Fantini,

2009, p. 199)
and meaningfully at the heart of Byram’s model, illustrating that it is central

to achieving intercultural competence.
We see a similar foregrounding of cultural awareness in another
much‑cited model, the A+ASK model (Fantini, 2009) (represented in
Figure 1.2). Here we see cultural awareness (represented as ‘A+’ in the
model) placed at the core of a symbiotic interaction between attitude (af‑
fect) (‘A’), skills (‘S’), and knowledge (‘K’) – these constituting dimensions
of intercultural competence. Cultural ‘knowledge’ in Fantini’s model (as in
that of Byram, 1997) refers to the cognitive domain, representing learning
about and understanding of intercultural concepts (such as cultural norms,
sets of values etc.) which are precursors to cultural awareness. Building
up such knowledge calls on high‑level cognitive (thinking) skills such as
analysing, interpreting, evaluating, and relating. This ‘cultural knowledge’,
interacting with the affective domain makes for the sort of attitudinal char‑
acteristics such as respect, openness, empathy, and tolerance of difference
which define cultural awareness.
The concept of CCA thus figures at the core of seminal conceptual mod‑
els of ICC and is quite accessible as described within them. CCA would
seem to be a feasible pedagogic goal, an essential first step towards the
more comprehensive one of ICC. Focusing on developing this central skill
sidesteps the language development dimensions of ICC and ‘critical cul‑
tural awareness‑raising’ is also more generalisable in terms of the educa‑
tional sphere. We thus propose a working definition of CCA drawn from
the above discussions:
A broadened knowledge and understanding of cultures, both one’s own

and other people’s, and the capacity to analyse and perceive all of these
objectively and non‑judgmentally.
CCA as thus described is quite an accessible objective for the activities in

Part II. A couple of terminological notes; cultural awareness would seem to
incorporate the notion of ‘criticality’ so it is implicitly equivalent to CCA,
which emphasises the notion of an analytical approach more explicitly. As
a commonly found companion term, intercultural awareness will be used
interchangeably with cultural awareness, as it similarly refers to an apprecia‑
tion of correspondences between one’s own and other cultures.
With the objective of raising cultural awareness as just defined, the activities
proposed in the book do not have a specific focus on the language develop‑
ment dimensions implied in the broader concept of intercultural competence.
This makes them more generalisable in terms of language proficiency level as
well as educational sphere. Nonetheless, since the activities involve language
interaction, this competence will of course be practised, and some suggestions
will be made for layering on specific language practice activities.
Having described what we mean by intercultural awareness, we will now
look at the key pedagogical concern with regard to integrating its teaching
into the (language) classroom, that is, that it touches the cognitive and af‑
fective ‘nerve’ far more than other subjects.
The role of affect and cognition in (intercultural) learning

That learning involves (critical) thinking and some willing, active engagement
is hardly news to teachers. Both cognition and affect are elements of motiva‑
tion, without which no learning can take place. Their role in education in gen‑
eral was schematised around the middle of the last century in what has become
known as ‘Bloom’s taxonomy of the cognitive domain’ (Bloom, 1956) and as
Krathwohl, Bloom, and Masia’s ‘taxonomy of the affective domain’ (1964).
The taxonomies categorised and ‘ranked’ thinking and affective processes and
described what was involved at each level (see Figures 1.3 and 1.4).
FIGURE 1.3 Revised Bloom’s taxonomy of the cognitive domain based on An‑

derson and Krathwohl (2001)
Valuing
Resonding
Receiving
FIGURE 1.4 Taxonomy of the affective domain of learning (Krathwohl et al., 1964)
In the taxonomy of the cognitive domain, then, the capacity to ‘evalu‑

ate’ ranks more highly as a cognitive skill than merely ‘understanding’; and,
significantly, creativity is ranked as the highest order thinking skill. It may
seem unreasonable to place ‘understanding’ and ‘knowledge’ on the lowest
two steps of the cognitive ladder. However, they are conceived not as sepa‑
rate levels operating in isolation, but as a sequence of processes that build
and depend upon each other in an accumulative way. Thus, in the context
of intercultural learning, we see knowledge about culture/s (the learner’s
and those of others) being acquired and understood to the extent that this
can be applied, analysed, and evaluated. The supremacy of ‘creativity’ at the
top of the taxonomy is therefore that it deploys all the other cognitive skills
and more, in producing something new. To put it in another way, Bloom’s
taxonomy implies a non‑linear model in which subsequent stages are always
more than the sum of the stages that precede them. Hence the importance
attached to creative tasks in learning in general and, for our purposes, in
intercultural learning. We acknowledge this and provide many examples of
creativity in the activities in Part II, such as Activity 14, ‘Combo culture’
or Activity 22 ‘The smelly socks group’, and in particular in the section on
learner‑generated materials.
The same progression is true of the taxonomy of affective processes, de‑
signed to schematise how noticing (at the lowest level) progresses to response
which can then lead to ‘valuing’, acceptance, and finally the topmost affective
status, ‘characterisation’ – signifying openness or willingness to change.
Although the taxonomies are depicted, discussed, and seem to be ar‑
ranged in a rather linear fashion here, this is slightly misleading. One may
assume that ‘climbing’ the different levels is a one‑way avenue and students’
progress in a steady order from one stage to the other until they reach
the top. This can be far from the truth. In reality, thinking and learning,
both being complex phenomena, do not take such a direct path. There are
recurring cycles which require learners to revisit earlier levels; there are leaps
in which certain levels are skipped only to return to at a later stage. Further‑
more, although the visual representations of the models put ‘creativity’ and
‘valuing’ at the top, it does not mean that the other, lower levels, are not
equally as complex and important as those at the pinnacle.
The two taxonomies have become cornerstones of educational curricu‑
lum design, functioning as educational objectives (their original purpose)
and also concretised as sets of trigger words (‘analyse’, ‘rank’, etc.) for use
in learning tasks. While the two taxonomies were developed and presented
as separate entities, cognitive and affective processes of course ‘operate’ in
tandem in the human mind, calibrated according to the task being tack‑
led. What is more, the taxonomies are a perfect fit for the description and
analysis of the processes of developing intercultural awareness. They help
rationalise what intercultural learning involves, allow us to gauge the rela‑
tive significance of the various processes, and alert us to potential sticking
points in their progression. Therefore, they can be used as reference points
for our thinking about, and planning for, intercultural learning. These in‑
sights, finally, can inform materials design (see Activity Set (C) in Part II).
All this must necessarily be matched with our original conceptualisation
of intercultural competence. We have seen the place of ‘cultural knowledge’
in seminal models of ICC (Byram, 1997; Fantini, 2009), which calls on
cognitive processes. Layered into this, in both these models we have affec‑
tive processes; ‘savoirs’engager’ in Byram’s model and ‘attitude (affect)’ in
Fantini’s. It is the interconnectedness or symbiosis of the two, cognitive and
affective processes, that builds intercultural awareness. This is the ‘place’
where new cultural knowledge can be examined against prior opinions and
prejudices and where one’s own cultural assumptions might be scrutinised
and challenged.
The power of the affective domain in particular in influencing cultural
learning cannot be underestimated. For it is responses to cultural knowl‑
edge – accepting, valuing, empathising – that are core characteristics of
intercultural competence/awareness. There are few educational domains
where affect carries more weight. Unlike the study of some other disciplines,
such as STEM subjects, intercultural learning reaches within the individual,
risking personal sensitivities, challenging beliefs, or even, possibly, cultural
identities.
This is never more the case than in situations of cross‑cultural transition
(‘acculturation’) which migrants undergo in a new host country. It is in
these contexts that we see the true power of affect and cognition at play
with respect not only to learning but to coping with cultural adaptation.
In their comprehensive synthesis of research in this area, Ward and Szabó
(2019) emphasise, as we have done, that affect and cognition ‘operate
interactively’, plus they add a third component, ‘behaviours’, as a key aspect

of acculturation. While discussing the psychology of acculturation is rather
beyond the scope of this book, we will briefly consider it with respect to
intercultural learning – and interested readers are referred to works such as
Ward and Szabó (2019).
Chapter: Affect, Behavior, Cognition, and Development: Adding to the Alphabet

of Acculturation (Ward & Szabó, 2019).
The major theoretical approaches to [studying] “cultures in contact”…
stress and coping, with their emphasis on the emotional responses to
cross‑cultural transition; culture learning, with its emphasis on the acquisi‑
tion of culture‑specific skills and appropriate behaviors; cultural orientations
and intercultural relations, with their emphasis on cognitions, how one sees
one’s cultural self, one’s cultural group and other cultural groups, and the
psychological and social consequences of these perceptions and cognitions;
and developmental processes, with an emphasis on process‑in‑context,
including how cultural orientations are learned and experienced (Ward &
Szabó, 2019, p. 641).
The experience of migration and subsequent cross‑cultural transition varies

enormously, depending on the individual’s circumstances. These can range
from the most ‘benign’ migration, taking the opportunity for professional
promotion, for instance, to the most distressing, fleeing a country at war.
Any and all of these situations involve some level of individual anxiety as
people confront their cultural and linguistic identities. The experience of an
economic migrant is famously charted in Eva Hoffman’s Lost in Translation
(1989) in which the young Eva struggles to reconcile her former ‘Polish
self’ with the new English‑speaking identity she is adopting in the USA.
The experience of refugees forced to abruptly re‑locate is unquestionably
many degrees more traumatic. This has been heavily researched in the area
of psychology (see Ward & Szabó above, for example) but also in the area of
language teaching, where, in countries like Australia, New Zealand, and
Britain the ESOL sector has been the one ‘on the front line’ of coping with
refugees and asylum seekers, most recently in the migrant waves of the past
decade or so. In these countries, refugees have often to deal not only with
the challenges of learning the language and adopting the culture but also
with discrimination and even hostility from ‘local’ populations. The emo‑
tional toll this takes on the individual in terms of the effect on their cultural
and linguistic identity is charted in accounts in published volumes in the
area, such as Cooke and Peutrell (2019) and Mishan (2019). Conflict was
a commonly reported emotion in these reports – mothers’ guilt at failing
to maintain heritage languages with children, for example, while forced to

acknowledge that English fluency was what mattered in their new culture
(Cooke et al., 2019). Being shamed when speaking their first language in
public was another common experience (see some accounts of this earlier).
These can often be coupled with the traumas of fleeing persecution and
losing family, only to be further tortured by uncertainty about status in the
host country. Young unaccompanied minors finding themselves in the UK
are described by Idle and Ma (2019) as having ‘fractured’ identities; “we
came here broken” says one young refugee (Ma, 2018). This is not merely
their linguistic or cultural selves, but their very ‘selfhood’, “which is often
multiply fractured and incomplete” (Idle & Ma, 2019, p. 162).
It goes without saying that when teaching students with these back‑
grounds, there must be the strictest consideration of the techniques used
in language and/or intercultural learning tasks. In Western contexts at
least, the sorts of techniques deployed tend to default to ‘Communicative’
methodology. But CLT was born of Western traditions rooted in discourses
of psychotherapy, which uphold emotional frankness and self‑disclosure.
These made for techniques so recognisable to the approach, ‘personalisa‑
tion’ (often personal revelation) and ‘sharing’. ‘Personalisation’ activities are
self‑evidently risky for students in refugee situations – at worst (inadvert‑
ently) causing them to revisit traumatic events and experiences. One ESOL
practitioner, for instance, describes a refugee, estranged from her family,
bursting into tears in a speaking examination when asked to discuss ‘holi‑
days’ (Grimes, 2019, p. 26). Such practices can simply be unfamiliar and un‑
comfortable to some cultures: “‘In Syria we tell our problems to the wall’”
observed one student in an ESOL programme for refugees (Ćatibušić, Gal‑
lagher, & Karazi, 2019a, p. 298). Another potentially culturally sensitive
aspect of such activities is that some of them may appear as ‘games’, clashing
with cultural expectations of teaching and learning formats. Ćatibušić, Gal‑
lagher, and Karazi (2019b), for example, report ESOL student feedback
that their teachers’ Communicative approach was perceived as too “happy
clappy” (p. 147).
Respect for students’ personal situations and for their cultural pedagogi‑
cal conditioning, their expectations of conduct and practice in the learning
environment, is therefore paramount. As portrayed by Krashen long ago
(1985), a notional ‘affective filter’ can be seen to control learning, in that
only when the student is ‘at ease’ (conceived by Krashen as a ‘lowered affec‑
tive filter’) can learning take place. Evaluating the cultural appropriateness
of an activity for their students is as much at the teacher’s discretion as gaug‑
ing whether a task fits their language proficiency level – and is, if anything,
more important. Over‑solicitousness with regard to proficiency level, in fact,
risks “impoverishing the learning experience” (Tomlinson, 2008, p. 319). It
has been a long‑held criticism of language teaching coursebooks that they

tend to equate language proficiency level with intellectual ability: “many
materials, especially those developed for linguistically low‑level learners, un‑
derestimate the intellectual and emotional maturity of their target learners”
(ibid.). In so doing, this practice risks failing to stimulate the higher order,
critical thinking skills portrayed in Bloom’s taxonomy as so vital for learn‑
ing – and all the more so for fostering intercultural awareness. More worry‑
ingly, it risks missing the opportunity to take account of prior knowledge,
“the totality of the experiences that have shaped the learner’s identity and
cognitive functioning” (Cummins et al., 2005, p. 38), which plays such an
essential role in all learning, and in intercultural learning in particular. It is
no coincidence that the sorts of activities successfully used in even the most
sensitive of learning situations – such as with the young refugees in Idle and
Ma’s account mentioned above – build on prior knowledge and deploy the
topmost thinking skill, giving the learners “opportunities to choose what
aspects of their stories they want to share, through the use of creative arts”
(Idle & Ma, 2019, p. 164).
Achieving appropriate intellectual challenges is only one of a number of
issues with the published language teaching materials commonly used in lan‑
guage and culture and ESOL classrooms. Books destined for international
markets, such as so‑called ‘Global’ ELT coursebooks, insist on retaining tra‑
ditional Communicative practices, although these are manifestly unsuitable
to many contexts in which they are used, as illustrated above. On the other
hand, they are scrupulously sensitive to textual content. Materials designed
specifically for ESOL, catering to the migrant demographic described ear‑
lier, tend to do this by skirting around the issue, sticking to practical sup‑
ports for these learners in areas such as shopping, education, local transport,
neighbourhood, health, family and so on (drawing on the main official re‑
source for ESOL in Britain, Excellence Gateway, n.d). As for international
coursebooks designed for English language teaching, the tongue‑in‑cheek
acronym, PARSNIP (politics, alcohol, religion, sex, narcotics, ‘isms, pork) was
coined to represent topics that ELT coursebook publishers deem ‘taboo’
to avoid upsetting cultural sensitivities in their target markets. Practition‑
ers using their own materials also need to beware of cultural sensitivities.
A teacher in Malaysia, for example, was re‑posted from his school in 2021
for using a Halloween‑themed lesson; a British school teacher was arrested
in Sudan in 2007 for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear ‘Moham‑
mad’ (“‘Muhammad’ teddy teacher arrested”, 2007). This leads teachers
in contexts like this to ‘self‑censor’ so as not to risk o ffence – or, indeed,
punishment.
The downside of such ‘censorship’, however, whether in published or
teacher‑produced materials, is effective sterilisation of classroom discourse.
This has been much critiqued in the literature on language coursebooks

(see, for example, Akbari, 2008; Kiss & Mizusawa, 2018; Mishan, 2021). In
terms of our concern here, the interplay of affect and critical thinking with
intercultural learning, the very topics that are thus suppressed are, arguably,
those with the greatest prospect of building cultural knowledge, stimulating
critical thinking, and sparking affective response. It is clearly a question of
balance – ‘over‑protecting’ students can be seen as inhibiting the develop‑
ment of a broader, critical worldview, which is surely the overall objective
of education. What is more, with ever‑expanding global penetration of the
internet and mobile phone services, this generation of students is getting
to experience the world far more widely (albeit vicariously), via the digital
environment.
Section 2: Analysing intercultural materials

In the first part of Section 1, we established working definitions for the
core concepts underpinning this book. Here we look at how to analyse
whether – and how successfully – these concepts underpin the materials
that we use in the language classroom. In this section, then, we describe the
basic techniques that can be used for the analysis and evaluation of language
teaching materials. We discuss some key terminology before we look at the
most common approaches to evaluation.
Materials analysis/evaluation
The professional literature which investigates language teaching materials
uses the words ‘analysis’ and ‘evaluation’ rather liberally, especially when
it comes to the cultural content or interculturality in materials. Although
these terms seem to be interchangeable, upon a closer examination we can
see that there are some points that set them apart. Here we adopt Weninger
and Kiss’ (2015, pp. 51–52) interpretation of the terms. According to them,
materials analysis “is concerned with identifying general trends using differ‑
ent theories as the framework of investigation, while evaluation is situated
in the practice and context of the language teacher to offer practical and im‑
mediately applicable answers”. Their definition echoes Tomlinson’s (2012)
classification, which suggests differentiating between local and universal cri‑
teria when analysing a textbook. The local criteria, he argues, are directly
linked to the educational context in which teachers work with a particular
group of students, whereas the universal criteria are applicable when specific
target users are not identified. In a similar vein, Littlejohn (2022) identifies
materials analysis as an exercise that is general in nature and which focuses
on materials ‘as they are’ and not on their possible applicability as a teaching
tool in a particular educational context. Therefore, while both processes are
important and may use similar tools, they have different objectives. While
practicing classroom teachers may be more concerned with evaluation, re‑
searchers tend to focus on analysis. Here we describe analytical frameworks
that are used to evaluate and analyse language teaching materials and their
cultural components in particular.
Methodological frameworks
There are many published studies that focus on investigating language
teaching materials from a cultural perspective. These may employ a vari‑
ety of techniques and strategies, use multiple theoretical frameworks (or
none at all), and represent different views in their definition of culture. Not
surprisingly, there seems to be a lack of cohesion and connectivity in the

field, which can be best referred to as ‘eclectic’. However, when we look at
the literature published in the past 20 years, we can identify three general
trends. These are: content analysis, and critical discourse analysis, which are
language‑based analytical tools, and semiotic analysis, which studies how
the combination of linguistic and visual signs create potential meanings em‑
bedded in materials. While the first appears to be the most practical for
classroom teachers, the other two also offer meaningful insights, especially
in terms of how visual and language materials are used to promote a certain
ideology, and how learners might make sense of a particular constellation of
task(s), texts, and activities.
Content analysis
Content analysis, as the name suggests, is looking at the content of materials
and it can cover many different aspects. Most studies that use content analy‑
sis as their methodological framework look at materials as representations,
examining “the conceptual structure that a text invokes in particular read‑
ers, the worlds they can imagine, make into their own, and consider real”
(Krippendorff, 2013, p. 66, original emphasis). In other words, content
analysis is usually a critical approach, and it looks at what reality is presented
to the language learner. This is indeed a very important task. Byram and
Esarte‑Sarries (1991, p. 180) argue that language teaching materials should
represent “culture as it is lived and talked about by people who are credible
and recognisable as real human beings”, rather than present an ‘ideal’ world
that is far from reality.
The general approach for those who use content analysis is usually quan‑
titative in nature. The person who conducts the analysis tries to categorise
texts and visuals into distinctive units, usually along nation and culture
boundaries. For example, a study by Yamanaka (2006) aimed to identify
direct and indirect references to countries represented in ELT textbooks in
Japan. Adjectives such as Japanese served as the category head under which
any mention of artefacts, famous people, etc. associated with Japan were col‑
lected. When the categorisation was completed, a frequency count was used
to determine which country, i.e. ‘culture’, was dominant in the textbook.
Matsuda (2002) also used ‘nationality’ in her research to find out what types
of people were portrayed as English speakers in Japanese EFL textbooks.
What we can see from these two examples is that they use culture as na‑
tion culture, which is indeed very common in studies that employ content
analysis. The reason is perhaps the simplicity and straightforwardness this
solution offers. Looking at culture as a static and easily classifiable phenom‑
enon allows its treatment as numbers and renders it countable.
Critical discourse analysis (CDA)

Similar to content analysis, Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is widely used
across social sciences as a research methodology to understand how texts
and discourses contribute to the creation of social realities. Therefore, it
is not surprising that there is a variety of approaches and techniques that
researchers use in order to uncover ideologies hidden (or not so hidden)
in text and discourse. The key assertion that CDA scholars make is that
language is never neutral; it serves the purpose of maintaining the power of
certain groups and by critically analysing it, it is possible to understand how
it is used to maintain dominant ideologies.
An example of how it is done is illustrated in Gulliver’s (2010) study on
40 stories in 24 ESL textbooks for immigrants/newcomers in Canada. He
first coded the stories according to three major themes: immigrants are (a)
successful, (b) not successful, (c) or the outcome of their assimilation is a
mixture of success and failure. He discovered that the stories tend to feature
positive assimilation as legitimate narratives, whereas negative or ambivalent
outcomes are marginalised (Weninger & Kiss, 2015).
Another example of using CDA to examine how culture – and inter‑
cultural communication – is treated in textbooks is the work of Kiss and
Rimbar (2017). They examined one unit of work from a locally produced
ELT textbook published in Malaysia. The unit, Unity in Diversity, was
meant to promote multicultural and racial harmony by offering examples of
how various communities live together peacefully. However, the research‑
ers discovered that the texts only portrayed the three dominant races in the
country: Malays, Chinese, and Indians. The numerous other ethnic groups
co‑existing in the country were not mentioned and were generally invisible
in the textbook. Furthermore, on closer examination, it was pointed out
that Malay cultural practices, i.e. those of the dominant race in the country,
were explained in detail, whereas other cultures were treated off‑handedly.
See the following excerpt, for example:
The food served was of course halal but no beef was served either. The
children performed cultural dances as part of the event. It was refreshing
to see a cross‑cultural performance in which Malay, Chinese, and Indian
dances were performed by children. There was a Chinese girl in baju
kurung, doing a Malay dance, Malay and Indian kids doing the Chinese
fan dance, and a Chinese boy dressed up as a king doing an Indian dance.
(‘Unity in Diversity’, Lim, 2010, p. 136)
First of all, the authors argue that the only non‑English words in the unit are
of Malay or Arabic origin. In the excerpt above, ‘halal’ means food prepared
according to Muslim law, and ‘baju kurung’ refers to a traditional Malay

costume. Second, other culture’s costumes and traditions are not named
and only mentioned in the most generic terms. For example, the Chinese
fan dance is not named, neither is the Indian costume. In sum, CDA looks
at how language is used, and what words are selected to represent ideas
(and ideologies) that the writer would like to support. As Kramsch (1993,
p. 128) says, “each word chosen by the author is selected at the expense of
others that were not chosen”.
The following example is taken from Greta Camase’s (2009) work on a
Romanian textbook written in the 1980s; she took the position that these
textbooks contained intercultural discourses – as could be expected from
foreign language textbooks. She used intertextuality at two levels: she pro‑
vided background information on the wider, sociocultural context in which
the coursebooks were written (i.e. Ceaușescu’s communist Romania) and
also looked at how texts were constructed.
OVER‑REPRESENTATION OF ROMANIANS
First, a sense of superiority materialises simply by counting the number of

texts directly glorifying Romania. Out of a total of twelve readings, seven
praise Romanian history, geography, literature/authors, people, and land‑
marks, and two texts briefly appreciate some of the same matters in other
countries. To begin with, the examples below are excerpts from the texts di‑
rectly describing Romanian culture: history, people, countryside, literature,
and science.
Excerpt 1: Romanian history
And as I grew up and started reading History textbooks I took the brush
and dipped it into the national heroes’ blood and put red on the flag of our
country’s victories (Unit I, The Colours of Our Country, p. 15).
In Excerpt 1, the history of Romanian people is presented as a succes‑
sion of victories accomplished by national heroes. The metaphor of a brush
dipped in blood painting the flag emphasizes the spirit of sacrifice that is for‑
ever remembered in the red of the Romanian flag. The Romanian flag’s colors
(blue, yellow and red) are important symbols of the socialist ideology and are
very often referred to. Red represents history and the national heroes’ blood
as in the example above, yellow is the symbol of wealth in the crops and
fields, and blue represents the clear sky and the Black Sea. Besides heroes,
wealth and peace, the textbook praises the Romanian people’s qualities.
Excerpt 2: Romanian people
First the country… then there are the Romanians themselves, a very hospita‑
ble people pleased you came to see them and anxious to show friendliness.
(Unit II, The Romanians, p. 36).
Praising the Romanians, Excerpt 2 displays an example of the punctua‑
tion the authors of the textbook make use of often: the ellipsis. Within the
text, the literary meaning of the ellipsis may be interpreted as if the audi‑
ence/reader were given some time to dream, to imagine. The text itself
seems to be the main character of the story (as there is no author to begin
with) and it is weaving a paradisiacal image. While the country’s description
is meaningfully replaced by the ellipsis, the description of the Romanians is
made very explicit by the use of the adjectives: hospitable, pleased, and the
collocation – anxious to show friendliness.
(Camase, 2009, pp. 67–68)
Semiotic analysis
A recent framework for the analysis of cultural content and intercultural
learning materials is semiotic analysis. Scholars who choose this form of
analysis argue that language teaching materials should be viewed as signs
that represent reality. They also add that materials can only be understood
if texts, both linguistic and visual, and tasks are treated as one unit which
guides the learners’ meaning‑making processes.
Semiotic analysis identifies three basic elements of semiosis: the object,
the sign, and the interpretant (see Peirce, 1980). The sign stands in the place
of a physical object or an abstract idea whereas the interpretant is the mental
image or understanding that is formed on the basis of the object‑sign rela‑
tionship. In other words, it is the translation of the sign in the mind of the
observer, and to make it more complicated, the interpretant itself has the
potential to become a sign itself, triggering further processes of semiosis.
Thus conceived, semiotics can be understood through a very common
example. Someone sees smoke. In this example, smoke is a sign, whereas
the object it points to is fire. In this case, there is an indexical relationship
between the sign and the object. However, there is no guarantee that every‑
one would interpret smoke in the same way, which means that many inter‑
pretants are possible, based on the observer’s personal experiences, cultural
references, and general knowledge of the world or the context in which they
happen to be. Smoke coming through the chimney of a European home
may be interpreted as the warmth of home, whereas smoke twirling towards
the sky in the morning at an African village might indicate that breakfast is
cooking. Therefore, we can say that the meaning a sign carries always resides
in the person who does the interpretation. This is not different from how
students work with intercultural materials.
When learners look at textbooks they may see the same visuals or read
the same text; however, the meanings they generate through their inter‑
action with these resources could be vastly different. Yet, there are some
commonalities. As Kiss and Weninger point out (2017) there are three lev‑
els of meaning‑making: the universal, the cultural and subcultural, and the
individual.
As an example of semiotic analysis, we present Kiss and Weninger’s (2013)

analysis of a page from the Oxford University Press textbook Engage. They
describe a page from Unit 4: Disaster! (Manin et al., 2011, p. 38).
The top half of the page is occupied by a textbox that contains two large
images of scenes from the movie 2012, as well as a summary of the film’s
plot (about 13 complex sentences long), with the title of the movie also
appearing in large font. In one image, placed as the banner of the text‑
box, we see a man (played by American actor John Cusack) who is car‑
rying a young child on his back, both looking intently in one direction in
the middle of what looks to be a snowstorm. The second image on the
left and under the banner shows a small propeller airplane flying in a city
with skyscrapers collapsing around it. There are three tasks following the
text, all three focusing on checking students’ comprehension.
(Kiss & Weninger, 2013, pp. 22–23)
The authors explain that students in these activities are not free to create their
own meanings although it is very likely that the visuals and the texts the ma‑
terial presents would prompt a chain of semiosis, i.e. interpreting the images
as signs with meanings that relate to their own lives and experiences. In their
engagement with the semiotic resources present in this activity, learners are
not free to create meanings. It is possible that the learners saw the movie and
may want to share what they think about it. They might also recognise the
actor and link him to another movie, e.g. ‘Map to the Stars’ which earned
Cusack the ‘Best performance by an actor in a supporting role’ award at the
Canadian Screen Awards in 2014. Maybe some of the learners are aviation
fans and would identify or discuss the aeroplane seen in the picture. How‑
ever, as Kiss and Weninger (2013) argue, this would not happen unless the
teacher elicits and encourages such discussion and meaning‑making about

the materials at hand.
The first task following the text instructs learners to ‘Read and listen to
the article. Check which natural disasters are in the movie’. Thus any
previous unguided meaning‑making through connotative links is now
firmly redirected towards a focus on denotational content: what the text
is about. Such denotational work is the purpose of the other two tasks on
the page, where students are asked to put sentences in order and then to
answer a set of comprehension questions. Although the text and visuals
may be classified as examples of American culture (as they are based on a
Hollywood movie), they would probably not be seen as cultural informa‑
tion as the text itself is not an explicit passage about a cultural product,
practice or figure. We also want to note that there are no activities in the
following three pages that relate the text or the topic to culture.
(Kiss & Weninger, 2013, p. 23)
In order to exploit the cultural learning potential of the materials, the learn‑
ers’ engagement with the text should start with unguided semiosis which al‑
lows them to interpret visuals and texts without the restrictions a pedagogic
task may impose and which would probably guide them towards denotative
meanings. If it is the movie students are interested in, then they – with the
teacher’s guidance – move beyond the denotative meanings as they engage
with a cultural object (movie) and the textbook images serve as icons rather
than have a simple indexical role pointing to vocabulary presented in the
textbook that students need to master. Such a focus would allow an open
discussion that has the potential to unearth the learners’ cultural beliefs in
connection with the text/images and thus it would provide a possibility for
the cultural meaning potential of the material to be explored.
Section 3: Complex dynamic systems and intercultural

learning
In the first section of Part I, our core concepts, culture, and intercultural
competence, were set in their contextual and theoretical backgrounds. Sec‑
tion 2 proceeded to cover another area essential to the concerns of the
book, methodology for evaluating intercultural materials. In this section,
we propose a particular perspective on intercultural learning through the
lens of complex dynamic systems (CDS). We conclude by amalgamating this
with theoretical aspects from the previous sections to forge a framework and
principles for developing intercultural materials.
What are complex dynamic systems?

James Gleick (1987, p. 5) in his seminal work on complexity theory – then
called chaos theory – states that “chaos is a science of process rather than
state, of becoming rather than being”. What else could describe intercul‑
tural learning – or any learning for that matter – better than this quote?
In education, we are concerned with processes that shape minds and help
the development of ideas, rather than products and states. Although in re‑
cent years standardised assessment has definitely steered education towards
product‑oriented practices, the essence of learning lies in the process itself.
Since the early 1950s complexity theory, also referred to as complexity
science, chaos theory, CDS theory, complex adaptive systems theory, au‑
topoietic systems (biology), non‑linear dynamical systems (mathematics),
and dissipative structures (chemistry) (Davis & Sumara, 2008) has gained
popularity in many different fields (Stanley, 2009), including education, for
example through the work of Davis and Sumara (2005, 2007, 2008, 2012),
Doll (2008), and in applied linguistics, pioneered by Diane Larsen‑Freeman
(see e.g. 1997, 2012). As Shihui and Shaodong (2012, p. 82) state, “[t]he
21st century is called the century of complexity science” in education. As
Davis and Sumara (2005, p. 315) explain:
Education and complexity science share one important theme: They are
both focused on the pragmatics of complex transformation. They both
ask: How can we induce change when dealing with and embedded in
unruly phenomena and systems?
Types of systems
On closer examination, we can find four distinctive systems in our world.
There are simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic systems. Simple sys‑
tems have very few agents – people, objects, concepts, etc. – that interact
with each other in a limited, pre‑arranged manner. There are simple rules
that regulate how they operate, and they produce predictable outcomes.
Clarke and Collins (2007) offer the analogy of a billiard ball travelling on
the table; if we know the origin of the ball, the force with which it was hit,
the direction of movement, the friction between the ball and the table, then
we can calculate exactly where it will come to rest.
Complicated systems contain a much larger number of agents that can inter‑
act with each other in multiple ways. This increased number of agents and inter‑
action, paired with the possibility of different connections and patterns, make a
complicated system more difficult to predict. However, with time and enough
data, one may make intelligent guesses about future outcomes and identify
trends (or orders) that the system is likely to follow. Both simple and compli‑
cated systems obey a ‘central organizer’, a force which sets the rules for interac‑
tion between the agents and controls how that interaction should take shape.
You might have seen a marching band performing in a stadium where the
musicians walk in a neat formation. Suddenly, however, the formation breaks
and they start to criss‑cross each other’s lines, walk in different directions
only to merge again as a unit. Such choreography is carefully planned by
their conductor/choreographer and has been practised for hundreds of hours
before a perfect performance. Now compare this with a flock of starlings.
These birds fly in a neat formation – similar to the marching band in our ex‑
ample – with each bird keeping the same distance from its immediate neigh‑
bours. Suddenly a bird of prey appears and the flight pattern is disrupted,
sending the birds into a spectacular array of formations of swirling shapes as
they try to escape from the predator. The difference between the examples
is that nobody tells the birds what to do and it is impossible to predict which
way the flock (or birds which break off the mass) would fly. There is no central
organiser and this (partly) makes this system complex and dynamic.
Just like complicated systems, CDS also contain many variables and unlim‑
ited interaction between their agents. However, as we explained in the ex‑
ample above, they do not require a central organiser to run themselves: they
self‑organise. This means that they are highly unpredictable; order appears
unexpectedly from the result of agents continuously changing through their
interaction with each other.
Finally, we should mention chaotic systems. These have many variables
and agents with unlimited interaction between them. These systems, in con‑
trast to complex systems, do not have the ability for self‑organisation, there‑
fore they never settle into or show orderly behaviour. They are too dynamic
to store information that would lead to patterns and, eventually, some order.
TABLE 1.1 A summary of systems
Order Complexity Chaos

Simple systems Complicated Complex dynamic Chaotic systems
systems systems
Few variables Many variables Many variables Many variables
(agents) (agents) (agents) (agents)
Limited interaction A variety of Unlimited interaction Unlimited
Predictable interaction patterns interaction
outcomes Outcomes are Unpredictable patterns
Central organisation difficult to outcomes Unpredictable
predict (emergence) outcomes (with
Central Self‑organisation no emergence)
organisation No organisation
Characteristics of complex dynamic (learning) systems

There is a certain number of characteristics that can be used to describe CDS,
including learning systems that comprise knowers and knowledge (Davis &
Sumara, 2007). We adopt the terminology used by Larsen‑Freeman (1997,
2012) to describe complex phenomena, although there is a variety depend‑
ing on how the concept was adopted in different disciplines. Therefore,
when talking about CDS we will use the following terms: dynamic, com‑
plex, non‑linear, emergent, unpredictable, sensitive to initial conditions,
open, self‑organising, feedback‑sensitive, and adaptive. In the following we
will briefly describe these terms and illustrate them with examples from lan‑
guage teaching and learning that are presented in the text boxes below.
A learning community is always characterised by dynamic change. As
students learn and interact with ideas they change. Their schemas, i.e. pat‑
terns of thought that help organise new ideas and information, expand,
and how they create meanings evolves using previous knowledge and cre‑
ating new connections that help them recall what they have learned. In‑
dividual students in the community will act differently according to their
mood, physical health and well‑being, their motivational levels, and the
ever‑changing relationships in the community.
CDS, as the name indicates, are, well, dynamic. The agents in the sys‑
tem – which can be people, objects, molecules, ideas, etc. – interact with
each other and, as a result of this interaction, they are constantly changing,
reorganising themselves. The system strives to achieve equilibrium, but it
will never reach it, it will never settle into order. Should it become stable, it
would cease to be a complex dynamic system. Constant change is therefore
one of the significant characteristics of CDS.
A possible way to illustrate the dynamic change in a learning system could be

through language learning motivation. Motivation is a concept that is based
on a combination of willingness to learn and the effort that one invests in
learning. It is also influenced by a multitude of factors (both motivational and
demotivational) originating from the language learner (e.g. psychological
and physiological factors, such as mood or physical health) and from the en‑
vironment, which includes both the classroom and the broader social/cultural
context in which the learner is situated. Happiness, feedback from teachers, a
sunny day, meeting friends, a good grade, etc. can all contribute to a higher
state of motivation, whereas feeling tired, sick, getting negative feedback from
peers, a fall out with friends could dampen the learner’s will to study.
While language learning motivation can be seen as generally stable over
a period of time (e.g. comparing learners’ motivational levels at the begin‑
ning and at the end of a term or semester), it can dramatically change on a
daily basis between completely motivated to completely demotivated (Kiss
& Pack, 2023). This means that in the motivational system, change is con‑
stant and the system will never reach a stable and extreme state of motiva‑
tion, i.e. being ultimately motivated or demotivated. In the first case, it is not
possible to say that a learner cannot be more motivated than a particular
level, and therefore, the potential for change is always present. In the second
case, in an ultimately demotivated state, we cannot talk about a motiva‑
tional system anymore; the system ceases to exist.
Complexity refers to the apparently limitless connections agents can make

and maintain, in a seemingly unorganised pattern. Simply having a signifi‑
cant number of agents with multiple and ever‑changing interaction patterns
make the system complex and unpredictable. The connections are non‑lin‑
ear, organised in a network where information can travel between the agents
following multiple routes. This also allows feedback loops, which means that
as information is passed on from one agent in the system to other ones, it
gets back to where it started and has an impact on the point of origin as well.
To illustrate complexity and unpredictability, think of any lesson that

you have taught or observed. How many different elements contributed to
the way that particular lesson turned out? Is it only the students and the
teacher? The materials? The time of the day? The weather? The lesson the
students had before or after? A mobile phone that started ringing in the mid‑
dle of the class? As you can see there are a myriad possible factors that can
impact the learning process and although you may have the same lesson
plan and materials, no two lessons will ever be the same. Such complexity
in education makes learning outcomes difficult to determine; it is simply
impossible to say what each and every student will learn. What they actually
take away from the lessons is unpredictable.
Non‑linearity also leads to other interconnected phenomena. CDS produce

outcomes which are larger than the sum of the parts that make them. There‑
fore, order can emerge unpredictably from interactions; this is called emer‑
gence, a state when the system displays and holds a particular order, or
pockets of order, for a while before it dissolves into a more chaotic state
again. The fact that order can emerge in the system points to self‑organisa‑
tion, as it happens without the presence of a central controller or a com‑
mand that could govern it.
Probably one of the simplest ways to illustrate the concept of emergent learn‑
ing is through a game called ‘straight to cross, cross to straight’. 8–10 players
sit in a large circle, and at least 2 of them know the rule that the other players
need to work out. One of the players needs to pass or throw a ball to another
player and calls out any of four possible positions: straight to cross, cross to
straight, straight to straight, or cross to cross. The rule is actually very simple;
the calls are determined by the position of the legs of the player who has the
ball and the one to whom it is passed. If the legs are crossed (even at the ankles)
the ball moves from ‘cross’ to either a similar position of ‘cross’ or to ‘straight’,
if the other player’s feet are placed on the floor next to each other. As the game
gets going, players are trying to work out the rules by making different random
calls which are either approved – if the leg positions match the call – or rejected
by the ones who know the rules. After a few calls, some players think that they
have discovered an order, a pattern in the game and indeed, some moves seem
to satisfy the rule they work out by observation. However, more often than
not, their theory does not hold, and they are forced to come up with a new
hypothesis based on what they see. In other words, order (and in this case un‑
derstanding) seemingly emerges from a random number of interactions and
moves, only to disappear and give space to another pattern.
In language learning, Scott Thornbury and Luke Meddings’ Dogme ELT
approach illustrates emergent learning very eloquently (see for example,
Thornbury, 2013; Thornbury & Meddings, 2001, 2009).
Finally, we should discuss openness and adaptability. Openness refers to

the fact that CDS are capable of incorporating new agents into their struc‑
ture. They acquire new agents from other systems with which they interact.
They change and are being constantly changed by other dynamic systems
in which they operate or which operate inside them. However, this interde‑
pendency of systems should not be imagined as a hierarchical relationship.
They reflect a fractal structure, which shows self‑similarity and nestedness
(see Mandelbrot, 1982). This suggests that such systems cannot be un‑
derstood by a typical Newtonian, reductionist approach of breaking down
something to component parts. Each level of the system shows just as much
complexity as the previous one.
What happens when a new student joins a class in your school? How do
the other students react to the newcomer? There will be those who wel‑
come him/her and those who will keep their distance. In any case, the new
student has the potential to impact the existing social patterns within the
group by joining some and staying out of certain groups. By doing so, they
have the potential to link small groups of students who may not have been
linked to each other previously and, at the same time, they can also sever
connections between others. The whole class and the smaller groups are
complex structures and systems just as much as the individual students that
make them.
Adaptability refers to the possibility of the system changing itself in response

to its growth (that links to its openness), and interaction with other systems.
New connections are forged within its structure, and agents may change
their roles and functions depending on new demands. In a well‑working
complex dynamic system, there is always a surplus which guarantees the op‑
eration of the system even when some agents are non‑operational or when
established connections are severed. Since the system is sensitive to initial
conditioning, it is essential that it changes and adapts to new challenges and
changing environments.
Complex dynamic systems and education

Unlike in hard sciences, complexity theory in the social sciences is used as
a metaphor to explain phenomena that are hard to understand and exam‑
ine through other conceptual frameworks. The idea of using metaphors for
describing educational phenomena is not new, as Davis and Sumara (2008)

explain. We have long been using references to students in terms of a mys‑
tical bestowal (e.g. “She’s gifted. He has little talent.”), luminosity (e.g.
“He’s brilliant. She’s a little dim.”), speediness (e.g. “She’s quick. He’s a lit‑
tle slow.”), acuity (e.g. “He’s sharp. She’s a little dull.”), and a capacity (e.g.
“She’s got lots of smarts. He’s lacks potential.”).
When we examine the characteristics of CDS and reflect them on an edu‑
cational context it is difficult not to see the uncanny similarities that would
warrant further and deeper study. For example, any educational scenario
is sensitive to initial conditioning. The same lesson, taught by the same
teacher using the same materials would yield completely different learning
experiences when it is taught to two different student groups, or to the
same group but at different times (first lesson in the morning as opposed
to a lesson just before the lunch break), or when it is delivered after a tiring
physical education lesson, or when the students have a difficult test in the
next period.
It is also unpredictable what individual students learn in a lesson, regard‑
less of the learning outcomes teachers set. As individual learners – each a
complex dynamic system of cells and molecules on a physiological level,
and a similarly complex system as far as ideation and knowing are con‑
cerned – interact with the teaching materials, their peers, and the teacher,
different understandings and insights will ‘emerge’ and there is no knowing
how these are formed in relation to personal interests, prior knowledge, af‑
fective and cognitive factors, etc. As learners interact with each other – or
are just present in the classroom – they impact other learners and the teach‑
ers as well. These undoubtedly are related to the concepts of non‑linearity,
self‑organisation, sensitivity to initial conditions and feedback loops, and
adaptability.
Similar examples would be easy to find in readers’ own practices, we are
certain of that. Therefore, we wish to emphasise the idea that educational
practice and learning – including learning IC – is better understood through
the lens of CDS theory than through a reductionist, Newtonian model that
insists on breaking down complex phenomena into their components in order
to understand how they work. We believe reductionism is not only impossible
when it comes to learning systems, but it is counterproductive. For exam‑
ple, when we consider the relationship of a knowledge production system
(knowers) and the connection they have with the knowledge we may see the
“dynamic and reflexive relationships” (Davis, 2008, p. 53) between the two.
Knowers are physical entities, while knowledge is an ideational system.
Yet, Davis (2008) argues that although they are very different, they are
also inseparable from each other. Through the interaction of these two sys‑
tems “they are enfolded in and unfold from one another” (Davis, 2008,
p. 53). We will not understand how intercultural learning takes place if we
ignore the ‘knowers’ and will also not get better insights if we purely focus
on ‘knowledge’ itself. Therefore, models that try to represent intercultural
competence as individual‑oriented lists and trait concepts that dwell in the
individual learner only, cannot realistically capture the complexities of inter‑
cultural knowledge systems.
Culture as a complex dynamic system

There have been many different models of IC, intercultural learning, etc.;
some of which were discussed in the section defining intercultural compe‑
tence. The problem with these models is that they tend to look at compe‑
tencies as discrete learning objectives to be mastered, and once all these
are learned, intercultural competence is achieved. We argue that this sepa‑
ratist view does not reflect the complexities of learning and the complexi‑
ties of the learner. Therefore, we would propose a new approach which
relates cultural learning and intercultural competence to CDS and reflects
our understanding of learning in the 21st century. Furthermore, we argue
that modelling, or rather, interpreting a model is somehow going against
complex phenomena. Models, by nature, are reductionist and they tend to
simplify and generalise. Therefore, how could they be used to illustrate very
complex and dynamic phenomena?
Furthermore, culture viewed as a complex phenomenon should
be imagined as a network of interacting, interlocked complex systems.
Furstenberg (2010, p. 329) describes it as “a highly complex, elusive,
multi‑layered notion that encompasses many different and overlapping
areas and that inherently defies easy categorisation and classification”.
As an open and dynamic system, culture is bound to take on informa‑
tion, practices, and customs from other cultures it is interacting with, and
other cultures are also influenced by its own features. The extent to which
it happens depends on the strength of the influence and the individual
members of the culture/community at which level the ideational and the
physical systems interact. When an idea or practice seems attractive and
useful for the community (perceived as having social or financial benefits
or potential to improve present conditions), it is taken on, perhaps not in
its original form, but adapted to be acceptable to the practices of its new
context.
One example for this is how Christmas is celebrated in Japan, by adopting

some of the commercially beneficial practices of the holiday, i.e. decorating
shopping malls in festive colours, Christmas markets, Christmas light shows
or the exchange of gifts, without the slightest hint of the religious origins of
the holiday. Some unique Japanese traditions have even been added, like
eating strawberry shortcake (advertised as ‘Christmas cake’) or having a
meal at Kentucky Fried Chicken (Joy, 2018).
Adaptability is thus a prominent feature of cultures. Those that are not ca‑
pable of changing as a response to new conditions and influences cease to
exist, as we have seen throughout history, or their development becomes
much slower than the cultures around them. Some cultures disappear com‑
pletely, like the Aztecs or the Anasazi, or their development is minimal, if any
(think of the Amish in the United States, or some of the Penans in Sarawak,
Malaysia).
Cultures are also sensitive to initial conditions, as we have seen how small
changes can lead to huge cultural landslides in societies around the world,
testified by revolutions of many kinds, from cultural and political alike. The
Arab Spring of the early 2010s, or the introduction of ‘Rock and Roll’ in the
1940s to 1950s had a significant impact on society and culture, yet both of
these started off with a few individuals seeking something new – individual
human rights and democracy, and an expression of individuality through
music and fashion. The impact of these two fairly different movements can
both be described by non‑linearity: a network structure and being more
than the sum of their constituent parts. The small changes individuals
started in their different contexts had disproportional results and impact
on the world in which we live today. Therefore, it seems safe to claim that
cultures are non‑linear and also unpredictable. Traditions change, events
unfold, and trends and fashions take hold not in a predictable, well‑defined
order, but in a more chaotic, yet self‑organised manner. In other words, as
we concluded in the section on culture above, culture emerges from the ac‑
tions and thoughts of members of a community.
Intercultural learning in a complex dynamic system

This idea is not as radical as it may seem at first glance. The literature on ICC
is already dotted with references which indicate that intercultural learning
should be considered as a complex dynamic system, though the concept and
the terminology are not used explicitly. Yang and Fleming (2013, p. 301),
for example, claim that for Chinese EFL learners “making sense of films and
TV series produced in the USA and the UK is a complex process”. Even

Byram (1997) talks about his model in a way that resembles CDS thinking.
He points to the inevitable nature of self‑organisation of learner knowledge
without a central controller when he writes:
[the] four aspects of interaction across frontiers of different countries,

knowledge, attitudes, skills of interpreting and relating, and skills of discov‑
ery and interaction can in principle be acquired through experience and re‑
flection, without the intervention of teachers and educational institutions.
(Byram, 1997, p. 33)
The characteristics of nested complex systems can also be noticed in Byram’s

(1997) description of ICC. CDS theory holds that complex systems are
open to information and impetus from other systems they are interacting
with. It also claims that these interactions impact the participating systems
as they all react to initial conditioning and operate feedback loops through‑
out their network structure. Byram (1997, p. 33) clearly explains this when
he writes: “Knowledge and attitude factors are preconditions, although
I shall argue that they are also modified by the processes of intercultural
communication”.
Finally, he acknowledges that intercultural learning is a non‑linear phe‑
nomenon when he argues that the “relationship between attitudes and
knowledge is not the simple cause and effect often assumed, i.e. that in‑
creased knowledge creates positive attitudes” (Byram, 1997, p. 35). As we
discussed earlier, non‑linearity refers to emergent phenomena being more
than the sum of their components, thus order – in this case positive inter‑
cultural attitudes – will not emerge automatically with added knowledge.
Learning is no doubt a complex and dynamic process.
More recently, we see other studies that are more explicit in their
discussion of intercultural learning as a complex dynamic phenomenon.
Strugielska and Piątkowska (2018, p. 114) claim that “(inter)culturality
and competence will be characterised as dynamic and emergent phenom‑
ena”, and they propose a two‑tier system model in which they define
macro and micro levels. They further argue that compared to the micro
level, the macro level sees “a complexity emerging from its two donor
categories, will be viewed as a whole which is less complex and more
unified than its parts”. While we give credit to the authors for acknowl‑
edging interculturality as dynamic and emergent, we suggest that their
definition contains an element of Newtonian reductionism. Simply put,
CDS have a fractal structure which reflects the same levels of complexity
throughout the system. Therefore, a CDS cannot be considered as hier‑
archical by any means.
A framework for the design of intercultural learning

materials
Earlier in this chapter (see Table 1.1) we discussed different types of systems
and their characteristic features with the intention to introduce CDS to the
reader. We argued and illustrated through different examples how learning,
and intercultural learning in particular, are best described as a CDS which
therefore calls for learning materials that allow and promote such learn‑
ing processes. In order to recap, let’s look at the different types of materi‑
als – from a systems perspective – and briefly summarise how they facilitate
intercultural learning. We present two major principles on which intercul‑
tural learning materials can be developed: the level of cultural complexity
they introduce and the certainty of ‘knowing’ they require from learners
(Figure 1.5).
Simple learning materials support a teacher‑centred approach to learn‑
ing which focuses on the transmission of cultural facts and knowledge
(usually from the big ‘C’ category – Culture). They provide information
exclusively about the target culture and present it in the form of ‘nation
culture’, ignoring colourful cultural varieties that may exist. Learning is
FIGURE 1.5
Intercultural learning materials across different types of learning
systems
considered as predictable and learning outcomes lend themselves to stand‑

ardised testing; there is one correct answer to questions.
Complicated learning materials introduce more learner engagement,
although learning is still teacher directed. There are other cultures intro‑
duced in the materials and students may be asked to discuss their interpre‑
tations of the information presented in the materials. Therefore, it is more
difficult – but not impossible – to predict learner answers and design tests
that measure their knowledge. These materials also allow for the develop‑
ment of skills and attitudes.
Complex learning materials are student centred, and although the
instructions guide learners on how to complete tasks, learning is self‑
organised, and knowledge, together with skills and attitudes, is treated as
an emergent phenomenon. These materials facilitate self‑reflection, the
re‑examination of concepts previously considered ‘known’, and encourage
learners to consider alternative explanations of (inter)cultural phenomena.
They prompt the students to consider subcultural and hybrid cultural iden‑
tities and focus on the process of cultural learning, rather than determining
a product that can be easily tested. In other words, they allow the develop‑
ment of critical intercultural awareness.
Finally, chaotic learning materials may have the potential for promot‑
ing intercultural learning, but it only happens accidentally. There is no in‑
tentionality in facilitating intercultural learning; it happens, if at all, as a
by‑product of other learning objectives. Therefore, such materials do not
intentionally steer learners towards developing intercultural knowledge,
skills, or attitudes.
It might seem paradoxical to propose an intrinsically complex and un‑
predictable system as the basis for a guiding framework. However, we
maintain that a CDS perspective is an authentic reflection/description
of the way interactions occur in language and intercultural classrooms.
Incorporating a CDS approach into an intercultural learning materials
design model as below, illustrates how it ‘jigsaws’ with principles of inter‑
cultural learning discussed earlier to serve as an overarching pedagogical
framework.
We noted earlier that this concept intentionally avoided a language
learning focus, but acknowledged that it would be a factor in many of
the contexts where CCA would be taught e.g. language learning class‑
rooms. We have thus included a set of broadly defined educational objec‑
tives: ‘communicative and interpretive skills’, along with crucial drivers
of learning that we discussed above – ‘cognitive and affective challenge’.
Table 1.2 below gives the framework for the design of intercultural
materials.
TABLE 1.2 Framework for the design of intercultural learning materials (An earlier version can be found in Mishan, 2023)
54
Educational Objectives Intercultural learning Objectives Techniques Why? (CDS rationale)
From Research to Implications

• Cognitive and 1 Make connections between cultures a Prompt learners to critique, i Prevent a learning system
affective challenge question, probe, analyse, from reaching equilibrium
2 Foster a comparative perspective
• Communicative and investigate cultures and cultural that leads to the fossilisation
interpretive skills phenomena of knowledge
3 Exploit cultural universals b Use multiple resources and tasks ii Allow self‑organisation of
4 Deepen knowledge and awareness of that promote learning knowledge and knowing
cultures (one’s own and that of others)
5 Reflect on and question cultural c Be open‑ended and flexible iii Tolerate unpredicted
assumptions and unplanned learning
outcomes
6 Encourage exploring beneath the
surface of cultural behaviours
7 Provide opportunities to share d Ask learners to present and iv Provide opportunities to

experiences and empathise with (people showcase their individual or capture emergent learning
from) other cultures collective understanding of
intercultural phenomena
8 Develop respect for cultural differences
9 Build bridges between cultures
10 Work within the ‘third space’ between
cultures
A sample intercultural activity, ‘The Johari Window of culture’, is pro‑

vided below to illustrate how this framework works ‘in action’. The activity
is then deconstructed to pinpoint how it is derived from the model.
The Johari Window of culture

Rationale/Theory
The Johari Window is named after the two psychologists, Joseph Luft and
Harry Ingham, who developed the technique to offer a framework that helps
people understand the limits of their self‑awareness. The concept is also
known in foreign language teaching through the work of Gertrude Moskow‑
itz (1978) who, in her book titled Caring and sharing in the foreign language
class, considered the Johari Window a useful way of encouraging students to
build a more accepting classroom atmosphere by getting to know each other
better. She wrote: “Through the process of giving and receiving information
about ourselves and each other, warmth and closeness develops” (p. 18).
The Johari Window uses four quadrants, or windows, to map out what
we know or do not know about a person, or what they know about them‑
selves. In the intercultural classroom, this technique allows learners to dis‑
cover more about each other’s cultures in a safe and controlled way. The
four windows in the model are called: Arena (Open area), where easily
identifiable and visible features of culture are located, Façade (Hidden area)
contains information about a culture only known to ‘insiders’, Blind spot,
which refers to certain habits, behaviours, or other aspects of a culture obvi‑
ous to outsiders, but not necessarily known by insiders, and the Unknown,
which is usually left empty, unless students have access to information previ‑
ously not known to them
Things I know Things I do not know
Things they know 1: Arena (Open area) 3: Blind spot

Things they don’t know 2: Façade (Hidden area) 4: Unknown
FIGURE 1.6 The Johari Window of culture
Procedure
This activity works well in multicultural groups, but it is also appropriate in
groups that share a common cultural background.
1 Ask learners to work individually and write down five things about their
own culture that they consider important in making them who they are.
2 Ask learners to get into multicultural groups of around four. Distribute

copies of the Johari Window of culture to each group, who then discuss
each culture in turn and fill in the templates according to the information
being shared, and according to what they already know. They focus on
Windows 1–3, but obviously, they leave Window 4, ‘Unknown’, empty
until the plenary stage.
3 In plenary then, the groups pool what they have learned about each
other’s cultures to complete Window 4. Students can also offer their own
individual insights for this window; for example, one student may say,
“We Turkish people consider Japanese food tasty/strange/interesting/
bland/etc.”.
If working with a monocultural group, pick a culture that the students need
to explore.
The procedure is then the same as above, except that it probably falls to
the teacher to provide further information that students may put into their
‘Unknown’ window.
An analysis of the activity

Deconstructed in terms of key operative principles from the framework, the
activity may be seen to fulfil several of its intercultural learning objectives:
• Objective 4: Deepen knowledge and awareness of cultures (one’s own

and that of others)
• Objective 5: Encourage participants to reflect on their degree of knowl‑
edge of and assumptions they make about another culture
• Objective 7: Encourage participants to share and empathise with others’
experiences
• Objective 8: Develop participants’ respect for another culture
• Objective 10: Create and work within a ‘cultural third space’
As students engage in the learning task – both individually and then in

groups – they are encouraged to reflect on their own knowledge (e.g. what
are the five most important things from their own culture that make them
who they are) and assumptions they make about a particular culture as they
discuss and compare each other’s assumptions, impressions, stereotypes, and
knowledge. In fact, they are required to move beyond stereotypical and cli‑
chéd images when they try to articulate and explain their understanding of
someone else’s or their own culture and they are likely to arrive at an individ‑
ual or collective understanding that they need to present to their classmates.
During the task students need to probe and find out what others know or
think about a particular culture, how they know it, and how this knowledge
can be validated through other information and sources. This discovery of
how knowledge is constructed is not limited to others; students also need to
question their own knowledge and beliefs, how and what they understand
about others and otherness. Therefore, the activity makes use of the follow‑
ing techniques:
• Technique a: Probe to find out what participants know and don’t know
about their own and another culture
• Technique d: Require learners to present and showcase their individual
or collective understanding of other culture/s.
From a CDS framework perspective, it can be seen that the learning which
takes place during the activity is as varied as the students who are par‑
ticipating in it. It is simply impossible to predict what meanings they
will create individually and in their small groups as they discuss cultures
among themselves. This is largely because we do not know what prior
experiences they have had, what knowledge and assumptions they hold
and are willing to share with their partners. Therefore, teachers need to
accept that there might be unexpected and unplanned learning emerging
from the activity that can take their lesson in directions that they never
imagined it could go.
Learning is not given to the students; it emerges through discussion and
reflection, and it organises itself as the students understand and explore
ideas. It is seen not as a product, but as a fluid process that is unlikely to set
into any predetermined moulds. Therefore, it is important that some of this
learning is captured for later use in the classroom – and the Johari Window
activity provides that by capturing emergent learning.
Conclusion
In this first part of the book, we have laid out the context of its central
concern, introducing and analysing core concepts, notably culture and in‑
tercultural competence. We have situated them within a global 21st‑century
landscape of ever‑shifting populations and increasing transition to the digi‑
tal in every sector of society – illustrating, we hope, that competence in
intercultural interaction has never been more critical than today. The peda‑
gogy of intercultural competence was also addressed – from how it features
in coursebooks to the challenges and concerns with respect to fostering it
in the classroom.
The second part of Part I comprises means of addressing the issues raised
in the first; proposing methods for analysing materials designed to promote
intercultural competence and, at the end, our own framework for designing
such materials. This framework forms the conceptual base for the activities
presented in Part II of the book to which we now turn.
Note
1 This section draws on Mishan, 2023.
References
Akbari, R. (2008). Transforming lives: Introducing critical pedagogy into ELT class‑
rooms. ELT Journal, 62(3), 276–283.
Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning,
teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives.
Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Ates, M. (2012). The English textbook writing project in Turkey. Folio, 15(1),
18–21.
Benson, P., Chik, A., & Lim, H. Y. (2003). Becoming autonomous in an Asian
context: Autonomy as a sociocultural process. In D. Palfreyman & R. C.
Smith (Eds.), Learner autonomy across cultures (pp. 23–40). London: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Berg, M. V. (2015). Developmentally appropriate pedagogy. In J. M. Bennett (Ed.),
The SAGE encyclopedia of intercultural competence (pp. 229–233). San Francisco,
CA: Sage Publications.
Bloom, B. (1956). The taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educa‑
tional goals – Handbook 1, Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay.
Bolitho, R. (2008). Europe and the former Soviet Union. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.),
English language learning materials: A critical review (pp. 213–222). London:
Continuum.
Byram, M. (1991). Teaching culture and language: Towards an integrated model.
In D. Buttjes & M. Byram (Eds.), Mediating languages and cultures: Towards an
intercultural theory of foreign language education (pp. 17–32). Philadelphia, PA:
Multilingual Matters.
Byram, M. (1994). Teaching‑and‑learning language‑and‑culture (Vol. 100). Bris‑
tol: Multilingual Matters.
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence.
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Byram, M. (2014). Twenty‑five years on–from cultural studies to intercultural citi‑
zenship. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 27(3), 209–225.
Byram, M. (2021). Masterclass in intercultural communication. Ireland: University
of Limerick.
Byram, M., & Esarte‑Sarries, V. (1991). Investigating cultural studies in foreign
language teaching. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Byram, M., & Masuhara, H. (2013). Intercultural competence. In B. Tomlinson &

H. Masuhara (Eds.), Applied linguistics and materials development (pp. 143–160).
London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Camase, G. (2009). The ideological construction of a second reality: A critical analysis
of a Romanian EFL textbook. (PhD). University of Toronto, Toronto.
Carr‑Ruffino, N. (2015). Resistance to change. In J. M. Bennett (Ed.), The SAGE
encyclopedia of intercultural competence (pp. 731–735). San Francisco, CA: Sage
Publications.
Ćatibušić, B., Gallagher, F., & Karazi, S. (2019a). Beyond ESOL provision: Perspec‑
tives on language, intercultural and integration support for Syrian refugees in
Ireland. In F. Mishan (Ed.), ESOL provision in the UK and Ireland: Challenges
and opportunities (pp. 287–314). Oxford: Peter Lang.
Ćatibušić, B., Gallagher, F., & Karazi, S. (2019b). An investigation of ESOL provi‑
sion for adult Syrian refugees in Ireland: Voices of support providers. In F. Mis‑
han (Ed.), ESOL provision in the UK and Ireland: Challenges and opportunities
(pp. 133–154). Oxford: Peter Lang.
Clarke, A., & Collins, S. (2007). Complexity science and student teacher supervi‑
sion. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 160–172.
Cooke, M., Bryers, D., & Winstanley, B. (2019). ‘Our languages’: Towards sociolin‑
guistic citizenship in ESOL. In M. Cooke & R. Peutrell (Eds.), Brokering Britain
(pp. 137–155). Bristol: Multiligual Matters.
Cooke, M., & Peutrell, R. (Eds.). (2019). Brokering Britain. Bristol: Multiligual
Matters.
Cummins, J., Bismilla, V., Chow, P., Cohen, S., Giampapa, F., Leoni, L., . . . Sastri,
P. (2005). Affirming identity in multilingual classrooms. Educational Leadership,
63(1), 38–43.
Curdt‑Christiansen, X. L., & Weninger, C. (Eds.). (2015). Language, ideology and
education: The politics of textbooks in language education. London: Routledge.
Davis, B. (2008). Complexity and education: Vital simultaneities. Educational Phi‑
losophy and Theory, 40(1), 50–65.
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2005). Challenging images of knowing: Complexity sci‑
ence and educational research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in
Education, 18(3), 305–321.
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2007). Complexity science and education: Reconceptual‑
izing the teacher’s role in learning. Interchange, 38(1), 53–67.
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2008). Complexity and education: Inquiries into learning,
teaching, and research. New York: Routledge.
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2012). Fitting teacher education in/to/for an increasingly
complex world. Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity & Educa‑
tion, 9(1), 30–40.
Doll, W. E. (2008). Complexity and the culture of curriculum. Educational Philoso‑
phy and Theory, 40(1), 10–29.
Dudeney, G., Hockly, N., & Pegrum, M. (2013). Digital literacies: Research and
resources in language teaching. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
Duroy, Q. (2020). The rise of neo‑nationalism in Europe: A Veblenian perspective.
Journal of Economic Issues, 54(4), 987–1001.
Excellence Gateway. (n.d.). Homepage. Retrieved from excellencegateway.org.uk

Fantini, A. E. (2009). Assessing intercultural competence. In D. Deardorff (Ed.),
The SAGE handbook of intercultural competence (pp. 456–476). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Fantini, A. E. (2020). Reconceptualizing intercultural communicative competence:
A multinational perspective. Research in Comparative and International Educa‑
tion, 15(1), 52–61.
Furstenberg, G. (2010). Making culture the core of the language class: Can it be
done? The Modern Language Journal, 94(2), 329–332.
Gleick, J. (1987). Chaos: Making a new science. New York: Viking Penguin.
Godwin‑Jones, R. (2019). Riding the digital wilds: Learner autonomy and informal
language learning. Language Learning & Technology, 23(1), 8–25.
Goodenough, W. H. (1965). Rethinking “status” and “role”: Toward a general
model of the cultural organization of social relationships. In M. Banton (Ed.),
The relevance of models for social anthropology (pp. 1–24). London: Tavistock.
Grimes, P. (2019). Vignette 4. 2014–2015: “Severe and multiple deprivation” and
the ESOL forum. In F. Mishan (Ed.), Provision in the UK and Ireland: Chal‑
lenges and opportunities (pp. 275–280). Oxford: Peter Lang.
Gulliver, T. (2010). Immigrant success stories in ESL textbooks. TESOL Quarterly,
44(4), 725–745.
Hartmann, D., & Gerteis, J. (2005). Dealing with diversity: Mapping multicultural‑
ism in sociological terms. Sociological Theory, 23(2), 218–240.
Hoffman, E. (1989). Lost in translation. London: William Heinemann Ltd.
Holliday, A. (2016). Studying culture. In Z. Hua (Ed.), Research methods in in‑
tercultural communication: A practical guide (pp. 23–36). Chichester: John
Wiley & Sons Inc.
Holliday, A. (2019). Understanding intercultural communication: Negotiating a
grammar of culture. London: Routledge.
Idle, J., & Ma, L. (2019). Motivating unaccompanied minors in the ESOL class‑
room. In F. Mishan (Ed.), ESOL provision in the UK and Ireland: Challenges and
opportunities (pp. 155–175). Oxford: Peter Lang.
Jackson, J. (2012). Introduction and overview. In J. Jackson (Ed.), The Routledge
handbook of language and intercultural communication (pp. 1–13). London:
Routledge.
Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media educa‑
tion for the 21st century. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Johnson, G., & Rinvolucri, M. (2010). Culture in our Classrooms: Teaching lan‑
guage through cultural content. Delta Publishing.
Joy, A. (2018). How to celebrate Christmas in Japan. The Culture Trip. Retrieved from
https://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/how‑to‑celebrate‑christmas‑
in‑japan/
Khodabandeh, F., & Mombini, R. (2018). Iranian EFL teachers’ and students’ per‑
ceptions towards the first grade high school English textbook (Vision1). Journal
of English Language Pedagogy and Practice, 11(22), 141–167.
Kircher, R. (2014). Quebec’s shift from ethnic to civic national identity: Implica‑
tions for language attitudes amongst immigrants in Montreal. In D. Evans (Ed.),
Language and identity: Discourse in the world (pp. 55–80). London: Bloomsbury
Publishing.
Kiss, T. & Pack, A. (2023). A network analysis of L2 motivational factors: Structure,
connectivity, and central relational links. TESOL Quarterly, 57(2), 537–565. doi:
10.1002/tesq.3166
Kiss, T., & Rimbar, H. (2017). Unity in diversity: How teachers address issues of
culture in a locally produced ELT material. Folio, 18(1), 4–11.
Kiss, T., & Weninger, C. (2013). A semiotic exploration of cultural potential in EFL
textbooks. Malaysian Journal of ELT Research, 9(1), 19–28.
Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Kramsch, C. (2014). Language and culture. AILA review, 27(1), 30–55.
Kramsch, C., & Uryu, M. (2012). Intercultural contact, hybridity, and third space.
In J. Jackson (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and intercultural com‑
munication (pp. 211–225). London: Routledge.
Kramsch, C. (2014). Language and culture. AILA review, 27(1), 30–55.
Krathwohl, D. R., Bloom, B., & Masia, B. B. (1964). Taxonomy of educational objec‑
tives, Book II. Affective domain. New York: David McKay.
Krippendorff, K. (2013). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology (3rd
ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Kusumaningputri, R., & Widodo, H. P. (2018). Promoting Indonesian university
students’ critical intercultural awareness in tertiary EAL classrooms: The use of
digital photograph‑mediated intercultural tasks. System, 72, 49–61.
Larsen‑Freeman, D. (1997). Chaos/complexity science and second language acqui‑
sition. Applied Linguistics, 18(2), 141–165.
Larsen‑Freeman, D. (2012). Complex, dynamic systems: A new transdisciplinary
theme for applied linguistics? Language Teaching, 45(2), 202–214.
Levrau, F., & Loobuyck, P. (2018). Introduction: Mapping the multiculturalism‑in‑
terculturalism debate. Comparative Migration Studies, 6(1), 1–13.
Lim, J. C. (2010). STPM Pre‑U MUET coursebook. Subang Jaya: Pustaka Sarjana
Snd. Bhd.
Littlejohn, A. (2022). The analysis and evaluation of language teaching materials. In
J. Norton & H. Buchanan (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of materials develop‑
ment for language teaching (pp. 263–276). London: Routledge.
Ma, L. (2018). Supporting young adult refugees, Educate Scotland.
Mandelbrot, B. B. (1982). The fractal geometry of nature. New York: WH Freeman.
Manin, G. J., Artusi, A., Halliwell, H., Thacker, C., Quinn, R., & Lansford, L.
(2011). Engage: Student book and workbook pack with MultiROM (2nd ed.).
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Matsuda, A. (2002). Representation of users and uses of English in beginning Japa‑
nese EFL textbooks. JALT Journal, 24(2), 182–200.
Matveev, A. (2017). Intercultural competence in organizations: A guide for leaders,
educators and team players. New York: Springer.
McCann, C. (2020). Apeirogon. London: Bloomsbury.
McGrath, I. (2006). Teachers’ and learners’ images for coursebooks. ELT jour‑
nal, 60(2), 171–180.
McGrath, I. (2013). Teaching materials and the roles of EFL/ESL teachers: Prac‑
tice and theory. A&C Black. Mishan, F. (2021). The Global ELT course‑
book: A case of Cinderella’s slipper? Language Teaching, 1–16. doi: 10.1017/
S0261444820000646
Mishan, F. (Ed.). (2019). ESOL Provision in the UK and Ireland: Challenges and
opportunities. Oxford: Peter Lang.
Moskowitz, G. (1978). Caring and sharing in the foreign language class: A source‑
book on humanistic technique. Boston, MA: Heinle.
‘Muhammad’ teddy teacher arrested. (2007). BBC News. Retrieved from http://
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7112929.stm
O’Dowd, R. (2007). Introduction. In R. O’Dowd (Ed.), Online intercultural ex‑
change: An introduction for foreign language teachers (pp. 3–16). Clevedon: Mul‑
tilingual Matters.
O’Regan, G. (2018). The innovation in computing companion. Cham: Springer.
Peirce, C. S. (1980). Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce (Vol. 3). (C Hart‑
shorne, & P Weiss, Eds). Harvard University Press.
Pennycook, A. (2017). The cultural politics of English as an international language.
London: Routledge.
Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rached, H., & Zayer, R. (2021). Materials design: Teaching for success in Tunisia.
Folio, 21(1), 13–20.
Risager, K. (2007). Language and culture pedagogy: From a national to a transna‑
tional paradigm. Clevendon: Multilingual Matters.
Risager, K. (2018). Representations of the world in language textbooks. In Repre‑
sentations of the World in language textbooks. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Schaetti, B. F. (2015). Third‑culture kids/Global nomads. In J. M. Bennett (Ed.),
The SAGE encyclopedia of intercultural competence (pp. 797–800).
Shihui, J., & Shaodong, G. (2012). Curriculum studies based on complexity sci‑
ence. Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity & Education, 9(1),
82–89.
Soars, L., Soars, J., & Hancock, P. (2019). Headway intermediate: Student’s book
(5th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stanley, D. (2009). Complex responsive processes: An alternative interpretation of
knowledge, knowing, and understanding. Complicity: An International Journal
of Complexity and Education, 6(1), 29–33.
Strugielska, A., & Piątkowska, K. (2018). Culture, competence and intercultural
competence: Global and local diversities in intercultural discourse. HERMES‑Jour‑
nal of Language and Communication in Business, 57, 109–123.
Study in UK. (2023). International student statistic in UK 2023. Retrieved from
https://www.studying‑in‑uk.org/international‑student‑statistics‑in‑uk/
Tajeddin, Z., & Teimournezhad, S. (2015). Exploring the hidden agenda in the
representation of culture in international and localised ELT textbooks. The Lan‑
guage Learning Journal, 43(2), 180–193.
Tarozzi, M., & Torres, C. A. (2016). Global citizenship education and the crises of
multiculturalism: Comparative perspectives. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Thornbury, S. (2013). Resisting coursebooks. In J. Gray (Ed.), Critical perspectives
on language teaching materials (pp. 204–223). Cham: Springer.
Thornbury, S., & Meddings, L. (2001). Using the raw materials. A Dogme ap‑
proach to teaching language. Modern English Teacher, 10(4), 40–43.
Thornbury, S., & Meddings, L. (2009). Teaching unplugged: Dogme in English lan‑
guage teaching. Peaslake: DELTA Publishing.
Tomlinson, B. (2008). Conclusions about ELT materials in use around the world.
In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), English language learning materials: A critical review
(pp. 319–322). London: Continuum.
Tomlinson, B. (2012). Materials development for language learning and teaching.
Language teaching, 45(2), 143–179.
Tomlinson, B., & Masuhara, H. (2017). The complete guide to the theory and practice
of materials development for language learning. John Wiley & Sons.
Torres, C. A., & Tarozzi, M. (2020). Multiculturalism in the world system: Towards
a social justice model of inter/multicultural education. Globalisation, Societies
and Education, 18(1), 7–18.
UNESCO. (2014). Global citizenship education: Preparing learners for the challenges
of the 21st century. Paris: UNESCO.
Uzum, B., Yazan, B., Zahrawi, S., Bouamer, S., & Malakaj, E. (2021). A compara‑
tive analysis of cultural representations in collegiate world language textbooks
(Arabic, French, and German). Linguistics and Education, 61, 100901.
Ward, C., & Szabó, Á. (2019). Affect, behavior, cognition, and development: Add‑
ing to the alphabet of acculturation. In D. Matsumoto & H. C. Hwang (Eds.),
The handbook of culture and psychology (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Waters, J. L., & Leung, M. (2017). Trans‑knowledge? Geography, mobility, and
knowledge in transnational education. In H. Jöns, P. Meusburger, & M. Heffer‑
nan (Eds.), Mobilities of knowledge (pp. 269–285). Cham: Springer.
Weninger, C., & Kiss, T. (2015). Analyzing culture in foreign language textbooks:
Methodological and conceptual issues In X. L. Curdt‑Christiansen & C.
Weninger (Eds.), Language, ideology and education: The politics of textbooks in
language education (pp. 50–66). London: Routledge.
Whorf, B. L. (1956). Language, thought, and reality: Selected writings of Benjamin
Lee Whorf. Cambridge, MA: Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
World Economic Forum. (2020). Schools of the future: Defining new models of educa‑
tion for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Geneva: World Economic Forum.
Xinhua. (2019). Europe opens its arms to Chinese students. China Daily.com.cn. Retrieved
from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201906/19/WS5d09d5c2a3103d
bf143291cc_1.html
Yamanaka, N. (2006). An evaluation of English textbooks in Japan from the viewpoint
of nations in the inner, outer, and expanding circles. JALT Journal, 28(1), 57.
Yang, L. H., & Fleming, M. (2013). How Chinese college students make sense of
foreign films and TV series: Implications for the development of intercultural
communicative competence in ELT. The Language Learning Journal, 41(3),
297–310.
Part II
FROM IMPLICATIONS
TO APPLICATION
DOI: 10.4324/9781032651385-2
66 From Implications to Application
Introduction
In Part I, we justified this book’s focus on intercultural competence as a vital
skill in today’s multicultural world, examining the theories, concepts, and influ‑
ences underpinning it. From the concept of intercultural competence, we ex‑
tracted a working pedagogical definition as ‘critical cultural awareness’ (CCA).
As the teaching of intercultural competence falls within the sphere of language
teaching, we made a brief assessment of its coverage in language teaching
publications, then outlined materials evaluation methods for language teach‑
ers to do the same. The pedagogy of intercultural competence was described
through the lens of complex dynamic systems theory (CDST). Together with
our working definition of CCA, CDST underlies our proposed framework for
the development of intercultural learning materials which we implement in
this, the practical section of the book (to see how, see Table 2.1 below).
Part II is laid out as four sets of materials, one for learners and three
for practitioners. The practitioner sets are considered essential preparation
for teachers, taking them through the ‘cultural awareness‑raising journey’
which is a prerequisite for leading learners through a similar course of learn‑
ing and discovery. Set (A) consists of materials evaluation tasks for practi‑
tioners, using methods suggested in Part I, i.e. content analysis, semiotic
analysis, and critical discourse analysis. This is intended to raise awareness
of the intercultural potential of existing coursebooks (or other ready‑made
materials). This is followed by the main materials set, Set (B), which con‑
sists of cultural awareness‑raising tasks for use in the intercultural classroom.
Set (B) also includes a couple of subsets; literature: the written and spoken
word, and learner‑generated materials. Set (C) returns to the practitioner,
offering practice in designing intercultural materials, modelled on the activi‑
ties presented in the previous two sets and on the principles of the intercul‑
tural materials development framework proposed in Part I. The final set, Set
(D), is also oriented to the practitioner, pointing out the rationale for and
means of adapting materials to fit different cultural contexts.
Table 2.1 illustrates the use of the framework for intercultural materials
development in guiding the design of the learner activities in Set B. It shows
how the intercultural learning objectives as given within the framework are
used within each of the learner activities (Activities 8–34). While each in‑
dividual activity does not fulfil each and every objective, using combina‑
tions of the many activities here will see the philosophy underpinning the
framework enacted. The framework learning objectives are likewise stated in
each activity; for instance, in Activity 8 ‘Greetings’, the intercultural learn‑
ing objectives are (1) Make connections between cultures and (2) Foster a
comparative perspective.
From Implications to Application 67
TABLE 2.1 Framework for intercultural materials development: learning objectives/

activities
Intercultural learning objectives Activity
1 Make connections between 8 Greetings

cultures 12 A picture paints a thousand words
15 View through a different lens
16 Cooking class
17 Small cultures
18 Six degrees of separation
20 Johari Window of culture
22 The Cultura project
24 A‑land vs Zed-land
26 Don’t sleep, there are snakes
27 Story circles
28 Story exchange
30 Short films
31 Empathy museum
33 Comic strips
34 Cultural video exchange
2 Foster a comparative perspective 8 Greetings
16 Cooking class
17 Small cultures
25 The universal language of poetry
27 Story circles
28 Story exchange
30 Short films
31 Empathy museum
33 Comic strips
3 Exploit cultural universals 15 View through a different lens
16 Cooking class
23 Identity boxes
27 Story circles
29 Pop culture
31 Empathy museum
32 Memes
33 Comic strips
(Continued)
TABLE 2.1 (Continued)
4 Deepen knowledge and awareness 9 Intercultural handball

of cultures (one’s own and that of 10 You’re late!
others) 12 A picture paints a thousand words
14 Combo‑culture
16 Cooking class
17 Small cultures
27 Story circles
28 Story exchange
29 Pop culture
31 Empathy museum
33 Comic strips
5 Reflect on and question cultural 10 You’re late!
assumptions 11 Interpreting the visual
12 A picture paints a thousand words
19 I DIVE
21 The ‘smelly socks’ group
28 Story exchange
30 Short films
31 Empathy museum
33 Comic strips
32 Memes
6 Encourage exploring beneath the 13 Culture iceberg
surface of cultural behaviours 15 View through a different lens
31 Empathy museum
7 Provide opportunities to share 5 Class human library
experiences and empathise with 16 Cooking class
(people from) other cultures 20 Johari Window of culture
23 Identity boxes
27 Story circles
28 Story exchange
29 Pop culture
(Continued)

7 Provide opportunities to share 30 Short films
experiences and empathise with 31 Empathy museum
(people from) other cultures 32 Memes
33 Comic strips
8 Develop respect for cultural 10 You’re late!
differences 12 A picture paints a thousand words
14 Combo‑culture
16 Cooking class
27 Story circles
28 Story exchange
31 Empathy museum
33 Comic strips
9 Build bridges between cultures 10 You’re late!
16 Cooking class
27 Story circles
28 Story exchange
30 Short films
31 Empathy museum
33 Comic strips
10 Work within the ‘third space’ 16 Cooking class
between cultures 17 Small cultures
27 Story circles
28 Story exchange
29 Pop culture
30 Short films
31 Empathy museum
32 Memes
33 Comic strips
Before we move onto the activities, a couple of practical notes. First,

terminology: in line with contemporary materials development literature
(e.g. Mishan & Timmis, 2015; Tomlinson & Masuhara, 2017) by ‘materi‑
als’ we refer to ‘pedagogical activity’ – which may or may not include other
resources such as texts, pictures, realia or multimodal resources. The terms
materials, activities as well as tasks (used in its ‘weak’ form) are thus used
more or less synonymously.
Second, carrying out the activities: the loci for the activities suggested here
range between the face‑to‑face classroom and hybrid learning i.e. involving
an online element, and most of them can be conducted fully online if desired
or required. This is an acknowledgement of the normalisation of internet
use in our classrooms as in everyday life – it is regularly used by two‑thirds
of today’s global citizens according to 2021 statistics (World Internet Us‑
ers Statistics, 2022). The place of technology in our lives took a quantum
leap due to the global COVID pandemic of 2020–2021 which, as noted
earlier, catapulted interactions in everything from business to entertainment,
leisure as well as education, online. The videoconferencing platform Zoom
emerged out of relative obscurity. It went from 10 million to 300 million us‑
ers between December 2019 and April 2020 (Business of Apps, 2021) to act
as a great leveller during the pandemic, traversing societal, socio‑economic,
educational, and international spheres. It was a lifeline to all of these during
these circumstances and was exploited in myriad ways thanks to the ingenu‑
ity of its users. This embracing of technology vindicated long‑held claims by
some educators and interculturalists about the potential of the online envi‑
ronment as a keenly authentic intercultural space as noted in Part I.
Some activities specify the use of particular digital/online applications
or websites, and/or use the sorts of devices owned by most students at the
time of writing – smartphones, iPads, tablets, and laptops etc. It is impor‑
tant here to add the caveat that technology in general evolves incredibly
quickly, giving apps, websites, and devices a notoriously short shelf‑life.
Last but by no means least: all the activities proposed here need to be
carried out with the discussions on the role of affect and cognition in in‑
tercultural learning, presented in Part I, very much in mind. It must be
remembered that while the overall objective of the activities is to sensitise
learners to aspects of their own and other’s cultures, how teachers encourage
learners to reflect on these itself has to be done with the utmost sensitivity.
Activity Set (A): materials evaluation tasks for practitioners

The activities in this and the other practitioner sets, Sets (C) and (D), are
devised for use either by teacher trainers or by individual practitioners. Some
lend themselves better to a teacher training situation as they involve group
discussion, while others are more introspective. The activities in this first set
are aimed at raising practitioners’ awareness of the intercultural potential of
the teaching materials they use, such as coursebooks or other ready‑made
materials. The activities offer practice in implementing the various materials
evaluation methodologies described in Part I Section 3, content analysis,
semiotic analysis, and critical discourse analysis. Some of the activities in this
set could, finally, be used with (probably more advanced) adult learners, at
the teacher’s discretion – activities suitable for this are flagged.
1. Evaluation checklists
Introduction
Checklists have frequently been used to guide teachers in their evaluation

of published materials. Some only contain a few items, whereas others can
be very extensive. The checklist used here (Byram & Masuhara, 2013) has
been specifically designed to measure any materials’ potential to develop
learners’ intercultural competence. The basic categories in the checklist, i.e.
knowledge, awareness, attitudes, and skills, refer to Byram’s (1997) model
of intercultural competence (as discussed in Part I).
Procedure
Choose a piece of material from a coursebook you are familiar with. Look
at the checklist and consider to what extent (1 – not at all, 4 – very much)
the material would support learners in the areas given in Table 2.2. below.
TABLE 2.2
Evaluation checklist: Criteria for evaluating materials for intercultural
education
Area 1 2 3 4
Knowledge Discover the diversity of cultures

(theirs and others) at different levels
(e.g. individual, community, nation)
Understand the historical
backgrounds of diverse cultures
(theirs and others)
Understand the social backgrounds of
diverse cultures (theirs and others)
Awareness Become aware of assumptions, values,
and attitudes of the self and others
beneath utterances and behaviours
Reappraise what they take for granted
in the light of how others from
different cultures may see them
(Continued)
TABLE 2.2 Continued
Area 1 2 3 4
Attitudes Treat cultures including their own in a
relative or decentralised way
Be open when interpreting what they see
and read without being judgemental
Be emphatic
Be wary of stereotyping
Retain their identities and
acknowledge those of others
Skills Interact effectively with people from
different social groups
Learn about the cultures of various
social groups
Interpret perceived differences within
historical and social contexts
Assess situations sensitively
Identify options for preventing or
solving cultural conflicts
Acquire appropriate language from
exposure to language in use in
various cultures
Acquire effective language use from
purposeful opportunities to use it in
various cultural contexts
Adapted from (Byram & Masuhara, 2013, p. 151).
Content analysis
2. Locally‑used materials
Introduction
As we said in Part I, content analysis is a quick and often reliable tool to get
a general idea about cultural biases materials may carry. Content analysis
most often, but not in all cases, relies on quantifying what you see in the
materials to draw conclusions about them. For example, if a picture shows
a Ferrari next to a Mercedes, the analysis may conclude that the material
equally represents both Italian and German cultures. It can focus on the
representation of cultures, ethnicities and races, social classes, gender, and
so on, and cultural products either from the small ‘c’ cultures of everyday
life, or the big ‘C’ cultures of arts and history.
Procedure
Look at the materials you are currently using and consider the following ques‑
tions. The questions are grouped around different focal points of investigation.
Gender
a What is the balance between the genders in the materials?
b How many gender identities are represented in the materials?
c What jobs do female/male characters usually have in the materials? What
are these?
d Are there any jobs where the writer uses gender as a qualifier e.g. ‘a fe‑
male doctor’?
e What roles do female/male characters play in the stories in the materials
(main character vs supporting character)?
Cultures
a What major nation cultures are represented in the materials? How are
they represented? Through products, events, people?
b Are there any subcultures represented in the materials (e.g. bird watch‑
ers, gamers, Peranakan Chinese in Malaysia)?
c Is the material monocultural or multicultural in its representation of peo‑
ple, events, and artefacts?
Ethnicities and races

a How ‘colourful’ is the material, i.e. how many races are represented?
Which races are these?
b Is there a predominant group (racial/cultural) represented in the mate‑
rial? Which one is it? Why do you think this is the predominant group?
c Is there any representation of different ethnic groups (either majority or
minority groups) in the materials?
Social class
a Do characters in the book come from the same social class, and have the
same socio‑economic background?
b Is there a particular social class that dominates the materials? Can you
explain why?
c How would you describe people holding different jobs in the book e.g.
doctors as opposed to cleaners? Do they come from a particular social
class, race, and ethnic group?
3. Enact: Learn languages through culture
Introduction
This activity uses content analysis techniques to critically evaluate an

EU‑funded website designed for language and culture learning, Enact:
Learn languages through culture (Enact, n.d.). The principle on which
Enact is based is that universal activities such as walking, cooking, music,
dance, and creative arts projects like making posters, masks, and photogra‑
phy are all activities that, when shared in a multicultural group, can promote
intercultural learning, understanding, respect, and empathy. Enact offers
what it calls ‘language learning through culture’, in the form of task‑based
‘culture‑specific’ activities such as origami, making Turkish shadow‑puppets
or Chinese lanterns, with the objective of fostering “intercultural and inter‑
generational social cohesion and understanding through a two‑way knowl‑
edge system” (from the Enact web page).
On the one hand, these activities may be taken ‘at face value’ and used
with learners as they are set, as task‑based activities which can be used for
intercultural learning, language learning, or both. From another perspec‑
tive, however, they may be seen as classic examples of stereotyping of the
type that we would be wary of – in which case, they may still provide a useful
trigger for considering a critical approach to the representation of culture.
Procedure
1 Browse the Enact website and consider whether the ‘culture‑specific’ ac‑
tivities presented on the site:
• Celebrate cultural differences?
• Serve to perpetuate stereotypes?
• Act as early‑stage introductions to intercultural difference?
2 Building on ‘stereotyping’, discuss its abstract basis, ‘essentialism’. As
described in Part I, essentialism refers to the reducing of culture to its
visual manifestation; artefacts like food, festivals, dress, etc. Through an
essentialist lens, ‘cultural activities’ such as those featured in Enact and
the sort of ‘multicultural events’ commonly held in language schools and
universities – where people from different cultural backgrounds showcase
their cuisine, music, national dress, and so on – can be seen as favouring
stereotyping; exoticising and exaggerating cultural ‘difference’ in what
Holliday calls “boutique” multiculturalism (2019, p. 140).
3 Look at this extract from the novel ‘The Committed’ by Viet Thanh
Nguyen which expresses such a view:
Staging a cultural show [is] really an acknowledgement of one’s infe‑
riority. The truly powerful rarely need to put on a show, since their
culture [is] always everywhere.
(Nguyen, 2021, p. 63)
4 Consider/discuss whether you agree with this viewpoint.
5 If you consider that the site is appropriate as a cultural learning tool, do
one or a selection of the following:
• Evaluate the ready‑made task‑based activities on the site with a view to
using them in your own teaching context.
• Devise different cultural learning activities using these materials.
• Avail of the ‘Create’ facility on the website to create materials for your
own teaching context.
4. ‘The Human Library’
Introduction
The human library is quite literally ‘a library of people’ who ‘readers’ can
‘borrow’ in order to hear their story. The library states: “Every human book
from our bookshelf, represent a group in our society that is often subjected
to prejudice, stigmatization or discrimination because of their lifestyle, diag‑
nosis, belief, disability, social status, ethnic origin etc.” (Lorentzen, 2019).
The library tagline ‘unjudge someone’ explains its rationale; to enable peo‑
ple to meet others from stigmatised groups or ones who are discriminated
against, and who they may not normally have access to, in order to help them
gain insight and understanding into the group/s. Its aim is therefore peda‑
gogic, to improve understanding of diversity, and it is used in sectors such
as second and third‑level education, medical training, and civic engagement.
Groups represented, as shown on the website, include the homeless, people
with autism, HIV and bipolar disorder, refugees, soldiers with PTSD, and
alcoholics. The website offers photographs, extracts from these people’s sto‑
ries, why they are included, and the stereotypes and discrimination they face.
The objective of this activity is to critically evaluate the ’Human Library’
as a learning resource, using content analysis (or other analytical methods).
The task is conceived for practitioners and teacher trainers but could be
used with more advanced and/or adult learners.
Procedure
1 Access and browse the centralised human library website https://hu‑

manlibrary.org/ (Lorentzen, 2019) and/or its national sites which are
linked from there. It is a good idea to engage with one or more of the
‘human books’ to get a sense of how the library works.
2 The site presents as its ‘human books’, people, and their stories, from
groups who may be disadvantaged, mistrusted, discriminated against,
and stereotyped.
• Consider to what degree it succeeds (or has the potential to succeed)
in improving understanding of diversity.
• Consider whether/to what degree it runs the risk that classifying peo‑
ple within such groupings might reinforce stereotyping.
• Consider the pros and cons of using the human library with learners
at second/third level (one of its stated functions).
If you estimate that the human library could be a useful resource to enhance
learners’ awareness and understanding of diversity, design some procedures
for its pedagogical use. A sample is offered below.
5. ‘Class Human Library’
Introduction
The following activity is built on the ‘Human Library’ concept, asking the
intercultural learners to consider other points of views, to develop empathy
towards others and otherness. In terms of the intercultural learning objec‑
tives this activity is aligned with the following:
(7) Provide opportunities to share experiences and empathise with (people

from) other cultures.
Procedure
1 Explain the concept of ‘The Human Library’ (see the introduction to

Activity 4 above) and tell students that they are going to compile a ‘class
human library’.
2 Give the students some time to browse the website https://humanli‑
brary.org/ and suggest they engage with one or more of the ‘human
books’ to get a sense of how the library works.
3 Get them to write questions on what they would like to find out from
their ‘human book’.
4 Suggest that they invite people from different cultures for interviews
(face‑to‑face or via a communications app such as Zoom). You the
teacher may prefer to screen their suggestions first to ensure their fit, or
even source people for this part of the activity.
5 Get students to conduct and transcribe each interview.
6 Ask them to upload it as one ‘book’ in the class’s human library.
7 Encourage the class to browse the ‘books’ their classmates have added to
the library.
8 The reflective stage involves exploring and evaluating the human library
created. Ask learners to compare and contrast the stories and discuss in
groups or in plenary;
• What differences were there between the stories, and what similarities?
• Did the stories confirm their expectations of the ‘book’ subject?
• Did anything surprise them?
• Which story/ies did they like, and why?
9 Discussion (in plenary):
• What do they feel they have learnt from the experience of interviewing
subjects?
• How have the ‘books’ in the library itself contributed to their aware‑
ness and understanding of diversity?
Note: The ‘Class Human Library’ task can be classified as a learner‑gener‑
ated material too, as it is the learners who provide and generate input for
the learning process, so as such it could equally have been placed in the
learner‑generated material sub‑section in Activity Set B.
6. Semiotic analysis: levels of meaning‑making
Introduction
We earlier noted the preference of today’s youth for the visual, enacted on
digital platforms and their use of the online environment as a creative mul‑
timodal playground. The abundance of audio‑visual and graphic material
found there – photographs, videos, memes, and so on – while not originally
designed for pedagogy, can be harvested for cultural learning. Especially if
interpreted via semiotic analysis (described in Part I), such materials have
enormous potential for raising cultural awareness by surfacing cultural sche‑
mas, exposing cultural assumptions and, in multicultural groups in particu‑
lar, expanding cultural knowledge.
We will refer here to textbooks as the most often used and standardised
teaching material which, as we argued in Part I, are in constant need of
adaptation and contextualisation in order to make them appropriate for a

particular learner group (see also Activity Set (D)). Textbooks usually con‑
tain both textual and visual information, the latter in the form of pictures,
graphics, and text boxes that draw the learners’ attention to particular in‑
formation. The images are usually used to illustrate the texts (highlighting
characters, events, actions, and particular vocabulary items). When students
work with the materials and perceive them as signs, representations of cer‑
tain ideas, practices, and realities, they interpret and make meaning of them
in ways that take them on a complex journey of thoughts and feelings.
During this process, meaning‑making happens at three levels when inter‑
acting with materials: global, cultural/subcultural, and individual (Kiss &
Weninger, 2017).
In this activity, semiotic analysis is suggested in two stages: first, for
teachers so that they can experience it firsthand, and second, for students.
(1) Exploring the self

Since most teachers share the same sociocultural/cultural context(s) with
their learners, unless they are working with migrant students or as an expa‑
triate teacher, one way to predict how students may react to the materials is
to explore how you yourself would interpret them.
Procedure
1 Select for analysis a piece of material or materials from a textbook used in

the teaching context.
2 Look at the images and texts in the selected textbook materials and ask
yourself the following questions:
• What are the first three words that come to your mind when you look
at the images/texts? Write down these words.
• What do you feel when you look at the images/texts? Are you curious,
excited, happy, sad, nervous, anxious, etc.? Write down your reaction.
• How do you think your students would react to these images/texts?
Would their reaction be different or similar to yours? Try to explain
your answer.
• Based on your recorded answers, how would you approach using these
materials for teaching intercultural communication in the classroom?
How would you introduce the topic, i.e. what connections would you
use to other topics/events/objects/etc. that your students might be
familiar with? How would you manage their feelings (either similar to
or different from yours) to fuel their energy towards learning? If they
are curious, how would you use that to promote learner autonomy? If
they are indifferent, how would you entice their curiosity?
(2) Exploring your learners
Procedure
The procedures are similar to (1) where you as teachers explore your own
meaning‑making processes but they are now used with students. As pre‑
viously, use for analysis material/s from a textbook used in the teaching
context.
1 Ask students to look at the material and write down the first three things
that come to their mind. These can be either put on the board as a mind
map and/or spidergram or shared in smaller groups.
2 Discuss the meanings by eliciting explanations from students and ask
them to explore any similarities or differences that may occur. Similarly,
you can ask them what feelings they have when they look at the mate‑
rial; do they feel curious, excited, nervous, happy, sad, etc.? The answers
students provide will enable you to have a better understanding of how
they relate to certain materials and identify some of their core values and
beliefs that could be used when teaching intercultural communication. It
also provides you with ideas on how to exploit the teaching material and
any further material which contains similar images/texts or topics.
Critical discourse analysis: working with texts
7. Texts from language coursebooks
Introduction
Sometimes culture or cultural bias can be hidden in the text itself. This is
when critical discourse analysis can illuminate how texts are used to influence
their readers. Teaching materials are cultural artefacts that carry a particular
worldview and values that reflect the dominant ideology of the context in
which they are produced. This is often referred to as the ‘hidden curriculum’
(see for example, Cunningsworth, 1995; Garton & Graves, 2019; McGrath,
2013), a socialisation process that is not part of the officially defined content
in curriculum documents and advocates “a particular way of life, a particular
understanding of the world” (Pennycook, 2017, p. 178).
The following two sample CDA activities (Procedure 1 and Procedure 2),
present excerpts from a textbook, each with follow‑up questions.
Note: The activities might be used with higher level learners as well as a
means of encouraging them to think critically about the learning materials
they are asked to use.
Procedure 1
Look at the text from a Malaysian textbook (Lim, 2010, p. 136) below and
answer the questions.
Last week, the apartment community where I live showed the spirit of
Muhibbah still exists. The residents of the apartment organized a Malam
Muhibbah to celebrate their unity amid the diversity. What was most pleas‑
ant to note was the care given to ensure that various cultural sensitivities
were respected. The programme started at 8 p.m., out of respect for the
prayer times of the Muslim community.
The food served was of course halal but no beef was served either. The
children performed cultural dances as part of the event. It was refreshing to
see a cross‑cultural performance in which Malay, Chinese and Indian dances
were performed by children. There was a Chinese girl in baju kurung doing
a Malay dance, Malay and Indian kids doing the Chinese fan dance and a
Chinese boy dressed up as a king doing an Indian dance. Residents dined
together in the spirit of neighbourliness.
a What is the text about?

b What cultures are represented in the text?
c Do you think there is equal representation of the cultures you have listed
as your answer to question (b)? Justify your answer?
d Underline all non‑English words in the text. Can you tell what language
they are from and what they mean?
e Is there a balanced representation of the cultures mentioned in the text?
Is there a culture that is more dominant than the others?
Procedure 2
Look at another text from the same source and answer the questions.
Malaysia is a unique country in many ways it is a multiracial nation with

diversified culture, customs and religions. The people have been enjoying
peace, harmony and unity in diversity since independence. It would not
be wrong to say that Malaysia has become the model or rather the envy
of many countries, especially those with a multiracial composition. We
Malaysians can take pride in this. However, we should not be complacent

but to continue to nurture and reinforce this strong bond of “one for all,
all for one”.
This is reflected in the country’s celebration in conjunction with his 50th
anniversary, when in the midst of fireworks and flag waving, a prayer for
continuous peace and unity among its races and religions was said. Malay‑
sia’s Premier also used his anniversary speech, made in the midnight hour
of the nation’s birth, to voice pride in the country’s record of religious toler‑
ance and social interaction. “We must take care of our unity and we must
be ready to destroy any threat which may affect our unity,” said the Prime
Minister to thousands of Malaysians who had turned up in the capital’s main
square to celebrate the occasion.
In Merdeka Square, as helicopters sprinkled the crowd with powder
in the red, white, yellow and blue colours of the national flag, thought of
whatever religious and racial tension gave away to a party of harmonious
atmosphere. Thousands of dancers, a choir of around 2300 teachers and
1000 drummers performed patriotic songs, watched by Malaysia’s King and
Queen and dozens of foreign dignitaries. The leaders of Asian countries also
gathered on the podium to watch the celebrations, which included a fly‑past
by Malaysia’s Russian‑made jet fighters.
Conspicuously present at the Merdeka celebration were foreigners, most
of whom were tourists who included the national day celebration as part of
their itinerary.
“It’s wonderful to be in a country that is so rich in customs, traditions and
religions. The people are warm, friendly, and very hospitable. What marvels
me is the peace and unity among the various races. There is much to be
learnt for the people of my country”, remarked a tourist.
“I’ve been to Malaysia a number of times,” said another tourist. “I often
choose this country as my destination not only because of its rich flora and
fauna and culture, but also because of the colorful celebrations of their cul‑
ture and religions. I’m particularly impressed by the open house concept, in
which other races will come together to celebrate as one big family. I have
attended open houses during Hari Raya Puasa, Chinese New Year, Deepavali
and Christmas Day. The spirit of harmony and unity is at its best during these
wonderful occasions. When I told my folk back home about my experience,
they not only marvelled at it but pledged to come to Malaysia to see it for
themselves”.
“I am happy to live in Malaysia. There is peace and harmony here,”

remarked an ethnic Chinese schoolteacher, who came to the Square with
her five‑year‑old daughter and husband, who flew a small Malaysian flag
from his baseball cap. “As you can see, in terms of peace and stability,
we are much better off than many of our neighboring countries, not to
talk of countries, not to talk of the world. All this would not have been
possible if there was no unity in the country. We must therefore preserve
it at all cost”.
(Lim, 2010, p.138)
a What is the text about?

b Is this an authentic text, i.e. written for a purpose other than language
teaching? What evidence do you have to support your answer?
c What ideology do you think the writer promotes? Why do you think they
would like to do so?
d How do you think students would react to this text? Why?
Activity Set (B): learner activities for fostering (critical)

cultural awareness
As we have emphasised throughout, personal and cultural sensitivities of
learners are paramount in engaging in intercultural (and admittedly any)
learning activity. Because culture is such a sensitive area, it is particularly
important when planning intercultural learning to build up learners’ trust
and confidence in the process. As well as this, building intercultural aware‑
ness requires staging, in a similar way to building up language competence.
The first (the main) set of activities below are therefore (roughly) ordered
to develop intercultural awareness step‑by‑step, starting with exploring un‑
derstanding of the notion of culture in general before gradually introducing
activities that probe a more personal level.
8. Greetings
Introduction
Even the simple words used as greetings in different languages have differ‑
ent meanings and give cultural clues. This activity is a good ice‑breaker. It
acts as a simple and useful ‘entry point’ for thinking about language and
culture. While it works best in multicultural and/or multilingual groups, it
also demonstrates how multilingual even the most superficially ‘monolin‑

gual’ group can be.
Intercultural learning objectives:
(1) Make connections between cultures.

(2) Foster a comparative perspective.
Procedure
1 Ask learners to work in small multicultural/multilingual groups.

2 Individually, each learner thinks of and notes down the words used as
a greeting in all the languages that he/she knows (e.g. ‘hello’ or ‘good
morning’ in English, ‘‫ ’السالم عليكم‬in Arabic).
3 The group then compile a list of all the greetings they know collectively.
4 They then consider the meanings of the greetings. For instance, ‘good
morning’ in English wishes the interlocutor a good day/morning, while
‘‫ ’السالم عليكم‬in Arabic means ‘peace be upon you’ and ‘‫ ’שלום‬in Hebrew
means ‘peace’.
5 In plenary, pool all the greetings on the board. The number of different
languages represented might well be surprising and should draw learners’
attention to how multilingual the group is.
6 Finally, ask the learners to point out any particular meanings of the greet‑
ings they have come up with, and discuss any cultural clues the greeting
offers about the language/culture.
9. Intercultural handball
Introduction
This activity is intended to act as a lightweight way to initiate thinking about

different cultures and to elicit learners’ (superficial) cultural knowledge. Ide‑
ally, the students stand in a large circle for this activity so that they can toss
a ball or beanbag to each other. Alternatively, learners can remain at their
desks and nominate each other.
Intercultural learning objective:
(4) Deepen knowledge and awareness of cultures (one’s own and that of others).
Procedure
Explain the procedure, which is that one student nominates another by

throwing the ball/beanbag to him/her and naming a country. The receiver
has to say one thing s/he identifies with that country. Then s/he throws the
ball/beanbag to another student, calling out a country, and so on.
A sample dialogue might go as follows:
Student 1: (throwing ball to Student 2) Italy.

Student 2: Pasta. (throwing ball to Student 3) Saudi Arabia.
Student 3: Oil. (throwing ball to Student 4) China.
Student 4: Communism. (throwing ball, etc.)
Teacher awareness and control are important in this game. The use of coun‑
tries rather than nationalities is to avoid the risk of stereotyping if the latter
were used. This is not to say that the game might not evolve in that direc‑
tion (Student 4’s response might already signal a subtle shift), so the teacher
needs to be on the alert if this extends to negative stereotyping. From the
teacher‑as‑materials‑developer viewpoint, the identifications students make
can form useful starting points for other intercultural activities.
10. ‘You’re late!’
Introduction
The objective of this activity is to raise learners’ awareness about how rela‑
tive even deceptively simple concepts like ‘being early/late’ are to people
of different cultures. As intercultural communication involves both verbal
and non‑verbal cues, the use of space and time are important non‑verbal
codes to consider in an interaction. As Adler and Rodman (2006, p. 178)
explain,
in a culture … that values time highly, waiting can be an indicator of

status. ‘Important’ people (whose time is supposedly more valuable than
that of others) may be seen by appointment only, whereas it is acceptable
to intrude without notice on lesser beings.
This activity works best in multicultural groups.

(5) Reflect on and question cultural assumptions.
(8) Develop respect for cultural differences.
(9) Build bridges between cultures.
Procedure
This works well if the list below is read aloud by the teacher, pausing be‑
tween each item. (This list itself is unavoidably culturally determined. The
teacher may wish to adjust it to fit their own cultural context.)
1 Ask learners to write down times (8 o’clock, 7.30 etc.) according to their
concept of the following:
• You were late for work
• You arrive early for your 9 o’clock meeting (or class)
• You arrive late for your 9 o’clock meeting (or class)
• The shops are open late tonight
• You are invited for dinner to some friends
• What time would they tell you to come?
• What time would you arrive?
• The train is late (by how much?)
• You are invited to a party
• What time would the host invite you?
• What time would you arrive?
2 Ask learners to team up in groups, ideally something like three people
from different countries/cultures, and compare the times they have
noted.
3 Ask the groups to discuss:
• What they can learn about concepts of time in different cultures.
• How these different concepts of time might have potential for inter‑
cultural (mis‑) understanding.
4 In plenary, brainstorm what the groups have come up with.
5 Extend this to the discussion of other cultural concepts that might have
the potential for intercultural (mis‑) understanding (for example, ges‑
tures, modes of dress).
11. Interpreting the visual
Introduction
There are many triggers for intercultural exploration in the language class‑
room that teachers should be on the alert for that are not in themselves
explicitly ‘about’ culture. The most salient of these are the types of visuals
described earlier – pictures, graphics, and especially photographs. While lan‑

guage coursebooks are full of illustrations, it has been pointed out that these
are inadequately exploited, often serving merely an illustrative or even deco‑
rative purpose (see, e.g. Hill, 2013). Yet photographs carry a wealth of cul‑
tural information that is there to be uncovered. What is more, as has been
pointed out in the section on semiotics in Part I, we interpret visual images
according to the schemas that we have created through cultural, learning,
and personal experiences. One image may tell a different story to different
people, especially if they come from different cultural backgrounds. It is
therefore valuable to capture learners’ semiotic engagement with the visuals;
their individual interpretation through their individual cultural and experi‑
ential lens. This means that an image serves first and foremost as a stimulus.
It can prompt discussions that go in any number of directions depending
on the individuals participating and can promote ‘cultural learning’ drawn
not only from the image itself, but from the individuals reacting to it; it
is the learners who create cultural meanings in the language classroom by
a complex process of interpreting, relating, and evaluating, therefore the
meanings are not predetermined by the materials that they use. In the fol‑
lowing activity, adapted from Mishan (2023), we will explore how visuals
can be used for intercultural learning.
Procedure
What is presented here is more of a ‘template’ for exploiting visuals wher‑

ever encountered, whether in the coursebook, authentic material, or realia.
These prompts might be employed as what are often called ‘teachable mo‑
ments’, where the practitioner takes unpredicted/unplanned opportunities
to open out class discussion; in this case, in the direction of discovering
‘hidden’ cultural information. A sample photograph is used here with an
example of the types of prompts that the teacher (or indeed the learners)
might generate in order to guide response, discovery, and evaluation. Some
of the elements of the I DIVE activity (Activity 19) can be seen to be at play
here, with learners encouraged to move from observing to interpreting and
evaluating.
Sample prompts for this photograph (Figure 2.1):
• What is the relationship between the four people here?

• What is the hierarchy/power dynamic/s between them?
• How would you interpret their body language?
FIGURE 2.1 Photograph for interpretation

Source: www.pexels.com
• Does there appear to be differentiation or segregation between race, cul‑

ture, gender or age?
• What is the socio‑economic class of these people (is this the same for all
of the individuals?)
• What does the setting say about wealth in this society?
• Compare and contrast what you see in the photograph with a meeting in
your own society.
• Compare and contrast other elements in the photograph with your own
society.
Encourage learners to express their responses and attitudes to the photo‑

graph and/or the figures in it, and to justify these.
12. A picture paints a thousand words
Introduction
Staying with the visual, this activity homes in on the idea of cultural interpre‑
tation. We interpret visual images according to the schemas (cultural sche‑
mas included) we have created through learning and personal experiences.
Therefore, it is not surprising that one image may tell a different story to
different people, especially if they come from different cultural backgrounds

and our interpretations of images would generally fall into three broader
categories: (a) universal meanings, (b) cultural and subcultural meanings,
and (c) individual meanings (Kiss & Weninger, 2017). Universal mean‑
ings are generally shared across cultures based on signs that are interpreted
similarly all over the world. For example, a smile will be generally consid‑
ered a sign of a happy/friendly person. Cultural and subcultural meanings
on the other hand are anchored in the common histories and experiences
of particular groups and are not shared broadly beyond the boundaries of
these cultural entities. Finally, individual meanings are personal; they are
created as a response of the individual’s cognitive and affective processes as
they interact with the image. In a way, these meanings are unpredictable
as each individual has different personal histories, psychological traits, and
personalities.
The rationale for using visuals as an intercultural activity is to openly
discuss meaning‑making processes and recognise that meanings we create
are both culturally and personally bound. We can only understand how one
reacts to an image, and in the broader sense to any kind of information or
event, if we understand how these relate to our own cultural selves. This
activity, therefore, allows learners to share and discuss their own cultures
based on what they are about to share and reveal to others. It also encour‑
ages comparisons and collaborative meaning‑making that implies openness
and acceptance towards otherness.

Procedure
1 Give the learners an image that depicts a particular cultural practice or

tradition. For example, it could be a picture of the Indian Holi festival,
or the Hungarian Busójárás (Culture Trip, 2017). Of course, there are
many other possibilities here. A valuable image repository is UNESCO’s
Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO, 2022). One image can be used
with the whole class, or a different image may be given to each group.
2 Ask learners to get into groups of four or five. (If a different image is be‑
ing used with each group, give each their picture, otherwise project it to
the class/hand out copies of it).
3 Give learners five minutes to work individually and write down as many
things as they can that come to their minds when they look at the image.
They can use words, short phrases, or full sentences.
4 When the time is up, ask them to share with their groups what they have
written. They will need to explain to each other meanings that are not
commonly shared – encourage them to ask questions to probe and ex‑
plore the ideas as a group.
5 In plenary, groups then share the meanings they have talked about with
the class – this is especially fruitful if each small group has been working
on a different picture.
13. Culture iceberg
Introduction
The metaphor of culture as an iceberg, nine‑tenths of it ‘hidden’ under‑

water and only one‑tenth visible externally – in aspects like clothing and
behaviour – has been much‑used (some would say, over‑used) in teach‑
ing about culture. Originally attributed to Weaver (1986), the iceberg
model is nevertheless very useful in the early stages of cultural and inter‑
cultural learning. Asked to consider which aspects of culture come above
and, more importantly, below the waterline of the culture iceberg, obliges
learners to consider the roots of the more superficial aspects of culture
they are aware of.
(6) Encourage exploring beneath the surface of cultural behaviours.
Procedure
1 Explain the general idea of the activity, an iceberg as a metaphor for

culture, etc. In plenary, brainstorm some ‘aspects of culture’ to act as
starting points (e.g. dress, cuisine, language, values), but only to the point
at which the students have got the idea of what is meant. It is more use‑
ful for them to come up with others themselves as they complete their
iceberg model.
2 The main part of the activity is best done in small groups. Ask one mem‑
ber of each group to draw a large outline of an iceberg, with the waterline
marked.
3 Ask learners to work in their groups and mark aspects of culture (the
ones brainstormed and others) either above or below the waterline.
FIGURE 2.2 Sample culture iceberg
4 Once models are completed, pool the groups’ ideas in plenary. Show a
blank iceberg model on a board/whiteboard etc. and ask the groups to
suggest where they have placed various aspects of culture. This should
produce both a large number of ‘aspects’ of culture, as well as debate as
to where some of them are positioned. For instance, is language above,
below – or perhaps on – the waterline? (Figure 2.2 shows a sample ‘cul‑
ture iceberg’ thus produced).
5 From a materials development viewpoint, eliciting the learners’ ideas of
what constitutes culture, ‘aspects of culture’, provides an important data‑
base of learner knowledge to act as starting points for other intercultural
activities, such as those offered here.
14. ‘Combo‑culture’
Introduction
We have already discussed the concept of the internet as an authentic in‑

tercultural environment, a virtual ‘third space’. We note that this prospect
is somewhat dampened by the risks of asking learners (particularly young
adults) to surf online without the necessary critical digital literacy which
many have not (yet) acquired, so this type of activity would need to be at
the teacher’s discretion.
One aspect of technology that has been explored in the context of lan‑
guage pedagogy, is its potential for creativity. Creativity is, of course, the
topmost of the critical thinking skills discussed in Part I as being so essential
for learning, utilising, and building on all the other higher order thinking
skills – the abilities to apply, analyse and evaluate knowledge. Creative tasks
are commonly set in intercultural activities, partly because they go beyond
individual cultures to a ‘neutral zone’ – as this task illustrates. This activ‑
ity (adapted from Mishan, 2023) has as its chief objective, the building
of intercultural knowledge and openness to cultural diversity. It deploys
important digital literacy skills such as searching and evaluating and invites
creative skills in designing an imaginary composite culture using attributes
from others.
Procedure
The interactional parts of this activity can take place in the face‑to‑face
classroom or via videoconferencing (e.g. Zoom, Skype, MS Teams) or mo‑
bile Apps (e.g. WhatsApp, FaceTime), or in blended mode, depending on
circumstances.
1 Set the task by informing learners that they are going to build an im‑
aginary composite culture, using as building blocks, selected character‑
istics from other world cultures. To structure this, a good first stage is
to use an image like the ‘culture iceberg’ to identify and list ‘elements’
of culture – dress, language, cuisine, for example above the waterline;
aspects like gender roles on the waterline – and ‘hidden ones’ like values
and beliefs below it. (The full ‘culture iceberg’ activity can be found as
Activity 13).
2 Ask learners to work in groups of two, three, or four. The first stage of
their task is to research these cultural elements in different world cultures.
Encourage students to use their existing knowledge of other cultures as
a starting point; for instance, one might recall reading about an Amazo‑
nian tribe that had no specific words for direction (i.e. left or right). The
group or one group member might research this to discover that this is
in fact the Pirahãs (described in Daniel Everett’s book Don’t sleep, there
are snakes, 2008), and then decide if they would like this as a feature of
their culture. As for cuisine, they may, perhaps, consider vegetarianism,
influenced by religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism.
3 Once the group has built up their ‘combo‑culture’ based on chosen
elements from different world cultures they have researched, ask them
to name it and introduce it to the rest of the class as members of that
cultural community. This is intended to build up an ‘empathy’ with their

created culture. Other classmates are encouraged to ask questions and
perhaps even challenge from the perspective of a member of their own
combo‑culture.
4 Reflective stage, in plenary:
• Pull together what students feel they have learnt from this activity and
whether/how it has developed their cultural awareness; so as well as
building up knowledge of other world cultures, to what degree has
this task helped in opening up, challenging, or changing perspectives
or assumptions about other cultures – or indeed, their own?
• Encourage students to reflect on and describe the experience of ‘step‑
ping into the shoes’ of a member of an unfamiliar cultural community.
15. View through a different lens
Introduction
As noted in activity 14 and elsewhere, we conceive of the internet as an

authentic intercultural environment, a virtual ‘third space’. While a ‘normal‑
ised’ part of our lives today, negotiating it for educational purposes involves
cyber‑safety constraints. One tried and trusted platform that is commonly
used in culture and language learning is Facebook, where secure private
groups can be created on which learners can interact together safely. Hence
the numerous studies using Facebook and similar platforms to develop
learners’ intercultural competence via ‘controlled’ projects such as twinned
group/class ‘cultural/language exchanges’. Participating in online intercul‑
tural communication without this control, “in the wild” as Thorne (2010,
p. 144) calls it, is unquestionably more authentic and can lead to “deeper
cultural insights” (Godwin‑Jones, 2019, p. 20); but it takes us up against
the cyber‑security issues just mentioned. It also requires a level of digital
literacy, which we looked at in Part I, skills such as interpreting and critically
evaluating information sourced online (often in different media, graphic,
video, audio, as well as text) – the latter ability is itself, usefully, a part of
CCA. The deft use of technology should not be confused with genuine
digital literacy, however, so the degree of autonomy in online searching,
along with language proficiency level (if the language being used is a second
or other language) is clearly at the teacher’s discretion.
This task activates reflection on one’s own culture (‘making the familiar
strange’) by offering a view through a different cultural lens.

(3) Exploit cultural universals.

(6) Encourage exploring beneath the surface of cultural behaviours.
Procedure
1 Ask the (intercultural) class to compile a list of festivities common to all

their cultures; this list might include weddings, birthdays, national, or
religious festivals.
2 Members of the class then get into pairs representing different cultures.
Each pair then chooses to research online into one festivity – but in their
partner’s culture. For example, the pair may choose to find out about
weddings in each other’s cultures.
3 The ‘research’ step involves searching online on any platforms or social
media available to the learners or that the teacher considers appropriate.
Learners work independently researching their chosen festivity and com‑
pile their understanding of what happens in this festivity in their partner’s
culture. For example, this may include collecting information in various
media, videos, photographs, and, depending on their proficiency level
and the teacher’s objectives for the activity, may involve them writing an
outline. (The teacher may wish to prepare a guide for this stage).
4 Once students have collected their information, ask them to reassemble
in their intercultural pairs and exchange the information they have dis‑
covered (this can be face‑to‑face or via videoconferencing/Apps). Again,
the teacher may wish to offer instructions as to how this should proceed
bearing in mind the dual aim of the activity. For example, each student
may be asked in turn to describe their understanding of how the festivity
proceeds in their partner’s culture. In this scenario, while Student One
listens to Student Two describing a wedding in Student One’s culture,
this should stimulate the latter to reflect on this ‘view through another
lens’. It will also probably prompt them to want to react to Student Two’s
understanding – to ‘correct’ it, to comment on or query it.
5 Reflective stage, in plenary:
• Encourage students to reflect on what they feel they have learnt by
this activity; how it has challenged or changed perspectives or assump‑
tions about their own cultures – and those of others.
• Encourage them to think about how the activity has opened out their
perspectives on their own and others’ cultures and how it has illus‑
trated the sorts of erroneous assumptions that can be made.
• Help students recognise connections and universals in the festivals –
for instance, in all cultures, a wedding involves many cultural conven‑
tions (although these vary), a level of formality and feasting.
16. Cooking class
Introduction
Cultural ‘universals’ are a frequent starting point for learning about other
cultures and there are few aspects more universal than food and cooking.
Talking about food and cuisine are thus practically a default for learning
something about other cultures and few language coursebooks are without
their unit on these. It is easy to fall into the essentialist trap here, however;
better intercultural understanding arises from actually interacting with food
preparation – where situations permit of course. This activity is based on those
used in a project called ‘Heart and Parcel’ run for women from migrant com‑
munities in Manchester, UK, which includes classes combining cooking with
ESOL (reported in Tremayne, 2019). The classes involve cooking dishes from
the women’s different backgrounds and are ostensibly for language learning.
They are very successful in that regard, with a lot of interesting vocabulary
learnt, but the aspect focused on in this activity is the positive interactions and
intercultural learning that takes place in such a process.
As an additional note here, cooking is just one of many activities that,
when shared in a multicultural group, can promote intercultural learning,
understanding, respect, and empathy. The web App Enact described in
Activity 3 draws on similar principles, offering ‘language learning through
culture’ in the form of tasks based around culture‑specific activities such as
making a ‘red envelope’ for the Chinese New Year or a traditional Russian
salad.

(4) Deepen knowledge and awareness of cultures (one’s own and that of
others).
from) other cultures.)
(10) Work within the ‘third space’ between cultures.’
Procedure
Ideally, this activity should take place in a kitchen with cooking facilities. If
a kitchen is not available, dishes can be chosen that do not require cooking
(such as salads, dips, and some cakes). Some ingredients can be prepared in
advance and brought into the class (such as rice, couscous, and boiled eggs).
Food preparation implements such as bowls, forks, knives, and whisks need
to be provided, or students may be able to bring their own.
1 If possible, give each student a ‘turn’ to introduce a dish from their own
background. For their allotted turn, each student brings in the ingredi‑
ents for their dish. Ideally, they will bring enough for all the other stu‑
dents to prepare the dish under their guidance. Alternatively, the student
prepares the dish, demonstrating and explaining it to the others.
2 Encourage/elicit interaction (although this tends to arise naturally), such
as questions about the ingredients that may be unfamiliar to some stu‑
dents (“‘Celeriac’ was new to everyone” says Tremayne, 2019, p. 178),
the names of the processes (e.g. chop, whisk), discussion about when and
where this dish is usually served and so on.
3 The class ends with the students eating the food together – “a key part of
the experience” as Tremayne emphasises (2019, p. 179).
All stages of the ‘cookery class’ promote interaction, intercultural under‑

standing, and respect, with the aim of broadening intercultural knowledge
and uncovering universals – while being a sociable, enjoyable, bonding
experience.
17. Small cultures
Introduction
This activity, adapted from Mishan (2023), draws on Holliday’s notion dis‑
cussed in Part I; he defines “small cultures” as “cultural environments, small
social groupings or activities wherever there is cohesive behaviour” (Hol‑
liday, 2019, p. 3). The objective of the activity is to start learners thinking
about how social groupings work, their norms and conventions, and to
spark thought and discussion of the latter in a broader societal context.

(4) Deepen knowledge and awareness of cultures (one’s own and that of others.)
(10) Work within the ‘third space’ between cultures.
Procedure
1 Ask learners to work individually and to think about social groupings

they belong to, which can also include online groups (e.g. Facebook,
WhatsApp). Ask them to draw/represent each group as a circle, with in‑

tersecting circles where the groupings intersect. For example, they might
belong to a social group of parents but also to a group of walkers, with
the two groupings intersecting.
2 Ask learners to think about the ‘unwritten’ conventions of each group‑
ing (what they do/talk about, and what they don’t do/talk about). For
example, ‘parents’ may talk about their children, school and holidays,
and perhaps their own jobs in relation to these but they tend not to talk
about politics or personal relationships.
3 When they have completed their diagrams, ask the learners to share them
with one or two classmates and discuss the groupings and the conven‑
tions that they have established in relation to them.
4 In plenary:
• Ask learners to share some of these norms and conventions with the
whole class (these might be noted on a board).
• Ask the class to think about these in the context of their own socie‑
ties/cultures as a whole. For example, if they have established that
the ‘small cultures’ of parents and of walkers both avoid talking about
politics, does this suggest some sort of norm in their own culture?
18. Six degrees of separation
Introduction
Many are familiar with the concept of ‘six degrees of separation’ to de‑
scribe how interconnected our lives are, and some may also know that the
term originates from the social experiments of Stanley Milgram (1967) who
asked random people to send a letter to a person – a complete stranger – in
Boston by using only personal connections. The experiment showed that on
average the letters reached their target in about six steps, hence the name six
degrees of separation. Since then, the small world problem hypothesis has
been adapted to many fields and become the basis of games, for example,
the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, in which actors and actresses are
given a Bacon number. Kevin Bacon has the number zero and if someone
worked with him in a movie then their number is one. The higher the num‑
ber becomes, the more distant they are from the actor.
This task aims to raise students’ awareness of the importance of intercul‑
tural communication by emphasising the connectivity, largely enhanced by
digital technologies, among people.

Procedure
1 Allocate students in small groups.

2 Give each group the name of a well‑known person, an actor/actress,
musician, politician, artist, activist, scientist, etc. You may choose people
who are from their own cultural context, but you should also include
some who represent a different culture, race, and ethnicity.
3 Students try to establish connections to these personalities by using the
principles of six degrees of separation, searching for people they know
who may know someone who can take them closer to the target person.
At first, most students will probably claim that they don’t know anyone
who could connect them to a famous person. Therefore, we suggest you
demonstrate the activity using yourself as an example and showing the
process of linking one personal connection to another.
4 When students complete the task (and some may be unable to), ask
them to think about who they could connect to and who they could not,
which cultures these people come from, and what the experience tells
them about their (intercultural) connections to other people.
5 Ask follow‑up questions that probe students’ willingness to discover and
connect to other cultures, for example:
• Do you have friends from other cultural groups?
• Are you willing to interact with people from other cultures?
• What techniques and strategies do you use to learn about and discover
new cultures?
19. I DIVE
Introduction
The acronym I DIVE (Impact, Description, Interpretation, Values, Eval‑

uation) represents an intercultural activity tool presented by Schärli-Lim
(2020) that is an adaptation of the classic D‑I‑E (Description, Interpreta‑
tion, Evaluation) framework (e.g. Bennett, Bennett, & Stillings, 1977).
Central to the I DIVE activity is interpretation, getting people to dif‑
ferentiate what they actually see (description) from what they think it
might mean (interpretation). The main purpose of the I DIVE activity
in intercultural training is that it aids in raising awareness of subjectivity
and helps in analysing and interpreting cultural perceptions. The activity
is very effective in showing how quick we are to interpret instead of tak‑
ing the time to describe first and allow for different interpretations and
evaluations

Procedure
1 As outlined above, this is a whole group/class activity and requires the

use of an ambiguous object or photograph.
2 Pass the object/photograph around the class, encouraging each member
to say something about the object.
3 (It is important that the teacher allows students enough time to do so
and uses simple, non‑leading prompts like ‘say what this is’).
4 Write these responses into the appropriate column in a table (on an (in‑
teractive) white or black board) consisting of five I DIVE columns (Im‑
pact, Description, Interpretation, Values, Evaluation) – but leaving the
headings of the columns empty.
5 After their ideas are exhausted, ask the students if they can guess the
headings of the columns.
6 Elicit the ‘correct’ column headings and fill them in on the table.
7 Explain the five categories and perhaps give a handout listing them.
8 Once the concept is thus understood, the students can repeat the proce‑
dure in smaller groups or pairs, this time perhaps in greater depth, using
another ambiguous object or photograph, and the interpretations gener‑
ated can be shared with the class.
(Adapted from Mishan (2023) and presented with permission from Su‑
san Shärli-Lim.)
20. The Johari Window of culture
Introduction
The Johari Window is used in language learning as a useful way of encour‑

aging students to build a more accepting classroom atmosphere by getting
to know each other better.

from) other cultures.)
Procedure
The Johari Window uses four quadrants, or windows, to map out what we
know or do not know about a person, or what they know about themselves.
Things I know Things I do not know
Things they know

1: Arena
3: Blind spot
(Open area)
Things they don’t know
2: Façade
4: Unknown
(Hidden area)
FIGURE 2.3 The Johari Window of culture
In the intercultural classroom, this technique allows learners to discover

about each other’s cultures in a safe and controlled way. The four windows
in the model are called: Arena (Open area), where easily identifiable and
visible features of culture are located, Façade (Hidden area) contains infor‑
mation about a culture only known to ‘insiders’, Blind spot, which refers to
certain habits, behaviours, or other aspects of a culture obvious to outsiders,
but not necessarily known by insiders, and the Unknown, which is usually
left empty, unless students have access to information previously not known
to them (see Figure 2.3).
This activity works well in multicultural groups, but it is also appropriate
in groups that share a common cultural background. (The activity also ap‑
pears in Part I where it illustrates the principles of CDS working within an
intercultural activity.)
1 Ask learners to work individually, writing down five things about their
own culture that they consider important in making them who they are.
2 Ask learners to get into multicultural groups of around four. Distribute
copies of the Johari Window of culture to each group, who then discuss
each culture in turn and fill in the templates according to the information
being shared, and according to what they already know. They focus on
Windows 1–3, but obviously, they leave Window 4, ‘Unknown’, empty
until the plenary stage.
3 In plenary then, the groups pool what they have learnt about each other
to complete Window 4. Students can also offer their own individual in‑
sights for this window; for example, one student may say, “We Turkish
people consider Japanese food tasty/strange/interesting/bland/etc.”.
If working with a monocultural group, pick a culture that the students need
or want to explore. The procedure is then the same as above, except that
it probably falls to the teacher to provide further information that students
may put into their ‘Unknown’ window.
21. The ‘Smelly socks’ group
Introduction
The objective of this activity is to raise awareness about differences of per‑

ception and the importance of context when making value judgements, i.e.
of the relativity of judgements. It examines the idea of prejudice by getting
learners to label themselves as something unpleasant and asking them to
justify this label. It encourages learners to think critically and to seek contex‑
tual explanations. By asking learners to create a specific group characteristic
for themselves, it also promotes bonding.

Procedure
This activity works best where the class members are familiar and comfort‑
able with each other.
1 Ask learners to work in groups of six to eight (or smaller, depending on

the class size).
2 Each group agrees on what would be a socially unacceptable trait that
they have in common; such as, for example, ‘we’ve all got smelly socks’
(which may not, of course, be true). Groups give themselves a name (in
this case, ‘the smelly socks group’). They then decide together why this
trait is a ‘good thing’. For example, ‘Our guard dogs need to know where
we are. We are a very self‑sufficient group and want to keep outsiders
away’.
3 Each group then presents themselves to the whole class, giving their
group name and justifying why their common trait is a positive thing.
Other classmates can challenge the group, obliging the group members
to think critically and creatively to justify themselves.
(This activity is adapted from ‘Smelly Foot Tribe’ in Hadfield’s (1992)

Classroom Dynamics).
22. The Cultura project
Introduction
The Cultura project (developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Tech‑

nology) aims to help learners understand and appreciate the differences in
values and attitudes that various cultures can carry. The original project
involves two groups of intermediate or advanced‑level students who com‑
municate using asynchronous online forums as most of the project activities
takes place offline, in their respective classrooms.

Procedure
The students first generate materials in their L1 (or in the language that is
used as the medium of education in their context) by (a) doing a word as‑
sociation task (b) a sentence completion activity and (c) providing answers
on how they would behave in a hypothetical situation. These materials are
shared with their partners who are learning the L1 of their counterparts as
an L2 or foreign language. The reason for using the L1 for materials pro‑
duction, as (Bauer et al., 2006, p. 35) explained, is that:
(1) it eliminates possible dominance by a group or individuals with

respect to differing proficiency levels in the foreign language (L2) and
puts all students on an equal linguistic footing; (2) it enables students
to express their views fully and in detail, formulate questions and hy‑
potheses clearly, and provide complex, nuanced information because
they are not bound by limited linguistic abilities; and (3) it enables
the creation of student‑generated authentic texts, which serve both
as L2 input for the foreign partners and new objects of linguistic and
cultural analysis.
However, it is possible to divert from this set up as has been exemplified by

a recent intercultural exchange project between Sunway University (Ma‑
laysia) and the University of Miskolc (Hungary) where students in both
groups used English for the project. Although the medium of instruction is
English at Sunway University, not all students come from an English‑speak‑
ing background, they have home languages that range from Bahasa Malay‑
sia, Tamil, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, or any other of the 130 plus
languages spoken in this multilingual and multicultural country. Students at
the Hungarian university use English as an L2 for their studies and generally
share the same mother tongue, Hungarian.
1 As the first step in the activity, give students a word prompt and ask them
to write down words that come into their minds in connection with the
prompt. For example, the word family may have different cultural con‑
notations in the context the project is carried out.
2 Compile the students’ responses on a word list showing frequency or
possibly, in a word cloud that visually represents frequency data.
3 Share the responses with the collaborating partners who compare and
analyse them through a guided reflection and discussion process in their
classroom. Of course, the students are also invited to offer their individ‑
ual interpretations and thoughts on the online platform. This encourages
them to realise that even universally shared concepts such as family may
have different interpretations in cultures across the globe.
4 In the second step of the activity, learners are required to finish an incom‑
plete sentence. It is perhaps best to keep the prompts within the general
topic that the first step provided. In the Sunway‑Miskolc project, where
the stimulus in step one was ‘family’, the following prompts were used:
• Same‑sex marriage is/should … (because)
• The most important member(s) of a family …
• Family members should …
5 Once they have completed the sentences, the students look at them in
their respective country/culture groups to see if there are any patterns
emerging. In other words, they look at how homogeneous or heteroge‑
neous their own cultural group is.
6 They then look at sentences provided by their partner group and try to
identify trends and explore the perceptions of relationships and roles that
may be present in the culture(s) they are investigating.
7 As the final stage, present students with a hypothetical situation (which
may potentially be a conflict situation). For example, if we remain with
the topic of ‘family’, possible situations could be:
• You are queuing up at the cashier in the supermarket when a mother
in front of you slaps their child quite violently. What do you do?
• Your friend explains that they need to quit university to support their
elderly parents. How do you react?
• You are at a family gathering and the elderly aunts/uncles are all
asking you when you are going to get married and have children,
while you would like to continue your education and focus on your
career first.
(The prompts are not necessarily fully‑fledged to allow for more interpre‑
tation from the students.)
8 Ask students to discuss how they would act, and what they think about
the situation or the character/s described in it.
9 Again, after they have given their answers, the groups compare how their
partners would choose to react in such situations and how that compares
to the answers they have come up with.
All the steps require a structured reflection and discussion that can take
place in the classroom or online. (Inter)cultural learning slowly emerges
from the authentic information students provide. The activity should reveal
to students the fact that overall nation cultures are made up of a colourful
fabric of smaller cultural representations, even in seemingly monocultural
contexts.
23. Identity boxes
Introduction
Identity boxes are based on the artist Joseph Cornell’s concept ‘shadow
boxes’ which consisted of one box divided into nine smaller boxes, with
each figuring an aspect of one’s personality (in one of Cornell’s examples,
there is in one box a bird symbolising freedom, in another a bunch of
roses symbolising love, and so on). The concept has been adapted for use
in ESOL contexts as a “safe and controlled way” for learners to “share in‑
formation about themselves” (Idle & Ma, 2019, p. 169). Asking learners
to produce their own ‘identity box’ provides them with the opportunity
to share only what they want others to know about themselves. It also
allows them to ‘distance’ themselves from the process, by asking them
to draw images (or collect from online sources) for their identity box.
It is also, of course, creative, engaging high‑level cognitive skills as well
as triggering the positive affective factors associated with creativity. Note
that teachers should be prepared for gender identity to come up here,
depending on the age/cultural background of the group. Teachers may
wish to pre‑empt this, or they may wish to prepare for how to deal with
it should it arise.

Procedure
1 Produce a template for the identity box (one large box divided into four
or nine segments). This can be done as a paper template and distributed
to learners or shared online.
2 Ask learners to work individually and fill each of the smaller boxes with
aspects of their identity that they are happy to share. This can be what or
who they identify as, or what they feel identifies them. For example, they
may identify as a parent (mother/father), or they may identify themselves
via their job, via sports or hobbies they engage in, and so on. (Teachers
may like to show an identity box they themselves have created as an ex‑
ample, and to display their own willingness to share.)
3 After learners have filled their boxes, ask them to consider if any of these
aspects of their identity is/are culturally determined. For example, do
they identify as a mother – rather than a parent? Or do they identify
themselves primarily via their job? And if so, is this culturally determined?
4 Learners then partner with one other person from a different culture
(depending on the make‑up of the class). The dyad share their identity
boxes, discussing and explaining what they identify as, and what of these,
they consider is culturally dictated.
5 In plenary, encourage students to share the general ideas the activity has
stimulated (not individual identities) for discussion and reflection.
24. A‑land versus Zed‑land
Introduction
Underpinning this book is the idea that it is the distances (differences)

between cultures (or at least, people’s perceptions of these) that form the
greatest obstacles to intercultural understanding, tolerance, and indeed,
peace. Infused in our principles for intercultural materials development as
represented in the materials framework is the belief that it is only by sharing
experiences and endeavouring to empathise with (people from) other cul‑
tures that we can broaden our cultural horizons and develop intercultural
competence. The idea of this activity is to artificially create the well‑known
phenomenon of ‘culture clash’ and encourage participants to reflect on this
experience in ways that promote a greater understanding of, and more open
attitude towards cultural differences.
‘A‑land versus Zed‑land’ is conceived as an extended role‑play whereby
participants are assigned to one of two fictional cultures (‘A‑land’ or
‘Zed‑land’) which have distinct behaviours based on their contrasting norms
and value sets. It uses a role‑play format as a means of ‘distancing’ partici‑
pants from their own cultures and avoiding offence. (It is acknowledged,
however, that role‑playing may not fit the pedagogies of certain cultures
so this activity is to be used at the teacher’s discretion.) For learners to be
comfortable role‑playing, they need to be familiar with each other, so this
activity is best used at a mid to late stage in the course. It can be used in the
face‑to‑face classroom or online.

Procedure
The first part of the procedure requires the teacher to create two role cards,
one describing a set of cultural behaviours in A‑land and the other describ‑
ing a set of cultural behaviours in Zed‑land. Reproduce the culture role
cards according to the numbers in each group; each A‑lander receives an
A‑land card and each Zed‑lander a Zed‑land card. Sample role cards are
given below, but the teacher may wish to produce their own, as the depic‑
tion of the fictional cultures themselves can be said to be culturally dictated
(i.e. by the culture of their creator).
A‑LANDER CULTURE
A‑land is a very hierarchical society. There is a broad range of social classes

and when interacting with someone new, it is important first of all to es‑
tablish which class they belong to. This will dictate how they are addressed
and the level of respect they are shown. In A‑land, the type of work peo‑
ple do decides their class. For example, builders, street and office cleaners,
garbage collectors, and train/bus drivers are the highest class (as without
them, society would not function). Doctors and nurses belong to the next
class, followed by teachers. People working in the entertainment industry,
the media, and sport, such as actors, news reporters, and soccer players are
in a lower class, with lawyers and business people making up the lowest
class of all. This strict class system means that A‑landers’ spoken interactions
tend to be rather formal. Apart from establishing what class the other person
is in, A‑landers tend to avoid personal questions and they keep to neutral
topics (like the weather, TV shows, etc.). Personal space is important, and
they try to avoid eye‑contact.
ZED‑LANDER CULTURE
Zed‑land society has very ‘flat’ hierarchies. All jobs and professions receive
equal respect, as they are all seen as contributing to the overall functioning
of society. Zed‑landers are therefore very easy‑going and unreserved. They
ask personal questions quite directly (about age, religion, marital status,
work, salary, etc.). Zed‑landers tend to stand close to their interlocutors, use
a lot of body language (gestures, smiling, etc.), and make direct eye‑contact
as much as possible.
1 Tell the class that they are going to do a ‘culture role‑play’ (It is advisable
to avoid the term ‘culture‑clash’ at the start, as this is a phenomenon that
will emerge during the role‑play).
2 Split the class into two groups, A‑landers and Zed‑landers. The two
groups need to work separately for the first part of the activity, so break‑
out rooms should be provided for virtual classrooms and ample class‑
room space for face‑to‑face lessons.
3 The two groups familiarise themselves with their culture role cards
(A‑land or Zed‑land). Encourage the groups to discuss the cultural be‑
haviours of their assigned group but to try to adopt them uncritically (at
this stage). Suggest that they ‘practice’ their behaviours among their own
group before the next stage, where they encounter the other culture.
4 Each member of the two groups now pairs up with a partner from the
other culture. Ask the pairs to interact with their partners according to
their assigned ‘cultural behaviour’ using as a prompt for the interaction,
a visual cue such as a photograph shown on‑screen in the classroom, or
shared online if the activity is being done virtually. Give a time limit for
the interaction (e.g. between five to seven minutes).
5 When they have finished their interactions with the member of the ‘other
culture’, the cultural groups reassemble in their own culture groups to
discuss how the interaction went. The teacher may need or wish to fa‑
cilitate here, guiding participants towards describing ‘culture clash’ and
realising the impact of cultural differences.
6 Reconvene in plenary:
• Ask learners to relinquish their adopted roles and discuss and reflect
on the experience of culture clash: how did they feel? What did they
feel towards their partner?
• Learners may also wish to share their own experiences of culture clash
at this stage.
• Encourage learners to reflect on how culture clash can be alleviated or
avoided.
• Guide them towards openness and tolerance of cultural difference and
a recognition that cultural values and behaviours are relative concepts.
Literature: the written and spoken word

Materials in this section encompass ‘literature’ in its broadest sense, includ‑
ing not only the traditional written word but also the spoken word. Hence
the activities involve using film, rap music, an online library and museum,
storytelling, and, of course, ‘Literature’ (‘with a capital L’). What is consid‑
ered to be ‘Literature’ varies widely from culture to culture, intra‑culturally
and over time. Nevertheless, some form of literature exists in every culture,
so it is a valuable universal genre to use as a starting point when seeking to
illustrate commonalities between cultures. Furthermore, stories themselves
can make readers feel affinity with people from unfamiliar cultures. As the
Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe put it:
Once you allow yourself to identify with the people in the story, then
you might begin to see yourself in that story even if on the surface it’s
far removed from your situation. This is what I try to tell my students:
this is one great thing that literature can do – it can make us identify with
situations and people far away.
(Bacon, 2000)
Literature is axiomatically creative. Using it for learning therefore has the

added value – if used strategically – of sparking in our learners the creativ‑
ity that is the pinnacle of critical thinking, as we have discussed earlier. The
activities in this section contain some ideas for this.
25. The universal language of poetry
Introduction
Of the literary genres, poetry (like storytelling, see Activities 27 and 28) exists
in some form (written or spoken word, or song) in every society. The paradox
that it is a form universally used to express highly personal emotion is a useful
entry point for the development of intercultural sensitivity in our students.
The activity described here, adapted from an activity in the companion
website to Mishan and Timmis (2015), can function as a template for the
use of a poem for intercultural learning. Since its language is such an integral
part of a poem, some language focus is usually important; a short language
focus activity for this poem is offered below. The poem used here illustrates
universal human emotions such as wonder or bemusement – but with adjust‑
ments to the prompts, the activity can be transferred to other poems.

Procedure
1 Ask learners to work in small groups to discuss the following:

• What is a poem?
• What are the conventions/rules for writing a poem?
• List the sorts of subjects that poems can be about.
• List the sorts of subjects not suitable for poetry.
• Can anybody write a poem?
2 Read the poem aloud to the class or ask a student to do so.
….Poem….
What a wonderful bird the frog are.

When he sit he stand almost.
When he hop he fly almost.
He ain’t got no sense hardly.
He ain’t got no tail hardly neither
When he sit, he sit on what he ain’t got almost.
Hardly!
(Anonymous)
3 Give the students the choice of responding (individually) in one of the

following ways:
• Draw the ‘frog’ from the poem (think about what colour it is, how big
it is, what shape it is, etc.).
• Describe the ‘frog’ from the poem (where is it, what colour is it, how
big is it? etc.).
4 Ask them to share their drawing or description with a partner or the
whole class if they wish.
5 Ask learners to discuss the following in small groups:
• What is the writer’s response to the frog?
• How does s/he feel about the frog?
• How do you know?
• Who do you think wrote the poem (age, gender, where was s/he
from?)
• Why do you think s/he wrote the poem?
6 Language Focus
• Ask learners to work individually to paraphrase the poem in their own
words.
• When they have completed their paraphrase, ask them to consider:
1 When they paraphrased the poem, did they change any of the words
(vocabulary, grammar)?
2 Analyse what they changed and why.
3 Compare the ‘paraphrase’ with the original poem. Which do they
prefer and why? (Students might share their paraphrases to discuss
these questions if they wish).
7 Ask learners to choose
• EITHER something from their own culture that might be unfamiliar
to someone from another culture
• OR something from another culture that they have experienced as
unfamiliar to them.
• Then write a poem, prose poem, or draw a picture to illustrate this.
8 Working in plenary, build on the learners’ responses to the activity
as a whole to elicit the idea that feelings/reactions such as wonder,
bemusement, delight, empathy, curiosity, and laughter (drawing on the
language the learners themselves used) are universal human emotions
which illustrate what we have in common as humans, regardless of our
culture.
26. ‘Don’t sleep, there are snakes’
Introduction
The objective of this activity, adapted from an activity in the companion

website to Mishan and Timmis (2015), is to stimulate reflection on the
relationship between language, culture, and thought.
One of the best‑known conceptualisations of the relationship between
language and thought was the principle of linguistic relativity, commonly
known as the ‘Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis’, discussed briefly in the section on
culture in Part I. In essence, this theorised that language determines and
limits the way speakers perceive and think. While much debated in psychol‑
ogy and philosophy, the theory appeals to language teachers who can see
the extension of this to ‘cultural relativism’, in which different cultures have
different conceptual ‘schemata’, different ways of conceptualising and even
experiencing the world. This relationship between language, culture, and
thought is intriguingly illustrated in this episode from Don’t sleep, there are
snakes, a book by missionary and linguist Daniel Everett (2008), who went
to live with a remote Amazonian tribe, the Pirahās, in the Brazilian jungle.

Procedure
This activity works well if learners come to the reading extract ‘blind’ so that
the language/culture relationship is realised inductively.
1 Tell learners that they are going to read* a short extract from the book
Don’t sleep, there are snakes, by missionary and linguist Daniel Everett
who went to live with a remote Amazonian tribe, the Pirahās, in the
Brazilian jungle in order to learn their language. (*Alternatively, the
teacher can read the extract aloud and give the learners the reading text
afterwards.)
READING EXTRACT
In this extract, Everett has had a craving for salad, unknown in the Pirahās
diet of rice, beans, fish and wild game. After a two‑month wait, the missionary
plane has finally brought him the makings of a salad.
That evening, I sat down to my first taste of lettuce, tomatoes, and cab‑
bage in six months. Xahóápati walked up to watch me eat. He looked
bemused.
‘Why are you eating leaves?’ he asked. ‘Don’t you have any meat?’
The Pirahās are very particular about foods and they believe, as we
do to some degree, that the foods you eat determine the person you
become.
‘Yes, I have a lot of canned meat,’ I assured him. ‘But I like these leaves!
I have not had any for many moons.’
My Pirahā friend looked at me, then at the leaves, then back at me.
‘Pirahās don’t eat leaves,’ he informed me. ‘This is why you don’t speak
our language well. We Pirahās speak our language well and we don’t eat
leaves.’
He walked away, apparently thinking that he had just given me the key
to learning his language.
(Everett, 2008, p. 209)
2 Ask learners to work individually to

• Imagine the scene.
• Draw a picture or find an image/images online that represents how
they visualise this scene.
3 Show the traditional representation of ‘culture’ as an iceberg nine‑tenths
hidden under the waterline (see Figure 2.2., and see Activity 13 for the
full culture iceberg activity). Ask learners to work in small groups to:
• Situate ‘language’ and ‘food’ on the iceberg model according to the
Pirahās’ philosophy.
• Expand from ‘food’ to other aspects of culture that might also fit with
what Xahóápati says.
• Think of some other examples of concepts, ideas, or words that
only exist in a specific culture (for example, the concept of siesta in
Spanish).
4 Group or plenary discussion:

• Think about the relationship between language, culture, and thought.
• Is language influenced by culture? Does this relationship determine
how people think about, and even experience the world?
27. Story circles
Introduction
The idea of story circles was conceived by the interculturalist Darla Deardorff
as a method of promoting intercultural awareness through participants from
diverse backgrounds sharing their stories and experiences. The concept has
been developed into a full‑blown methodology described in Deardorff’s Man‑
ual for developing intercultural competencies: Story circles (2019) published by
UNESCO. The rationale for the method is that sharing and reflecting on
personal experiences in (multicultural) group settings encourages people to
recognise similarities as well as differences across cultures thereby promoting
communication and collaboration across diversity and seeding curiosity. On
an individual level, the activity empowers participants to achieve ownership
and enrichment from within their own experiences. At the same time, re‑
counting personal experiences can clearly be emotionally taxing – a drawback
but also a strength in terms of potential for learning as described in Part I. Part
of the popularity of the story circles concept as a methodology is its versatil‑
ity. As well as its use with multicultural groups of learners, story circles can
be used in teacher education; to awaken teachers to the scope of exploiting
intercultural differences in the classroom for instance, and/or as a means of
building connections and relationships within the teacher‑trainee group itself.
Like many of the activities we present here, story circles work as well online
as face‑to‑face. In whatever mode or whatever type of group story circles are
used, the skill of the facilitator is paramount, requiring sensitivity and empa‑
thy. The facilitator needs the ability to gently prompt and encourage, as well as
to tactfully ‘monitor’ the groups in action when telling their stories. S/he also
has a central role in modelling storytelling (see below). It is essential that the
activity is clearly explained to the participants, that they are comfortable with
it, and that they are given the opportunity to ‘opt‑out’ if not.


Procedure
1 Explain the aim of story circles, viz., to help develop intercultural skills
such as understanding, awareness, and tolerance of different cultures.
2 Explain that this activity requires participants to share some of their own
stories with others and that the story they opt to share may be as ‘per‑
sonal’ or not, as they wish.
3 Tell students that they will be provided with, or asked to select, ‘a topic’
for their story (see suggestions in Story Prompts box) and an outline
for telling it. The story outline (see suggestions in Story Outline box)
may be used at the facilitator’s discretion; s/he may wish to tweak the
prompts depending on language proficiency level or indeed, the story
topic chosen for the session.
STORY PROMPTS
(Facilitator or participants choose ONE topic for the session)
• Describe a positive interaction you have had with a person who is differ‑
ent from you (age, gender, culture, nationality, religion, etc.) and what
made this positive? What did you learn about yourself/the other person
in that experience?
• Describe a memorable experience you have had with a person who is
different from you (age, gender, culture, nationality, religion, etc.) and
what made this memorable? What did you learn about yourself/the other
person in that experience?
• Describe a cultural misunderstanding you have had. What did you learn
from this?
• Describe a time when you realised you believed in a stereotype (about a
nationality, culture, or group) and this was proved untrue. Describe what
happened.
• Describe someone you know or know of (personally or in the media,
from history, etc.) who you feel can get along with people from many dif‑
ferent groups (cultures, nationalities, religions etc.). What is it that helps
this person get along with others?
• Describe an experience when you felt supported by a community (of
friends, family, colleagues, and neighbours). How did the community
demonstrate its support?
STORY OUTLINE
• Where and when did this story happen?

• Who was involved?
• What happened?
• Differences/misunderstandings/conflicts (if any).
• Your thoughts (and those of the other person/people involved).
• Your feelings (and those of the other person/people involved).
• Your actions (and those of the other person/people involved).
Result/resolution/remaining issues?
4 Model telling a personal experience.

5 Depending on the size of the class and on the mode, participants can
work in small groups (e.g. three to seven) in (virtual) breakout rooms.
6 Learners remain in their groups until the debriefing in plenary at the
end.
7 Ask each group to elect a ‘timekeeper’, who will keep each story to a
time limit such as three to five minutes.
8 Each member of the group in turn then shares their story with the
group. (The facilitator is advised to give the groups ‘space’ so as not to
intrude or impact the power dynamic.)
9 Once all the stories have been told, ask participants to think about
the most memorable point of each story they have heard (this stage is
known as a flashback).
10 Participants share their ‘flashbacks’ of each story with the other mem‑
bers of the group.
11 Debriefing (see Debriefing Prompts box): depending on timing or at
the teacher’s discretion, this can start in the smaller groups and then
move to plenary.
DEBRIEFING PROMPTS
• What common themes, if any, did you hear in the stories?

• What do you want to explore further after hearing these stories?
• What did you learn about yourself from this experience of sharing stories
and hearing those of others?
• How has this experience helped you develop understanding and empathy?
• What are some of the insights you have gained that will help you relate
better to those who are different from you?
• How will this affect your behaviour with and towards those who are dif‑
ferent from you?
The reader is referred to Deardorff’s story circles manual for more

in‑depth exposition of the methodology, and further classroom ideas.
Deardorff, D. K. (2019). Manual for developing intercultural competencies:

Story circles. Abingdon: Routledge.
28. Story exchange
Introduction
Like the story circles above, this activity (adapted from Mishan, 2023) uses
the universal human practice of storytelling to develop intercultural compe‑
tences and understanding. The activity is based on the concept from Nar‑
rative 4 (Narrative 4, 2022) which conceives storytelling as “the one true
democracy… it goes across borders, boundaries, gender, wealth and race”
(Colm McCann, Narrative 4 co‑founder). Narrative 4 uses the idea of story
exchange “to foster empathy among diverse populations and turn that em‑
pathy into action”. The modus operandi of Narrative 4 is that people with
very different stories – for example, from different (opposing?) political, so‑
cial, or religious backgrounds – come together to share their stories in such
a way as to create empathy and break down barriers. It works by two such
people exchanging their own personal stories (face‑to‑face or via email/
social media). Then they take on the other person’s story and retell it in
the first person, as their own. This has the effect of making them empathise
and identify with their partner far more deeply than if just listening to the
other’s story. i.e. by ‘stepping into’ each other’s stories people can feel their
true impact.


Procedure
1 Transferring this to the intercultural classroom, first of all, ask students to

think of a story from their own lives which they are happy to share with
others.
2 Ask learners (from different cultures if possible) to pair up and then tell
each other their ‘stories’ in turn. (They can be given a framework or even
a theme, depending on their proficiency level).
3 Reconvene in plenary in a circle formation if possible. Ask each learner
to retell the story that their partner has told them in the first person. (At
the teacher’s discretion, a more intimate interaction pattern may be used
such as swapping partners and retelling the story from the first partner to
the new one.)
4 This next reflection stage (in plenary) is essential to nurture respect and
foster intercultural learning. Ask learners to think about and express what
they experienced as they told their classmate’s story. Prompts for this
might include:
• What did you feel?
• What did you learn?
• Did anything surprise you?
• Did anything in the story connect with you?
• What was the take‑away that you will build on?
5 An optional final debriefing can be done in different ways at the teacher’s

discretion. Ask learners to write their overall reflections on the experience
of story‑swapping on sticky notes and post them on the classroom wall or
board for others to browse, for example, or post on a class social media
platform or group if available. Alternatively, this final reflection can be
done orally in plenary or in pairs or groups.
29. Pop culture
Introduction
Using pop culture in the language and the language arts classrooms as a
vehicle for learning has been generally accepted, although not all genres
receive equal attention or preference. Some are somehow neglected due

to their unique and perhaps controversial style of expressing messages.
Rap music, which is “often associated with vulgarity and gangster culture”
(Rimbar, 2019, p. 31) is usually a genre educators steer away from as it is
“ungrammatical and thematically problematic … decidedly not the stuff of
the English classroom” (Weinstein, 2006, p. 270). Yet, rap expresses deeply
rooted social issues and cultures that offer an avenue to explore subcul‑
tures that students are less likely to be exposed to in mainstream teaching
materials.

Procedure
1 Ask students what they know and think of rap songs and the culture
they represent. Most likely they will mention violence, crime, black cul‑
ture, drugs, and similar themes. The first stage of the activity is therefore
meant to get students thinking about stereotypes they may have about
rap artists or the cultures they represent.
2 Give students the extracts from rap songs by Coolio and Eminem and
from poets known for their slightly unconventional and playful work
such as e. e. cummings and Langston Hughes (Rimbar, 2017) provided
in the box. Students need to identify which text is from which genre, they
do not necessarily need to use the name of the authors.1
(a) ‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑
I want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
(b) ‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑
As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I take a look at my life and realise there’s nothing left
(c) ‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free
(d) ‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑
Some white and some black; don’t matter what colour
All that matters we’re gathered together
To celebrate for the same cause no matter the weather
3 Give students the lyrics of Coolio’s rap song Gangsta Paradise

(1995) – and/or the song/video clip can be played to allow a multi‑
modal analysis. Song and lyrics available from: https://genius.com/
Coolio‑gangstas‑paradise‑lyrics.
4 While they read the lyrics, ask the learners to identify the social issues
the song is built on. These include: respect, education and unemploy‑
ment, fitting in, social injustice and discrimination, and the culture of
violence.
5 Ask students to think about which of these would be key issues in their
own cultures and how/whether they are expressed by artists, singers, and
performers.
6 Get them to think about the differences and similarities between the
American rap song and their own artists’ work.
7 Finally, students might be encouraged to reflect on how the issues in the
song can become mainstream political movements (such as the Black
Lives Matter movement).
30. Short films: directed viewing and thinking activity
Introduction
A technique for using short films in the intercultural classroom is the di‑
rected viewing‑thinking activity (DVTA), based on a similar concept as the
Directed Reading‑Thinking Activity (Stauffer, 1969), but instead of using a
written text, it uses video or film, either extracts or short films, as the basis
on which it is built. In the DVTA activity, the teacher selects critical points
in the story/film where they stop playing the clip and ask three questions
that aim to engage students in the meaning‑making process:
• What do you think (about the story, setting, characters, etc.)?

• What makes you think that (i.e. what verbal or non‑verbal information
triggered that thought)?
• What do you think will happen next and why?
It is important that the students’ schemas, cultural knowledge, and values

are activated before viewing the video in instalments as this is an essential el‑
ement of the meaning‑making processes in which the students are engaged.

Procedure
The following activity is used with permission from Yeo (2024). He describes
the sequence of a DVTA based on the short film EMI (Ancelin et al., 2009)
which is an animated short film telling the story of a father and a daughter
who get in a car accident, although this is not revealed in the beginning of
the film. The story shows an allegory of life and death as the father does not
allow her daughter to meet death and takes her place on the ship that travels
to the afterlife.
1 Pre‑viewing activity: The class is asked about the best present they have
received. It is expected that students will associate a gift with tangible
objects and will probably overlook non‑tangible signs of affection, how
time, attention, touch, or a hug can all be considered as presents one can
give to loved ones.
2 Part 1: 0:00 Opening credits – 2.26 Fade to white. This part of the video
sets the scene, showing the main character (the man) sitting and holding
a present. The man looks sad in the film and the teacher can probe stu‑
dents’ interpretation of the situation by eliciting why they think he looks
sad although he has a present in his hands. This is followed by questions
about the setting of the film. Although there is a lack of visual clues, the
architecture resembles those of European railway stations. Other ques‑

tions at this stage can focus on characters; who is the lady, who is the girl,
and what is the role of the cat that appears in the film?
3 Part 2: 2:26 Flashback of the accident – 3:41. The arrival of the ship. Al‑
though the accident is now shown in the film, the students’ understand‑
ing of cinematic conventions will help them understand what happens
in the film prior to the introductory scenes. This will probably prompt
them to readjust their original assumptions about the narrative of the
story. With the arrival of the ship through the fog, the teacher can draw
the students’ attention to the setting again, which symbolises a place of
transition. The teacher can also focus on the cat, which by now is estab‑
lished as a dominant character in the short film: does it know something
that the girl (and the viewers) don’t know? What does it know?
4 Part 3: 3:41 The invitation – 4:29. The girl is about to step forward. This
is the part where the teacher can help learners empathise with the girl in
the story. This can be done by asking open‑ended questions that prompt
different responses. One such question could be to ask directly: How
would you feel if you were the girl? A new character appears in the film at
this stage; a man in a uniform. Who is he? Is he good or evil? What does
he want? As this is a decision‑making point in the film, the characters are
shown at the foot of the ramp leading up to the ship. Students can be
asked if they would go up the ramp to face/meet the man.
5 Part 4: 4:25 The girl’s father arrives just in time – 6:26 Fade to white.
At this part, the father pushes his daughter behind himself and walks up
the ramp himself. The soundtrack of the film changes and returns to the
opening scores. In the background, a heartbeat and a ventilator can also
be heard, then a sustained tone of a flatline. This could be an emotionally
loaded moment for learners as they realise what is happening in the story.
Probing questions can be asked that concern how they feel, what they
know, and what they think they know at this point.
6 Part 5: 6:24 Back to reality – 8:29 Closing credits. This part serves as the
epilogue to the film. The students are asked to interpret the gestures and
the body language of the characters in a short exchange between the girl
and the nurse. The film ends with the sentence: “The greatest gift you
can give is the gift of oneself” – in French. At this point, the teacher can
also draw the students’ attention to the title of the film, EMI which is
understood as the name of the girl, but is also an acronym for the term
‘Experience de Mort Imminente’, i.e. near‑death experience.
7 Post‑viewing activities. This is the part where intercultural learning takes
place. The students with the teacher’s guidance can discuss archetypal
myths and imagery to evoke their beliefs about the afterlife in their own
and other cultures and the metaphor of death as a journey. Such discussion
might be easier for students in the western world as they can use their cul‑
tural schemas (e.g. the Greek myth of Charon, the Ferryman, who would
convey the spirits of the dead across the river Styx to the Underworld)
while students from other cultures may interpret such metaphors with
some difficulty. “As these bodies of knowledge were conceived and primar‑
ily developed within a western context, their applicability to non‑western
contexts is questionable” argue Sung and Pederson (2012, p. 163).
Yeo (2024) also suggests that students can “resist these ideologies and
meta‑narratives by doing research on death rituals and different versions of
the afterlife in different global cultures, including their own”. Such work can
help students leave behind an ego‑centric attitude to otherness and learn
how different communities regard death, loss, and grief through beliefs,
rituals, and myth – which is a universal human experience. In this aspect, the
material can also connect to one of the Global Issues the United Nations
(2022) has identified: Ageing.
31. Empathy museum website: ‘a mile in my shoes’
Introduction
This resource turns on the universality of affect, specifically, empathy. As

we have stressed, empathy is key to growing intercultural awareness and
understanding, and this is the focus of the project, ‘A Mile in My Shoes’
(Empathy Museum, n.d.), a real, ‘roaming’ exhibition, duplicated as an on‑
line presence. ‘A Mile in My Shoes’, is, to quote from the webpage, “a shoe
shop where visitors are invited to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes – lit‑
erally. Housed in a giant shoebox, this roaming exhibit holds a diverse
collection of shoes and audio stories that explore our shared humanity”.
With a recorded story from the wearer of each pair of shoes, participants
can actually put on the shoes and walk in them, listening to the story, or, if
online, click on the image of the shoes and hear the owner recounting their
story. Stories come from the likes of migrants, refugees, war veterans, farm‑
ers, and lawyers, and they expose the gamut of human experiences “from
loss and grief to hope and love” (from ‘A Mile in My Shoes’ webpage). The
use of these ‘universals’ in intercultural awareness‑raising clearly has great
potential.

Procedure
The website and stories might be used in a number of ways. Teachers of

student groups from migrant backgrounds might wish simply to listen to
the stories themselves in order to sensitise themselves to the experiences of
their students. This would also be a good idea if intending to use the stories
with the students, in order to check for material that might upset the sensi‑
tivities of individuals by recalling negative experiences. At their discretion,
therefore, teachers may proceed as follows:
1 Ask students to listen to some of the stories and share reactions with a
partner or group. Asking learners to relate to the stories and find com‑
monalities, even if tenuous, can help to raise awareness of the universality
of human experiences.
2 Ask students to retell the stories in pairs/groups following techniques
suggested in Story circles (Activity 27), Story exchange (Activity 28) or,
perhaps using a social media platform (e.g. WhatsApp) to provide some
distance.
3 In plenary, encourage students to reflect on what they have learnt from
encounters with these stories using such prompts as:
• Share something new that you have learnt from the stories. Share
something that surprised you.
• To what extent did these encounters expand your horizons about peo‑
ple from diverse societal groups and in what ways?
Note: The Human Library (Activities 4 and 5) has a similar function to that
of the Empathy museum described in this activity, and it can, at the teacher’s
discretion, be used in similar ways.
Learner‑generated materials
This set of activities calls on student creativity, all too frequently under‑ex‑
ploited in the (language) classroom. As we noted in Part I with refer‑
ence to Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive skills, creativity is considered to be
where critical thinking is at its peak. The activities here for the most part
involve the digital environment, given the number of applications support‑

ing content production available there.
32. Memes
Introduction
As digital affordances see societies move inexorably towards the visual away
from the written word, it is important that pedagogy keeps pace with this.
Students are quick to spot teachers who are tardy in their uptake of tech‑
nology but tend to respond well when the teacher (at least tries to!) meets
them in their own digital space, as it were. Used on social media, a ‘meme’
is an image or photograph with a short, added caption to effectively make a
(humorous) cartoon: their succinct use of language has seen them called the
modern‑day haiku. Images favoured in memes are well‑known figures such
as a politician or media personalities, children, and animals. It is significant
for our purposes that the origin of the term is “an element of a culture or sys‑
tem of behaviour” (“Memification,” 2016) passed on by imitation. Asking
learners to generate memes that make some inter/cultural point thus com‑
bines both its original and contemporary functions. Memes are an excellent
genre for getting students to think critically and creatively and express their
ideas succinctly. They will doubtless be familiar with memes as they prolifer‑
ate on social media. Teachers using this activity need to be aware, however,
that while memes are intended as humorous, they can often be culturally
insensitive, playing on stereotypes, etc. Given this characteristic and the fact
that it requires browsing online, this activity is not recommended for learn‑
ers under 18. As with any activity that sends learners online to work, a clear
pedagogical structure and objective are essential to keep focus.
This activity can be done face‑to‑face or online. It requires learners to
use a smartphone or an Ipad, tablet, etc. as they need to download a meme
generator application.
Meme generator apps are continually being developed so it is impossible
to futureproof suggestions for them. One current at the time of writing is
https://imgflip.com/memegenerator (Imgflip LLC, 2022).
The teacher may prefer to give learners the option of using a meme gen‑
erator of their choice.

Procedure
1 Tell learners that in this activity, they are asked to generate an ‘intercul‑
tural meme’.
2 As a first step, present a ready‑made meme (teacher‑produced or sourced
online) with an intercultural theme as an example. Elicit reactions to the
meme, discuss it briefly according to the students’ interest in the topic,
and point out the function of memes as humorous, thought‑provoking
artefacts.
The activity branches here, we offer two procedures, one exploiting the
sample meme, and the second that can be used with any meme.
Procedure 1: Sample meme
1 The meme in Figure 2.4 plays on simplifying cultural diversity and ste‑
reotyping cultures. Suggested prompts to provoke a class discussion on
stereotyping might include;
• Is stereotyping always reductive?
• Could forming stereotypes be seen as part of developing intercultural
awareness?
FIGURE 2.4 Sample ‘cultural’ meme

2 Ask learners to follow up on the theme of stereotyping and find a meme

that uses it as the source of ‘humour’.
3 Guide them in critically analysing the stereotype – what cultural traits
does it play on (if any), and of course, to what degree could it be con‑
sidered offensive? As noted above, memes are by their nature ‘edgy’ so
teachers (and learners) will need to be comfortable confronting ones
that are potentially offensive and sensitive in their handling of them.
4 Pursuing this theme, ask learners to work individually or in pairs/small
groups to create a meme that counters stereotypes/stereotyping.
5 Suggest that they source a photograph from an online resource bank
(such as Google Images) or from their own mobile phone photo
libraries.
6 Tell them to download a meme generator offered by the teacher (see
sample given above) or to use one they are familiar with, to write a cap‑
tion for the photo, creating a meme on this theme.
7 Ask learners to share their memes with the class (via their social media
platforms, institutional virtual learning environment, etc.) and to discuss
their message and impact.
Procedure 2: general meme creation activity
1 The alternative procedure is to present any sample meme (such as the

one in Figure 2.4) mainly as an example of this genre, but without ex‑
panding discussion on its message.
2 The objective of this activity is to allow students to explore their own
areas of (cultural) interest; preparation for this could start by brainstorm‑
ing. This is usefully done via a ‘mind map’, on an interactive/white board
or a chalk board or using an online app. A prompt such as ‘culture and
diversity’ or ‘multiculturalism’ could be used, depending on themes that
might have emerged in class, to elicit related concepts (e.g. ‘prejudice’
‘tolerance’ etc.) from the learners.
3 The next stages progress as in Procedure 1; give learners links to one or
two meme generators currently on offer (see sample above) or ask them
to select one of their choices.
4 Ask them to work individually or in pairs/small groups to source a pho‑
tograph from an online resource or from their own mobile phone photo
libraries with the potential to work as a meme with an inter/cultural
theme, drawing ideas from the mindmap.
5 In their pairs/small groups, learners invent a caption for the photo and
then create a meme using the meme generator.
6 Ask learners to share their memes with the class (via their social media
platforms, institutional virtual learning environment, etc.).
7 A final reflection stage might ask learners to consider issues such as the
influence of social media on promoting intercultural understanding – or
prejudice.
33. Comic strips
Introduction
Like the activity above, this one exploits the visual orientation of today’s learn‑
ers. It is based on the same principles and rationale, situating itself in today’s
learners’ ‘comfort zone’, the online environment. While also using an online
application, this activity harks back to the more traditional and familiar visual
mode of the comic strip. Comic strips have historically been used for social
and political comment and satire. Like memes, comic strips are perfect media
to promote critical thinking and creativity. Students will be familiar with this
genre too and should find it a natural locus for expressing their ideas. They
should also find it easy to get to grips with the online cartoon generator rec‑
ommended for this activity, ‘MakeBeliefsComix’ (Zimmerman, 2006–2021),
which is useable on a mobile device or laptop. As the activity involves work‑
ing online, it is not recommended for students under 18. As noted in other
activities where learners work online, it is important that the teacher explains
the objectives and provides a clear pedagogical structure.

Procedure
1 Tell learners that in this activity, they will be asked to generate a comic
strip on an intercultural theme.
2 As a first step, present as an example, a ready‑made comic strip
(teacher‑produced, sourced online, or the sample offered here) with an
intercultural theme. The comic strip here is based on the theme ‘lan‑
guage and identity’ (Figure 2.5).2
FIGURE 2.5 Comic strip on theme ‘language and identity’
3 As with the meme activity, in preparation for students creating their

own, brainstorm (inter)cultural themes for the cartoons. Alternatively,
the teacher may wish to use a theme that has been discussed in class or
one that is part of the syllabus, to prompt the brainstorming. The theme
of the sample comic ‘language and identity’, for example, might prompt
concepts such as ‘multilingualism’, ‘culture and language’, or ‘isolation’.
The brainstorming can be conducted as a ‘mind map’, on an interactive/
white board or a chalk board or using an online app.
4 Give the learners the link to ‘MakeBeliefsComix’ (see above) or give
them the option to use a comic strip generator that they are already fa‑
miliar with.
5 Ask the learners to work individually or in pairs to create a cartoon to
express their chosen concept. They may wish to make it in the form of
an activity for their peers, leaving blank thoughts or speech bubbles as in
the sample.
6 Ask learners to share their comic strips with the class via their social me‑
dia platforms, institutional virtual learning environment, or in printed
form.
7 If the students’ comics have blank speech/thought bubbles, these can
be exchanged around the class for completion, followed by interactions
about the utterances/thoughts students have come up with.
8 The final reflection stage can work on two levels; asking learners to (a)
consider the power of humour for social and political commentary and
(b) expand on the (cultural) concepts they have included in their comics.
34. Cultural video exchange project
Introduction
As we have seen, using visual materials and multimodal texts in the class‑
room can prove to be a treasure trove of intercultural learning activities.
However, as the other activities in this section have demonstrated, we
are not restricted to the use of materials that are ready‑made; we can get
learners to produce texts that serve as the basis for intercultural learning.
One possible activity for this can be a video exchange project between dif‑
ferent groups of students who not only learn about another culture through
the exchange but also need to reflect critically on what culture is, and what
their cultural identities are – including subcultural and hybrid cultural rep‑
resentations – during the tasks.
It is important to note – based on our own personal experiences – that
students need a lot of guidance at the beginning of the project in under‑
standing what culture and sub‑culture are, or to think about their own cul‑
tural identities and memberships. We also found that students who live in
a multicultural context tend to introduce subcultural identities, traditions,
and practices (e.g. festivals, food, language, etc.) rather than presenting a
nation‑culture view of themselves. Yet, this may be different in the readers’
own contexts.

Procedure
1 Tell students they will be asked to record a short, two to three‑minute

video introducing one aspect of their cultural identity. As a first step,
discuss ideas and constraints such as:
• Given the time limitation, they will need to think about what par‑
ticular aspect of their culture they can present in a way that the audi‑
ence not only understands but also can learn from. They may choose
to talk about a national culture (e.g. what it is like to be Malaysian)
or a sub‑culture (e.g. what is it like to be a Chinese Malaysian) or
even what it is like to be a member of a subcultural group that tran‑
scends political borders, e.g. being a gamer, an athlete, or a ballet
dancer.
• Students need to consider what their audience may know about the
culture they represent. Ask them to think about what information
could be considered universal (and thus understood without much ef‑

fort) and what would be specific to the culture (i.e. need explanation).
• They also need to think about the language they use that may be cul‑
ture‑specific (e.g. in the form of jargon, slang, vocabulary borrowed
from other languages, etc.).
2 Here there are two options:

• Ask students to work individually with partners from another cultural
context
Or
• Organise the class into small groups (four to five students), which
works well if the class is big.
If students are working in small groups, their first task can be to
view each other’s videos and select one that they think best represents
a particular culture and which is informative and interesting for the
audience, i.e. for students from a different cultural context.
3 Students then upload their videos to an online platform (e.g. the institu‑
tion’s VLE, class Facebook page, or WhatsApp group) which can also
serve as a forum for their work and discussion.
4 The first task they are asked to perform is a DVTA in which they watch
each other’s videos and answer a series of questions (see also Activity 30
on directed viewing). These question prompts can be listed on the online
platform or class board.
• What do I know?
Based on the video you have watched, what is it that you have
learnt about the culture introduced? Did the video provide any new
information? Did you learn anything new?
• What do I think I know?
Is there anything that was not presented in the video explicitly, but
you think you have learnt about the culture/people that was introduced?
Here you can rely both on elements of verbal and non‑verbal commu‑
nication, the messages that the speaker intentionally or unintentionally
communicated (or you think they communicated) in their video.
• What would I like to learn about?
Based on the video you may want to learn more about the culture
(aspects of the culture) the video presented. What are these areas?
What are the issues, practices, habits, artefacts, etc. that you would like
to learn more about?
• What questions do I need to ask to learn about these?

Think of three questions (at least) that you would like to learn from
the other students of the area you would like to learn more about.
(Ask learners to list these questions on the online platform and watch
that place for answers.)
5 Encourage students to view other videos not just the one their partner
shares with them. They also need to keep an eye on the questions posed
by their peers in the online forum. Encourage them to take their discus‑
sions further individually or as a group.
6 The activity closes with an individual reflection activity in which the learn‑
ers are encouraged to consider how their intercultural awareness/compe‑
tence has developed (or not) as a result of participating in the tasks.
Activity Set (C): Materials development activities
Intercultural materials development: actualising the

principles
Readers will recall that the intercultural learning principles put forward in
Part I drew on theories and models of what constitutes intercultural com‑
petence and integrated the idea of promoting intercultural learning as a
complex dynamic system; that is, as an evolving system in which learners
create their own meanings and categories of knowledge. A model synthesis‑
ing these principles was proposed as our intercultural materials development
framework in Part I. As it is central to this section, it is reproduced here for
convenience (Table 2.3).
Our principles as stated in the framework, and the emphasis on respect for
the sensitivities of the learner lead us to characterise intercultural materials
development as learner‑led. In other words, the starting point for developing
intercultural materials in any given context needs to be the students. A teach‑
er’s first step is therefore to try to gauge their students’ degree of intercultural
awareness and knowledge and their openness to expanding on these. Insight
into students’ cultural contexts and their interests is also essential, and this is
something teachers tend naturally to acquire. Establishing all this allows the
teacher to tailor the materials to be relevant, useful, and appropriate to the
individuals in their class and the class as a whole. Some of the early activities
in learner Set (B), such as the culture iceberg (Activity 13) and intercultural
handball (Activity 9) would be ‘cheap and cheerful’ ways for teachers to gauge
their learners’ cultural awareness and get some idea of the concrete ‘aspects of
culture’ (such as dress, food, conventions, value systems) that their learners are
aware of, and which teachers can then build on in their own materials.
TABLE 2.3 Framework for the design of intercultural learning materials (An earlier version can be found in Mishan, 2023)
Educational objectives Intercultural learning objectives Techniques Why? (CDS rationale)
• Cognitive and affective challenge 1 Make connections between a Prompt learners to critique, i Prevent a learning system
• Communicative and interpretive cultures question, probe, analyse, from reaching equilibrium
skills 2 Foster a comparative and investigate cultures and that leads to the
perspective cultural phenomena fossilisation of knowledge
3 Exploit cultural universals b Use multiple resources and ii Allow self‑organisation of
4 Deepen knowledge and tasks that promote learning knowledge and knowing
awareness of cultures (one’s
own and that of others)
5 Reflect on and question c Be open‑ended and flexible iii Tolerate unpredicted
cultural assumptions and unplanned learning
6 Encourage exploring beneath outcomes
the surface of cultural
From Implications to Application

behaviours
7 Provide opportunities d Ask learners to present and iv Provide opportunities to
to share experiences and showcase their individual or capture emergent learning
empathise with (people from) collective understanding of
other cultures intercultural phenomena
8 Develop respect for cultural
differences
9 Build bridges between
cultures
10 Work within the ‘third space’
between cultures
131
35. Activity order
Introduction
As we noted at the start of Activity Set (B), we have presented the activi‑
ties there to carry students through from a non‑intrusive introduction to
cultural awareness to more demanding activities that delve into cultural mo‑
res, attitudes, and behaviours to a progressively deeper and personal level.
Here we suggest an awareness‑raising task which encourages practitioners
to think about the organising principle/s of the learner activities as a set,
in preparation for developing their own intercultural materials or, indeed,
intercultural courses.
Procedure
1 Analyse the activities in Set (B) (or a selection of them), maintaining the
order in which they are presented, in terms of the different aspects of
culture that are focused on.
2 Think about the progression of the activities in terms of incremental per‑
sonalisation. For example, it might be noticed that the first activity that
focuses on individual cultures is ‘View through a different lens’ (Activity
16) about ceremonies in different cultures which safely distances students
from any threatening personal intrusion. Activity 17 ‘Small cultures’ is
a closer step towards personalising, encouraging learners to think about
their own social/cultural groupings as microcosms of broader societal
structures.
3 Think about applying this sort of progression to intercultural learning
materials you use in your own course, or re‑ordering your materials from
least to more personalised, if applicable.
36. Deconstructing the materials design framework

A simplified, adapted framework for intercultural materials design drawn
from our intercultural materials design principles is presented here. In this
task, practitioners are asked to analyse a selection of the activities in Set
(B) to deconstruct how they evolved from the framework in order to see
how its principles and objectives are realised in activities This is seen as
a first step towards teachers using the framework principles to underpin
the design of their own intercultural materials. An early activity (Activity
12 ‘A picture paints a thousand words’), has been done as an illustration
(Table 2.4).
TABLE 2.4 Deconstructing the intercultural materials design framework
Framework Activity 12 ‘A picture paints a thousand words’ Activity number Activity number
Intercultural learning objective/s (1)Make connections between cultures.

(4)Deepen knowledge and awareness of cultures
(one’s own and that of others).
(5)Reflect on and question cultural assumptions.
(8)Develop respect for cultural differences.
To recognise that meanings we create are both
culturally and personally bound
Educational objectives ‑Cognitive challenge
Communicative and interpretive skills
Aspect/s of culture Cultural practices, traditions
Resources (e.g. none, text, image, Image/s depicting a particular cultural practice
multimodal resource, object/realia) or tradition, e.g. a picture of the Indian Holi
festival, or the Hungarian Busójárás
From Implications to Application

Step‑by‑step interaction patterns and 1 Individual:
task Learners write down reactions to image
2 Group (4–5):
Groups share and discuss reactions to image
3 Plenary:
Groups pool and discuss reactions to image/s
CDS techniques Learners probe, analyse, investigate cultural
phenomena
Learners present their individual or collective
understanding of intercultural phenomena
(cultural practice/s)
133
In the next part, we will look at intercultural materials design from the
perspective of complex dynamic systems and offer some thoughts on how
CDS characteristics can be incorporated in the materials you design. More
specifically, we will provide activities that are responsive to (a) sensitivity
to initial conditions, (b) non‑linearity, (c) dynamic change and feedback
loops, (d) unpredictability and emergent learning, and finally (e) openness.
Complex dynamic systems features: sensitivity to initial

conditions
As we discussed in Part I, Section 3, complex dynamic learning systems are
sensitive to initial conditions which can determine the course of learning in
the classroom. These can include many internal and external factors to the
learning community or to the individual learners. Such factors can range from
conditions in the school, such as the time of the lesson (first period of the day
as opposed to the last session before the lunch break), the lesson students have
before or after their class (e.g. they may have a math test in the next period),
what they experience in their private lives (e.g. they are grounded for not do‑
ing their chores at home, reunion with a relative they have not seen for a long
time), to their schemas and existing values and beliefs about the world, in‑
cluding different cultures. How students feel, whether they are tired or rested
and their moods would also influence how they think and learn at any given
time and how motivated they are to be engaged with the materials teachers
present in the lesson. It is, therefore, very important that we are aware of the
‘initial conditions’ on which we build intercultural learning activities.
Tapping into the initial conditions on which intercultural learning is to
be built provides teachers a chance to understand where their students are
in terms of values, knowledge, beliefs, their sensitivity to certain issues. They
can also learn what tensions, if any, are lying dormant in the classroom that
can erupt if content and prompts are not chosen carefully, or simply how best
to group their learners for future activities which may require competition or
collaboration from the learners. The activities here, which generally work as
readiness or warm‑up activities, also provide important learning opportunities
for students. They can learn not only about their peers, perhaps understand
them better, but also about themselves and who they are, and why they be‑
have in certain ways. Therefore, activities that explore initial conditions in the
classroom also satisfy two of the intercultural learning objectives in our frame‑
work for the design of intercultural learning materials (Table 2.3):
1 Reflect on and question cultural assumptions.

2 Provide opportunities to share experiences and emphasise with (people) from
other cultures.
In materials design terms, what we need to think about are activities that
provide a lead‑in or warm‑up to tasks that follow. The overall educational
aim of these tasks, therefore, is to prepare the learners for the learning
that follows, to activate their schemas, to prepare them both cognitively
and affectively to work on a particular topic and with each other. They
also help teachers in their decisions concerning the follow‑up stages of the
lesson and in their materials adaptation “to maximize the appropriacy of
teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal characteris‑
tics … to suit our particular circumstances better” (McDonough, Shaw, &
Masuhara, 2013, p. 67). In the following, we offer a selection of tasks that
could be used to tap into and explore the initial conditions for intercultural
learning. These operate on both cognitive and affective levels and could
also be used as stand‑alone activities in the classroom. Some of these have
a clear intercultural focus, while others address more general educational
concepts.
37. Using semiotic analysis
Introduction
As we described in Part I and illustrated in Activity Set (A), semiotic analy‑

sis can provide an insight into the learners’ meaning‑making processes and
offer an insight into their cultural values, beliefs, and knowledge (see for
example, Activity 6 ‘Semiotic analysis: levels of meaning making’). Semiotic
analysis thus works very well to gain an idea of where the learner’s intercul‑
tural journey starts at the beginning of a lesson that is built on intercultural
materials. As the stimulus for the activity, choose any visual material, but a
photograph works best for eliciting short responses. For this activity, choose
one depicting a cultural artefact or practice, or simply an everyday life scene
from the culture of choice.
1 Share the photograph (on‑screen, on the white/blackboard, or as a

handout).
2 Give learners some time (a minute or two) to reflect on what they are
seeing. This is done individually.
3 Ask learners to provide a word or a phrase that comes to their minds
when they look at the image.
4 Elicit these and pool them, displaying them on the white/blackboard or
on a poster in order to record ideas.
5 Take mental notes of any patterns, stereotypes, or sensitivities that stu‑
dents offer and adapt the following tasks as fit.
38. Reflection tasks
Introduction
In this activity, students are asked to provide a longer response to inter‑

cultural stimuli which for this activity can be either visual, textual, or mul‑
timodal. The answers provided in this task are usually more in‑depth than
the ones students come up with in the semiotic analysis activity (Activity 37
above). This is achieved here by providing students with more time to think
about their answers and also with an index card (or slip of paper) on which
to record their responses.
Procedure
1 Display an intercultural prompt (a photograph, drawing, short text, video

clip, etc.), showing this on‑screen or in print, depending on the mode.
2 Hand out material for students to record their responses; the size of the
paper usually indicates the length of the answer. Although answers can
also be collected electronically, the activity works better as a physical pa‑
per and pen exercise.
3 Organise students into small groups where they can share and compare
their responses and identify any patterns, similarities, or differences in
their answers.
4 Ask students to report back to the whole class after sharing.
5 Take mental notes of any patterns, stereotypes, sensitivities that students
offer and adapt subsequent activities as fit.
39. Organising content
Introduction
How students make sense of and organise content can offer valuable insight
into what they think of a particular culture, how they see others and them‑
selves, or what they value most. The content they work on can be varied,
depending on the focus of the materials they introduce.
Procedure
Select one or a series of these:
1 Categorisation, using different parameters. For example, learners are

asked to put items into different categories according to their own
knowledge of them. A good ‘starter’ for this in intercultural learning

would be to simply get students to map their knowledge of certain cul‑
tural conventions by using categories of ‘I know’, ‘I don’t know’, and ‘I
am not sure’. Statements or questions like ‘Is Halal food different from
Kosher food?’ act as good prompts for this.
2 Categorisation focusing on cultural practices. Use prompts such as ‘Guests
can enter a Hungarian home with their shoes on’ or ‘I can serve both alcohol
and soft drinks at my party when some of my guests are Muslim’. Learners
are asked to put these into categories such as ‘culturally acceptable’, ‘cultur‑
ally not acceptable, but tolerated’, ‘culturally unacceptable’ behaviour.
3 Ranking is also a possible task here. Students can be asked to rank cer‑
tain items in order of importance, relevance, or usefulness. Activities and
cultural practices that show membership of a particular cultural or ‘small
culture’ group could be ranked for relevance, for example. (The concept
of ‘small cultures’ is Holliday’s (Holliday, 2019, p. 3), see Activity 17).
For this, prompts might include ‘You know you are British/Hungarian/a
Gamer/a Bird Watcher/etc. if you ….’. Other ranking tasks would get
learners to arrange certain items related to culture (straightforward ones
might include food, music, or sport) on a cline (e.g. I hate – I don’t
like – I don’t mind – I like – I love)
40. Working with initial conditions
Introduction
Now that we have introduced why it is important to explore the ini‑

tial conditions that may determine the shape of emergent intercultural
learning, we suggest some practical tasks to experiment with them in the
classroom.
1 Use any one of the learner activities in Set (B) from Activity 8 to 34
above with a class you teach. You need to choose the activity or the input
students will be working with based on the topic you would like to cover
for intercultural learning. Take note of the learners’ responses to these
activities and think about the following questions:
• Based on their responses, how prepared are your students – both cog‑
nitively and affectively – to engage with the materials you have pre‑
pared for them?
• How can you adapt your materials to cater to the needs reflected by
your students’ answers? Do you need to omit certain parts? Do you
need to provide input before the task?
• If there is, what does this tell you about their (a) readiness for learning
and (b) willingness to participate in the activities you have prepared
for their lesson?
• How would you adapt, if at all, the materials you have planned to use
in light of the information you collect about the learners?
2 Activities 37 and 38 above are examples of ones that explore what your
students bring to the lesson on any particular day. Design a different
activity that could elicit information about your students’ values, knowl‑
edge, and beliefs about a particular culture or probe their emotional and
mental readiness to engage with intercultural learning materials.
Complex dynamic systems features: non‑linearity

Non‑linearity in complex dynamic systems refers to the characteristic that
these systems represent more than the sum of their component parts. Such a
principle can easily apply to intercultural learning which aims to help learn‑
ers move beyond the memorisation of factual information about a particu‑
lar – and usually nation – culture. Therefore, successful learning is more
than what has been taught. Furthermore, we understand from CDS theory
that learning is a complex process which is not a straightforward and simple
concept. In most cases input, i.e. what the teacher presents (information)
or demonstrates (skills) will not necessarily lead to direct intake, i.e. what
the students learn. Intercultural learning takes its own course and does not
follow prescribed avenues; it usually runs a course which has lots of twists
and turns within the highly interconnected network of knowledge, values,
and beliefs.
We have argued earlier that intercultural learning materials should allow
students to both personalise and vocalise their learning in the classroom and
as such, encourage them to connect and relate to each other’s experiences
and understanding of themselves and others. Such connections not only in‑
spire them to get to know each other but also facilitate the creation of links
between many different concepts, interpretations, and ideas. In short, the
ability to form multiple connections among the components that contrib‑
ute to learning – students included – enriches the system and provides ideal
conditions for new knowledge or awareness to emerge and self‑organise.
Therefore, when we design intercultural learning materials that incorporate
the principle of non‑linearity, we acknowledge that knowledge and knowing
are both individual and collective and that personal voices are the basis of
collective understanding.
This, however, is only possible when we create an open and safe learning
environment that is built on trust and respect and where the teacher’s voice
is only one of the legitimate and validated sources of information. The basic
pedagogic principles that would allow this are the use of tasks which build
on collaboration, rather than competition, and tasks that are open‑ended in
that they allow a variety of possible answers. We demonstrate these in action
through an activity we learnt from Nicholas Lee (Sunway University, Centre
for English Language Studies) which is similar to the ‘Organizing content’,
Activity 39, we presented earlier.
41. Working with non‑linearity: categorisation
Introduction
This activity is based on the concept of collaborative learning where stu‑

dents learn to respect and accept other people’s views and realise that the
same concept can be viewed from different perspectives. They also learn that
although their ideas might be different, it does not mean that one is better
than the other – although as a community, they may prefer certain answers
more than others.
Procedure
1 Bring in a selection of objects to the classroom, such as objects from

the office, which could be standard office supplies, trinkets that are used
to decorate the place, or some items that visitors bring as presents or
leave behind accidentally. It is useful if the objects are all different from
each other. Alternatively, you can also use a picture that depicts various
objects.
2 Allocate students to small groups and ask them to come up with dif‑
ferent categories they can use to group the objects. It is important that
they work on a poster paper that can be pinned to the wall or on white
board which are visible for all in the classroom. Making their work vis‑
ible allows taking the competitive element from the task where students
would try to safeguard their answers rather than share them with other
learners.
3 After a set time limit of five to ten minutes (depending on the level of
learners and the number of objects), students share their ideas with the
whole class. More unique categorisations will most probably require
some explanations, whereas some common patterns – the same idea
across most groups – will also emerge.
It is important to acknowledge every possible idea and avoid dismissing

them right away and that students are encouraged to do the same. When
they do not agree or do not understand why their peers suggest a particular
categorisation, encourage them to probe by asking questions and request‑
ing explanation from the group that proposed it. They can also challenge
the concept by pointing out exceptions to the rules or difficulties in assign‑
ing the objects (e.g. one object can fall into different categories). At the end
of the sharing stage, students can vote on what grouping they consider the
most unusual, creative, practical, etc.
1 How can you adapt this categorisation activity to have more focus on
intercultural learning?
2 What other tasks or materials do you use to build trust in the classroom?
How can you modify them to cater to intercultural learning?
Complex dynamic systems features: dynamic change and

feedback loops
Dynamic change is a characteristic feature that essentially defines complex
dynamic systems and it describes the process in which agents (things, ideas,
people, etc.) appear, disappear, and reappear in the system, and the fluidity
by which these agents are connected to each other. Some connections are
more stable than others, some are severed and new ones are formed as the
learning system evolves. In fact, it is a dynamic change that allows new learn‑
ing to emerge as it promotes the reorganisation of components within the
framework of the system. When we provide conditions for dynamic change,
we prevent the fossilisation of learning and – probably – the formation of
stereotypes about cultures and people the learners get acquainted with.
One of the sources of dynamic change in the learning system is the in‑
troduction of new input in the form of ideas and resources. These have
the potential to offer new knowledge, influence the learners’ opinions and
beliefs, or prompt them to question their current understanding of cultural
phenomena. However, it is not only the content that can induce change but
the type of input that is used in the classroom. There is a range of potential
sources that can be used to provide new input, for example, short videos,
pictures, newspaper articles, websites, textbooks, and so on, not forgetting
of course about the learners and the knowledge, opinions, and experiences
they bring to the classroom.
Another way of facilitating dynamic change in the classroom is by al‑
lowing new connections to be formed. This can be done by varying the
learning modes (individual, pair, small group, whole class) and also the way
in which students form small groups or pairs. It is typical in any class that
learners usually arrange themselves in groups that have been formed at the
beginning of the school year. Some students may have known each other
previously, some are friends, and some simply work together because of
their close proximity in the physical classroom space. However, we can fos‑
ter interaction among students who do not usually choose to work together
by using either random or deliberate grouping techniques (see Procedure
1, Activity 43 below).
The reorganisation of student connectivity in the classroom allows learn‑
ers to get to learn about and from each other. Yet connections in the learning
system do not exist only at the social level; they are present at the cognitive
and affective levels as well. Therefore, during intercultural learning, it is
important that students are provided with opportunities to revisit concepts
and ideas that were previously discussed in the course and to reinterpret
them in the light of new information or new experiences. We suggest that
when you design intercultural materials you explore and exploit possible
connections between new and previously discussed topics or concepts and
design tasks that would ask the learners to gain awareness of complex issues
by considering their broader context. This can be done by asking probing
questions that aim to explore relationships between newly learnt and already
known concepts and also by allowing a spiral progression in your intercul‑
tural course where some key concepts are touched upon again and again as
learners progress through materials.
Closely connected to the concept of dynamic change are feedback loops.
This depicts information travelling across the learning system through
various connections, then returning to its origin and changing it as a final
result. This concept is best exemplified by the flight of a flock of birds.
Each bird keeps a distance from and reacts to movements made by neigh‑
bouring birds. When one bird reacts to a predator and changes its course,
all its neighbours also change their flight pattern and ultimately, the bird
which has originated the system change needs to adjust its own position
to the new formation that evolves through a dynamic ripple effect through
the flock. In the learning system, feedback loops occur naturally, but they
can also be facilitated through the introduction of (guided) reflection
tasks. These tasks take the newly learnt intercultural knowledge as their
starting point and ask learners to discover how it is related to other pieces
of knowledge, values, and beliefs they hold. Reflection tasks can conclude
in an open discussion where “ripples of learning reverberate throughout
the room and bounce back altered, changed and sometimes amplified”
(Clarke & Collins, 2007, p. 166). It is expected that by the end of the
reflection task, students re‑evaluate what they have just learnt and form
personally relevant and individual meanings.
42. Working with dynamic change and feedback loops:

dynamic grouping
Procedure 1
This is a fun random pairing activity done with the use of strings.
1 If there are an even number of students in the classroom, cut half as many
strings (of about 70–80 cm in length) as there are students.
2 Hold the strings in your hand by grabbing the middle, so that the loose
ends fall from the hand at either side.
3 Ask the students to each grab one end of a string.
4 When all of them have their string, let go of the middle, and students
who hold the different ends of the same string will work together, after
they have worked out who is connected to whom.
5 Deliberate grouping of students can be based on many different fac‑
tors, including gender, language ability, interest, ethnicity, previously
expressed views or preferences, etc.
Procedure 2
1 Consider the possible student grouping arrangement in Activity 14

‘Combo‑culture’. The instruction says: “Ask learners to work in groups
of two, three or four”. How do you think the learning outcome, or the
way students work, would change (if at all) in the different grouping sug‑
gested? What does this tell you about materials design?
2 Think of a learning group you have worked with or currently working
with. How would you group your learners for Activity 17: ‘Small cul‑
tures’? The instructions ask learners to first work individually and map
out the social groupings they belong to. Then they think about the un‑
written conventions of these groups before they “share them with one
or two classmates and discuss” their work with them. Would there be a
different outcome if you group your students randomly or deliberately?
Should instructional materials suggest how you group the learners and
point out the benefits/drawbacks of different arrangements?
43. Working with dynamic change and feedback loops:

the importance of input
Introduction
This activity is based on the idea that new input to the learning system helps
students form new meanings based on what they already know and what
they have just learnt. Furthermore, a variety of inputs not only creates more
interesting lessons, but it also prevents the formation of repetitive learning
activities in the classroom.
Procedure
Select three of the activities presented in Activity Set (B) and identify what
sources of information they use as input, then consider what other input
source can be used to achieve the same intercultural learning objectives.
One is given to you here as an example (see Table 2.5).
Complex dynamic systems features: unpredictability and

emergent learning
Unpredictability is another feature of complex dynamic learning systems and
it is a result of interaction of components or agents. Since learning is sensitive
to initial conditions and is non‑linear, small changes (like the introduction of a
new idea, artefact, a new learner, etc.) can create disproportionate outcomes,
as we discussed in Part I. When we design intercultural learning activities we
need to acknowledge that learning outcomes cannot be clearly set, and it is
perhaps better to have a ‘pedagogical intent’ which is “negotiated through the
interactions brought forth, acknowledged, and responded to by the various
members of the classroom community” (Clarke & Collins, 2007, p. 167).
Even if the learners are not fully autonomous and decision‑making is
somewhat dominated by the teacher, it is still difficult to predict how indi‑
vidual learners will interact with the topics and the learning materials at hand.
Through their individual experiences, beliefs, values, and knowledge they per‑
ceive cultural learning materials differently and such perceptual differences act
as filters in their meaning‑making. Therefore, it would be naïve to expect that
each learner would have the same intake in an intercultural classroom.
Although complex dynamic systems run their own course without the di‑
rection of a central controller (self‑organisation), and learning emerges seem‑
ingly randomly, it is possible to have a certain control over the direction
TABLE 2.5 Sources of input
Activities Input source Alternative input source
Activity 14: ‘Combo culture’ The internet Other members of the class
a)
b)
c)
such learning takes. In intercultural learning, certain stereotypes, deeply

rooted cultural values, biases, and other factors can all act as attractor states
towards which learning may tend to settle. The teachers’ task, therefore,
is to recognise what attractor states may exist in the learning system and
then to introduce new input (ideas, resources, experiences) which can move
learning towards a more desired state. As complex dynamic systems are
open to new input, this is not a difficult task; what is challenging, however,
is to figure out what input is needed.
44. Working with unpredictability and emergent learning
Introduction
In order to facilitate learning, instructional materials should allow learning

that emerges from the interaction of system components, i.e., ideas, beliefs,
values, and of course, the learners. Instead of having fixed answers that usu‑
ally fall into correct and predetermined categories, intercultural materials
should offer open‑ended tasks where a variety of answers are possible. In
Activity Set (B) every single activity was based on this principle. What stu‑
dents learn in these activities is largely unpredictable. Or is it? Can teachers
guide learning towards certain desirable outcomes?
In Activity 7, ‘Texts from language coursebooks’, in the critical discourse
analysis section Working with texts, we offered an example text from a Ma‑
laysian English language coursebook (Lim, 2010).
Procedure
1 Look again at the text and select an intercultural learning objective from
Table 2.3, framework for the design of intercultural learning materials,
that you think you could achieve with the input text. You might choose,
for example, the objective ‘encourage exploring beneath the surface of
cultural behaviours’.
2 Design an open‑ended task that would help you achieve the objective
and lead to intercultural learning. Consider what other input (resources,
experiences) you need to provide for the learner to be able to achieve the
objective, besides the text that has already been given.
3 Stay with the text, task, and any potential additional input you have
decided upon. Keep in mind that individual learners may come up
with very different meanings, ideas, and beliefs based on the learn‑
ing experience your materials have provided so far and their own life
experiences.
4 Collect all different answers on the whiteboard (or any other visual plat‑
form) without being judgemental, keep in mind that some of the answers
may be unexpected and unusual.
5 Consider what meaning you would like them all to take on board. How
can you steer their learning towards that? How can you encourage them
to recognise patterns in their answers or combine some to create a com‑
pletely new meaning?
Complex dynamic systems features: openness

Openness in a complex dynamic system refers partly to the ability of the
system to grow by taking on new components and also to the fact that com‑
plex systems have a nested structure, i.e. they contain systems within systems
which interact and react with each other in a dynamic way. The easiest way
to understand this concept is if you think about any learner group that you
are working with. The group that you start with is somehow different from
the group that finishes the course in that they have new connections among
themselves, they – hopefully – have changed their thinking, beliefs, and
gained knowledge as the course has been progressing over the semester.
Therefore, depending on the changes within the individual learners’ cogni‑
tion, the group as a whole will act and behave differently as they progress
through their academic journey.
One possible activity to map how the learners’ membership in different
cultural groups could potentially contribute to their thinking, values, and be‑
liefs is through the activity ‘Small cultures’ (Activity 17). This activity asks
learners to think about how the social and cultural groups they belong to in‑
tersect each other and how some of the unwritten rules of the group and the
roles they play in them would/could influence their behaviour in other social
settings. For example, you can be a student and a teacher at the same time,
a parent and a child, you can be an environmentalist who happens to teach
English (and a member of the ELT Footprints social media group), and so on.
Of course, we should not forget that the learners are also influenced by
input from outside the learning context which the teacher does not have
much control over. Especially important to mention among these sources
are the media (both traditional and social) which promote particular ideolo‑
gies and try to influence their audiences in certain ways. Therefore, it is im‑
portant that any intercultural teaching material should incorporate current
and relevant issues in order for students to make sense of and be informed
about the world they live in. In other words, as a principle for intercultural
materials design, materials should be open to incorporate any current (and
relevant) issues that are important in your context.
45. Working with openness
Introduction
The tasks below ask you to consider how you can design materials that offer
a framework in which current events and issues can be incorporated.
Procedures
1 Look at Activity 20, ‘The Johari Window of culture’. How could you
incorporate any current (cultural/social) issue currently trending in your
context into the framework of the existing task? How can you promote
discussion and raise critical awareness in the classroom and at the same
time keep an open and constructive dialogue when discussing sensitive
issues?
2 Choose an image from current media posts that depicts a current event
that has inter(cultural) significance in the society where you work. De‑
cide how you may want to exploit the material for intercultural learning.
3 Consider the following poem by Malaysian poet and writer Malachi Ed‑
win Vethamani (2016), which showcases the everyday realities of multi‑
cultural Malaysia: the coexistence of different races and languages, and
its rich food culture, and mixed‑race marriages, relationships. Design an
intercultural learning task based on the poem, but also incorporate a so‑
cial issue that is relevant in your own cultural/work context.
IT WAS A WONDROUS SIGHT
It was a wondrous sight!

A sight for national unity watchers.
He eating fried mee with chopsticks
And she, nasi lemak with fingers.
The young man skilfully
manoeuvred the chopsticks
without letting slip a strand.
The young woman expertly
coordinated her hands and mouth
getting every grain in.
The meal almost over
They make plans to tell their parents.

implementing the framework
46. Template for the design of intercultural learning materials
Introduction
We have used our framework for the design of intercultural learning materials
(Table 2.3) in multiple ways in the activities described in this part of the book.
Here, we synthesise these to offer a flexible intercultural materials develop‑
ment ‘template’. Through the use of the activities in the learner Set (B), readers
will probably have extrapolated the types of media, modes, inputs, prompts,
strategies, techniques, and interaction patterns that can work together to cre‑
ate material for use in the intercultural classroom. The activities we presented
also demonstrated how the overarching principles of the framework could
be applied; viz. the importance of encouraging learners to critique, question,
probe, reflect, analyse, and (collectively/individually) showcase their learning
in ways that help deepen their understanding and knowledge of other cultures
and their own, and develop respect and empathy for these.
The activities presented in Set (B) will also have illustrated the impor‑
tance of careful sequencing within an activity; broadly this requires tasks
within it to progress from the practical (often pair or group interaction) to
garnering personal response and on to a final open, and collective, reflective
stage.
The following template serves to effectively pull all this together, offering
an overarching model or ‘one‑stop shop’ for ideas and formats that go to
develop a piece of intercultural learning material.
Procedure
1 Profile your learners and your teaching context (this may not be required
if these are very familiar to you) to act as criteria for what would, or
would not, be appropriate as input, process, interactions, etc. in the ma‑
terial. Consider such factors as:
Learners’
Age/s
Gender/s
L2 proficiency
Cultural/multicultural background
Needs and wants
Interests and tastes
Geographical context
Class size
Curriculum objectives
(If available the institution’s curriculum or textbook objectives can guide
the selection of input material and subsequent stages of the activity).
2 Select an input or prompt as a ‘starting point’ for the activity that is suit‑
able for your context, learner profile and course objectives, one that you
consider will go towards fulfilling some of the intercultural learning ob‑
jectives given in the framework (making connections between cultures,
fostering a comparative perspective, etc.). This starting point may be a
concrete input from any of a variety of media that have been used in the
Set (B) activities such as a photograph, a meme, a cartoon, a short piece
of literature, a news report, a song, or a short video. It may also be simply
an interaction or a process such as brainstorming or categorising. Note
that, as a CDS principle, the ‘starting point’ also serves to create initial
conditions for learning.
3 Consider the sorts of questions and issues the selected starting point
raises. A useful principle here is that these should be authentic to it, i.e.
the questions should emerge ‘naturally’ from the prompt/input – rather
than the questions/issues being dictated by a language learning objec‑
tive. A good example is the questions surrounding the rap song used
in Activity 29, Pop culture, which free learners to talk about the most
salient feature of the rap, its power as social commentary (rather than
guiding them towards listening for certain language, etc.).
4 Consider how you might elicit reactions to these questions/issues from
your students. Through direct questions or prompts? By eliciting these
from the students? In a scaffolded, guided way, for example filling in a
box or a template (as in ‘The Johari Window of culture’, Activity 20)?
5 Sequence the activity. For this, consider the level of personalisation you
feel is appropriate to your learners and the task:
• One technique that was used in some of the Set (B) activities was pro‑
tecting learner sensibilities by ‘distancing’ the learner from the mate‑
rial (see for example, the A‑land/Zed‑land role‑play in Activity 24 or
‘Combo culture’, Activity 14). Another is by moving online and using
communications apps (Zoom, WhatsApp, etc.) for all or part of the
lesson.
• Typically, the task is sequenced to probe progressively deeper into
learners’ reactions (as appropriate) and then ‘pan out’ to gather the
responses of the group. ‘Identity boxes’ (Activity 23), for example, ask
learners to create their own personal identity box, then share this with
a partner – but at the final group/plenary stage, to share only general
reflections on the activity.
6 Consider what sort of interaction pattern/s is/are suitable for the activ‑
ity, and what mode (i.e. individual, dyad, group, plenary, fully online,
hybrid).
7 Outcome/s: it is particularly important for intercultural learning ac‑
tivities to provide mechanism/s for suitable ‘closure’ of the activity
so as to ‘capture’ emergent learning. How will you access the group’s
collective understanding? Many of the activities in Set (B) end with
reflection in plenary. Activity 28 ‘Story exchange’ is a useful example
here, itself offering a range of debriefing options; learners can write
their overall reflections on the experience (of story‑swapping) on sticky
notes and post them around the classroom, they can post their reflec‑
tions on a class social media platform or group if available, or they can
participate in a more traditional final reflection orally, in plenary, in
pairs or in groups.
8 Teacher reflection: An ideal methodology for teachers to reflect on the
success of their developed material is action research. The classic iterative
structure of action research, a cycle of observation, critical reflection,
and modification, is perfectly suited to materials development. It offers
practitioners a formula for reflecting on classroom trialling of a piece of
material, adapting it if and however deemed necessary, and returning it
to the classroom. Indeed, we will see action research coming to the fore
in the concluding parts of this book.
Activity Set (D) Adapting materials to fit cultural contexts

Any time a teacher uses a coursebook in the classroom, they mediate it; the
material is rarely if ever delivered ‘verbatum’ from a coursebook without
some teacher intervention. While such mediation occurs naturally and un‑
consciously, materials adaptation is planned. Materials are typically adapted
to better fit learner groups and/or a learning context, in terms of age‑,
level‑ or cultural‑appropriacy, or focus.
Pinpointing what or how to adapt any given piece of material requires
two important analytical steps: first, profiling of the learners and the teach‑
ing context: second, evaluation of the materials. A useful evaluation proce‑
dure for our context is given in Table 2.2 in Activity 1. On the basis of the
outcomes of this analysis, teachers might typically do one or more of the
following with respect to the existing material:
• Select,
• Reduce,
• Modify,
• Reorder,
• Substitute,
• Supplement,
• Extend,
• Repurpose.
Such changes can apply to:
• Language (the language of instruction, explanations, examples, the lan‑

guage in exercises and texts, and the language learners are expected to
produce).
• Process (forms of classroom management or interaction stated explicitly
in the instructions for exercises, activities, and tasks, but also the learning
styles involved).
• Content (topics, contexts, cultural references).
• Level (linguistic and cognitive demands on the learner).
(McGrath, 2013, pp. 62–63)
Given the focus of this book, the sort of adaptations we propose in the fol‑
lowing activities aim to enhance the potential for cultural awareness‑raising
in teaching materials practitioners choose, or have to use.
47. Materials adaptation template
Introduction
This activity offers a template for adaptations which can be used and reused
to tailor materials to any context. It incorporates the two analytical steps
described above, profiling the learning context and evaluating the materials
with a view to adaptation.
Procedure
1 Profile your learners. For this, you can use the profiling criteria offered in
Activity 47 (materials design template), viz:
Consider such factors as:
Learners’
Age/s
Gender/s
L2 proficiency
Needs and wants
Class size
2 From a coursebook used/prescribed in your teaching context, select a

unit or part of a unit that has some intercultural or cultural component.
Evaluate the suitability of your chosen material to this learner profile;
how suitable is it to each aspect of the profile?
For example:
• Is the material of the appropriate language proficiency level?
• Is the material age‑appropriate?
• Does the material fulfil (aspects of) the learning/course objectives?
3 How well do the materials foster intercultural awareness? For this, we

refer back to our evaluation checklist in Table 2.2, Activity 1.
4 The findings of the previous steps (2 and 3) can now feed into the ad‑
aptation of the material. These can involve any or a selection of the ad‑
aptation measures described earlier (Selecting etc.), with respect to the
language, proficiency level, procedure, or content.
5 If possible, pilot your adapted material with a class and reflect on its suc‑
cess. Does it need further adaptation, if so, what? Arriving at a success‑
ful adaptation of materials is often a cyclical process, adopting the sort
of action research methodology suggested above, viz., a cycle of critical
reflection on the effectiveness of the adapted material, subsequent modi‑
fication, further trialling, and so on.
48. Focus on intercultural awareness‑raising
Introduction
One criticism we have made in the book is that the enormous potential for
language and cultural learning from the texts and images within course‑
books is too often under‑exploited, or not exploited at all. The next three
activities address this.
Procedure
1 Select from a coursebook, an activity/content that offers cultural infor‑

mation but that you consider does not adequately exploit it to promote
learners’ intercultural awareness.
2 Consider an adaptation that would enhance this – for example, a change
to the procedure (such as working in groups rather than individually),
modifying the questions or prompts, supplementing with another text/
visual for comparison, etc., supplementing it with another task, or a com‑
bination of these.
49. Adapting a global coursebook

Trial the sequenced procedure in Activity 48 above on this extract from a
unit from an internationally used global coursebook (Figure 2.6).
50. Repurposing coursebook visuals
Introduction
This activity pulls together a number of strands that figure in the

book – (combatting) essentialism, use of the visual/semiotic analysis, and
the importance for learning of engaging creativity. The activity involves ex‑
tracting visuals from a coursebook and exploiting their potential for inter‑
cultural learning, calling on learners’ cultural knowledge and creativity.
Procedure
1 Choose one or a selection of the photographs in the extract from Head‑

way (Figure 2.6).
2 Examine the degree to which each photograph is an integral part of the
learning material;
• What is its role in the learning material?
• Is it an essential part of the learning material?
• Does it serve exclusively to illustrate a language point?
• Is it treated superficially?
• Is it merely illustrative?
• Does it present stereotypes (culture, gender, etc.) or stereotypical
practices?
FIGURE 2.6 Extractfrom: Headway Intermediate Student’s Book, 5th Edition,

2019, p. 90. Reproduced with permission
3 For each chosen photograph, add an activity or activities which exploit its
potential for cultural awareness‑raising; any perceived stereotyping might
be used as a starting point. (Refer also to Activity 11, ‘Interpreting the
visual’ for sample treatment.)
In addition to Step 3, or alternatively:
4 Consider invoking learner creativity. Sample learner tasks might include

looking at one or two of the photographs from this coursebook extract
and choosing one or a selection of the following (individually or in
groups):
• Infer what has happened in the situation shown in the photograph.
• Is this situation culture‑specific (i.e. would it only happen in the coun‑
try where the photograph was taken?)
• Would this situation be a typical one in your culture?
• Compare the situation shown to a similar one in your own culture.
• Write the backstory of one of the people featuring in the photograph.
• Write the prequel or sequel to the photograph (what led up to the
situation shown? What happened as a result of this situation?)
• Create a meme or a comic strip based on one or a selection of the
photographs (see Activities 32 and 33).
This treatment might be an integral part of a lesson, or some of the tech‑
niques might be used in unplanned ‘teachable moments’, where a course‑
book photograph catches students’ interest, for example.
Conclusion
The importance of fitting teaching materials to their cultural context is one
of the core concepts underpinning this book. The series of activities pro‑
vided in this part, particularly those aimed at the practitioners themselves
(Sets A, C and D) will, it is hoped, provide the tools and sharpen CCA to
the extent that practitioners feel confident in selecting and adapting the
learner tasks, Set (B), according to their learner profiles and teaching situ‑
ations – and indeed, devise their own original tasks using the materials de‑
velopment principles and practices we have put forward. Like learning itself,
materials development is a dynamic process (another leitmotif of this book),
materials are never static but spring to life off the page (or screen) as learn‑
ers and teachers mediate, interpret, and interact with them – and with each
other. We thus anticipate that the materials here will evolve as they are used,
be tweaked to fit different cultural contexts, and will spark other ideas. And
we hope that this will see a growing repository of materials for intercultural
learning shared within and among the international community, in the di‑
verse situations in which they are used.
Notes
1 (Answers: (a) poetry, e. e. cummings: [i carry your heart with me (i carry it in];
(b) RAP, Coolio: Gangsta’s Paradise; (c) poetry, Langston Hughes: Let America
be America again; (d) RAP, Eminem: Mosh).
2 “I’m not filled with language anymore, I don’t really exist” is a quotation from
Lost in Translation by Eva Hoffman (1989, p. 108).
References
Adler, R., & Rodman, G. (2006). Human communication (9th ed.). Oxford: Ox‑
ford University Press.
Ancelin, G., Schmitt, J., Guazzagaloppa, N., & Corbel, D. (2009). EMI. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXtK12q7qJw
Bacon, K. (2000). An African voice. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.
theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/08/an‑african‑voice/306020/
Bauer, B., DeBenedette, L., Furstenberg, G., Levet, S., & Waryn, S. (2006). The
cultura project. In J. A. Belz & S. L.Thorne (Eds.), AAUSC issues in language
program direction: Internet‑mediated intercultural foreign language education
(pp. 31–62). Boston, MA: Heinle.
Bennett, J. M., Bennett, M. J., & Stillings, K. (1977). Description, interpretation,
evaluation (DIE): Facilitators’ guidelines. Retrieved from 8D7E526D‑3840‑12
04‑F84E‑A15FD8EB832D.pdf (webydo.com)
Business of Apps. (2021). Zoom revenue and usage statistics (2020). Retrieved from
https://www.businessofapps.com/data/zoom‑statistics/
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative compe‑
tence. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Byram, M., & Masuhara, H. (2013). Intercultural competence. In B. Tomlinson &
H. Masuhara (Eds.), Applied linguistics and materials development (pp. 143–160).
London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Clarke, A., & Collins, S. (2007). Complexity science and student teacher supervi‑
sion. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 160–172.
Coolio. (1995). Gangsta’s paradise. Retrieved from https://genius.com/
Coolio‑gangstas‑paradise‑lyrics
Culture Trip. (2017). 8 things you need to know about Busójárás, Hungary’s biggest
carnival festival. Retrieved from https://theculturetrip.com/europe/hungary/
articles/8‑things‑you‑need‑to‑know‑about‑busojaras‑hungarys‑biggest‑carnival‑
festival/
Cunningsworth, A. (1995). Choosing your coursebook. London: Hienemann.
Empathy Museum. (n.d.). A mile in my shoes. Retrieved from https://www.empa‑
thymuseum.com/a‑mile‑in‑my‑shoes/
Enact. (n.d.). Learn languages through culture. Retrieved from https://enacteur‑
opa.com/
Everett, D. (2008). Don’t sleep, there are snakes: Life and language in the Amazonian
jungle. London: Profile Books Ltd. Pantheon.
Garton, S., & Graves, K. (2019). Materials use and development. In S. Mann &
S. Walsh (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of second language teacher education
(pp. 417–431). London: Routledge.
Godwin‑Jones, R. (2019). Riding the digital wilds: Learner autonomy and informal
language learning. Language Learning & Technology, 23(1), 8‑25.
Hadfield, J. (1992). Classroom dynamics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hill, D. (2013). The visual element in ELT coursebooks. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.),
Developing materials for language teaching (2nd ed., pp. 174–182). London:
Bloomsbury.
Hoffman, E. (1989). Lost in translation. London: William Heinemann Ltd.
Holliday, A. (2019). Understanding intercultural communication: Negotiating a
grammar of culture. Routledge.
Idle, J., & Ma, L. (2019). Motivating unaccompanied minors in the ESOL class‑
room. In F. Mishan (Ed.), ESOL Provision in the UK and Ireland: Challenges and
opportunities (pp. 155‑175). Oxford: Peter Lang.
Imgflip LLC. (2022). Meme generator. Retrieved from https://imgflip.com/
memegenerator
Kiss, T., & Weninger, C. (2017). Cultural learning in the EFL classroom: The role
of visuals. ELT Journal, 71(2), 186–196.
Lim, J. C. (2010). STPM Pre‑U MUET coursebook. Subang Jaya: Pustaka Sarjana
Snd. Bhd.
Lorentzen, N. (2019). The human library. Retrieved from https://humanlibrary.
org/
McDonough, J., Shaw, C., & Masuhara, H. (2013). Materials and methods in ELT:
A teacher’s guide (3rd ed.). Chichester: Wiley‑Blackwell.
McGrath, I. (2013). Teaching materials and the roles of EFL/ESL teachers: Practice
and theory. London: Bloomsbury.
Memification. (2016). In Ipsos Encyclopedia.
Milgram, S. (1967). The small world problem. Psychology Today, 2(1), 60–67.
Mishan, F. (2022). Materials for intercultural language Education. In B. Tom‑
linson (Ed.), Materials development for language teaching (3rd ed.). London:
Bloomsbury.
Mishan, F. (2023). Towards intercultural competence: Materials for raising inter‑
cultural awareness. In B. Tomlinson, (Ed.), Developing materials for language
teaching (3rd edn, pp. 412‑509). London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Mishan, F., & Timmis, I. (2015). Materials development for TESOL. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press.
Narrative 4. (2022). Students have stories to tell, we give them the Mic. Retrieved from
https://narrative4.com/
Nguyen, V. T. (2021). The committed. London: Corsair.
Pennycook, A. (2017). The cultural politics of English as an international language.
London: Routledge.
Rimbar, H. (2017). Rhythm and poetry: Where lit and pop culture collide. Paper pre‑
sented at the iELT‑Con 2017. The 21st Century Classroom: ELT Practices &
Innovations, Georgetown, Malaysia.
Rimbar, H. (2019). They call this (c)rap! IATEFL Slovenia Magazine, Winter Is‑
sue(75), 31–33.
Schäerli‑Lim, S. (2020). HubICL contributor spotlight: Susan Schäerli‑Lim on I
DIVE. HubICL Hubbub: Intercultural Learning Hub Newsletter. Retrieved from
https://hubicl.org/newsletter/october2020
Stauffer, R. G. (1969). Teaching reading as a thinking process. New York: Harper &
Row.
Sung, K., & Pederson, R. (2012). Critical practices in ELT as a project of possibili‑
ties or a banal discourse. In K. Sung & R. Pederson (Eds.), Critical ELT practices
in Asia: Key issues, practices, and possibilities (pp. 153–169). Rotterdam: Sense
Publishers.
The United Nations. (2022). Global Issues. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/
en/global‑issues
Thorne, S. (2010). The intercultural turn and language learning in the crucible of
new media. In S. Guth & F. Helm (Eds.), Telecollaboration 2.0: Language and
intercultural learning in the 21st century (pp. 139–165). Oxford: Peter Lang.
Tomlinson, B., & Masuhara, H. (2017). The complete guide to the theory and practice
of materials development for language learning. John Wiley & Sons
Tremayne, D. (2019). Vignette 3. ESOL outside the traditional classroom setting:
Heart and Parcel – combining dumplings and ESOL. In F. Mishan (Ed.), ESOL
provision in the UK and Ireland: Challenges and opportunities (pp. 177–179).
Oxford: Peter Lang.
UNESCO. (2022). Intangible cultural heritage. Retrieved from https://ich.un‑
esco.org/en/home
Vethamani, M. E. (2016). It was a wonderous sight. In Complicated lives. Kulala
Lumpur: Maya Press.
Weaver, G. R. (1986). Understanding and coping with cross‑cultural adjustment
stress. In R. M. Paige (Ed.), Cross‑cultural orientation. New conceptualizations
and applications. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Weinstein, S. (2006). A love for the thing: The pleasures of rap as a literate practice.
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 50(4), 270–281.
World Internet Users Statistics. (2022). Retrieved from https://internetworldstats.
com/stats.htm
Yeo, D. (2024). The Directed Viewing‑Thinking Activity (DVTA) as critical peda‑
gogical strategy in the language classroom. In J. Joseph Jeyaraj, T. Kiss, & D.
Perrodin (Eds.), Critical pedagogies in English language learning and teaching:
Foundations, practices, and possibilities. Pulau Pinang: USM Press.
Zimmerman, B. (2006–2021). MakeBeliefComix. Retrieved from https://makebe‑
liefscomix.com/
Part III
FROM APPLICATION
TO IMPLEMENTATION
DOI: 10.4324/9781032651385‑3
160 From Application to Implementation
Introduction
In Part I, we looked at the theories associated with intercultural competence
and its pedagogical application. In Part II all this was given practical imple‑
mentation in sets of activities to foster learner intercultural competence and
to assist teachers in developing materials for this. Here in Part III we go
on to examine how intercultural activities can be and are being integrated
within language or language and cultural studies curricula in different inter‑
national contexts.
To do this, we move from the general to the specific. We start with a brief
overview of how intercultural competence is currently covered in educa‑
tional curricula in different parts of the world. This is complemented by an
international survey we carried out to collect information about how prac‑
titioners integrate intercultural skills development on the ground. Moving
on to the specifics of teaching these skills, we offer general principles for in‑
tegrating them into the classroom. In the last section, we go on to illustrate
how these play out in the field in a range of educational contexts presented
as vignettes from our survey with which, we hope, readers can identify. This
part ends by drawing together the types of techniques practitioners use to
integrate intercultural activities into their teaching, in the form of a ‘quick
reference’ table.
The status of intercultural competence skills in curricula

worldwide
CURRICULUM VERSUS SYLLABUS?
The ‘curriculum’ refers to the philosophy, objectives, implementation and

(often) assessment of an educational programme.
The ‘syllabus’ is the practical realisation of the curriculum. It refers to the
teaching materials and the methods used to deliver them.
As we have noted previously, intercultural competence is a relatively new

concern for (language and culture) pedagogy. How it integrates into the
curriculum varies widely from country to country, as it depends on the
importance attributed to it in national education curricula/syllabi, teacher
training in it, and resources allocated to it. In Europe, the influence of
the 2015 Paris Declaration promoting citizenship and the common values
From Application to Implementation 161
of freedom, tolerance, and non‑discrimination through education, saw a

greater focus on intercultural competence and intercultural dialogue in
the second level language curricula of about two‑thirds of European coun‑
tries. There was less emphasis on these at the primary level; only half of the
46 countries surveyed for one European report (Eurydice Report, 2016,
p. 8, in Kavanagh, 2013, p. 98) mentioned ‘respecting other cultures’ in
their primary level curricula. A further concern was that even if they were
included in the curriculum, intercultural competences were paid consider‑
ably less attention than the development of linguistic and communication
skills. An EU report on Languages and Cultures in Europe (Europub‑
lic sca/cva for DG Education, Training, & Culture and Multilingualism,
2007, p. 53) concluded that “the curricula demonstrate a tendency to em‑
phasise linguistic competence and communication skills at the expense of
intercultural competence”. One obvious reason for this is that students are
assessed primarily in terms of language proficiency. This tension between
language skills and intercultural objectives turns up time and again in the
findings of the international survey we carried out (see below).
Even in other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Pakistan
where multiculturalism and multilingualism are integral to society, we
see a similar lack of full commitment to including intercultural skills in
their national education curricula as well as a tendency to view them as
language learning issues. In Singapore, where bilingualism is ‘the corner‑
stone’ of the educational system, ‘culture’ does feature in the Singaporean
21st‑century framework for primary and secondary education (Singapore
Ministry of Education, 2010) within the acronym PACC, which repre‑
sents four foci for developing effective language use; Purpose, Audience,
Context, Culture. The English language syllabus nevertheless emphasises
linguistic skills with seemingly little focus on the intercultural aspects
of this bilingual society. Secondary school English language classrooms
(catering to a mix of English L2, L1, and EFL learners) tend to be exam‑
ination‑centred, focusing on functional literacy, routine procedures, and
standardisation. The English language curriculum in Malaysia likewise pri‑
oritises language competence with only minor attention to intercultural
skills. In Pakistan, at third level, “the focus of functional English courses
is not to develop intercultural awareness” (Respondent to intercultural
teaching survey, Participant 40, see below). While there is a greater level
of autonomy in private institutions and third level teaching institutions, it
is clear that, internationally, there are varying levels of commitment and
attitude to teachers integrating the teaching and learning of intercultural
competence into their syllabi.
The problem appears to be the difficulty of fitting the complex and dy‑
namic knowledge‑base and competencies that intercultural communication
entails into linear and highly compartmentalised curricula. Simply put, there
is usually no school subject called ‘Intercultural communication’ in most
primary and secondary educational systems. Its lack of formalised presence
implies that educational policy makers struggle with:
a. Creating a subject which incorporates knowledge areas and competen‑

cies across a variety of established fields.
b. Formally assessing competence that is context‑dependent and fluid.
c. Acknowledging that how critical intercultural awareness emerges is rela‑
tive to the individual learners as it involves both the cognitive and affec‑
tive domains.
As a result, intercultural learning is often spread across the curriculum and

added as an ‘extra’ to existing subjects, basically relegating it to being less
important than that of the content into which it is integrated. This un‑
even status of intercultural competence teaching within education curricula
means that there is a broad range of practices in terms of when, where, how
or, indeed, whether intercultural skills are featured. Formulae for this vary
depending on the educational level and sector.
To gather empirical information on the status of intercultural skills teach‑
ing ‘from the chalk face’, we ran two international surveys online in 2020
and 2021 which asked language and culture teachers about their own situ‑
ations and practices. These surveys threw up case studies from a wide range
of settings which illustrated a huge variety of practices with regard to the
ways intercultural skills are taught, the materials used, and how these are
integrated into curricula, across the spectrum of proficiency levels and edu‑
cation sectors. In the later section, Integrating intercultural materials into
the curriculum: Vignettes from the field, we present case studies from across
the globe situated across the spectrum of educational settings, from primary
to third level education, teacher training as well as dedicated language learn‑
ing institutions.
As might be expected from a survey on an international scale, the
respondents’ thoughts, principles, and techniques for teaching and in‑
tegrating intercultural skills were diverse and innovative. Here we en‑
deavour to assimilate these together with principles expressed in theory
in Part I and demonstrated in practice in Part II into a useable set of
fourteen principles to guide the integrating of these sensitive skills into
the curriculum.
BOX 3.1 THE 2020–2021 INTERCULTURAL

SKILLS SURVEY
The Survey
Methodology
The survey was circulated in March 2020 and April 2021 via a Google Form
to social networks and discussion lists internationally and gathered a total
of 43 responses from 16 different countries. The respondents were asked
about their language curricula and whether these included multicultural ob‑
jectives and materials that supported these. They were asked about any sup‑
plementary intercultural teaching materials they developed and used and
how these succeeded in the classroom.
The findings were collated into a database and the quantitative and qual‑
itative data generated were analysed.
Quantitative data was extracted to answer the core question in this sur‑
vey, i.e. the number of respondents whose language curriculum included
intercultural competence. The variety of teaching materials respondents
used was also analysed quantitatively, particularly the number of different
publications used. Quantitative analysis also gave the range of proficiency
levels taught across the respondents’ contexts, and the diverse learner de‑
mographic, in terms of age, background, and the degree of multiculturalism
and multilingualism.
The qualitative data was explored via thematic analysis. The core concept
‘inter/cross‑cultural’ emerged in various forms together with features asso‑
ciated with the intercultural such as (inter) cultural awareness, stereotyp‑
ing, and identity. A range of resource‑related concepts also emerged such as
‘materials’, ‘texts’, ‘visuals’, and ‘creativity’.
The participants in the study are anonymised and referred to as P1 (‘Par‑
ticipant 1’) and so on, except in the vignettes where permission was ob‑
tained to supply the name and context, as well as the content of the vignette
in each case.
A brief summary of our findings
The 43 respondents came from 16 countries broken down as follows: the

UK (4) Hungary (3), Malaysia (3), Mexico (3), Pakistan (3), Australia (2) Ger‑
many (2) Ireland (2) Thailand (2) and one respondent from each of the fol‑
lowing: Armenia, Canada, Poland, China, Philippines, Switzerland, Tunisia,
and the USA.
75% of the respondents said that their curriculum did contain intercultural
competence among its objectives. Around a fifth specified that they are
teaching in multicultural and multilingual environments such as Malaysia,
the USA, and Australia. Student profiles varied from ones in such multicul‑
tural environments to ones in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL)
contexts of which there were four, Britain, Germany, Australia, and Ireland.
Students in these places included refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers
from all over in the world: Africa, the Middle East, the Far East, Southeast
Asia, Central America, Eastern and Western Europe.
The age‑range of the students was between 12 and 70 years being taught
within educational levels ranging from primary through tertiary (these in‑
cluded private language institutions) in classes of between 10 and 50 stu‑
dents (averaging around 20). Language proficiency levels covered the full
gamut of CEFR levels from A1 to C2.
Principles for integrating intercultural skills in the curriculum
1. Prepare
As we stated there, the learner activities in Part II (Set C) were arranged
and presented in order from general ‘cultural knowledge’‑type activities,
which are relatively undemanding in terms of personal investment, to pro‑
gressively more personalised and challenging ones. This is based on the
understanding that intercultural awareness‑raising is necessarily a gradual
process that involves building up learners’ trust and confidence. This type
of progression is key to integrating intercultural activities into the cur‑
riculum and needs to be borne in mind while applying any and all of the
recommendations suggested in this part of the book. A staged approach
is particularly important when using activities which require affective in‑
volvement – such as Activity 28 – Story exchange, or Activity 31 – Empathy
museum – as these may take an emotional toll on learners. Careful moni‑
toring of learner reaction to such tasks might lead teachers to increase or
decrease their frequency (using one every other lesson for example) and/
or intersperse with activities that allow more learner distance from the
material (such as Activities 8–15).
A second point is that the use of any and all of the Part II activities is
strictly at the discretion of the teacher; constraints of the context and the
curriculum, which we explore later, may well influence selection. This ‘class
profile checklist’ which we proposed in Part II (Section D, Activity 47) can
be used to profile the students and their learning context and capture any
curricula constraints.
Class profile
Learners’:
Age/s
Gender/s
L2 proficiency
Needs and wants
Class size
This profile should enable the teacher to assess how receptive the learners
will be to intercultural activities in general. To measure learner prepared‑
ness to engage with these in any given class, the ‘motivational gauge’ in
Figure 3.1 can be used following the steps below.
1 Ask learners to indicate their present level of motivation using this gauge.
2 Ask them to give a short explanation for their choices. For example, if
it turns out that most students are not motivated because they have just
had a difficult science test, then it would be better to set aside a few min‑
utes of the lesson to discuss the test and how they feel, after which the
real work can resume in the classroom.
The gauge can also be used to see how ready students are to discuss certain
sensitive topics that the materials may contain.
FIGURE 3.1 Motivational gauge

2. Integrate intercultural learning

Intercultural learning is not a stand‑alone activity – this can be seen in
some of the vignettes presented later on, for example in Vignette 3.1 or
Vignette 3.4 where the activities include language learning objectives. It
is best integrated with other language development aims or soft skills (e.g.
critical thinking, creativity) when brought into the classroom. There are
two possible approaches here: (a) making intercultural learning a primary
focus and allowing other skills development in the background, or (b) plac‑
ing intercultural learning in the background to allow learners to notice,
and become aware of certain aspects of successful intercultural commu‑
nication, learn about others and otherness. While the first option is more
structured, the second option allows for ‘accidental’ learning, reflecting
the unpredictable nature of intercultural learning that we promoted in our
framework in Part I.
3. Introduce cultural content

While we agree that intercultural communication is a skills‑based approach
and it has moved away from presenting aspects such as cultural identities
as content, we also maintain that some knowledge – in line with Byram’s
(1997) ‘savoir’ – is useful for learners when they learn about others and oth‑
erness. While some argue that presenting cultures in this manner can easily
lead to the formation of stereotypes and that it may have a harmful effect on
learners, we take the position that learning about a culture about which the
students have no prior knowledge requires an entry point: bits and pieces
of information that serve as a starting point for learning and which can and
should be modified as the learners are exposed to new information and
shape their own thinking and understanding through critical and reflec‑
tive tasks, as presented in Vignette 3.7 which is effectively critical discourse
analysis. Providing information about culture can help the learners identify
similarities and differences between their own and the other culture and
prompt them to question their own understanding of culture, identity, and
values – including their own and those of others.
4. Start with the learners

Although it may sound like a common‑sense principle, cultural learning
should start from where the learners are, and what they know. In some
cases, due to the isolation of some learners in rural communities, this is
not much. Yet, building on the learners’ experiences and knowledge of the
world, teachers can find ground on which new knowledge and understand‑
ing can be built. As Samuel Johnson, the British playwright wrote, good
teaching is when “new things are made familiar, and familiar things are
made new”. Following this line of thinking new cultural phenomena can
be introduced through knowledge that is familiar to the learners, and they
should also be encouraged to look at what they know about their own
culture and values with fresh eyes and an inquisitive attitude, rather than
accepting them as they are. For example, the Ghostbuster movie theme
in Vignette 3.1 was introduced to students who had not seen Hollywood
blockbusters, through the concept of ‘pontianak’ movies of Southeast Asia,
in which the story revolves around a female ghost, usually one with flowing,
long, black hair in a white dress. As the students were familiar with such
movies, often played on Malaysian and Indonesian television channels, the
teacher could connect the known to the unknown with relative ease.
5. Understand the context

Learners in different contexts are influenced by the broader sociocultural
and educational context in which they live and study. Therefore, it is essen‑
tial to understand what expectations they may have of intercultural learning,
the role of teachers and learners, what are their motivations for developing
intercultural awareness (and how this can be developed), what experiences
they bring into the classroom, and what their perceived needs are. This is
clearly shown in Vignette 3.2, which describes the culture clash between
Thai and international learners. Only when teachers are aware of the affor‑
dances and limitations of the contexts they work in can intercultural skills
development be fully integrated into the curriculum.
6. Be flexible
It is not enough to understand the context in which intercultural learning
is to take place, teachers need to be flexible in their approaches to navigate
the learning environment in order to provide meaningful educational expe‑
riences for their students. Flexibility means adjusting techniques that have
worked in other contexts, or giving them up completely and adopting new
ones. It means selecting and adapting teaching materials according to what
is possible and what is not, what is ‘safe’ and what is not in order to make
sure that no harm is done to learners (or teachers). It also means not follow‑
ing a set of teaching material slavishly, but changing it, even omitting parts
or bringing in new materials to promote learning.
7. Be creative and develop learners’ creativity

Creativity is an essential skill for teachers and students alike. It helps when
designing new intercultural learning materials, obviously, but creativity
points a lot further than this. It is essential that teachers help their stu‑
dent become more creative in order to see their world (and that of others)
in a new light. Creativity encourages them to make new connections, to see

things differently, to take risks and explore, to initiate dialogue with others
even when they may lack linguistic resources, and to improvise when they
do not know how to bridge cultural divides. To learn more about how
to develop creativity in the lesson, Maley and Kiss’ (2018) comprehensive
guide could offer some useful ideas.
8. Encourage/allow translanguaging in the classroom

Translanguaging is “a practice that involves dynamic and functionally inte‑
grated use of different languages and language varieties, but more impor‑
tantly, a process of knowledge construction that goes beyond language(s)”
(Li, 2018, p. 15). It allows learners to use whatever means they have at
their disposal to express their cultural identity and to make meanings, and
communicate with others – either by using language, or by using a combi‑
nation of design elements, including visual, spatial, audio, etc. A rather nice
example from the field is Vignette 3.6 where students prepare ‘language
portraits’ using both linguistic and visual elements, in the form of colours,
icons, and shading, in order to encourage them to “reflect on their multilin‑
gual identities and promote language awareness” (P22).
9. Focus on process, not product

Closely connected to the previous principle which emphasises the ‘process
of knowledge construction’, learning intercultural competence is a process
of ‘becoming’, rather than the study of ‘being’. When incorporating it into
the curriculum, teachers need to focus on skills development as a process,
rather than providing the students with factual information about a target
culture and turn the learning experience product oriented. Besides skills,
awareness raising is also a crucial component of intercultural learning, am‑
ply demonstrated in Vignette 3.4 where the teacher makes students realise
the assumptions they make in intercultural encounters. Therefore, it is also
important to emphasise that intercultural competence lends itself better to
formative assessment, i.e. assessment that aims to give students feedback
on how they are performing – with the aim to help them improve their
skills – rather than summative assessment which aims to measure compe‑
tence defined according to certain standards.
10. Use open‑ended tasks

Tasks in which there is no definite answer or solution to a problem are
better fitted for intercultural learning than tasks which require a particular
answer. Open‑ended materials allow learners to explore and express their

ideas, beliefs, and values and usually generate a wide array of student con‑
tributions. Therefore, using open‑endedness as a principle allows learning
to be co‑constructed and to take a route that is best suited for a particular
student population. In such circumstances, learners need to navigate among
different opinions and ideas, sometimes conflicting, sometimes complimen‑
tary, and negotiate with their peers until arriving at a mutually agreeable
conclusion.
11. Create an environment based on openness and trust

Intercultural learning involves negotiating values and beliefs, sometimes
openly discussing topics that are taboo in a certain society. Instead of
sweeping these under the carpet and pretending that they do not exist (the
usual PARNSIP topics, see Part I), teachers should create a classroom en‑
vironment where sensitive topics can be openly discussed and students can
freely express what they think without fear of their ideas being ridiculed or
laughed at by others. Intercultural learning means that students need to
abandon their ego‑centric views and this opening up can make them feel
vulnerable. Therefore, creating a safe zone is a must when incorporating
intercultural learning in the curriculum.
12. Address the affective, not only the cognitive

As we discussed in Part I, the affective domain in developing intercultural
competence has a crucial role, especially in connection with working on at‑
titudes towards otherness and overcoming feelings of fear and uncertainty
when operating in new cultural encounters. Affect also has an impact on cre‑
ating trust in the classroom and re‑examining one’s own values and beliefs.
One would think that once you have created a classroom based on openness
and trust, developing intercultural competence would be simple.
But teaching is far from simple. There is the tension, always, between
acceptance and interference. It is a matter of timing, of knowledge. And
it is a matter of the heart. Your heart and the heart of each and every
individual student.
(Mamchur & Apps, 2009, p. 119)
Therefore, materials which involve work on the affective dimension of cul‑

tural learning, for example, tasks which are based on literature, contribute
significantly to the learning process, as our respondent P20 describes in her
experiences in a mostly monocultural secondary school context.
13. Bring the world into the classroom

As some students may not have the means to travel and interact with oth‑
ers beyond the immediate contexts where they live, try to bring the world
into their classroom by exposing them to a multitude of peoples, languages,
cultures, etc. This can be done by using real‑life materials, realia, videos, and
other visuals, and even inviting guests to the classroom. The internet and
internet‑based communication platforms offer a plethora of opportunities
for teachers to connect with other learners in different cultural contexts, or
with people from their own country who belong to different sub‑cultural
groups (businessmen, scientists, activists, etc.). Furthermore, the students’
own life experiences can serve as materials for learning, as described in Vi‑
gnette 3.5 which shares a moving account of a learner opening up and tell‑
ing their story to their classmates and the teacher in an online class.
14. Move learning beyond the classroom

One way to maximise intercultural learning is to allow students to explore
ideas and content beyond the classroom. Project work is especially useful
for this aspect as it allows learners to explore and work with materials for
which classroom time would be insufficient. The students are engaged in
autonomous learning which enhances their agency and engagement in the
learning processes. The learning and understanding they arrive at can be
shared with other learners when they present their projects in class. Using
the digital skills we talked about in Part I, learners can engage in projects
such as Activities 14 ‘Combo culture’, 15 ‘View through a different lens’,
and 34 ‘Cultural exchange project’ in Part II, all of which involve online
resources. Researching and compiling projects in this way gives learners op‑
portunities to virtually roam beyond the classroom and then share their
discoveries with their peers. Vignette 3.3 also offers a glimpse into how
learning can be extended beyond the confines of a lesson.
Integrating intercultural materials into the curriculum:

Vignettes from the field
Our aim in this section is to showcase the broad range of approaches, strat‑
egies, techniques, and alternatives that fellow practitioners use in their in‑
tercultural skills teaching. While the scenarios we present are necessarily
selective, we believe these real‑life examples are useful in offering possibilities
and practical solutions for incorporating intercultural learning and materials
in actual classroom situations. Although not explicitly stated in every case,
many of the principles given above can be seen to underpin activities de‑
scribed in the vignettes and those in Part II.
In order to provide the reader with an organised and relatively easy‑to‑fol‑

low structure, we arrange these examples mainly along educational contexts,
i.e. primary, secondary, and tertiary, and we further distinguish between
those that come from multicultural and monocultural settings. While we are
aware that the chances of an educational context being purely monocultural
are slim, given the learners’ and the teachers’ many possible sub‑cultural and
hybrid cultural identities, we use these terms broadly to indicate that the
presence of multi‑ethnic, multilingual learners in certain contexts is more
likely than in others. Another reason for arranging the vignettes in this or‑
der is to show the reader how learners’ age, maturity, the ability for com‑
plex thinking, and language proficiency would determine how intercultural
learning materials can be incorporated into the syllabus.
Each of the six educational contexts discussed below – primary, second‑
ary, tertiary, ESOL colleges, private English for specific purposes (ESP) col‑
leges, and teacher training – contains information about the typical learners,
the (English/language) curriculum/materials they are covering, how in‑
tercultural competence teaching slots into this and the materials used for
it. The context is ‘brought to life’ through the voices of teachers from our
survey (and elsewhere) sharing their experiences, perceptions, and sugges‑
tions for integrating intercultural skills into teaching.
Context 1: Primary school

As mentioned earlier, primary school language curricula are the least con‑
cerned with covering intercultural aspects of language learning – the primary
level curricula of only about half of European countries contain intercul‑
tural awareness objectives, with the focus mainly on the traditional language
skills. Primary school syllabi tend to be constituted of prescribed textbooks
which usually contain (necessarily) age‑appropriate and rather superficial
information about the TL culture and require elaborating if a teacher wants
to encourage more in‑depth intercultural insights. Awareness of this short‑
coming, and how teachers deal with it, emerges in the multicultural primary
context described below.
Monocultural
As we have noted before, multiculturalism is more common in societies

today than monoculturalism and in fact, it is hard to identify any society as
such. Nevertheless, in countries where multiculturalism is only a recent phe‑
nomenon, educational ethos can lag behind cultural shifts – and this can be
seen in the case of primary schools in Ireland. While the Irish primary school
curriculum enshrines intercultural values; “It encourages them to appreciate
the interdependence of individuals, groups, and communities, and it pro‑

motes an understanding of and a respect for the cultures and ways of life of
peoples throughout the world” (Primary School Curriculum, 1999, p. 50),
there remains a tension between this newly multicultural ethos and the ear‑
lier monocultural one. This is illustrated in a representative study reporting
on three primary school case studies – not from our own survey but part of
a PhD study (Kavanagh, 2013,reported on here with permission).
The researcher, Anne Marie Kavanagh, provides case studies of three pri‑
mary schools in Ireland, describing the ethos of each school and the model
of intercultural education each adopts. The schools in Case Study 2 (CS2)
and Case Study 3 (CS3) are what would be considered traditional Irish pri‑
mary schools, under the patronage of the Catholic Church, with an ethos
“underpinned by RC [Roman Catholic] doctrine, traditions and practices”
(Kavanagh, 2013, p. 169). By contrast, The Case Study 1 (CS1) school is one
of the – as at the time of writing – 96 ‘Educate Together’ schools in Ireland.
Educate Together schools are equality‑based and co‑educational (tradition‑
ally, Irish primary schools were single‑sex schools).
In a newly multicultural Irish society, all primary schools have multicul‑
tural populations to an extent; data given for CS2 indicated that it had 50%
ethnic minorities while it was 25% in CS3. This leads to the ethos of these
schools being somewhat conflicted, typifying the “tensions faced by Catho‑
lic primary schools which seek to promote inclusive policies that welcome
students of all religious creeds and none while simultaneously safeguarding
their Catholic ethos” (Devine, 2011, in Kavanagh, 2013, p. 221). The CS1
school on the other hand, has a fully inclusive ethos, shaped by the Educate
Together curriculum which “affords an opportunity for whole school com‑
munities to embrace the reality of what it means to live out the ideal of learn‑
ing together to live together” (Educate Together, 2004, p. 8, in Kavanagh,
2013, p. 98).
Without this inbuilt curricular intercultural ethos, teachers in the other
two schools seem to struggle. Expressing how she sees intercultural educa‑
tion, one CS3 teacher muses “I suppose exploring other cultures, mainly
through Geography and possibly through religion and maybe certain things
like the Chinese New Year if you could work different cultures into different
areas of the curriculum” (Kavanagh, 2013, p. 247). What is more, the teach‑
ers in CS3 state that:
They do not intentionally incorporate an intercultural dimension into

their teaching. Rather they maintain that at a content level, its inclusion is
incidental and forms part of the taught curriculum only when it appears
in textbooks or following a yard or classroom incident when issues of

respect or prejudice need to be addressed.
(Kavanagh, 2013, p. 307)
It is the textbook then that provides content for intercultural teaching in

these (and many) primary schools. In her analysis of textbooks used for his‑
tory and geography teaching in the schools, Kavanagh notes:
While all textbooks contain some visual images which reflect the diverse
nature of Irish society and the ‘developed’ world, the images remain pre‑
dominately of white people in westernised clothing. Moreover, in chap‑
ters which represent diverse religions, the Catholic religion is privileged
over other religions, which in turn are portrayed as exotic and as cel‑
ebrated by people ‘different from us’.
(ibid., p. 255)
She laments a lack of inclusivity or of recognition that problems like short‑

age of food are not exclusive to the ‘developing’ world. It is telling that her
textbook analysis concludes with even stronger criticism than we have lev‑
elled at language teaching books; “textbooks are more likely to reproduce
than challenge racism and racist ideologies” (Bryan, 2012, in Kavanagh,
2013, p. 47).
Moving away from the textbook, at the other end of the scale, the case
studies throw up some really innovative and creative strategies for fostering
intercultural learning. In the Educate Together school (CS1) staff members
are encouraged to take risks and to experiment with new methodologies.
In keeping with multicultural best practice, a wide variety of interactive
teaching methodologies are employed, including circle time, thinking time,
play, cooperative group work, station teaching for literacy and numeracy,
off‑campus fieldwork, classroom visitors, blogging, story, poetry, debate,
project work, cooperative games, digital learning and drama activities such
as hot seating, freeze‑framing, conscience alley, and role play (Kavanagh,
2013, p. 107).
Going even further, this Educate Together school works at a macro level to
integrate intercultural learning:
Human Rights Month is integrated into most subjects during the

month of October. The following provides some examples of the types
of activities that take place during the month: the teaching of Human
Rights Programmes (published by Amnesty International) such as ‘The
Right Start’ (Junior & Senior Infants [ages 4–6 years]), ‘Lift Off’ classes
(1st‑3rd classes [ages 6–9 years]) and ‘Me, You and Everyone’ (4th‑6th
classes [ages 10–12 years]); Human Rights themed assemblies; educa‑
tional visits/visitors, distribution of child‑friendly UN Convention of the
Rights of the Child posters; participation of local, regional and national
projects promoted by agencies such as Irish Aid [and] Amnesty.
(Kavanagh, 2013, pp. 149–150)
One intercultural activity reported in CS2 and which seems to be universally

embraced in primary schools (and indeed at other educational levels) is the
holding of an ‘intercultural day’. The CS2 school sent out invitations to par‑
ents in their L1s, and activities were suggested by the pupils themselves to
include dance, song, poetry, and dressing up in national costume. While in‑
tercultural days like this can be perceived as exoticising, trivialising and even
abnormalising cultural diversity (we mooted this in Part II), on balance, they
can be a very successful and enjoyable “celebration of cultural diversity”
(Kavanagh, 2013, p. 205) for pupils at this level.
This portrayal of intercultural skills teaching in primary schools in Ireland

is not necessarily representative of that in other hitherto ‘monocultural’ so‑
cieties – but it will hopefully correspond to experiences in some similar
contexts.
Multicultural
It is interesting that even multicultural settings, where you would expect

teaching intercultural skills to be important, seem to suffer similar con‑
straints as at the primary level elsewhere. It tends to be up to teachers them‑
selves to add or exploit the cultural dimension. This is illustrated in the
practice of two Malaysian primary school teachers in our survey.
I am teaching in a rural school with a class size of 12 pupils. As I am

teaching in a Chinese (SJK) school [Chinese Medium Public Primary
School], I need to use the multicultural – multilingual context for my
pupils. The current KSSR [Malaysian Primary School Standard Curricu‑
lum] is more into the school context or grammar‑wise context. It does
have limited speaking and listening activities and … is adequate enough
for the learners’ needs. However, the learners should learn more because
language learning has no boundaries. Textbooks do not provide these
issues. Using material outside the textbook will draw learners’ attention
to study the context.
(P6)
The teacher therefore supplemented the textbook with resources such as

photographs from Life, a National Geographic publication, and online vid‑
eos, adapting these into listening and reading activities of a suitable level,
while integrating a focus on the cultural content: “I adapt and adopt videos
from the internet and make them into listening and reading activities. Then
I also integrate the extra knowledge and incorporate some of the grammati‑
cal context based on the video or topic taught” (P6).
Another teacher in the same context described how the prescribed text‑
books do ‘expose’ pupils to different cultural practices and products but the
treatment of them is very superficial and time constraints prevent exploring
the topics more deeply.
The textbook and workbook contain topics on different nationalities and

their food. The outlined skills in these topics are to ask about personal
information such as where one is from and what language they speak.
The pupils also get exposed to different flags, national celebrations and
cultures from other parts of the world. For example, there’s a topic on
Independence Day celebrations in different countries.
(P30)
Yet, as the compulsory material used in the Malaysian primary English

classroom is an international coursebook, some of the cultural content
is not accessible to learners who come from rural areas. Even seemingly
simple concepts and words, such as ‘a bus’ might prove to be challeng‑
ing for teachers to explain when learners do not understand these in their
mother tongue. Sometimes teachers need to deal with two unknowns in
their classrooms: the language itself and the concepts that are introduced
through language. One example offered by a teacher is a coursebook unit
introducing the different rooms of a house (e.g. living room, bedroom,
dining room, attic, and cellar, etc.) in a rural Sarawak school where the
majority of students live in a long house, i.e. a long building that houses a
whole village, with a shared communal area from which individual family
rooms open.
This is not a unique problem; it can be seen in many similar contexts
where a global, international language textbook is adopted for rural pri‑
mary school use. Learners in these settings may lack the life experiences that
would help them process and understand the cultural content such materi‑
als offer. As is often the case, a balance needs to be struck between expos‑
ing learners to new experiences and knowledge while helping them make
sense of new information through what they already know. No wonder,
one teacher said that their ideal material is “something that is very learner
friendly and related to their culture; it also must be very flexible for the
teacher to change it to according to the situation”. Furthermore, besides
adapting the existing materials, teachers need to design their own to facili‑
tate intercultural learning.
It is possible to address this problem when teachers build their lessons
on three principles that are exemplified in many of the activities in Part II:
• First, the starting point should be what the students already know – im‑
plicitly or explicitly – either through formal learning or their own life
experiences.
• Second, the material should present an element of fun, it should gamify
learning, introduce a friendly competition, etc. which would allow learn‑
ers to be more open and experiment with ideas and thoughts in the learn‑
ing process in a light‑hearted way.
• Finally, the material should be open‑ended. In other words, learners should
be able to create meanings that are not prescribed by the material or the
teacher and formulate their own understanding of what they are learning.
The following vignette is from Malaysia, the teacher is using the pre‑
scribed international English textbook with primary school pupils in rural
Sarawak. The focus of the unit is adjectives and the topic it uses is mon‑
sters. The teacher, Muhammad Nazmi Bin Rosli, decided to change the
context and turn his classroom into a lookalike scene from the Ghostbuster
movie set. Although very few of his students had ever seen or heard of
the movie, they were all familiar with ghost stories and ghost movies from
popular Malaysian and Indonesian television productions (Figure 3.2).
It is important to point out that intercultural learning is not the main
objective of the lesson; due to the students’ language abilities and their
age, the teacher only provides an opportunity for the students to assume
a culturally different role/identity in the classroom. Through role‑playing
and modelling, he is working on raising the learners’ awareness of cultural
differences (in clothes, language, actions) that his students are generally not
exposed to outside the classroom walls and therefore lays down the founda‑
tions for intercultural learning in a safe and enjoyable way.
FIGURE 3.2 Teacher Muhammad Nazmi Bin Rosli of Malaysia and his primary
school students in a Ghostbusters themed lesson
Vignette 3.1 Multicultural primary school, Malaysia

Teacher Muhammad Nazmi’s lesson plan and commentary (presented
with his permission):
“If there’s something strange

In your neighborhood
Who you gonna call?
Ghostbusters!”
Let’s learn adjectives from Ghostbusters!
Induction stage
The teacher introduces himself as a Ghostbuster member and is looking
for a new protege in this Ghostbusters affair.
Students watch ‘Proton Pack compilation’ (Ghostbusters weapons)
video taken from YouTube. The video is full of scenes where Proton
Pack is used against different kinds of ghosts.
There, the teacher pauses at the ghost scenes, and the students de‑
scribe the ghosts with adjectives, slimy, big, long, spiky, and others.
This part is important to refresh their memory about adjectives and
also to introduce students to Ghostbusters, because it is confirmed that
my students don’t know how to use adjectives they already learned.
Presentation stage
Students will be introduced to various monsters and ghosts. (Teacher’s
personal collection action figure ‑ if the teacher doesn’t have one, a
printed picture would work too.)
Besides getting acquainted with monsters, students practice using ad‑
jectives with familiar words; long tail, sharp fang, glowing eyes.
The teacher also explained the system of adjective usage to the
students.
Lots of new words are being introduced here.
Practice stage
Students sitting in mixed abilities groups.
Each group will receive a ‘Ghostbusters Civilians Report’.
In that report, the public wrote the description of the monster using
adjectives, e.g. “The monster has got sharp claws.”
Each report has four lines to describe the monster, but no name of
the monster is stated because this is something they do not know.
Each group will guess which monster is described in the report.
Then students get a DIY water gun/proton pack to shoot the monster.
Here student leadership will be monitored too. How they handle
pride etc. To shoot the monster, the team has to agree on the appropri‑
ate angles.
I did this activity in a few rounds.
Ready to get a little wet. hehehe.
Production stage
Advanced and Intermediate students will be given the task of answering
adjective questions in sentence form and fill in the blanks. (Filling the
Lizard and the Hobgoblin profile) from the textbook.
Struggling students will also fill the “Ghostbusters Archive” board
with the help of the teacher.
Students need an appropriate adjective for each monster.
Closure
Teachers congratulate students on qualifying for the Ghostbusters team.
The teacher continues to compare the strength difference between
monsters.
Subliminally, s/he also teaches adjectives for comparative and superlative.
Muhammad Nazmi Bin Rosli, Malaysia
At the primary school level, therefore, it would seem that intercultural

awareness‑raising is dependent on the interest and will of the teacher to
either develop and exploit the materials in the prescribed textbook or add
supplementary intercultural materials to it. Bearing in mind the constraints
of level and age‑appropriacy, the ‘starter’ activities in Part II, Activity
8 – Greetings, Activity 9 – Intercultural handball, etc. would be a good fit
for primary school pupils.
Context 2: Secondary school

Secondary school syllabi rely even more heavily on prescribed textbooks
than primary school ones, as they are examination‑oriented at this level.
As with their primary level counterparts, language learning textbooks tend
to stick to superficial facts and visual representations about the TL culture

and it is up to the enterprising teacher to build on this, if such flexibility is
permitted and time allows. Subjects like Citizenship on the British schools’
curriculum (with various equivalents in other countries such as CSPE (civic,
social, and political education), on the Irish secondary school curriculum)
contain age‑appropriate materials on diversity and the need for “mutual re‑
spect and understanding” (Department for Education, 2014, p. 229), but
again, these often require creativity and supplementation by the teacher, as
described in the first monocultural situation below, set in Hungary. Sec‑
ondary school language syllabi usually include works of literature, though,
and how the cultural content of a novel is exploited in one such syllabus is
described in the next situation, English as an additional language (EAL) in
Ireland.
Monocultural
Bearing in mind what we said above, that few societies today are truly mono‑
cultural, this secondary school teaching situation in Hungary was neverthe‑
less described by one of our survey respondents as such. Calling his pupils
“urban (capital city), monocultural, socially heterogeneous”, this teacher
is teaching the Hungarian Matura examination and using the prescribed
textbook Matura Leader Plus (Mitchell & Malkogianni, 2016). Although
the respondent claims that intercultural skills are included in the curricu‑
lum, there seems little focus on them and the book is examination‑oriented.
Nevertheless, there is clearly teacher autonomy – which the respondent en‑
courages others to make the most of – and opportunities to develop critical
thinking skills which are of course important tools for attaining intercultural
understanding:
[The book] really covers the materials for the B2 level exam. The vocabulary
revision is perfect (words, collocations, idioms, phrasal verbs). The read‑
ing and listening comprehension tasks need to be practised more as there
aren’t enough tasks. However, I really admire the communication‑based
tasks so the texts and the tasks help students develop critical thinking skills,
too. My advice for other teachers would be not to cover only the book
strictly, feel free to assign the tasks for students to do on their own and feel
free to be creative to use extra materials on the same topics.
(P36)
Once again, therefore, we see teacher recognition that creativity and sup‑
plementation are the key to developing the skills needed for intercultural
learning in pupils of this age‑group.
The next monocultural teaching situation describes the use of literature

for developing intercultural skills. TL Literature, as we illustrated in a num‑
ber of activities in Part II, encapsulates the culture of the TL in imaginative
and engaging ways. At its best, it transports the reader into another culture
so that they ‘experience’ the perspective of ‘the other’. Here we see how
literature covered in the Irish Junior Certificate (JC) English examination
(taken in Year 4 of secondary school) is used with secondary level newcom‑
ers to Ireland not only to prepare them for the examination but to familiar‑
ise them with their new host culture. Newcomer pupils in Irish secondary
schools are offered EAL classes and these are often taught by trainee teach‑
ers on post‑graduate masters teaching programmes. This is the context for
this account of the use of one of the set books on the JC syllabus, the novel
Foster by Claire Keegan. The teacher trainer (the survey respondent, P20)
recounts that the student teachers prepared tasks which focused on “raising
awareness of aspects of Irish culture … involving the learners in making cul‑
tural comparisons with their own and other cultures in areas such as family
structures and relationships, religion, local customs, and rural/urban life”.
The respondent concludes:
The student teachers reported back on the success of the use of the ma‑
terials/tasks highlighting aspects such as pupil engagement, language
learning opportunities, the types of inter‑cultural insights gained, and
they also gauged the success of the materials/tasks as examples of good
practice for the integration of language support and subject content. The
findings were positive and showed there were obvious affective, linguistic
and cultural benefits for the pupils.
(P20)
Most secondary level English examination syllabi include literature and this
example shows how this can be exploited on multiple levels when used with
newcomers to the country. Models for activities suggested in the section on
literature and the spoken word in Part II (Activities 25–30) can be usefully
applied to secondary school language syllabi that include literature, with
Activity 25 (the universal language of poetry) being a good example of in‑
tegrating a language as well as a cultural focus.
Multicultural
When it comes to multicultural secondary contexts, it seems that teachers

feel the need to develop their own materials, perhaps as a response to the
perceived lack of or inappropriateness of commercially published materials.
The consensus is that “it’s easier to plan a logical and smart lesson if the
material is developed by the teacher” because “students relate to the ma‑

terial, as it is prepared with the knowledge of the students’ age and level”
(P35), as well as with an understanding of the sociocultural context in which
it is used. Since we argued earlier that materials that develop intercultural
communication should be built on what students bring into the classroom
in terms of their prior knowledge and experiences, it is easy to see that find‑
ing common grounds and thus a starting point in a multicultural (and often
multilingual) context is not an easy task. Therefore, more often than not,
teachers need to rely on their local knowledge in order to design materi‑
als – by acknowledging their differences and similarities – that help learners
develop their intercultural communication skills.
In our survey, there were three respondents from multicultural urban
contexts in Malaysia. The similarities, however, stop here as there are sig‑
nificant differences between the students’ socioeconomic backgrounds
and attitudes to learning. While one of the examples, let’s call it School
A, where P8 is working, is what one could categorise as an elite school
with a small class size and hand‑picked, gifted and talented learners, the
other two schools, School B (P10) and C (P11) are serving a low‑income
community, with significantly larger classes than School A where atten‑
tion to individual students and opportunities for whole class discussions
are limited. It is perhaps not surprising that although the teachers feel the
need to develop materials to meet their learners’ needs, P10 and P11 focus
more on language development, citing that their materials do not “give
enough practice for you to achieve the objectives in terms of developing
the needed skills” (P10) or that their aim is “mainly the development
of language skills, rather than intercultural competence” (P11). This is
in stark contrast with P8, in whose class – with higher language ability
students – the focus is on “identity, layers of identity, stereotypes/bias/
prejudices, perceptions, communication, obstacles to communication, in‑
tercultural communication” with the aim of “raising intercultural aware‑
ness, understanding different points of view, fostering tolerance, being
able to communicate successfully” (P8).
From the above, we may draw the conclusion that learners’ language
proficiency, their academic and life goals, and future plans, e.g. whether
they see themselves furthering their studies, possibly in a foreign context,
would determine their teachers’ efforts to incorporate intercultural learn‑
ing in their lessons. It is possible that in a multicultural environment, basic
intercultural communication skills are taken for granted; skills learners need
to navigate everyday life encounters with their classmates and other mem‑
bers of the community are learned early on in an informal setting, especially
when the “school is multicultural & multilingual: different races, speaking
at least 2–3 different languages” (P11).
Context 3: Tertiary level: English for academic purposes (EAP)

At tertiary level, there are fewer curricula constraints on materials, teach‑
ers tend to have more autonomy regarding the textbooks they choose
and how they use them. However, there are even more complex issues
at play in international language learning contexts as we will see here.
With the globalisation of English, EAP and ESP are seen as essential sub‑
jects in third level higher institutions all over the world, especially ones
where students may be preparing to live, work or study abroad in an Eng‑
lish‑speaking country, not to mention those where English is the medium
of instruction (EMI). One crucial element of such courses is intercul‑
tural awareness‑raising as there can be very different cultural traditions
dictating anything from structuring a research article or funding proposal
to relating to peers and tutors from or within other countries. Different
traditions of learning, however, include attitudes to critical thinking and
intercultural skills. This can lead, ironically perhaps, to ‘culture‑clash’ in
countries where EAP is most in demand e.g. the Middle East, Southeast
Asia/China, and Thailand. The perspectives of Western teachers, coming
from contexts where critical thinking and the intercultural are important
skills in teaching and learning can influence their perceptions of their stu‑
dents’ attitudes to these. A Western teacher’s frustration at what they per‑
ceive as a resistance to engage in critical thinking reveals as much about
the teacher’s cultural entrenchment as their students’. The perception of
students in countries such as China, Thailand, Iran, and Japan can be
that intercultural competence itself, or at least the concern for it, is a very
Western concept, imposed by a ‘Western teacher’.
An example of this pedagogical ‘culture‑clash’ comes from Thailand, in
this report from an English EAP teacher revealing culturally-influenced per‑
ceptions and expectations of his students and their responses to ‘Western’
pedagogy.
Vignette 3.2: EAP, Thailand

The English proficiency level of Thai adults is consistently rather low,
even though English is taught as a foreign language from primary level
in Thailand. When it comes to producing anything in English, Thai
adults tend to procrastinate and then gravely react at the last moment.
Studies have shown that these behaviours of procrastination leading to
panic and apprehension are possibly linked to foreign language anxiety.
In an effort to reduce the anxiety of using English as a foreign language
with our master’s and Ph.D. level students, the textbook Academic
Writing for Graduate Students was chosen because it is a comprehen‑

sive easy‑to‑use, user‑friendly text. Studies have shown that students
feel more anxiety when faced with either pronouncing English or hav‑
ing to choose the most appropriate vocabulary. The language used in
the text is rather simple, so for our students to feel comfortable with
the language in the text, they are able to peruse each unit prior to class
and translate any unknown vocabulary. Next, Thai students, even adult
Thai students, tend to be submissive followers. They tend to act only
when commanded or directed by the instructor, and negatively react if
they feel a sense of misunderstanding. Since adult Thai students are not
autonomous learners, continually reminding the student to pre‑read
the unit prior to class is taxing on the instructor. Next, studies of sec‑
ondary and tertiary level Thai students have shown that the English
teacher must lower their expectations concerning the students produc‑
ing tasks in English. International students, even adult students from
local Southeast Asia nations, have stronger study and work ethics, and
higher English proficiency levels than their local Thai counterparts. The
Thai culture has a deeply rooted sense of ‘face’ so English teachers must
be aware not to cause any public offence. Thai adults have been known
to react to any perceived public offence suddenly and aggressively. In or‑
der for Academic Writing for Graduate Students to be used successfully
with adult Thai students in tertiary classes, the instructor must keep in
mind the lackadaisical cultural attitude of the adult Thai students. Even
though this text has been found to be one of the better texts to use
with adult Thai students, encouraging the students to prepare for the
upcoming class by pre‑reading the units is one of the most daunting
tasks of the instructor. One piece of advice would be for the writing
instructor to lower expectations for the adult Thai students. If there is
a class with all adult Thai students, the instructor must be incredibly
careful when calling on Thai students to answer questions about the
text. If the class is mixed with international and Thai students, then the
instructor would be better off only calling on international students to
avoid any unintentional perceived public offence.
David D. Perrodin, Thailand, (P32)
Another facet of this ‘culture clash’ between students in Asia and the Middle
East and their tutors is the all‑encompassing emphasis on examinations in
these countries. The frustration of one practitioner in China, for example,
at a student’s disinterest in intercultural skills in his EAP course – “I don’t
need to know this” – is representative (P44).
Another practitioner teaching in China describes the gap between the

objectives of the materials used (EAP materials from the book Macmillan
Academic Skills) and the students’ own perceived needs:
I think on the whole much of the materials failed to engage the stu‑
dents. Most of them have no interest in foreign cultures. This is a sad
but true fact. And almost all of them are not interested in topics like
CSR [corporate social responsibility] and sustainability. I often found
the students had no interest in these topics, some had feigned interest.
Also, the coursebooks failed to engage them. What they are interested in
is passing their exams, and here all teaching in the classroom inevitably
follows the assessments. It’s a catch‑22 situation. There is a big difference
in what Chinese students are interested in and what might be suitable for
western students.
(P42)
In the Chinese situation, the same respondent (P42) lamented that even
contemporary multimedia supplementary material such as TED talks
failed to enthuse the students. What comes out of these findings overall
is the difficulty of designing truly universal intercultural materials that
will operate successfully anywhere and everywhere. Ideally then, materials
should be designed within and for each specific context drawing on teach‑
ers’ familiarity with their students. This would include their students’
pedagogical backgrounds, their learning styles and tastes as well as their
perceived needs (which are, as this example shows, examination‑oriented
in certain contexts). The materials development model and activities in
Set (C) in Part II offer useful and flexible frameworks to act as starting
points for designing intercultural materials to fit into particular teaching
contexts.
One format for integrating intercultural seminars into university EAP/
ESP programmes that has been successfully used in EMI institutions in Spain
is the PEER formula. This three‑step method, Prepare – Engage – Evalu‑
ate – Reflect (Holmes & O’Neill, 2012), echoes a number of the inter‑
cultural activities we have suggested in Part II. PEER requires students to
prepare – identifying in themselves any prejudices or stereotypes they may
hold about people from other cultures, engage with peers from another
culture (within the classroom environment), evaluate this interaction, and
finally critically reflect on how the interaction may have challenged their
(cultural) assumptions (Aguilar, 2018). (Taking into consideration our dis‑
cussions above about differing pedagogical traditions, this methodology
might be context‑limited of course.)
Further reading on this technique:

Aguilar, P. M. (2018). Integrating intercultural competence in ESP and EMI:
From theory to practice. ESP Today, 6(1), 25–43.
Context 4: ESOL/ESL/EAL
As we discussed in Part I and indeed, as is one of the justifications for this
book, movements of peoples between and across continents have seen a
burgeoning of the language teaching sector teaching migrants. This field is
known diversely as ESOL in the UK and Ireland, ESL (English as a second
language) in the United States, and New Zealand and EAL in Australia.
EAL is used in Ireland too but specifically referring to the secondary level.
ESOL/ESL is most commonly taught in state‑supported colleges, we pre‑
sent here vignettes from some of these contexts to illustrate how intercul‑
tural competence is situated within the curriculum, how it is taught, and the
materials and activities used.
ESOL in Ireland
Our first vignette is set within the Irish ESOL context. ESOL prepares learn‑
ers who can be refugees, asylum seekers, or economic migrants, for life within
the new host country, in this case, Ireland. Adults wishing to study ESOL in
Ireland tend to go through local third level colleges known as Education and
Training Boards. Familiarisation with the host culture is obviously important
for these learners; in this vignette, we see how the practitioner uses a publica‑
tion specifically designed to teach about culture in the Irish context.
Vignette 3.3: ESOL, Ireland

The Irish Culture Book 3 Elementary/Pre‑Intermediate [CEFR level
A2] is a book of activities designed to teach ESOL students about many
aspects of Irish culture and is perfectly suited to the learning objec‑
tives related to culture in the Irish ESOL Level 3 course (A2). It is
an excellent resource for exploring Irish culture, covering a range of
stimulating topics connected to its different aspects, and very suitable
for use in a multicultural class. As well as learning about Irish culture
my students also developed their speaking skills and improved fluency.
We had many lively discussions as the book is full of interesting and
thought‑provoking activities that gave my students many opportunities
for comparative reflection on their own cultures and helped develop
cross‑cultural awareness. The 12 themed units cover areas such as Irish

food, music, weather, how Irish people communicate, legends, sports,
etc. Every unit has lots of colourful images and includes colourful fonts
in various styles. There is more than enough material in each unit and a
teacher can pick and choose what is suitable for their learners. Another
great feature was the links to extra online resources on the associated
website, www.irishculturebook.com.
My students enjoyed the exercises, authentic reading material, listen‑
ings, and problem‑solving activities. These gave them many opportuni‑
ties to discuss a variety of topics relating to Irish culture as well as take
part in comparative discussions which fostered further reflection on as‑
pects of their own culture. The exercises and discussions gave learners
a better understanding of Ireland and its people. They had many op‑
portunities to think about the many areas of Irish culture and also lots
of possibilities to improve their language at the same time.
Michelle Benson, Ireland, (P25)
As is clear from these remarks, a key concern of this practitioner was to

help her ESOL students to assimilate into the host culture. She was aware
that the book was constrained within its cultural context, not only in terms
of its content, but of its approach; “I think this book is most suitable to
Western language students” (P25). The practitioner observed, furthermore,
that by its nature the book offered little direct exposure to other cultures –
“I would like to have seen more examples from Africa and the Arab world”
(P25) – and thus less opportunity for building intercultural skills.
This resource book was only one of the many ESOL resources used in
this teaching context. Another was the core ESOL textbook in Ireland,
The Big Picture. This uses a situational approach, with texts, dialogues, and
pictures of settings such as the doctor’s surgery, shops, social services of‑
fice, and primary and secondary schools – but has little overt training in
cultural skills. Interestingly, even within this quite specific teaching context,
the teachers draw on one of the global EFL coursebook series, the Cutting
Edge Series (Moor, Cunningham, & Crac, 2016) (Benson, 2019).
This format, a general EFL coursebook constituting the core of the sylla‑
bus but supplemented with context‑specific intercultural skills training ma‑
terials, seems to be a common one, as we see in the next vignette.
ESOL in the UK
Our next vignette is set in a similar context, a further education college

teaching migrants – this time in the UK – but it illustrates a more direct
approach to fostering intercultural competence via a resource specifically
designed for this. The resource book Cross‑Cultural Dialogues: 74 Brief
Encounters with Cultural Difference (Sorti, 1994) offers dialogues to prac‑

tise dealing with intercultural miscommunication such as stereotyping and
challenging cultural assumptions. Each dialogue features an American and
someone from somewhere else in the world. The practitioner describes his
methodology for using these in the classroom.
Vignette 3.4: ESOL, UK

Students are placed into pairs (from different cultural backgrounds).
Each pair is given a different dialogue from the book and together
they have to work out what misunderstanding has occurred and why.
Teacher monitors to provide assistance as necessary. Each student in a
pair takes one of the two roles and in their pairs they practise speak‑
ing the dialogue out loud. In turn, the pairs perform their dialogue
for the rest of the class who have to work out why a misunderstanding
has occurred. The teacher distributes teacher‑produced dialogues for
students to study and discuss misunderstandings. This is followed by
a class discussion about cultural assumptions and their significance in
conversation. In pairs, students then explain assumptions that underpin
their culture, an understanding of which would help their interlocutors.
This is followed by whole class feedback. Finally, students (in pairs or
small groups) write their own dialogues, featuring a misunderstanding
between a British person and someone from another culture… this can
really open some students’ eyes to the assumptions they make (P23).
The practitioner puts the fact that this is an American book to good use:
“Using the book outside of the US there is the danger of drifting into
American stereotypes (but this in itself could be a useful springboard for
intercultural discussions/work in the classroom)” (P23). The material is
supplemented with teacher‑produced resources, including dialogues that
include non‑American speakers. As in the Irish ESOL context, this material
is supplementary to the (same) core textbook, Cutting Edge.
These two cases from the UK and Ireland illustrate very typical ESOL
and EFL teaching situations. In both, a global ELT coursebook constitutes
the core of the syllabus but practitioners supplement this with what they
perceive as essential intercultural skills teaching, using dedicated supple‑
mentary published resources or teacher‑designed ones.
ESOL online
The global COVID pandemic of 2020–2021 effectively propelled

face‑to‑face teaching online for months at a time. This pushed teachers into
creative ways to use the online environment and helped consolidate and
normalise the use of the virtual environment in education in general. The
sector woke up to the fact that teaching international groups of students was
vastly simplified (and cheaper!) when students could log on remotely. While
the teaching of intercultural skills had always been viewed as restricted to
intimate, carefully teacher‑guided face‑to‑face situations, the advantages of
distance became clear. The option of switching on or off video and/or au‑
dio on the communications platform, allowing students to effectively ‘hide’
whenever they felt the need, led, ironically perhaps, to greater intimacy and
sharing. This is well illustrated in the next vignette:
Vignette 3.5: Online ESOL class, UK

Women’s Group ESOL Class, London 2020 (Adapted from
Mishan, 2023)
It’s another boiling day. Lockdown summer 2020. I’m running out of
ideas for the class. Teaching on Zoom, I’ve never done it before, how
can I get the class alive, fun, and learning again? Bring back the life and
vibrancy that makes this women’s group a fantastic class to teach.
Over to them, I think, over to them.
So, after fulsome hellos, welcoming each other one by one, enquir‑
ing after family, checking on mutual friends, asking again if we are all
well, exchanging handy cooking tips, etc., I go right in. I pick the most
positive and outgoing student I have to kick off this weekly slot which
will, I hope, encourage them to speak more fluently and effortlessly in
this language, a language which is not the one they hold closest, but is
one they strive week after week to learn.
I ask her to tell us something about her life – anything, really, which
she has not told us before and she is happy to share. She begins. She
talks about what happened in her family in her native Pakistan when she
was very little, what effect it had, and how it makes her feel. Everyone
is quiet but yes, they are all listening: I look at their kind faces on the
screen. Lovely women, mostly from Afghanistan, but they are settling
here in the UK now.
They have been together as a group for about four years and are
comfortable with each other. I am an incomer, having been with them
as a teacher for just over two years. We used to meet twice a week for
90 minutes of ESOL in London in a big room shared with another
class, several children, and tea, cake, and fruit. Such fun. Now Zoom.
How confused we all were and how subdued.
But now the woman, normally so buoyant, was telling us her rather
sad story in a matter‑or‑fact tone. We were connected by our devoted
attention to her, our hearts, I’m certain, all reaching out to hug her
once she stopped. We couldn’t, of course, hug her, but we gave her a
respectful silence which I eventually interrupted to thank her for her
trust in us, and for her willingness to share.
And, I added somewhat reluctantly, her excellent English. But, after
all, it was an English class! I asked the other women to ask her questions
or give comments. They all said something.
Each week, for several weeks, until the end of that term, the women
took turns to talk. It was always the best part of the lesson.
ESOL practitioner, UK.
The practitioner here appended this type of intercultural ‘familiarisation’

session to each weekly lesson, over the course of the term. Her deft use of
the online environment to foster learners’ intercultural experience discreetly
and sensitively offers another useful option for integrating IC skills into the
curriculum; exploiting the online environment. As with the use of Identity
texts which we move on to next, intercultural activities of this intensity need
to be done on a staged basis.
EAL in Australia
Where intercultural skills training is most required is self‑evidently in geo‑

graphical contexts which are themselves multicultural. One such environ‑
ment in our survey was in Australia where the respondent described teaching
in a private language school to beginner level learners from refugee and
migrant backgrounds. That “the learners primarily live in public housing
in inner city [Melbourne]” and “are from low socioeconomic backgrounds
with histories of disrupted schooling” (P22) seem to have been the impe‑
tus for the development of an innovative cultural awareness‑raising activity.
The concept of ‘Identity texts’ was developed to fit within the Australian
EAL framework for SEE (Skills for Education and Employment) AMEP
(Adult Migrant English Program) and Skills First programmes. Identity
texts, as their name suggests, address one of the defining yet elusive aspects
of culture discussed in Part I, identity. (The procedure for using the similar
‘Identity boxes’, is described in Part II Activity 23).
Identity texts are designed for use in multilingual classrooms. The ac‑
tivity involves asking learners, often with low levels of L2 proficiency and
literacy, to visually represent their linguistic repertoire in a language portrait

which can be written, spoken, visual, musical, dramatic, or combinations
of these. The identity text serves to “hold a mirror up to students in which
their identities are reflected back in a positive light” (Cummins et al., 2015,
p. 557). It is identity‑affirming which is particularly important in certain
sociological contexts, where students’ languages, cultures, and religions are,
or have been devalued. This vignette describes the procedures and objec‑
tives of identity text creation as used in classes of migrants and refugees with
low language and literacy.
Vignette 3.6: EAL, Australia

We used identity texts including language portraits and learning tra‑
jectory grids which are student‑centred, multimodal, and interactive.
The identity texts encourage learners with low levels of language and
literacy to share information quickly about their linguistic and cultural
backgrounds using different modes of colours, cultural icons, drawings,
and shading to visually represent their linguistic repertoire. The identity
texts proved to be powerful tools for students with limited language
and literacy skills as they allowed students to use their resources to share
information about themselves.
The aim of both the ‘language portraits’ and ‘language learning tra‑
jectory grids’ is to encourage learners to visually portray their multi‑
lingual practices and to share information about their linguistic and
cultural backgrounds. These texts can be used for many teaching aims,
but we used them to help teachers better get to know their learners.
We also wanted to encourage learners to reflect on their own and oth‑
ers’ linguistic resources. Additionally, these texts were used as language
teaching tools to teach language features of colours, emotions, and
verbs as well as being a prompt for writing short sentences about stu‑
dents’ linguistic practices.
The texts aim to help students realise and appreciate their own and
others’ linguistic identities.
The classroom teacher pre‑taught language features and modelled
sample identity texts using their own experiences before students cre‑
ated their own texts.
The identity texts included language portraits and language learning
trajectory grids. The language portraits involve learners visually por‑
traying the languages that they believe make up who they are.
Students are provided with a blank portrait and are encouraged to
use different modes of colours, cultural icons, drawings, and shading
to visually represent their linguistic repertoire. The portraits encourage

learners to reflect on their multilingual identities and promote language
awareness. The language learning trajectory grids involve learners plot‑
ting historical events, practices, and emotions onto a chronological
grid. Learners create a timeline with places that they have lived, their
educational experiences, and their emotions at different points in time.
On the horizontal axis, students create a timeline of places and events,
and on the vertical axis, students plot emotions for each event, from
low (sad), to high (very happy). Learners choose the events and experi‑
ences to plot on their grids, and this creates opportunities for learners
to reflect on their language learning journeys and to celebrate their ex‑
periences with others. These identity texts are activities that all students
can participate in, and they are particularly useful for teachers to better
get to know their students.
Language features of emotions, colours, and verbs were taught prior
to students creating their own identity texts. I modelled an example
of my identity text, starting with the ‘language portrait’ with the class,
explaining that these were the languages that made up who I was. Stu‑
dents were then given a blank template of a portrait and encouraged to
use various colours, drawings, cultural icons, etc., to create their own
portrait. These were displayed in the classroom and shared with the
class.
As a way of modelling the ‘language learning trajectory grids’, I drew
a grid on the board and plotted six chronological events on the hori‑
zontal axis that were significant to my learning journey. I then plotted
emotions on the vertical access to reflect how I felt about my learning
at each moment in time. Students were provided with a simple grid and
encouraged to plot their own language learning journey. During this
process I encouraged students to share information by asking simple
questions including where they have lived, when they started learning
languages, and why it was a good (or not good) experience. The grids
became a tool for future language teaching lessons, as well as a prompt
for writing simple sentences about the students’ learning journeys.
Julie Choi/Hayley Black, Australia, (P22).
Context 5: Business English

Teaching business English is a strong commercial area, particularly since
English is often the lingua franca of international business transactions
where communication is intrinsically intercultural (Pullin, 2015). It is there‑
fore a situation where intercultural skills are – or should be – integral to the
programme. Business English colleges tend to be private institutions where

there are generally more resources and opportunities for practitioners to de‑
velop their own in‑house material. Intercultural Business English: Working
in Asia is one such example, designed by one of its freelance teachers for use
in a private business English school in Germany. The course is finely tuned
to the needs of each learner group by supplementing the in‑house material
after consultation with each client to find out their aims and objectives:
[It was] developed specifically for German learners who needed to im‑
prove their business communication skills to work with clients and part‑
ners in Asia. The materials are based on the experience gained working
as an in‑house language trainer with various multinationals, observing
countless meetings and negotiations, and have been used in courses over
a number of years. All the activities in the book are based on real‑world
examples and feedback from learners who have to work internationally…
Learners appreciate materials which reflect their real life needs.
(P26)
In a similar Cross‑cultural Business Communication course for multicultural

students reported by survey participants teaching in Poland, the focus was
on developing cultural awareness “outsmarting cultural shock, increasing
cultural intelligence and navigating cultural differences” (P12). The teacher
used her own exercises as well as materials/games developed by other in‑
terculturalists, emphasising the value of games for intercultural learning:
“Games allow students to understand better different types of values, ways
of thinking, ways of learning … they always work perfectly showing differ‑
ences even better when the group itself is multicultural” (P12).
Teaching contexts like these showcase the teaching of intercultural skills,
being in a situation where such competence is the entire focus of the cur‑
riculum. This tends to be the case only in what are effectively training situa‑
tions in private institutions catering to business or commercial clients. These
types of courses are often arranged to take place in‑house in multinationals
for example.
Context 6: Teacher training

One of the key messages of this book is that integrating intercultural materi‑
als into the curriculum is not just a question of inserting a few activities about
other cultures into the syllabus. In Part I, we offered the materials evaluation
technique critical discourse analysis for practitioners to use to help them se‑
lect intercultural teaching material that they felt appropriate for their learners
in terms of how it presented other cultures as well as their own.
Critical discourse analysis empowers the reader to examine intercultural

(or indeed any) material with a critical eye and read between and beyond
the lines of the ideology that underlies it. In the words of the writer of the
following vignette:
When learning English, either as a second or foreign language, the cur‑

riculum tends to reproduce a euro‑centrist view. To reproduce this view
means to show only one side of the story, it is teaching a monocultural
course. By listening to or reading the other side of the story, the course
can actually become intercultural.
(P13)
In this vignette, set in a teacher training institution in Mexico, the teacher

encourages the trainees to take a critical discourse analysis stance when read‑
ing an adapted version of the text, the “Inuit women’s manifesto”. It is
significant that the text the teacher has selected, from Quebec, is suitably
‘distanced’ from the students’ own context, allowing them to do this ‘at a
remove’ as it were.
Vignette 3.7. Teacher training, Mexico

The material is a lesson that focuses on getting students [trainee
pre‑school teachers] to rethink underrepresented ethnicities in Mexico
and other countries. Besides, it highlights the lack of voice that some
of these minorities have had in telling their own struggle for recogni‑
tion. The target language is a review of the imperative. The input text
is an adaptation of the “Inuit women manifesto”. There is a small in‑
troduction so learners know who the Inuit were and where they lived.
Because it is a manifesto, the target language was easy to find and then
practice. After doing some grammar‑oriented activities, learners get
more involved in how the message is written. I designed a model based
on discourse analysis levels and techniques based on Gee’s definition
of critical discourse analysis. There are three tasks based on the three
levels proposed by Gee. There is an upper‑level meaning task where
learners do a literal analysis of the language in the text. The second
one is a situated‑meaning task where students relate the language to
the context in which it was written or uttered. Finally, there is a criti‑
cal discourse analysis task where learners highlight personal or political
features of the interactants, and implications of their status, gender, or
ethnicity are analysed. The analysis of who wrote and why the message
was written in this way makes students more aware of how language
can be used by different cultures to resist power and get a voice in

their own issues. At the end, students had to write their own manifesto
about their own context.
One of the course’s plans is to get students to be more aware and
critical of intercultural affairs. When learning English, either as a second
or foreign language, the curriculum tends to reproduce a euro‑centrist
view. To reproduce this view means to show only one side of the story,
it is teaching a monocultural course. By listening to or reading the other
side of the story, the course can actually become intercultural. I take the
view that intercultural awareness cannot be possible if students are not
aware of the historical power imbalances that have existed for a long
time. Understanding the other means understanding their struggles
and their problems. It is moving away from discussing a visit to Disn‑
eyland to discuss about social justice. The aim of this lesson is to bring
global issues to the classroom critically in order to challenge learners’
biases and challenge some privileged perspectives.
I used this lesson when I had to review the imperative. I found that
as the grammar point was quite easy, I could use the lesson to promote
other abilities I find enormously important for future teachers like re‑
spect for diversity and understanding of the struggle for recognition
and voice that some underrepresented peoples suffer in other parts of
the world. I thought that by showing them an example from faraway
countries they could easily relate to the recognition problems that some
of them are suffering in Mexico. As a novel materials writer, I have de‑
veloped a new model to write reading or listening materials that aims at
highlighting how through language, underrepresented minorities can
challenge the current status quo. The design of the materials is based
on discourse analysis techniques and principles. I had to soften and scaf‑
fold the tasks to make them achievable for my learners. I thought the
lesson was going to be a bit hard to relate to. However, my students
immediately felt they had things in common with the Inuit and came up
with very interesting final products. All of them had to write their own
manifesto about their background. The manifestos showed they had
developed intercultural competence as they were able to understand the
Inuit struggle for recognition and transfer the principles of the mani‑
festo to their own context.
I am proud to say that the material I used was successful. There
might be a number of reasons why it went well, but I can think of at
least three factors. The first is that the material focused on the story of
misrecognised people like the Inuit. I am inclined to believe that most
of my students come from backgrounds where they have felt this way.
Mexico is a country where they are commonly racialised and classified

as a lower class. The teacher job is not normally recognised anymore,
the new economic order makes these occupations look like they are
not very productive as the salaries are not really big. All of these factors
make my students feel they are not really worthy. By seeing a com‑
parative misrecognised ethnicity in their book, some of them found
the courage to write a manifesto against Western beauty stereotypes,
for example. The second reason was that the tasks were exciting. My
students have told me that they find it tiring and monotonous to do
fill‑in‑the‑gaps tasks and that they like doing critical thinking‑oriented
tasks. The discussion that followed the third task of the lesson made a
lot of them really keen on learning more about the subject. The third
reason was that they always felt guided in the lesson. Even if the tasks
asked them to carry out complex thinking activities, they were always
given options and/or examples so they knew what they had to do. I
also made sure that the instructions were clear enough for everybody
and at the end all of them went well. ... I would definitely suggest us‑
ing materials that encourage students to challenge their own biases or
that challenge the status quo. As language teachers, we are supposed to
give a clearer idea of the target language culture we teach. In this case,
English has become the language of the world (The Inuit manifesto was
originally written in English), a language that unites or confronts dif‑
ferent cultures. It is our duty to give everybody in this world a voice to
discuss their issues and to show our students that intercultural compe‑
tence is not only about understanding meal times in the UK, it is about
becoming a critical actor of the global society where we live, a citizen
that is aware of the imbalances and injustices that are suffered by people
that might not look, think or speak the same as me.
Sergio Durand, Mexico, (P13).
While our activities in Part II were not given an explicit language focus – that
they are flexible and dynamic was integral to their design – this vignette is
an example of the successful integration of a language focus (the imperative)
with, in this case, a critical cultural purpose.
Classroom techniques for integrating intercultural skills

These situations/contexts together with other findings from our survey and
the literature on intercultural teaching practices internationally, throw up
many diverse classroom techniques and activity types; role plays, games, and
so on. While all are recognisable communicative teaching strategies, they

are particularly ‘tried and tested’ for intercultural skills training. For quick
reference, we have summarised these in Table 3.1. This shows where the
technique was used in the vignettes above and in Part II activities. This is
supplemented with commentary in places on where it was used elsewhere
in our survey and in practice published elsewhere.
TABLE 3.1 Summary of techniques for integrating intercultural skills teaching
Technique: role plays and games

Part II Activity
14 Combo culture (partially)
Part III Vignette
Vignette 3.1. Multicultural primary school, Malaysia
Vignette 3.4. ESOL, UK
Commentary
Role plays and dialogues are clearly valuable for intercultural sensitising and can
extend as far as drama. In one ‘steps to settlement’ programme in the UK,
authentic dialogues between migrants and local people were analysed in the
classroom using conversation analysis techniques to uncover sociolinguistic,
interactional and transactional strategies (Callaghan, Yemane, & Baynham,
2019). A similar technique was used with respect to preparing migrants for job
interviews (Roberts, 2019). In exploring multilingualism with a migrant group
in the UK, Cooke, Bryers, and Winstanley (2019) describe the use of ‘forum
theatre’ in which students develop a short play or scene which encapsulates their
experiences of prejudice towards non‑English speakers in the UK context.
Technique: problem‑solving
Part II Activity
Part III Vignette
Vignette 3.3 ESOL, Ireland
Commentary
Problem‑solving has in recent years become an established pedagogical approach.
Problem‑based learning (PBL) was originally used in training doctors but
crossed the pedagogical divide into many other areas such as industry and
language learning and teaching (see Mishan, 2010, 2011).
Technique: sharing personal experiences

Part II Activity
5 Class human library
23 Identity boxes
27 Story circles
28 Story exchange
31 Empathy museum
(Continued)
Part III Vignette

Vignette 3.5 Online ESOL class, UK
Vignette 3.6 Australia
Technique: photographs/visuals
Part II Activity
11 Interpreting the visual
12 A picture paints a thousand words
Part III Vignette
Multicultural primary school
Commentary
P6 working in a multicultural primary school in Malaysia used photographs from
the photobook Life from the National Geographic.
Some original choices of visual material used by other contributors to our survey
included: downloaded photographs of Welsh signage (for the police, hospital,
and so on) by an ESOL teacher in Wales; The Basic Oxford Picture Dictionary
(Gramer, 2003), pictures from a book of 96 photographs showing scenes of life in
Germany used by a survey respondent teaching refugees in Germany. The teacher
noted that this authentic, real‑life material is very useful in linking theory and
practice, motivating the students, and sparking affective engagement. Photographs
also support understanding of difficult concepts, and the comparison of different
cultures helps learners accept the culture of their “second homeland” (P15).
The ultimate extension of the use of images for intercultural learning is in a project
such as ‘participatory photography’ (Moon & Hussain, 2019) in which migrant
participants take photographs according to a chosen theme, building ownership
and gaining a voice in the process.
Technique: realia
Part II Activity
16 Cooking class
19 I DIVE
Commentary
Realia has a definite place in the intercultural classroom. Activity 16 in Part II
recommended a cooking class with all required equipment and foodstuffs and
nothing is more culturally‑defining than national dishes. At the other end of
the scale, ‘clean rubbish’ was used by one ESOL practitioner in our survey for a
lesson on recycling and council services in England.
Technique: comparison tasks

Part II Activity
34 The Cultural video exchange project
Part III Vignette
Vignette 3.3 ESOL, Ireland
ESOL, Germany
EAL, Ireland (secondary level)
(Continued)
Commentary
Comparison between and among cultures underlies many intercultural learning
activities either implicitly or directly:
German respondent P15 in our survey used photographs to support his ESOL
learners in comparing their home and new cultures (see above).
In EAL in Ireland (as recounted by P20) the secondary level teachers used the
Irish novel set for the second level examinations to help the learners make
comparisons between various aspects of culture in their own and Irish life.
Technique: task‑based activities (TBLT approach)

Part II Activity
21 Smelly socks group
16 cooking class
Part III Vignette
Vignette 3.1 Multicultural primary school, Malaysia
Commentary
The ‘Ghostbuster’ themed lesson in Vignette 3.1 represents task‑based learning at
its best, involving young learners in the excitement of a film‑themed lesson that
‘disguises’ its language and culture learning objective.
Technique: creative tasks

Part II Activity
14 Combo culture
23 Identity boxes
32 Memes
33 Comic strips
34 The cultural video exchange project
Part III Vignette
Vignette 3.6 EAL Australia
Conclusion
This contemporary snapshot of the integration of intercultural skills into
language curricula internationally indicates that intercultural competence is
clearly viewed today as ‘a good thing’. This notwithstanding, emphasis on
it varies widely in curricula from country to country and it is generally not
assessed in the way that language skills are. This has led to a ‘catch‑22’ situ‑
ation in which many teachers are not keen on spending time on intercultural
skills and publishers are thus not inclined to produce textbooks for such a
narrow market. This results in a lack of resources, leaving it to the dedica‑
tion of those teachers who wish to fulfil intercultural objectives, to develop
their own materials. While this – rather fortuitously – reinforces the demand
for works such as this book, more importantly, it shows language and cul‑
ture resources lagging sorely behind the needs of an increasingly globalising
world. That the production of such resources needs to be underpinned by
targeted theory around developing intercultural competence has been the
thrust of this book.
Here in Part III, therefore, we have compiled a list of principles to guide
teachers on how to integrate their intercultural materials into the language
curriculum, and we also offer a handful of techniques that can operationalise
these. In order to show how the principles and techniques work in real life,
we surveyed practitioners working at the chalk‑ and screen- face, in various
contexts and educational levels around the world to uncover how they actu‑
ally teach intercultural skills in their classrooms. We then displayed samples
of our findings as a series of ‘living’ vignettes. These show, we believe, how
teacher‑designed materials can be successfully used to develop learners’ inter‑
cultural awareness and competencies when the effort is made. Our research
study apart, there seems to be little known about how exactly intercultural
materials are used or designed, how students receive them, and what impact
they have on learners’ intercultural competence. In Part IV we aim to address
this, exploring how research, especially practitioner research, can contribute
to our understanding of teacher‑designed intercultural materials.
References
Aguilar, P. M. (2018). Integrating intercultural competence in ESP and EMI: From
theory to practice. ESP Today, 6(1), 25–43.
Benson, M. (2019). Case study 1–full‑time ESOL provision, 2002–2017, Limerick
city, Ireland. In F. Mishan (Ed.), ESOL provision in the UK and Ireland: Chal‑
lenges and opportunities (pp. 101–108). Bern: Peter Lang.
Bryan, A. (2012). ‘You’ve got to teach people that racism is wrong and then they
won’t be racist’: Curricular representations and young people’s understandings of
‘race’ and racism. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 44(5), 599–629.
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence.
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Callaghan, J., Yemane, T., & Baynham, M. (2019). 4 steps to settlement for refu‑
gees: A case study. In M. Cooke & R. Peutrell (Eds.), Brokering Britain, educat‑
ing citizens: Exploring ESOL and citizenship. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Cooke, M., Bryers, D., & Winstanley, B. (2019). ‘Our langauges’: Towards sociolin‑
guistic citizenship in ESOL. In M. Cooke & R. Peutrell (Eds.), Brokering Britain
(pp. 137–155). Bristol: Multiligual Matters.
Cummins, J., Hu, S., Markus, P., & Kristiina Montero, M. (2015). Identity texts
and academic achievement: Connecting the dots in multilingual school contexts.
TESOL Quarterly, 49(3), 555–581.
Department for Education. (2014). The national curriculum in England: Frame‑

work document. London: Department of Education.
Devine, D. (2011). Securing migrant children’s educational well‑being: Perspectives
on policy and practice in Irish schools. In M. Darmody, N. Tyrrell, & S. Song
(Eds.), The changing faces of Ireland: Exploring the lives of immigrant and ethnic
minority children (pp. 73–88). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Educate Together. (2004). Learn together: An ethical education curriculum for Edu‑
cate Together schools. Dublin: Educate Together.
Europublic sca/cva for DG Education, Training, & Culture and Multilingualism.
(2007). The intercultural competences developed in compulsory foreign language
education in the European Union: www.lace2077.eu.
Eurydice Report. (2016). Promoting citizenship and the common values of freedom,
tolerance and non‑discrimination through education – Overview of education
policy developments in Europe following the Paris Declaration of 17 March 2015.
Retrieved from https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national‑policies/eurydice/sites/
default/files/2016_publications_list_february_2017.pdf
Gramer, M. (2003). Basic Oxford picture dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Holmes, P., & O’Neill, G. (2012). Developing and evaluating intercultural compe‑
tence: Ethnographies of intercultural encounters. International Journal of Inter‑
cultural Relations, 36(5), 707–718.
Kavanagh, A. M. (2013). Emerging models of intercultural education in Irish pri‑
mary schools: A critical case study analysis (Doctoral dissertation, Dublin City
University).
Li, W. (2018). Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied Linguis‑
tics, 39(1), 9–30.
Maley, A., & Kiss, T. (2018). Creativity in language teaching and learning: From
inspiration to implementation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mamchur, C., & Apps, L. (2009). On the edge of chaos: In search of a process. Com‑
plicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education, 6(2), 115–123.
Mishan, F. (2010). Withstanding washback: Thinking outside the box in materi‑
als development. In B. Tomlinson & H. Masuhara (Eds.), Research in materi‑
als development for language learning: Evidence for best practice (pp. 353–368).
London: Bloomsbury.
Mishan, F. (2011). Whose learning is it anyway? Problem‑based learning in lan‑
guage teacher development. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching,
5(3), 253–272.
Mitchell, H. Q., & Malkogianni, M. (2016). Matura leader plus: Level B2. London:
MM Publications.
Moon, P., & Hussain, R. (2019). Using participatory photography in English
classes: Resisting silence, resisting dis‑citizenship. In M. Cooke & R. Peutrell
(Eds.), Brokering Britain, educating citizens: Exploring ESOL and citizenship
(pp. 121‑135). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Moor, P., Cunningham, S., & Crac, A. (2016). New cutting edge series. Harlow:
Pearson Longman.
Primary School Curriculum. (1999). Primary School Curriculum: Introduction.
Dublin: Stationery Office.
Pullin, P. (2015). Culture, curriculum design, syllabus and course development in

the light of BELF. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 4(1), 31–53.
Roberts, C. (2019). From the outside in: Gatekeeping the workplace. In M. Cooke
& R. Peutrell (Eds.), Brokering Britain, educating citizens: Exploring ESOL and
citizenship (pp. 213–226). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Singapore Ministry of Education. (2010). English Language Syllabus (2010).
Primary & Secondary (Express/ Normal [Academic]. Singapore: Ministry of
Education.
Sorti, C. (1994). Cross‑cultural dialogues: 74 brief encounters with cultural differ‑
ence. Yarmouth, MN: Intercultural Press.
Part IV
FROM IMPLEMENTATION TO
RESEARCH
DOI: 10.4324/9781032651385-4
204 From Implementation to Research
Introduction
The book is conceptualised within the context of professional development,
in that its aim is to cultivate intercultural awareness in practitioners/teach‑
ers which they can apply not only in developing materials and activities but
in their whole approach to pedagogy and which they can, ultimately, foster
in their learners. This holistic view means, we feel, that the book is rich in
directions for further research – and given the instructional environment,
action research in particular. Action research, with its observation – critical
reflection – modification loop, coincides with what we have endeavoured to
build into the sequenced materials offered in Part II. Action research is just
one of the research methods suitable for classroom investigation which we
outline in the research section below. Following that, we pull out the main
recurring themes of the book and suggest how practitioners might explore
these using some of the research methods described. First, though, a short
discussion on why cultivating practitioner research in this area is so important.
Intercultural competence training in teacher education

Although we have seen that the landscape of language learning and teaching
research has been changing, these changes do not, or at least not systemati‑
cally, seem to be incorporated in language teacher education curricula. Not
surprisingly, the same would apply to intercultural competence training and
research. There are many reports which point out that language teachers do
not feel prepared to develop their learners’ intercultural competence (e.g.
Bastos & Araújo e Sá, 2015; Cushner & Mahon, 2009; Leo, 2010) (see also
accounts from practitioners discussed in Part III). However, there seems to
be a lack of research on intercultural competence training (Ngai & Janusch,
2015) although it is clear that integrating intercultural communication in
teacher education would have several affordances (Dogancay‑Aktuna, 2005)
that point beyond intercultural awareness.
Although there are attempts to incorporate intercultural experiences and
learning in teacher education programmes (or more broadly, in higher edu‑
cation settings), these seem to be more accidental than systematic (Moore &
Díaz, 2019). Nevertheless, one example that has been widely published and
received very positive reviews, is the Cultura project (see e.g. Bauer et al.,
2006; Levet, 2015; Levet & Tschudi, 2021) initially designed at MIT for a
French intermediate class, in which students from different cultural contexts
take part in internet mediated intercultural tasks. The original project was
then developed in Russian, Spanish, and German (Bauer et al., 2006) and
adapted to fit slightly different contexts and set‑ups as well.
From Implementation to Research 205
Another problem that riddles teacher education in terms of intercultural

competence development is the need, and thus time and place, for such
skills development to take place. Although most 21st‑century educational
models place a high importance on the development of intercultural and
cross‑cultural skills, most teacher education programmes are conducted
in fairly homogeneous contexts, where students view the world through a
“monolingual‑mono‑cultural” lens (Fonseca‑Greber, 2010, p. 102). These
student teachers, as Thapa (2020) reports, imagine that their future charges
will share the same cultural and ethnic backgrounds with little diversity in
the classroom. Therefore, their perceived need for developing intercultural
competence, or for the skills of dealing with learners from various cultural
backgrounds, might be minimal compared to their need for learning effec‑
tive classroom management, pedagogical subject knowledge, or psychology.
Of course, this might be different in highly multicultural countries/com‑
munities (e.g. USA, the UK, Australia, and Canada) where teachers might
have very diverse student groups at certain schools or school districts and
ultimately in higher education.
Since there are other needs that have to be fulfilled before attention can
be given to intercultural skills development, there seems to be little room
(and time) in the curriculum for such training. Unfortunately, several re‑
search reports seem to reinforce this. For example, Nelson (1998) reported
that only 42% of MA TESOL courses in the USA had modules related
to cross‑cultural communication and this seems to be a general trend in
the broader context of higher education as well (Byram & Feng, 2004;
Young & Sachdev, 2011).
Such lack of attention to developing intercultural competence in teacher
education suggests that teachers need to learn about the issues themselves.
One way of doing this is through the sort of small‑scale research projects
we suggest in the ‘Areas of focus’ section later on; projects situated within
teachers’ own practice and which aim to improve the learning and teaching
experience in the classroom.
Research methods for investigating intercultural

learning and materials
Investigating intercultural learning has been conducted in many different
ways using established research methodologies to understand how students
develop their cultural awareness, what materials contribute to learning,
how knowledge, skills, and attitudes shape intercultural competence, etc. to
name but a few. Most of this research, however, has tried to simplify investi‑
gation, rather than embracing the complexity a CDST lens offers and what
we have proposed in the materials development framework in Part I. This

is understandable as the application of CDST into any classroom research is
not an easy task. As Larsen‑Freeman (2021, p. 794) puts it:
If researching language classroom dynamics seems like a tall order, well, it is.
However, to do otherwise, e.g. to conduct a conventional experiment, in
which an attempt is made to control all variables except one, is to remove
the “pattern that connects” (Bateson, 1988) and to run the risk of produc‑
ing ecologically invalid findings.
In this book, we have proposed developing materials which view learning

as situated, emergent, and largely unpredictable. As such, large, standard‑
ised measurements with generalisable results may not be the most appropri‑
ate means to capture how learning unfolds in different classroom settings,
in wildly different educational and sociocultural contexts. In order to ac‑
count for the uniqueness and unpredictability of learning and teaching, we
suggest that small‑scale practitioner research (action research, see below),
within an individual or collaborative framework (Burns, 1999, 2019) is op‑
timally positioned to study how students – as parts of many complex sub‑
systems – interact with each other and intercultural materials and to capture
how intercultural learning emerges in the classroom. Action research allows
teachers to be part of the complex system they are studying and therefore,
at the same time, observe how small changes affect the learning system as a
whole. Furthermore, the advantages of collaborative action research are that
they provide opportunities to notice emerging patterns across classrooms
and offer a chance to reflect on how these can be used to positively influence
students’ intercultural learning.
Action research
As outlined above, action research (AR) is a classroom‑based practitioner
research methodology, which aims to investigate an issue a teacher may con‑
sider exploring in their classroom, thereby providing a better understanding
of and insights into it. As its label suggests, it emphasises both action and
research, whereby teachers systematically examine their practice, plan for
change, collect data on the effect of changes, and reflect on whether the
process has been successful. Like all research, AR has the potential to gen‑
erate more questions than answers, therefore the cycle can be repeated, or
redirected until a satisfactory solution is found. The discoveries are usually
used to refine the plan and continue the cycle of improvement.
AR can involve collaborative inquiry and exploration, or it can be con‑
ducted by individuals who are directly involved in a particular situation or
problem. The purpose of AR is to improve the quality of teaching and learn‑

ing in a particular context through a cyclical process of reflection, planning,
action, and evaluation.
The key characteristics of AR include a focus on the practical applica‑
tion of research, the involvement of practitioners in the research process,
and a cyclical process of reflection and action. Common belief holds that
teachers are against theories and value practice more. Well, we believe this
is not quite true. Although teachers may not be in favour of a theory which
is removed, temporally or spatially, from the context in which they work in
order to provide generalisable frameworks, they are keen to generate their
own theories about teaching through localised and contextualised AR.
A similar approach to study intercultural learning is through lesson
study, which not only contributes to teacher learning but can also be used
as a method of inquiry (Elliott, 2019). In a lesson study project on inter‑
cultural learning or the use of intercultural learning materials, teachers work
together and select a learning objective (see Part I, Table 1.2) they want
their students to master. Then they plan a lesson, or series of lessons, choose
or develop their materials collaboratively, compare notes on how the lessons
have worked in their respective classrooms, and plan for further interven‑
tion if necessary. In this sense, lesson study can be considered a structured
collaborative reflection exercise that helps practitioners unearth what works
and what does not work in their classrooms. Furthermore, it also offers a
chance to understand how unique and unpredictable learning can be when
using the same lesson plan and materials with different student groups.
Building on collaborative AR (Burns, 1999, 2019) or lesson study
(Elliott, 2019), one possible research avenue could be towards identify‑
ing possible recurring patterns across different classroom settings. As we
discussed earlier, CDS are unique and unpredictable, yet they display self‑
similarity in their structure. Therefore, adapting Larsen‑Freeman’s (2021,
p. 794) suggested research question, “Granted that each learner is unique,
can certain general learner profiles be established?” we may ask: If inter‑
cultural materials’ contribution to learning is unique in different classroom
settings, can a certain general pattern still be established? In order to answer
this question, teachers (working individually or collaboratively) might se‑
lect, adapt, implement, and examine the effects of particular intercultural
materials within their own classroom(s), and share their discoveries with
other teachers doing the same. Furthermore, AR is best suited to study the
openness and adaptability of complex dynamic learning systems by intro‑
ducing different types of materials and studying how these influence the
creation and emergence of intercultural understanding and knowledge. The
practitioner, being part of the system, can experience first‑hand how differ‑
ent types of input, modality, tasks, etc. have an effect on emergent learning.
Some of these may be rejected by learners or embraced by them and inter‑

nalised and changed through several feedback loops. In line with Burns and
Knox (2011, p. 2), we see the classroom
not as a machine where inputs are processed and outputs are generated,
not as a space where activity takes place, and not as an activity, but as a
convergence of different elements which stretch beyond the temporal
and spatial location of a given classroom, and which combine in dynamic
relationships.
BOX 4.1: THE POTENTIAL OF AR FOR

INVESTIGATING INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION
Working with Chinese students in a provincial capital in Mainland China,

one of the authors was warned that ‘those students’ would be passive and
prefer not to interact with a lecturer. He was also reminded that creativity
was not something the learners would showcase in the classroom. Yet, a ‘lec‑
ture’ on intercultural communication to a group of 200 university students
turned out to be an interactive dialogue with students answering probing
questions, offering their ideas, making suggestions, and working in groups
on a poster design. What could have caused such an ‘unexpected’ result?
Was it the lecturer (being non‑Chinese and introduced into the system from
the outside)? Was it the material? Was it the task? Perhaps a combination
of these? Could the effects of this one‑off lecture be replicated if this was a
series of lectures or seminars over a semester? These are all questions that
AR is best suited to answer. As a more generic research question, the reader
may ask: How does introducing different types of materials as input into the
complex dynamic system of intercultural learning impact the emergence of
student learning?
Although most practitioners engage in small‑scale research in their own

classroom, what distinguishes this work from academic research is that the
latter often aims to have generalisable results, while the former seeks practi‑
cal solutions in particular contexts. While practitioners are best positioned
to examine their own classroom practice, they may lack systematic train‑
ing in research that would ensure that their findings are valid and reliable.
They mostly rely on insights gained through years of practice; feelings and
hunches may guide their investigation. These are extremely valuable sources
of information when dealing with unpredictable classroom situations, but
may not be able to provide solid evidence about learning or materials use
that could guide future action. Below we summarise some of the most com‑
mon research tools and methods that teachers can rely on to collect data
about learning, teaching, and materials in a systematic way. The tools and
techniques listed are not exhaustive and are not meant to be treated as an
ultimate guide to classroom research. They are offered as a reminder of the
possible instruments that are at the readers’ disposal for systematic class‑
room investigation and can be used as a reference in the sections which sug‑
gest practical avenues for investigation. In any case, it is important to keep
in mind that there is no one best way of doing AR: it is always a compro‑
mise. Different methods and tools have their advantages and disadvantages;
therefore, it is important to choose those that are feasible and provide the
most benefits within a particular context. Furthermore, AR can be an on‑
going process. While providing some answers to the questions we wish to
investigate it also directs us to ones we had not thought of.
Observation
Observation is one of the most versatile methods of collecting rich class‑
room data. However, it can be problematic as there is so much happening in
any moment of a lesson that it is simply impossible to attend to everything.
Therefore, we suggest that observations are focused and guided, rather than
holistic. In the following, we offer some consideration for conducting lesson
observations.
Positionality: Positionality refers to the researcher’s position within the
research study and their relationship to the study participants. For example,
lesson observation can be done by ‘an outsider’ (perhaps a colleague) in‑
vited into the classroom or by the teacher (an ‘insider’) who conducts the
lesson. Each ‘position’ (insider studying self, outsider studying insider, and
so on) will have an effect on the dynamic of the classroom and thus needs to
be considered for its advantages or drawbacks. For instance, an outsider in
the lesson may disturb the flow of the lesson as students may be curious why
they are there and their behaviour might be different than how they usually
act when only their teacher is present. Yet, the outsider might be able to
collect more objective data as they are not part of the learning system. They
also have a different vantage point from that of the classroom teacher as they
tend to stay at the back of the classroom or among the students, rather than
at the front from where most teachers conduct their lessons. Their sole task
is to observe the lesson, whereas teachers who observe their own lessons
need to divide their attention between the task of teaching and facilitating
learning and collecting data at the same time.
When it is the classroom teacher who observes their own practice, they
are in a position to gain insights an outsider would never be able to achieve.
They are part of the learning system, and therefore are in a position to
probe it and direct it to get the most amount of data. Yet, they perform
the dual role of teacher/researcher which may mean that by focusing on
one, they may not be able to execute the other effectively – an issue of
multi‑tasking.
Quantitative vs qualitative
Classroom observation can involve collecting quantitative or qualitative data,

or a combination of both. Quantitative observation means that the data col‑
lected can be counted and turned into numerical values. This means that the
observer must focus on classroom phenomena that can be categorised. For
example, they can focus on how many times students ask open‑ended ques‑
tions, or simply raise their hands to ask a question. Observers can measure
how much time is spent on discussion from the whole lesson, or how much
time is used by the teacher explaining a task. Qualitative observation, on
the other hand, means that the observer needs to take notes as evidence of
what is happening in the classroom. Some qualitative data may not require
the observer’s interpretation, for example when taking note of and writing
down instructions given to learners or narrating classroom events, whereas in
other cases notes taken during an observation reflect the observer’s subjec‑
tive interpretation of what they see. For example, an observer could record
that a student, the focus of the observation, “smiled when the teacher com‑
plemented their work” or they could note down that “the student looked
happy and proud when the teacher complemented their work”. In the first
case, qualitative data is more objective (a simple recording of events) whereas
in the second case, it includes the observer’s subjective interpretation of the
classroom event. Subjectivity, however, does not mean that the observation
is not valid; it simply acknowledges the fact that human perception is sub‑
jective, and what we see, or do not see in the classroom, is filtered by our
own values, beliefs, and experiences. The simplest way of doing a qualitative
classroom observation is to note down what the teacher and/or students
may say in the lesson. For example, the observer can focus on questions the
teacher asks in order to facilitate intercultural learning. An examination of
the questions asked could reveal which ones prompt the learners to reflect on
their values and which are asked simply to manage learning in the classroom.
Focus on student vs teacher
Another area that needs consideration is the focus of the observation, which
of course, would depend on the aim of the research/observation. This
might be on what teachers do or what students do in the classroom, or
perhaps on both. It might be on a select few students, selected on the basis

of certain criteria (perhaps gender, age, academic achievement, observed
attitudes, or cultural background).
Questionnaires and surveys

Questionnaires and surveys are useful instruments when the aim is to collect
data in a relatively short time, from a relatively large target group, for exam‑
ple, from a class or a few classes. They can collect quantitative or qualitative
data (and a combination of these) on various aspects of materials use and
intercultural learning. However, questions used in these instruments need
to be carefully crafted in order to elicit meaningful answers that can be used
to answer research questions. It is highly recommended that questionnaires
and surveys are piloted, i.e. tested out with students or teachers that are
not part of the research before they are used for data collection. Feedback
from this group on clarity, practicality, and usability is essential to fine‑tune
research instruments.
Interviews
Interviews are also popular research instruments and allow investigators to
gain in‑depth answers about particular topics. We can distinguish between
standardised interviews where the same questions are asked of a number of
interviewees, or semi‑structured interviews, where some questions are the
same, but the interviewer also asks probing questions to explore certain
areas in more depth. Although conducting interviews seems an easy enough
task, there are many aspects which may have an impact on the quality of
answers and which, therefore, need consideration. These include the length
of the interview, when and where it is conducted, whether it is audio/video
recorded, the interviewer/interviewee seating arrangement, who is asking
the questions, i.e. whether this is the student’s teacher or another colleague,
and the questions themselves. One of the common mistakes is asking lead‑
ing questions which suggest what answer the interviewer would like to hear,
and therefore careful consideration is needed when formulating questions.
Focus Group Discussion

An alternative approach to the interview is the focus group discussion when
a group of 4–7 participants are asked about their opinions on a particu‑
lar topic or topics. Although this can elicit a lot of insights in a relatively
short time, care must be taken to make sure that the participants do not
influence each other, everyone has a chance to express themselves, and a
generally open and safe environment is created. While it is possible that cer‑
tain members of the group may dominate the conversation, it is also likely
that ideas are bounced back and forth and answers that may be avoided in a
one‑on‑one interview are brought forth.
Tests
Research often means ‘measurement’ of some sort and the most common
measurement of the successful application and use of teaching materials is
how much students have learnt. Although there are some standard tech‑
niques in testing and assessment, for example, the use of multiple choice,
open‑ended or True/False questions, or activities such as gap filling or
matching items, to name but a few, any material that can be used for teach‑
ing purposes can also be used for testing and assessment.
Standardised tests can be used in experimental research when there is
a pre‑test to set a baseline, followed by an ‘experiment’, for example, the
introduction of a new type of material, and then a post‑test to check the ef‑
fectiveness of the treatment. This research usually requires a control group
which is similar to the experimental group, but which does not receive the
treatment (i.e. the new type of material). Alternately, test results could be
compared to those in similar classrooms where there has been no AR con‑
ducted and which in this case serve as a sort of ‘de facto’ control group.
Short formative tests, or as they are sometimes called, quizzes, i.e. tests
that show what progress learners are making with the materials, can also
be used to collect information at different stages of the lesson. One type
of test is also known as ‘exit ticket’ in which learners should answer a few
questions before they leave the classroom. This can simply be an evaluation
of how much they have enjoyed the lesson and the materials, how relevant
they think the lesson topic was, or they can be asked to offer a short com‑
ment on how they felt, what they learnt, or what they would like to see in
the next lesson.
Content analysis
We have discussed content analysis in some detail in Part I, Section 2 as one
of the possible ways to determine the appropriateness of teaching materials
for a particular group of learners, or to uncover how culture is represented
and intercultural competence is developed in such resources. Of course,
content analysis can also be used as a research method either on its own or
in combination with other techniques. One of the problems often quoted
in relation to content analysis is the reliability of results, yet there are differ‑
ent measures that can be implemented to make sure that conclusions drawn
from content analysis research are reliable. This depends, first of all, on the
descriptive accuracy of the codes and coding categories used. In a research
study by Mebarki (in progress), for instance, the high school textbook used
in Algeria is analysed for the diversity of its cultural content, with agreed
categories consisting of ‘local culture’, ‘target culture’, and ‘international
culture’. The allocation of the content into the correct categories is crucial
for the reliability and validity of the results.
Critical discourse analysis (CDA)

Critical discourse analysis is another possible research method to use to ex‑
amine intercultural learning materials. Just like content analysis, it was also
discussed in some detail in Part I, Section 2 where we discussed how it can
be used to discover ideologies on which a certain text is built. The assump‑
tion is that texts are never neutral and they express the values of those who
create them. Therefore, when CDA is used, it looks at the text, the processes
through which the text is created, and the social context in which it is cre‑
ated in order to draw conclusions. For example, CDA of a contemporary
Japanese elementary school EFL textbook published by the Japan ministry
of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology (MEXT) revealed
that its ostensible multicultural/multicultural objectives were mainly lim‑
ited to Japanese‑English bilingualism, ignoring the linguistic plurality of
Japan today (Horii, 2015).
Researching intercultural competence: areas of focus

This final part of the book picks up on its main recurring themes and throws
out research tentacles with the aim of seeding ideas and studies and, in
the spirit of AR, even new practices. One of the concerns in the book has
been how intercultural materials are, can, and should be used – researching
materials in use is explored in the first of the sections below. This is then
extended, in the next section, to investigating intercultural learning via a
perspective that has framed our conceptualisation of intercultural learning
in the book, complex dynamic systems. Underpinning the use of intercultural
materials is the elusive area of cultural sensitivities, the focus of the follow‑
ing section. This has been broached repeatedly within the pages of this book
(and there is a substantial section on it in Part I) but as we indicate in the
section on it below, the ever‑evolving societal and cultural movements of to‑
day’s world endow this area with fresh and vibrant research potential. Next,
we move from cultural sensibility to ideology. The importance of a critical
pedagogy perspective on language and culture teaching materials has never
been far from the surface in this book and we see it as a crucial research
strand. Finally, we think it fitting to conclude this part – and the book – by
turning the spotlight on the original stimulus for this work, the learner.
In the penultimate section, therefore, we consider learner‑centred studies,
including one producing learner‑generated materials, and, to conclude, we
address the quandary of assessing students’ intercultural learning. Each sec‑
tion contains between one and three projects for practitioner research utilis‑
ing the sorts of research methods described above and which can be selected
according to the practitioner’s own context, interests, and/or needs.
Materials in use – how are intercultural materials used?

In 2010, Chapelle asserted “the role of the textbook depends on individual
teachers and learners, their understanding of and interest in the materials,
and their ability to meet the content part way in terms of comprehending
and exploring it” (2010, p. 45). The dearth of research on the interaction
between teachers and materials was still an issue around a decade later; ‘dis‑
covering what teachers do with materials’ remained among the 13 areas of
research identified in Tomlinson and Masuhara’s Materials development for
language learning (2018, p. 364). Alongside this, Tomlinson and Masuhara
stress “it is not the materials per se that are responsible for learning effects
but the ways in which they are used by teachers and by learners” (Tomlinson
& Masuhara, 2018, p. 374).
This missing focus in materials development research on materials used
in the classroom has seen the launch of a new area, ‘materials in use’, also
termed ‘materials mediation’, which is now an emerging strand in the field.
With the working definition of “entangled and emergent influences among
the teacher(s) and the learner(s) and one or more LLT [language learning
and teaching] materials” (Guerrettaz, Engman, & Matsumoto, 2021, p. 3),
materials in use look at how materials work as “mediating resources” in the
classroom, how materials “shape and are shaped by classroom discourse”
(LaScotte, Mathieu, & David, 2022, p. v).
BOX 4.2: MATERIALS IN USE PUBLICATIONS
LaScotte, D. K., Mathieu, C. S., & David, S. S. (Eds.). (2022). New perspectives
on material mediation in language learner pedagogy. Cham: Springer Nature.
The special issue: Materials Use Across Diverse Contexts of Language Learn‑
ing and Teaching of the Modern Language Journal (2021), Vol. 105 (S1)
Research group MUSE (Materials in Use) museinternational.wordpress.com
Mediation is most commonly effected as materials adaptation as we have

seen in Part II, Set (D). This is because adaptation is unavoidable in the
mediation process that is ‘teaching’. The moment material is used in
the classroom, it is mediated in its interaction with the teacher and the
learners – and inevitably altered to some degree. This is nicely illustrated
in Zhan Li’s (2020) study mentioned in the adaptation section which de‑
scribed the minimal tweaks involved in even the most controlled use of
materials. It likewise makes for the conclusion to another research study
into materials use; “no teacher wholly used the material as it was presented
in the textbook and every exercise was adapted by some teachers” (Bolster,
2015, p. 20).
The research on materials in use ranges from adaptation to a number of
areas that have been important in this book. These include the use of semi‑
otic resources such as images, sound, gesture, and movement, and multimo‑
dality in general, often via the affordances of technology (Guerrettaz et al.,
2018). There is a striking correspondence between materials in use research
and the concept we have applied in this book, of (intercultural) classrooms
as complex dynamic systems, considering the new research strand’s atten‑
tion to:
The role of classroom materials from an ecological perspective … This

line of studies conceptualizes the classroom as an ecological system con‑
sisting of complex and interrelated sets of participants and elements
ranging from learners, teachers, classroom discourse, materials, and
other artifacts such as digital and online resources, shedding light upon
the relationships between classroom materials and other elements in the
classroom ecology.
(Guerrettaz et al., 2018, p. 38)
Materials mediation research appears to take a CDS perspective in that it

emphasises the “critical role of the teacher” and hence teacher expertise
“in mediating the impacts of materials in the classroom” (Guerrettaz et al.,
2018, p. 41). Figure 4.1 illustrates this interdependent relationship between
the teacher and teaching materials.
The correspondence between CDS and materials in use/materials media‑
tion theory would seem to open out the potential of ‘looking inside the
black box’ of intercultural materials used in the classroom.
To consolidate this perspective on materials use, it seems fitting to revert
to those essential actors in the classroom, practicing teachers. Significantly,
there were participants in our 2020–2021 study (discussed in Part III) who
likewise conceive materials use as an interactive and emergent process in
Materials (physical/digital)
Materials development
Materials in use (evaluation, creation,
adaptation)
Language teaching expertise
FIGURE 4.1
Interrelationships between materials use, materials development,
and teacher expertise (drawn from Guerrettaz et al., 2018, p. 41)
the context of intercultural learning, characterised by learner‑led flexibility,

creativity, and innovation;
My advice for other teachers would be not to cover only the book strictly,
feel free to assign the tasks for students to do it on their own and feel free
to be creative to use extra materials on the same topics.
(P36, Hungary)
My advice to teachers is to be innovative and not shy away to take initia‑

tive. It is not necessary to follow the lesson plan pedantically. Make the
students take initiative and involve them fully into class activities.
(P35, Pakistan)
Project 1: Learner engagement with materials

It is always important to learn how engaged learners are with the materi‑
als in the classroom. Learner engagement – which points beyond a simple
interest – is an important aspect of learning, therefore a worthwhile area
for classroom investigation. It can take many possible avenues, depending
on the specific focus of classroom research. However, researching engage‑
ment is not an easy task as this abstract concept, similarly to motivation,
cannot be directly observed or measured in the classroom. You need to
operationalise it, i.e. look for signs that indicate engagement with the
materials, for example, the learners’ attention, curiosity, interest, interac‑
tion, willingness to learn, etc., which indicate that they are engaged. It is still
a difficult task and needs careful planning. Below is an example of how to
measure learner engagement in an intercultural learning task that requires
students to work in small groups and discuss a topic.
1 Prepare a chart that is similar to the one below and which breaks down
a 10‑minute period of your lesson (or as much time the task would take)
to 10‑second intervals
0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 1 min 1.10 1.20 1.30 1.40
2 Choose 3–4 students from your class. Your selection could be based on
language level, motivation, gender, or can simply be done randomly.
3 Prepare as many tables for as many students you select to observe.
4 Number the tables or write the students’ names on the top.
5 When the students start doing the task, check at 10 seconds if student 1
is talking or not. If they are, put a tick, if not, put a cross.
6 Move on to the next student, student 2, and mark their activity in T
able 2.
Continue with the other students. You should be able to check every stu‑
dent before you get to 20 seconds and you look at Student 1 again. Of
course, you can change the time intervals to allow for note‑taking or to
involve more students.
7 Tally the results and think about similarities and differences in student
talking time.
8 You may repeat the same observation with another intercultural material
which involves discussion. Do you find the same results? If not, how can
you account for the differences?
Project 2: What do you see?

Teaching materials generate cultural meanings through the combination of
different modalities, usually through linguistic (text‑based) and visual ele‑
ments. Materials writers often include visuals in the materials to enhance
students’ understanding of the accompanying text, or to raise their interest
in a topic. Visuals can be treated as signs, they stand in place of the reality
they represent. They are encoded with messages to the reader/viewer and
therefore they present a rich resource of cultural information. However, the
problem is that we do not necessarily decode them in the same way. Our
interpretation of visuals depends on our cultural filters, life experiences, val‑

ues, beliefs, etc. Therefore, the meanings the materials writer aims to create
may be different from the meanings students generate in the classroom.
1 Choose a picture from the material you use currently, or what you intend
to use in material you are developing for intercultural learning.
2 Give the visual to the learners (either in printed or digital form) and ask
them to write down 3–5 things that come to their mind when they see
the image.
3 Collect the answers from the learners; there are no correct or incorrect
answers!
4 Arrange the answers students provide into possible topics, by merging
answers and groups of answers into major categories. For example, look‑
ing at a picture of some girls celebrating the Indian festival Holi, stu‑
dents may come up with suggestions such as ‘party’, ‘concert’, ‘music
festival’, ‘birthday party’, ‘holiday’, ‘end of school’, India, ‘Holi’, ‘religion’,
etc. These could be merged into three or four bigger categories, such
as ‘party’, ‘music’, ‘celebration’, etc. Continue this process until merging
sub‑categories does not make sense anymore. Most likely you will end up
with 5–6 categories of answers.
5 Name, or rename the categories. One of the original ideas can serve as the
name of the new categories, but it is also possible that students choose a
different name that better describes the content of the categories.
6 Now answer the following questions:
a) Are there any major groups (with more answers than others)? What
are these?
b) Are there any minor groups with only a few answers? What are these?
c) How would you explain students’ answers? Why did they come up
with the answers they provided? What does it tell you about their cul‑
tural knowledge, experiences, possibly stereotypes they are holding?
d) Do you need to change the material or task that accompanies the
visual to exploit their potential for intercultural learning? Do you need
to change the task you have been planning to use with the visual in
your own material? How would you go about it?
7 Try to do the same with a different group of learners and compare the
results. Can you account for any similarities or differences between the
learners’ answers?
For a similar project, see:

Kiss, T., & Weninger, C. (2017). Cultural learning in the EFL classroom:
The role of visuals. ELT Journal, 71(2), 186–196.
Project 3: It’s a matter of time

How much time does it take for students to engage with different types of
tasks? During the design of materials writers usually estimate how much
time it takes for students to work with a set of materials and tasks. However,
we know that each learner group is unique and different, and each teach‑
ing context has its own limitations and affordances; therefore learners may
engage with some materials in more depth and skim through others without
much thought. When you design your own teaching materials it is impor‑
tant to learn how much time your students are likely to spend on different
tasks in order to maximise their effectiveness in your classroom.
For this project, you need to select a variety of teaching materials, some
that require individual work, and some that are based on group work. You
can select text‑ or task‑based materials, ones that are multimodal, etc. You
may use some of the materials presented in Part II of this book.
8 Before you use the materials in the classroom make an estimate of how
much time your learners will need to complete the tasks. If you are
using different learner groups, make an estimate for each individual
group. Mind you, although learners share certain common characteris‑
tics, they may respond differently to the same stimuli.
9 Use the material in the classroom and measure how much time stu‑
dents take to complete it. If the material is designed to contain differ‑
ent steps or stages, you may take note of the time needed to complete
these as well.
10 Compare your estimated time with the actual time needed to finish the
materials. Are they similar? Are they different? How can you explain
the similarities and differences? Are the answers different in different
student groups? Why? What explains the difference? What adjustments
might you need to make for the time involved?
Cultural sensibilities
That cultural sensitivity is key to intercultural competence is self‑evident.
This emerges strongly from the research into developing intercultural com‑
petence, and stimulating it is the underlying objective of most of the inter‑
cultural competence activities in Part II of this book. Yet it remains perhaps
the most elusive aspect. For it is dependent on ‘getting under the skin’ of
another culture, that is, a genuine and non‑judgemental appreciation of, and
empathy with, another culture or cultures. As such, it is a keenly personal/
individual skill, and in a social climate in which we tend to be reluctant to
attribute personal responsibility (in the West at least), it can be hard for us as
educators to train the spotlight onto the students themselves. Alongside this
must come the recognition that their developing intercultural competence
is naturally and unavoidably influenced by their own regional and local cul‑
tural perspectives.
The ‘ideal’ of intercultural competence involves reaching beyond these
boundaries towards attaining multiple perspectives – what Deardorff calls
‘cultural humility’ (e.g. 2018) – an acknowledgement that the way we see
the world is just one way and that it is important to seek out and embrace
other perspectives. At the same time, “encounters with cultural difference”
foster an “understanding of oneself and one’s multiple cultural affiliations”
(Barrett, Huber, & Reynolds, 2014, pp. 16–17). Nurturing such critical‑
ity, is, of course, the central task of intercultural awareness education as has
been emphasised in this book and actively cultivated through the classroom
tasks offered in Part II.
The interaction and link between training in intercultural awareness
and language education form the rationale for this book. The irony that
the ethos of language learning publications – and ELT ones in particular –
undermines this link, and the criticality it promotes – has been previously
pointed out. The publishers of global coursebooks tie themselves in knots
to avoid topics that they consider could upset the cultural sensibilities of
their international readership – yet these are the very topics (politics, ideol‑
ogy, and so on) that are most likely to stimulate cultural criticality. Inter‑
national publishers are not alone in this though. Nationally and regionally
published materials are equally as likely to stymie the development of critical
thinking on culture and society where they are designed under levels of gov‑
ernment control to adhere to the national ideology; for example, the case
of primary school ELT textbooks used in China (Ping, 2018) and course‑
books in Iran, reported by Tajeddin and Teimournezhad (2015) discussed
in the book’s Introduction. As Dat Bao comments regarding some of the
domestically produced materials used in Southeast Asia, while familiarity
enables learners to discuss issues in their lives with ease, “an overdose of
local‑culture ingredients can easily damage learner curiosity” (Bao, 2008,
p. 268), with obvious implications for motivation. Rahim and Daghigh, on
the other hand, maintain that the emphasis on target and other cultures in
global coursebooks “inadvertently limits the role of learners’ own culture in
awareness‑raising activities” (Rahim & Daghigh, 2020). Thus, laying aside
the issue of cultural mores, materials that provide the comfort of the familiar
(from the source culture) versus those offering the attraction of the novel
(from the target culture), can each be seen to have their advantages in terms
of motivating learning.
The realm of cultural sensitivity is probably the most elusive to explore

via empirical research such as AR. Empirical studies are by their nature
based in one or a small range of cultures, and AR is even more restricted to
a local context, so such research might thus seem self‑limiting, even self‑de‑
feating. However, the scope of such research can be infinitely broadened by
exploring the relatively recent concept of intercultural or global citizenship
(GC) which we looked at in Part I. The ethos of Global Citizenship Educa‑
tion (GCE), nurturing tolerance and inclusivity (as represented in UNE‑
SCO’s (2014) GCE framework) would seem to speak to and characterise
today’s generation, and it invokes a critical perspective essential in the
trans‑global environment in which we live and function. Indeed, GC has
rapidly become more of a reality, accelerated by technological innovation
and by the global pandemic of 2020–2022 that moved huge swathes of
international interaction online. Global/Intercultural citizenship, its mani‑
festation on the online environment and its intersection with intercultural
sensitivity are thus burgeoning, cutting‑edge areas of research with fascinat‑
ing potential.
BOX 4.3: PROJECTS ON INTERCULTURAL

CITIZENSHIP
For a wide selection of projects on intercultural citizenship, the reader is re‑

ferred to the British Council workbook Integrating global issues in the creative
English language classroom: With reference to the United Nations sustainable
development goals (Maley & Peachey, 2017). The 17 United Nations sustain‑
able development goals aim to address pressing global concerns such as
climate change and the inequities this causes; access to food, water, and
energy resources and the consequences of these for health, wealth, and
education. This workbook offers a research project on each of the 17 goals
developed by experienced language practitioners and textbook authors. The
workbook is freely downloadable from the British Council website: www.
teachingenglish.org.uk.
The projects are designed to be carried out with English language learn‑
ers and adopt a CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) approach
as they clearly have a content as well as language learning objective. This,
usefully, means that they are equally suitable for practitioner research with
minimal tweaking, as illustrated by the adaptation of a sample workbook
project below, on gender balance in the classroom.
Project 4: Researching gender balance in the classroom

Chapter 6 of the book, by Jemma Prior and Tessa Woodward, focuses on
Sustainable Development Goal 5: ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all
women and girls’. The authors’ stated aims are to:
Create an atmosphere and to give students in our classes, no matter what

their gender or background, the experience of being in an inclusive, safe,
fair environment, and of learning facts about, and the social and linguis‑
tic tools for, the empowerment of women and girls
(Prior & Woodward, 2017, p. 57)
The activity suggested is essentially content analysis (CA) research (see above).
The CA here focuses on gender representation in published language learning
textbooks – a currently popular area for materials research (see, for example,
the work of Jane Sunderland (e.g. 2000) and contemporary studies such as
Benlaib (2024)). In Prior & Woodward’s proposed activity, the chosen text‑
book’s reference to, and images of men and women, the jobs they do, the
actual number of times the words man, woman and their pronouns are men‑
tioned, whether they initiate turns in conversation and their roles in it, are
all counted. Next, they suggest that the materials be coded to compare how
active or passive each character is in the text/dialogue, whether their role in
it is major or minor, whether this correlates with their gender, and whether
the genders operate in different areas “valued or undervalued economically or
intellectually in society” (ibid., p. 58). This quantitative analysis can then be
triangulated with qualitative analysis looking at aspects like vocabulary, topic
choice, and the “juxtapositions of image and text, at plot types, at characters
and how they are depicted, what they say and do” (ibid.). Qualitative analysis
like this is obviously subjective, as the researcher’s own interpretations are in‑
evitably culturally influenced as we have often discussed in this book. This in it‑
self can be an opportunity for the practitioner/researcher to introspect on their
interpretations and on how revealing these are of their own cultural influences.
Prior and Woodward suggest a follow‑up activity which is essentially AR.
Via video or sound recording (with learner consent) or colleague observa‑
tion, classroom interactions during a lesson can be coded with respect to
gender differentiation. This involves counting, for example, the number of
times; the teacher calls on or corrects male/female students; female or male
students volunteer a response initiate an exchange, and so on. The number
of interruptions of or by male versus female students and the comparative
length of utterances can also be counted. Quantitative analysis of the results
will quickly show any gender bias by the teacher, and the male‑female power
dynamic among the students.
Project 5: Creating cultural third spaces in the multicultural

classroom
A recurring concept in the book has been that of the cultural ‘third space’,
a metaphorical ‘place’ where learners from different cultures operate within
a notional, harmonious ‘culture‑neutral’ space to work out and negotiate
between their cultural boundaries empathetically and non‑judgementally.
A default example of a cultural third space these days is the internet, social
media networks and platforms, as noted in Part I. But how to create cultural
third spaces in the multicultural classroom goes to the heart of fostering
intercultural competence – offering a fascinating if challenging area to re‑
search in our classrooms.
This project invites practitioners to reflect on cultural third spaces, start‑
ing from ‘real‑life’ experiences where they might occur naturally, and then
go on to consider how to create these in the classroom. For real‑life exam‑
ples, we have only to look at children, who are naturally good at creating
cultural third spaces as they are less weighed down by (acquired) cultural
baggage. Children’s play, for example, is often conceived as a conceptual
third space, bridging the gap between home discourse and school discourse,
for instance (Yahya & Wood, 2017).
Another useful prompt for thinking about lived experiences of third
spaces is this description from Adrian Holliday, author of Understanding
Intercultural Communication (2019) (referenced in Part I). Here, Holliday
is in discussion with Nick Pilcher in the latter’s (2019) co‑authored article.
He describes his concept of third space thus:
The third space is a moment – a place – in which we can stand back and
see things in a different way. It’s a space of investigation. … it’s got to
be something that everybody does, so there are moments in everybody’s
life when they find the deCentredness [getting away from West‑centric
roots], and they can see what’s going on around them, perhaps even for
seconds. And that’s the third space. Something unexpected happens and
it takes everybody somewhere else and enables them to understand.
(Zhou & Pilcher, 2019, p. 1)
This AR study entails observing students engaging in intercultural activities

of the sort described in Part II. This might be done by the teacher in their
own class or via peer observation. The objective is to come to a descrip‑
tive analysis of the sort of environment or atmosphere the students create
together during these activities and then evaluate, according to the sorts
of characteristics offered below, to what extent this environment could be
considered a metaphorical cultural ‘third space’.
(Some) characteristics of cultural third space (that is, how does it manifest?).
Participants’ level of:

Relaxation
Comfort
Ease with each other
Openness
Interest in each other
Comprehension
Empathy
Participants’ readiness to:

Listen
Dialogue
Accept
Share
Enjoy each other’s company
Other characteristics may be observed and added during the classroom
observation.
Reflection
After the analysis and description have been done, teachers can reflect on
how ‘successful’ the created third space was:
What worked?
What didn’t work?
What alterations could make it work better?
Aspects affecting success might include:
Group interaction patterns – group size, seating arrangements

Gender/culture/age mix of groups
Saliency of the teacher/observer (e.g. sitting at the back of the class, moni‑
toring groups, etc.)
Overall classroom configuration
Venue/environment: In a classroom? In a common room? Outside in a
garden or yard?
Sharing a meal/refreshment?
Playing a game or sport?
Reflection, followed by some reorienting of aspects such as these, should

help towards creating the aspirational cultural third space within which in‑
tercultural competence can flourish.
We close this section on cultural sensibilities with a colourful illustration
of one teacher’s management of these as described in this vignette, set in
the Amazon jungle:
Vignette 4.1: Managing cultural sensibilities in the

classroom
Several years ago, I taught members of the Achuar indigenous tribe in

the Amazonian jungle as a volunteer English teacher. I spent about six
months in one of their communities and the eco‑lodge nearby. My job
was to teach English to the hotel staff (local guides, bar and restaurant
staff, and boat drivers) as well as upper primary and secondary school
students in the community where I worked on the days when foreign
tourists (mainly Americans and Western Europeans) arrived at the hotel.
The fact that we had a regular influx of visitors from abroad (both
native and non‑native speakers of English) gave me the idea that I could
informally offer the tourists an extra activity beyond the jungle hikes
and the bird‑watching by the river bank. I invited them to join my
students for an English class to give them an idea about how languages
were taught in an environment where the students spoke Achuar at
home, were instructed in Spanish at school, learnt basic Kichwa as an
inter‑tribal language, and there was also a steady stream of volunteers
arriving to teach English. Providing English classes is a curricular re‑
quirement in the primary education system, but Ecuadorian English
teachers prefer to move to the cities rather than deep into the jungle
without basic necessities. That’s how I took the volunteering assign‑
ment and was flown into the jungle on a tiny Cessna plane above a sea
of broccoli – the treetops look exactly like that…
What struck me most was the fact that my students were very shy.
Not just the usual amount of shyness, but something deeper that
was not gender‑based: my male students were just as reluctant as the
females to speak up and look me in the eye. They looked down at
their naked feet and their words came out as whispers. I was aware of
the fact that looking down and speaking in a low voice were a sign
of respect, but I also knew that for the visitors whom these young
Achuar students were likely to meet at the eco‑lodge and or when
tourists came to visit, could be perceived as shiftiness and could result
in awkwardness owing to inaudibility in communication.
I had two quick solutions. I knew that my students would find it dif‑
ficult to look me in the eye because a strong gaze and direct eye contact
were unnerving for them. So, I said: “Look, I’d like to bring some visi‑
tors to our class, and they would find it awkward if you looked down
all the time or shifted your gaze to the window. I am going to mark a
point on the whiteboard behind my left shoulder, look at that point
when you talk to me, in this way, you can practice directing your gaze.
And when you meet a tourist, look at a point behind their left shoulder.
They won’t really notice the difference”.
Since I used to work for the BBC’s World Service, I also had a quick
tip for “low volume”. The student who had to talk was given a white‑
board marker and had to speak into that improvised microphone. “Turn
the volume up”, I would say, and funny enough, it worked.
I also had a sequence of activities that I often did with the visitors
who were made to take their seats facing the students sitting in their
heavy, cedar wood desks. The tourists were given a sheet of paper with
my students’ names on it and after a mini‑presentation, they had to
guess the number of brothers and sisters that each student had. The
guesswork was carried out in pairs, so the visitors had a chance to en‑
gage with one another. Most often, the foreigners seriously underes‑
timated the number of siblings; Achuar families often have 10 or 12
children, so in the upper grades that I was teaching many students had a
number of siblings. The guests were surprised by the declared numbers,
but so were my students, because in the next round it was the foreign‑
ers’ turn to give an account of their own brothers and sisters.
The final stage was personal communication. Class sizes were small,
so the tourists were able to sit down with a couple of students and talk
to them. Mobiles came out of pockets, with images of nuclear American
families, sceneries of snow‑capped mountains in Norway, and images of
high‑rise apartments from Hamburg. I stood at the back and was watch‑
ing them. As they looked at each other. In the eye.
Erzsébet Ágnes Békés (reproduced with permission).
Critical pedagogy
The indelible connection between foreign language teaching and historical
colonisation is evidenced by the very languages that have become lingua
francas – English, of course, as well as Spanish and French. This was brought
up in Part I. Hence a recurring concern in the book is about the degree to
which political and societal ideology filter into language learning course‑
books, and the need for a critical pedagogy perspective on them.
The capacity to perceive ideological influences on societies that are unfa‑
miliar and/or geographically distant is a natural factor of cultural distance.
For instance, we as authors from a Western or ‘global north’ perspective, might

detect this in language materials produced in Southeast Asia or South Amer‑
ica. We might observe examples of teachers self‑censoring or being censored
for perceived ‘malpractice’ as evidence of socio‑political influence (see anec‑
dotes on Malaysian and Sudanese contexts in Part I). Yet we need to recognise
the extent to which ‘Western’ ideologies permeate our curricula in the West
and the so‑called ‘global’ coursebooks produced here – and even leak further
afield. According to one of the Mexican participants in our research study:
One of the course’s plans is to get students to be more aware and criti‑
cal of intercultural affairs. When learning English, either as a second or
foreign language, the curriculum tends to reproduce a euro‑centrist view.
To reproduce this view means to show only one side of the story, it
is teaching a monocultural course. By listening to or reading the other
side of the story, the course can actually become intercultural. I take the
view that intercultural awareness cannot be possible if students are not
aware of the historical power imbalances that have existed for a long
time. Understanding the other means understanding their struggles and
their problems. It is moving away from discussing a visit to Disneyland
to discuss about social justice.
(P13, Mexico)
The teacher concludes by stressing the importance of “bring[ing] global

issues to the classroom critically in order to challenge learners’ biases and
challenge some privileged perspectives” (P13, Mexico).
In truth, as teachers, we can be unaware of the extent to which we
self‑censor to adhere to acceptable regional norms. Language teaching ma‑
terials and teachers in the West are today obliged to conform to a contempo‑
rary ‘woke’ ideology that contemporaneously, and somewhat paradoxically,
upholds diversity while intolerant of any opinion perceived as challenging
this. As McCarthy (2021, p. 10) wearily remarks: “What [teachers] do not
need is the imposition of fad, fashion, orthodoxy, uniformity and ideology”
(2021, p. 10).
Yet the ideological considerations that impact heavily on textbooks “have
received far too little critical examination” (Curdt‑Christiansen & Weninger
2015, p. xiii). There is still a tendency, it seems, to default to the position
that foreign language teaching is somehow an a‑political field, disregarding
“the ideological dimensions that underlie policies and practices” (Dendrinos,
2015, p. 30). While there is work in this area (indeed, Curdt‑Christiansen
and Weninger’s 2015 edited book addresses this), we agree that the ideo‑
logical element of language and culture learning is too often a glaring ‘miss‑
ing link’ in research in the field of language learning materials development.
Project 6: Critical pedagogy reflection: coursebook illustrations

Most of the materials evaluation and adaptation tasks we offered in Sets
A and D of Part II had elements of critical pedagogy, peeking behind the
‘cultural curtain’ of the textbooks we use to reveal the ideology at their core.
As discussed above, it is important for teachers to be aware of the societal
norms embedded within the textbooks they are using. Even – or perhaps
especially – where a particular textbook is mandated, awareness of its ideo‑
logical underpinnings, its ‘hidden curriculum’, gives the teacher a deeper
understanding of its potential impact on learners exposed to it. Broadly
speaking, educational approaches that incorporate the word ‘critical’ adopt
a view on instructional materials and education that challenges established
ideologies rather than conforming to them, and subjects these to analysis
and evaluation (Joseph Jeyaraj, Kiss, & Perrodin, 2024).
Here we suggest a simple but effective critical reflection for teachers to
use in their classroom textbooks.
Take a textbook produced within a specific culture but intended for in‑
ternational use. Choose a single page or a double‑page spread that is rich in
photos and/or images. Here, the single page of a British‑produced global
coursebook Headway Intermediate, also used in Activities 49 and 50 in
Part II, is used to illustrate the sort of analysis that might be conducted.
(The page is reproduced below as Figure 4.2 for convenience.) In this sam‑
ple, the procedure is to interrogate each picture for its underlying cultural
values and ideology and to (possibly) challenge these from the perspectives
of another culture.
The scene depicted in Picture (A), for example, implies that it is ‘right’
for people to go to the assistance of someone who has seemingly collapsed
in the street. Yet as Bill Browder describes in his book Red Notice (2015),
not so in Soviet Russia, where the assisting person/s can be seen as com‑
plicit in the other’s collapse.
The picture also suggests that it is appropriate for a young man to touch
a (prone) young woman. Is this the case in other cultures?
Picture (C) portrays a man in uniform seemingly helping the child he
is speaking to, implying an amicable relationship between authority and
the public. But are uniformed men benign in all cultures, particularly
in their dealings with young children? The critical pedagogy perspective
on this photo might be the power relationship projected in the book
between the establishment (represented by the person in uniform) and
the public.
FIGURE 4.2 Extract
from: Headway Intermediate Student’s Book, 5th Edition,
2019, p. 90
Student‑developed learning materials

In this book, we have adopted a CDST view of intercultural learning and
intercultural materials design. As such, it is important that we consider all
agents in the learning system that interact with each other and therefore
have the potential to contribute to emergent learning as a result of their

connectivity. Yet, one key agent in the literature of materials design and use
usually receives less attention: the learner. Although there is a wide array of
research projects that look into learner‑centred materials, there is very little
on how students (or teachers for that matter, as we note above) work with
materials. As Graves (2019, p. 339) writes, “we still know very little about
learners’ perceptions of or interaction with materials or the role materials
play in learning”. Probably one of the few studies on how students interpret
materials is Kiss and Weninger’s (2017) paper in which they asked students
from different cultural contexts to look at a textbook visual (a picture de‑
picting the Indian ‘Holi’ festival) and write down anything that comes to
their mind. They found that students create meanings at three levels: uni‑
versal meanings that reach across cultures, cultural and sub‑cultural mean‑
ings that are shared only among specific groups of people, and individual
meanings that are unique to an individual based on their personal experi‑
ences and histories. Kiss and Weninger (2017) argue that meaning is not
locked into the materials; it emerges through an active semiotic process
in which intended and actualised meanings may be different. The research
shows that learners are an active part of the learning ecosystem, they play a
key role in defining the value of materials in their context of use. It is their
individual and collective interaction with the materials that contributes to
the emergence of intercultural learning.
Yet, learners tend to be delegated to the simplified role of ‘users’ for
whom materials are designed. Their active contribution to the meanings ma‑
terials may carry is often neglected. Although Graves (2019, p. 340) argues
that the “relationship of the learners to the materials ranges from that of
consumers to that of creators”, research, if it considers students at all, tends
to focus on their ‘consumer’ role. In a recent collection of papers on materi‑
als development edited by Azarnoosh, Zeraatpishe, Faravani, and Kargozari
(2016), Issues in materials development, not a single chapter discusses learn‑
ers as designers of learning materials. The extent researchers tend to go to
is to consider learners as contributors to materials designed for them. This
could range from learner‑generated texts as the basis of classroom activities
to the use of visuals (videos and images) they create. One example of this
latter is Bao (2018) who argues that students should be given the oppor‑
tunity to create visuals as part of their learning and that “these personalised
visuals are worth embedding in coursebook activities for learners to enjoy,
comment, interpret and relate to their own thinking” (Bao, 2018, p. 200).
One ongoing research project (as of 2023) which investigates learners
as materials designers that the authors know of, is a project led by Sun‑
way University’s Centre for English Language Studies. The research is part
of a series of projects under the Sustainable Education initiative to look
into how the impact of the COVID‑19 pandemic could be mitigated across
economically disadvantaged communities in Asia. The research team that
includes researchers from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, India, and Nepal
is conducting an exploratory intervention study in which they look into
ELT teachers’ attitudes to student‑designed materials and they examine
the design process and use of student‑generated materials across cultural
boundaries. In the first phase of the project teachers’ views on the feasibility
of students designing materials for their own and their peers’ use were col‑
lected by a survey. The preliminary analysis of the data indicates that most
teachers consider their learners – many of whom come from disadvantaged
backgrounds – incapable of completing such a task. The most common
reasons they cite are in connection with (a) low language proficiency of the
learners (b) their lack of knowledge on how to design materials (c) access to
and price of resources needed to complete the task and (d) a lack of student
motivation they deem important for the successful completion of materi‑
als. In addition, they also note that materials design as a possible classroom
activity would take a lot of time and they would not be able to complete the
prescribed syllabus (Figure 4.3).
In the second phase of the research, a group of select EFL teachers were
approached in the participating countries to engage in a project where their
FIGURE 4.3 Students in Nepal working on the design of learning materials

learners designed multimodal learning materials. The reason for promoting

multimodality rather than materials that are mainly utilising linguistic/tex‑
tual design was to compensate for the lower proficiency level some students
may have and to acknowledge changes in literacy practices (New London
Group, 1996). Participating teachers were given training in multimodal
materials design as they were expected to assist and facilitate their learners’
projects. Unfortunately, during the pandemic, schools were closed in most
countries and some participants had difficulty in contacting their learners
which led to their dropping out of the project. Still, the research team re‑
ceived materials from four countries in different media (video, video + nar‑
ration, drawing, drawing + text, etc.), introducing the learners’ cultures and
offering language learning materials. The cultural aspect of the materials
was emphasised throughout the design process as the research team believes
that such materials would be interesting and engaging not only for learners
who come from a different cultural background but also for students whose
culture is used in the materials. Students from minority cultures do not
usually feature in globalised materials and can ultimately feel that they are
invisible. As the final phase of the project (mid‑2023), the materials are be‑
ing prepared for sharing with teachers and learners in the region. Materials
designed by Indonesian students have already been edited by teachers and
researchers and are waiting to be published, and other materials are also be‑
ing shared through personal networks.
The project above is an example of how classroom teachers can become
involved in AR with their learners and explore how their learners develop
materials that could be used for intercultural learning. Of course, in order to
save time, the procedures could be simplified and adapted to make sure they
are appropriate for the context in which they may be applied.
Project 7: Design of a learner‑generated materials project

As will be clear from the above, investigating the feasibility of involving
learners in the materials development process is a cutting‑edge area of re‑
search and can lend itself to AR.
This AR project proposal on learner‑generated materials is outlined in
terms of the research problems it needs to address:
1 Design a methodology that involves learners in materials development.

2 Devise instruments to observe and/or assess the impact of:
• Involvement with materials development with respect to learner en‑
gagement and contribution to learning.
• Response to using peer‑designed materials.
Problem 1, methodology design, would need to consider areas such as:
• Resources (e.g. from the Web, print material such as newspapers, maga‑
zines, or books) (if any) for the students to base their materials on.
• Classroom management e.g. students work in small groups or pairs.
• Sharing materials: e.g. on a class social media platform if there is one,
displayed on desks or boards in the classroom.
• Trialling materials among peers.
• Feeding back on materials.
Problem 2, instruments observing or assessing the degree of student

involvement with this activity, might work from the teacher or observer
perspective, or from the student perspective (self‑reporting via journals or
blogs, for instance). How students react to using the materials created by
their fellow students would likewise be self‑reporting.
As with all AR, post‑project reflection, together with a review of any as‑
sessment instruments used and of the learner‑generated materials themselves,
will offer rich insight into the degree of success of this learning concept.
Assessment of intercultural competence

Globalisation has brought about the internationalisation of education that
promoted standardised testing and examination procedures, for example,
the International General Certificate of Education (IGSCE) by Cambridge
Examinations or the International Baccalaureate (IB) by ibo.org. The same
trend is also noticed in global higher education institutions that offer Eng‑
lish Medium training all over the world, for example, the University of Not‑
tingham which has campuses in the UK, Malaysia, and China, issuing the
same degrees in all three settings. This brings us to the first problem: assess‑
ing intercultural competence.
The literature on intercultural learning agrees in general terms that in‑
tercultural competence can only be achieved through embracing a critical
stance in which a person questions their values, beliefs, knowledge (and
even identities). This is exemplified in the different new avenues to inter‑
cultural competence, like critical semiotic intercultural awareness (Dooly,
2011), a metacognitive approach (Dypedahl, 2018), or simply having
a “[c]ritical ability to question the implicit and explicit assumptions be‑
hind cultural claims and the power dynamics that they may be concealing”
(Breidenbach & Nyiri, 2009, p. 340). Yet as we have also noted above,
such criticality does not seem to be integrated into the languages curricula
(Moore & Díaz, 2019). If that is the case, then (inter)cultural learning can
be limited to cultural knowledge, at best.
Standardised assessment of intercultural learning can also be problematic

as it would be difficult to operationalise and measure concepts like ‘aware‑
ness’ which underlie it. Awareness is individual and learning starts with the
‘self’ (Ngai & Janusch, 2015), involving concepts such as ‘self‑awareness’,
‘self‑consciousness’, ‘self‑monitoring’ (Deardorff, 2004). As such, it is bound
to be different for individual learners, rendering standardisation somewhat
meaningless. Furthermore, when intercultural learning is viewed through
the lens of CDST, interculturality is deemed to be “a situationally emergent
and co‑constructed phenomenon” (Kecskes, 2011, p. 67). This means that
meanings that learners make are dependent on the context in which they
work and on the interactions that take place in the classroom. Therefore,
learning outcomes are unpredictable, a concept that current higher educa‑
tion curricula are struggling to accept and implement – along with other
CDS features – in their rather traditional and rigid structure.
Project 8: How competent are you?

Unfortunately, there are very few instruments available publicly that can
measure learners’ intercultural competence. Therefore, it is likely that you
need to develop your own if you would like to test your learners’ develop‑
ment. One possible way is to generate a list of ‘can do’ statements, simi‑
lar to those in the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR)
(Figure 4.4).
Project 9: Reflection on assessing intercultural competence

Given the challenges in assessing intercultural competence described above,
what we outline here is an informed teacher reflection on how to approach
such assessment.
A baseline ‘definition’ of intercultural competence drawing on the prin‑
ciples in this book would seem to be an essential starting point in this. As
implied in our intercultural learning objectives in our original framework
for the design of intercultural learning material (Part I), we see intercultural
skills as the ability to:
• Make connections between cultures

• Develop knowledge and awareness of cultures (one’s own and that of
others)
• respect cultural differences
• Reflect on and question cultural assumptions
• Delve beneath the surface of cultural behaviours
• Share experiences and empathise with (people from) other cultures
Strongly Slightly Un- Slightly Strongly

disagree disagree decided agree agree
I find unexpected and unfamiliar situations
- enjoyable
- challenging.
I help other members of the group solve
problems in ways that appeal to the other
group members.
I clearly state my position when a problem
occurs by criticism.
I adapt my working approach with others to
avoid conflicts.
When confronted with problems within a
group, I prefer to remain passive and let
others solve the conflict.
I am alert to the ways in which
misunderstanding between people might
arise through differences in speech, gestures
and body language.
I like to understand and get the meaning of
any misunderstandings in the groups I work
with.
I seek agreement in communication and ask
other members of the group to agree how
they will use certain expressions and terms.
I like to do some research in advance and get
some information when I plan to meet other
people from other countries.
I normally foresee the possible difficulties
and obstacles before an intercultural
encounter.
I normally foresee the possible difficulties
and obstacles before an intercultural
encounter.
When working with other people, I like to
suggest solutions, ideas, common objectives.
When working with other people, I inform
them about facts and about my own
experiences related to the matter.
When I am involved in group work, I try to
examine the connections between different
approaches and ideas.
I enjoy finding out more things about other
people's values, customs and practices.
I regard other people's customs and practices
as different from the norm.
I prefer to impose my point of view in a
group discussion: sometimes it is important
to dominate and clearly impose your will.
I try to understand and imagine other
people's thoughts and feelings.
I find it very difficult to see a situation
through another person's eyes.
I seek to reconcile the tensions in a group,
when they arise.
I check to see if the group members agree
with each other and try to clarify different
points of view.
When I'm entitled, I seek recognition and get
everybody's attention.
FIGURE 4.4 Survey to assess learners’ intercultural competence

Source: http://archive.ecml.at/mtp2/iccinte/results/en/assessing‑competence.htm
With the overall objective of achieving ‘critical cultural awareness’ which we

have defined as:
A broadened knowledge and understanding of cultures, both one’s own

and other people’s, and the capacity to analyse and perceive all of these
objectively and non‑judgmentally.
(Part I, p. 27)
Thinking about your own experience in the multicultural classroom, what

sort of mechanisms would be appropriate to use to assess intercultural com‑
petence as thus defined? Consider these options:
• Observing behaviours in real‑life intercultural situations:

If students are staying in the TL country, lodging with homestay fami‑
lies for example, the family might be asked to complete a reflection on
their guest’s performance (Deardorff, 2011).
• Observing behaviours in the intercultural classroom:

This would entail teacher observation and assessment of students’
performance in interactions in multicultural groups or dyads in the class‑
room, using evaluation grids based on intercultural skills inventories such
as ours above.
• Taking the learner perspective:

Arrange interviews and/or focus groups to gather students’ percep‑
tions of intercultural learning and intercultural competence.
Use surveys to ask students to self‑report on their own intercultural
competence with questions like: ‘to what degree do you accept the prac‑
tices of people from other cultures?’; ‘to what degree are you alert to
misunderstandings that can arise through differences in speech, gestures
and body language?’
Ask learners to produce reflective portfolios, journals, or blogs chart‑
ing their own evaluation of their intercultural competence development
journey.
Starting points for this, Deardorff suggests, might be writing prompts
such as: “I learned that… This is important because… As a result of this
learning, I will…” (2011, p. 75).
Use any combination of the above.

Reflect on any other forms of intercultural skills assessment inspired by
the above, or mechanisms that you have used or seen.
BOX 4.6: RESOURCES FOR INTERCULTURAL

ASSESSMENT
Deardorff, D. K. (2011). Assessing intercultural competence. New Directions

for Institutional Research, 149, 65–79. https://doi.org/10.1002/ir.381
Deardorff, D. K. (2015). How to assess intercultural competence. Research
methods in intercultural communication: A practical guide(pp. 120–134).
Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Conclusion
As can be seen by the number and range of suggested foci for further re‑
search above, this book has, in a way, generated as many questions as it
has answers. Yet this only serves to reinforce the dynamic nature of what is
involved in any educational endeavour. It is also a symptom of what a criti‑
cally evolving need for intercultural learning is – a relatively new field that
has been propelled into the educational foreground through unprecedented
movements and intermingling of global populations in very recent times.
References
Azarnoosh, M., Zeraatpishe, M., Faravani, A., & Kargozari, H. R. (Eds.). (2016).
Issues in materials development. Cham: Springer.
Bao, D. (2008). ELT materials used in Southeast Asia. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.),
English language learning materials: A critical review (pp. 263–280). London:
Continuum.
Bao, D. (2018). Fostering self‑expression: Learners create their own visuals. In
D. Bao (Ed.) Creativity and innovations in ELT materials development: Looking
beyond the current design (pp. 193–210). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Barrett, M. D., Huber, J., & Reynolds, C. (2014). Developing intercultural compe‑
tence through education. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.
Bastos, M., & Araújo e Sá, H. (2015). Pathways to teacher education for intercul‑
tural communicative competence: Teachers’ perceptions. The Language Learning
Journal, 43(2), 131–147.
Bauer, B., DeBenedette, L., Furstenberg, G., Levet, S., & Waryn, S. (2006). The
cultura project. In J. A. Belz & S. L.Thorne (Eds.), AAUSC issues in language
program direction: Internet‑mediated intercultural foreign language education
(pp. 31–62). Boston, MA: Heinle.
Benlaib, H. (2024). Teachers’ beliefs towards gender representation in the Algerian
EFL Textbooks. Case study: 1st year middle school EFL textbook. (Doctoral thesis).
University of Limerick.
Bolster, A. (2015). Materials adaptation of EAP materials by experienced teachers

(Part II). Folio, 16(2), 16–21.
Breidenbach, J., & Nyiri, P. (2009). Seeing culture everywhere: From genocide to con‑
sumer habits. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Burns, A. (1999). Collaborative action research for English language teachers. Cam‑
bridge: Cambridge University Press.
Burns, A. (2019). Action research in English language teaching: Contributions and
recent developments. In G. X. (Ed.), Second handbook of English language teach‑
ing (pp. 991–1005). Cham: Springer.
Burns, A., & Knox, J. S. (2011). Classrooms as complex adaptive systems: A rela‑
tional model. Tesl‑Ej, 15(1), 1–25.
Byram, M., & Feng, A. (2004). Culture and language learning: Teaching, research
and scholarship. Language Teaching, 37(3), 149–168.
Chapelle, C. A. (2010). If intercultural competence is the goal, what are the materi‑
als. Paper presented at the Proceedings of Intercultural Competence Conference.
CERCLL: The Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Lit‑
eracy, University of Arizona.
Cushner, K., & Mahon, J. (2009). Intercultural competence in teacher educa‑
tion. In D. Deardorff (Ed.), The SAGE handbook of intercultural competence
(pp. 304–320). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Deardorff, D. (2004). The Identification and Assessment of Intercultural Competence as
a Student Outcome of Internationalizations at Institutions of Higher Education in
the United States. (PhD). North Carolina State University, Raleigh. Retrieved from
https://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/bitstream/handle/1840.16/5733/etd.pdf ?
sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Deardorff, D. (2011). Assessing intercultural competence. New Directions for Insti‑
tutional Research, 2011(149), 65–79.
Deardorff, D. (2015). How to assess intercultural competence. In Z. Hua (Ed.), Re‑
search methods in intercultural communication: A practical guide (pp. 120–134).
Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Deardorff, D. (2018). Cross‐cultural competence. In Y. Y. Kim & K. McKay‑Semmler
(Eds.), The international encyclopedia of intercultural communication (pp. 1–6).
Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
Dendrinos, B. (2015). The politics of instructional materials of English for young
learners. In X. L. Curdt‑Christiansen & C. Weninger (Eds.), Language, ideol‑
ogy and education: The politics of textbooks in language education (pp. 29–49).
London: Routledge.
Dogancay‑Aktuna, S. (2005). Intercultural communication in English language
teacher education. ELT Journal, 59(2), 99–107.
Dooly, M. A. (2011). Crossing the intercultural borders into 3rd space culture (s):
Implications for teacher education in the twenty‑first century. Language and In‑
tercultural Communication, 11(4), 319–337.
Dypedahl, M. (2018). A metacognitive approach to intercultural learning in lan‑
guage teacher education. In Å. Haukås, C. Bjørke, & M. Dypedahl (Eds.),
Metacognition in language learning and teaching (pp. 48–66). London:
Routledge.
Elliott, J. (2019). What is lesson study? European Journal of Education, 54(2),
175–188.
Fonseca‑Greber, B. (2010). Social obstacles to intercultural competence in Ameri‑

ca’s language classrooms. In B. Dupuy & L. Waugh (Eds.), Proceedings of the Sec‑
ond International Conference on the Development and Assessment of Intercultural
Competence (pp. 102–123). Tucson: University of Arizona.
Graves, K. (2019). Recent books on language materials development and analysis.
ELT journal, 73(3), 337–354.
Guerrettaz, A. M., Engman, M., & Matsumoto, Y. (2021). Empirically defining lan‑
guage learning and teaching materials in use through sociomaterial perspectives.
Modern Language Journal, 105(S1), 3–20.
Guerrettaz, A. M., Grandon, M., Lee, S., Mathieu, C., Berwick, A., Murray, A., &
Pourhaji, M. (2018). Materials use and development: Synergetic processes and
research prospects. Folio, 18, 37–44.
Horii, S. Y. (2015). Creating a multilingual/multicultural space in Japanese EFL: A
critical analysis of discursive practices within a new language education policy. In
X. L. Curdt‑Christiansen & C. Weninger (Eds.), Language, ideology and educa‑
tion (pp. 159–176). London: Routledge.
Joseph Jeyaraj, J., Kiss, T., & Perrodin, D. D. (2024). Introduction. In Joseph Je‑
yaraj, T. Kiss, & D. D. Perrodin (Eds.), Critical pedagogies in English language
teaching and learning in Southeast Asia: Foundations, practices and possibilities.
Pulau Pinang: USM Press.
Kecskes, I. (2011). Intercultural pragmatics. In D. Archer & P. Grundy (Eds.),
Pragmatics reader (pp. 371–387). London: Routledge.
Kiss, T., & Weninger, C. (2017). Cultural learning in the EFL classroom: The role
of visuals. ELT Journal, 71(2), 186–196.
Larsen‑Freeman, D. (2021). A complex dynamic systems perspective to researching
language classroom dynamics. In H. Mohebbi & C. Coombe (Eds.), ``Research
questions in language education and applied linguistics (pp. 793–798). Cham:
Springer.
LaScotte, D. K., Mathieu, C. S., & David, S. S. (Eds.). (2022). New perspectives on
material mediation in language learner pedagogy. Cham: Springer Nature.
Leo, J. (2010). Education for intercultural understanding – Reorienting teacher
education to address sustainable development: Guidelines and tools. Bangkok: UN‑
ESCO Bangkok.
Levet, S. (2015). The cultura model: Developing students’ intercultural compe‑
tence. FLTMAG Retrieved from https://fltmag.com/the‑cultura‑model/
Levet, S., & Tschudi, S. L. (2021). 2 open by design: The cultura project. In S. B. Carl
& J. T. Joshua (Eds.), Open education and second language learning and teaching:
The rise of a new knowledge ecology (pp. 47–68). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Li, Z. (2020). Keeping an eye on language teachers’ ‘on‑the‑spot’ use of materials
in higher education in China. Folio, 20(1), 12‑18.
Maley, A., & Peachey, N. (2017). Integrating global issues in the creative English
language classroom: With reference to the United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals. London: British Council.
McCarthy, M. (2021). Fifty‑five years and counting: A half‑century of getting it
half‑right? Language Teaching, 54(3), 343–354.
Mebarki, K. (in progress). Investigating intercultural competence in the Algerian
High School EFL textbook ‘New Prospects’. (PhD Unpublished). University of Lim‑
erick, Ireland.
Moore, P. J., & Díaz, A. (2019). Conceptualizing language, culture and intercul‑
tural communication in higher education languages programs. Australian Re‑
view of Applied Linguistics, 42(2), 192–213.
Nelson, G. L. (1998). Intercultural communication and related courses taught in
TESOL masters’ degree programs. International Journal of Intercultural Rela‑
tions, 22(1), 17–33.
Ngai, P., & Janusch, S. (2015). Intercultural communication training for English
language teachers: A case study of an immersion program for South Korean
teachers. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 44(4), 345–368.
Ping, Q. (2018). Ideologies in primary English textbooks in China. In X. L.
Curdt‑Christiansen & C. Weninger (Eds.), Language, ideology and education: The
politics of textbooks in language education (pp. 163‑180). London: Routledge.
Prior, J., & Woodward, T. (2017). Sustainable development goal 5: Achieve gender
equality and empower all women and girls. In A. Maley & N. Peachy (Eds.),
Integrating global issues in the creative English language classroom: With reference
to the United Nations sustainable development goals (pp. 57–64). London: British
Council.
Rahim, A., & Daghigh, J. (2020). Locally‑developed vs. global textbooks: An evalu‑
ation of cultural content in textbooks used in ELT in Malaysia. Asian Englishes,
22(3), 317–331.
Sunderland, J. (2000). New understandings of gender and language classroom re‑
search: Texts, teacher talk and student talk. Language Teaching Research, 4(2),
149–173.
Tajeddin, Z., & Teimournezhad, S. (2015). Exploring the hidden agenda in the
representation of culture in international and localised ELT textbooks. The Lan‑
guage Learning Journal, 43(2), 180–193.
Thapa, S. (2020). Assessing intercultural competence in teacher education: A miss‑
ing link. In H. Westerlund, S. Karlsen, & H. Partti (Eds.), Visions for intercul‑
tural music teacher education (pp. 163–176). Cham: Springer.
UNESCO. (2014). Global citizenship education: Preparing learners for the challenges
of the 21st century. Paris: UNESCO.
Yahya, R., & Wood, E. A. (2017). Play as third space between home and school:
Bridging cultural discourses. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 15(3),
305–322.
Young, T. J., & Sachdev, I. (2011). Intercultural communicative competence: Ex‑
ploring English language teachers’ beliefs and practices. Language Awareness,
20(2), 81–98.
Zhou, X. V., & Pilcher, N. (2019). Revisiting the ‘third space’in language and inter‑
cultural studies. Language and Intercultural Communication, 19(1), 1–8.
CONCLUSION
The premise underlying this book is that intercultural competence is far

more than just a language issue. It is a universal concern that impacts how
we view and communicate with each other within and across international
boundaries, cultures, and continents. We would go as far as to argue that
it goes further, transcending intercultural communication to touch on
broader global concerns about how we interact with and treat not only fel-
low humans but the planet we all share. In fact, this connection is realised in
the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs), set out in 2015,
designed to end poverty and fight injustice and inequality within the frame-
work of climate action. Among these goals, we see (as Goal 4) inclusive and
equitable quality education and the promotion of lifelong learning. Indeed,
education is surely key to addressing the other SDGs. The workbook, In-
tegrating global issues in the creative English language classroom: With refer-
ence to the United Nations sustainable development goals (Maley & Peachey,
2017) mentioned earlier, seeks to do just that, situating the SDGs squarely
within the education curriculum via a CLIL (Content and Language In-
tegrated Learning) approach. We thus see how intercultural competence,
fitted within this broader, global development agenda, expands into ‘global
citizenship skills’, skills which oil the wheels of communication between and
among the international community. As we noted in Part I and elsewhere,
this notion of global citizenship has gradually moved centre stage in educa-
tion and – to pursue the metaphor – can be seen to form the backdrop to
this book.
With the global citizen in our sights, therefore, we started, in Part I,
with the theoretical underpinnings to the sorts of skills requisite for such
DOI: 10.4324/9781032651385-5
242 Conclusion
citizenship; theories chiefly to do with culture, the relationship between cul‑

ture, language and identity, and intercultural competence. We then looked
at how far the notion of intercultural competence as we conceive it today
is influenced by contemporary phenomena such as globalisation, multicul‑
turalism, and the digital revolution. In the book’s introduction, we had
noted shortcomings in fostering intercultural skills in the educational field
where we would expect them; language learning coursebooks. We observed
that rather than enhancing understanding of different cultures, they often
(unintentionally, one would assume) reinforce cultural essentialism and

‘othering’. As a means to address this, in the second section of Part I, we
describe mechanisms for critical evaluation of coursebooks with r espect to
their intercultural content; methodological tools to analyse content, discourse,
and – so important in today’s heavily‑illustrated coursebooks – semiotics.
Moving on to intercultural materials development per se, we add an innova‑
tive twist to the principles and frameworks we propose for this – complex
dynamic systems theory. For, we argue, of all the learning environments, the
intercultural classroom is the most unpredictable and thus acutely ‘dynamic’.
The materials development framework given in the conclusion of Part I is
thus conceived as a flexible guide underpinned by CDST principles; the
need to stimulate reflection, curiosity, flexibility, tolerance and collective
knowledge‑sharing with respect not only to an understanding of the inter‑
cultural, but to the learning process itself.
The next part of the book, Part II, operationalised the theory and prac‑
tices and the proposed materials development framework described in Part
I, to provide a substantial set of intercultural teaching materials. An essential
point here is the sensitivity of the area we venture into with intercultural
learning, especially as the students involved in it may have been displaced
from their country of origin by geo‑political strife. Awareness‑raising in
the practitioners themselves was therefore seen as the crucial first, ‘sensi‑
tising’ step to their using intercultural materials with their learners, and
the first set of materials, Set (A), fosters critical materials evaluation skills.
Also, with the practitioner in mind is Set (C), Materials development tasks;
here we stress the importance of such factors as gauging learner disposi‑
tion to learning and building up trust, and we suggest how these can be
factored into activities. We contend in the next set of activities, coursebook
adaptation, Set (D), that adaptation in fact blends with a teacher’s media‑
tion of the coursebook – and that all teachers adapt the coursebook and
are, indeed, more creative than they might realise. We see the centrepiece
of Part II as Set (B), however – a broad suite of intercultural activities for
classroom use. These employ a plethora of pedagogical strategies; role‑play‑
ing, story‑telling, games, use of realia, online research and even cooking, to
Conclusion 243
spark understanding of the intrinsic paradox of the intercultural; the symbi‑

otic relationship between diversity and universality.
Part III uses vignettes drawn from our 2020–2021 international survey
on practitioner use of intercultural materials to illustrate how intercultural
materials are, and can be, integrated into the learning curriculum across the
full gamut of educational and language proficiency levels.
Like similar works in our field with a ‘research and practice’ agenda, the
overarching shape of the book might be conceived as roughly an ‘action re‑
search’ format. It is cyclical, consisting of testing proposed theories, homing
in on devising and observing practice, and, in its final part, Part IV, propos‑
ing new avenues for research that have sprung from the rest of the book.
That learning as dynamic, flexible, and ultimately unpredictable has been
a leitmotif of the book. While the imperative for the book was our recog‑
nition of how increasingly important intercultural understanding is in the
world of today, and our intended readership is practitioners, researchers,
and academics in the field of language and cultural studies, we would be
excited to think that the book reached further afield touching other disci‑
plines, contexts, and readerships.
References
Maley, A., & Peachey, N. (2017). Integrating global issues in the creative
English language classroom: With reference to the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals. London: British Council.
Conclusion
Maley, A. , & Peachey, N. (2017). Integrating global issues in the creative English language
classroom: With reference to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. London:
British Council.

Freda Mishan &amp; Tamas Kiss - Developing Intercultural Language Materials-Routledge (2024)

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Freda Mishan &amp; Tamas Kiss - Developing Intercultural Language Materials-Routledge (2024)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

DEVELOPING INTERCULTURAL

Developing Intercultural Language Materials puts intercultural competence

Tamas Kiss works as an associate professor at Sunway University, Centre

Research and Resources in Language Teaching is a groundbreaking se‑

Becoming a Reading Teacher

Pragmatics in Language Teaching

Developing Intercultural Language Materials

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/

Freda Mishan and Tamas Kiss

ISBN: 9781032651354 (hbk)

Part I From research to implications 1

Section 2: Analysing intercultural materials 35

Part II From implications to application 65

13. Culture iceberg 89

42. Working with dynamic change and feedback

Part III From application to implementation 159

11. Create an environment based on openness and

Part IV From implementation to research 203

Project 4: Researching gender balance in the

Not remotely concerned

meetings, online schooling, and socialising with family and friends. An

About the series

About the books

Part I: From Research to Implications

Part II: From Implications to Application

About this book

The authors and publishers acknowledge the following sources of copyright

speak. In fact, it is the shortcomings in – and indeed shortage of – materials

Outline of the book

of institutional support for the teaching of intercultural competence skills in

Intercultural competence in language teaching

The writer(s) of the textbook must try to avoid representations of cul‑

by Risager (2018) were that the representations of culture in the textbooks

Sociocultural materials, they are the products of complex, selective processes

Given this ideological burden, it is perhaps, unsurprising that the produc‑

As this example illustrates, this type of simplification represents an essential‑

An example is in English File (2019, p. 20) in which a text on the Ugandan

Observing cultural treatment like this in language coursebooks (even, one

Norton, J., & Buchanan, H. (2022). Versioning coursebooks. In J. Norton &

It might be pointed out that the terminology (‘local’) is itself somewhat

they are produced, making them de facto sociocultural materials. As such,

Section 1: Core concepts and influences

• Globalisation, multiculturalism, and nationalism

We start, however, by exploring the concept underpinning the central con‑

Towards a conceptualisation of ‘culture’

(and affective) representation of its constituents; “culture is not a material

So while concepts like nation, country, citizenship, heritage, ethnicity, lan‑

Culture, language, and identity

Language is not simply a reflector of an objective cultural reality. It is

Barkhuizen, G., & Strauss, P. (2020). Communicating identities. United King‑

We have observed that simplifying cultural identity as a homogeneous and

One such category is Third Culture Kids (TCK) or Global Nomads

and internationalisation of today’s world, makes cultural awareness more

Intercultural communication and L2 identity

The context for intercultural competence

Multiculturalism … defends the idea that the societal institutions need to

For how this traditional model of multiculturalism fared, we can look to

today a common connotation of multiculturalism is a negative one, placing

Models of integration have, moreover, been stress‑tested by the 21st

This perspective is vividly expressed by one of the protagonists in the novel

The result of neo‑nationalist social policy agendas influencing government

Education in the 21st century

Globalisation increased the movement of trained professionals across the

of ethical principles underscoring the connection between democracy, social

Freda Mishan & Tamas Kiss - Developing Intercultural Language Materials-Routledge (2024)

Freda Mishan & Tamas Kiss - Developing Intercultural Language Materials-Routledge (2024)

Part I From research to implications 1

Part II From implications to application 65

42. Working with dynamic change and feedback

Part III From application to implementation 159

11. Create an environment based on openness and

Part IV From implementation to research 203

Project 4: Researching gender balance in the

FIGURE 1.1 Model of ICC (Byram, 1997, p. 73)

FIGURE 1.2 A+ASK Model: Dimensions of Intercultural Competence (Fantini,

FIGURE 1.3 Revised Bloom’s taxonomy of the cognitive domain based on An‑

FIGURE 1.4 Taxonomy of the affective domain of learning (Krathwohl et al., 1964)

7 Provide opportunities to share d Ask learners to present and iv Provide opportunities to

TABLE 2.1 Framework for intercultural materials development: learning objectives/

1 Make connections between 8 Greetings

4 Deepen knowledge and awareness 9 Intercultural handball