To what extent do learning tasks promote intercultural communicative competence? - A study of EFL textbooks aimed at Norwegian lower secondary level.

Abstract

The current master thesis is written in the field of English didactics and aims to investigate the extent of learning tasks promoting intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in EFL textbooks. We live in a world where intercultural encounters are unexceptional. These encounter are a result of the increased use of social media, the Internet, travelling as well as the multicultural society, where people with different backgrounds, beliefs and values live side by side. These factors have increased the need for the development of ICC among pupils, both in social life as well as in their future professional life. As research on learning materials used in Norwegian schools has found that textbooks and individual learning tasks are frequently utilised in the EFL classroom, this became the primary motivation for investigating learning tasks and how these promote ICC.

Three Norwegian EFL textbooks aimed at lower secondary level have been included in this thesis, with focus on analysing learning tasks connected to the US and South Africa. The theoretical background for this thesis includes a discussion of ICC and its importance in the Norwegian education. Byram’s model of ICC (1997) is the primary fundament of this thesis, and the analysis of the learning tasks are based on criteria modified from his model. In this study, learning tasks addressing aspects and objectives from Byram’s model are identified as learning tasks that promote ICC.

The findings of this study show that almost half of the learning tasks under investigation are identified as promoting ICC. The learning tasks identified address four out of the five aspects represented in Byram’s model, and seven out of the nine objectives included from the model. However, the findings also show that there is an unbalanced distribution of learning tasks addressing different elements that are of importance for pupils when developing ICC. The findings show that the analysed learning tasks particularly emphasises the ‘knowledge’-aspect in Byram’s model. This implies that a large proportion of the learning tasks addresses issues related to factual knowledge of culture; that is, the tasks do not require the use of reason, reflection or interpretation, as the answers are usually provided in the associated texts. Learning tasks addressing other aspects from Byram’s model, which are of importance when developing ICC, are therefore less emphasised and represented in the investigated textbooks.