Intercultural Competence in Tertiary Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language: Analysis of an Innovative Learning Task

This chapter presents the findings of a project designed to support development of student intercultural competence and critical thinking, innovative in the context of undergraduate Chinese language study.

An 'intercultural' approach to language learning has been widely encouraged in contemporary foreign language learning in Australian, North American and European contexts, at primary, secondary and tertiary levels (Kramsch, 2006; Scarino, 2000). As an integral part of language acquisition, students need to acquire habits of critical thinking about cultures, or 'intercultural competence'. Within student language learning, learners may develop intercultural competence through having structured opportunities to critically observe a cultural practice or particular language usage, and negotiate meaning across cultural boundaries. The chapter presents a description of a teaching intervention which took place in a second year Chinese language unit. Data comprised student reflective journals and focus group interviews. Analysis of the data showed that students found the intervention workshop and the ensuing tasks, consisting of intercultural language teaching, and journal writing, to be useful in facilitating heightened intercultural awareness. Furthermore, it raises the profile of intercultural competence as a critical language learning outcome, aligned with current initiatives in the tertiary sector, in the commitment to exchange opportunities and internationalisation.