Reading short stories to develop international communication skills: A case study: Third year LMD students UMMTO
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Date
2019-03-20
Authors
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Publisher
Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi-Ouzou
Abstract
This thesis is concerned with “Reading Short Stories to Develop International Communication Skill.” By doing this, the aim is to unveil the extent to which the reading of the short stories enhance the learners’ Intercultural Communicative Competence and Intercultural Sensitivity besides to the connection of them to the intercultural development. Looking at these short stories as cultural discourses which foster intercultural competence, it focuses on key issues such as culture, Intercultural Communicative Competence and Intercultural Sensitivity which are very important in for the construction of learners’ ICC and IS, these lead to a third space which arise the learners development of intercultural competence. The intercultural approach provides a comprehensive evaluation which carters for the cultural content represented at the level of the short stories. This study is addressed to undergraduate (Third Year LMD) students at the University of Tizi-Ouzou, who are programmed in a Reading lesson that lasted three weeks. It combines two outstanding theories of Intercultural competence which are Respectively Byram’s model of Intercultural Communicative Competence (1997) and Bennett’s Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (1993). Interacting effectively and appropriately with members of other cultures and developing intercultural competence in language learners is highly recommended. Therefore, an effective intercultural interaction involves both knowledge of that culture and the ability to maintain a conversation with English speakers. In view of that, to involve students into the English speaking cultures, among other alternatives, one possible way is suggested to cover the existing gap between the learning of language and culture and this is through reading short stories. This study hypothesizes that the intercultural approach to reading short stories facilitates the development of the learners’ intercultural communicative competence which includes cultural knowledge, skills and cultural awareness.
The results obtained reveal how the cultural contextualization embodied in the short stories affect and enhanced both the students’ intercultural communicative competence and intercultural sensitivity. They show that more than half of the learners (80%) show their willingness to acquire new cultural knowledge. Beside to an improvement of language proficiency, the students reflected a certain cultural knowledge. They, somehow, developed skills to interpret and relate cultural difference as well. Therefore, they enriched their Intercultural Communicative Competence. However, the learners showed their sensitivity toward the English speaking cultures which is reflected in the short stories. More than 50% of the learners remain in an ethnocentric orientation in the intercultural sensitivity continuum. They demonstrated their inability to accept the flagrant difference between the two cultures
Description
125p.; 30 cm.; (+CD-Rom)
Keywords
Short stories, International Communication Skills, Students, Cultural contextualization
Citation
Teaching Literature and civilization texts