Working with new forms of online engagement: the challenges of web residency

from paper presented at BAAL IC SIG Annual Seminar:Language Teaching and Language Learning, University of Edinburgh, March 2014. The main aim of the talk is to explore the role of (critical) cultural awareness in teachertraining pedagogies. Based on the assumption that language teachers want to develop theirstudents’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC), it behoves the teacher trainer todiscover what constitutes effective and appropriate communication (Spencer-Oatey andFranklin 2009) in the context(s) within which the future teachers will operate, and to evaluateteacher training pedagogies accordingly. There has been a long-held tendency within thecommunicative language teaching approach to regard the Native Speaker as the model forjudging appropriateness (Byram 1997), as well as a type of methodological imperialismwhich assumes that the approach is an effective one on which to base teacher training courses. The pilot study on which the talk is based questions these premises. Within the modifiedcommunicative language teaching approach adopted on an MA in ELT teacher trainingmodule, the envisaged location(s) of the trainees’ future teaching and the roles of teachersand students are considered. Moreover, the teacher trainer encourages cultural awareness andreflection by providing a balance of challenge and support in feedback (Hua 2014). Based onthe provisional outcomes of the study, the implication for teachers-in-training and the ICC oftheir future students is that (critical) cultural awareness should be an essential part of anyteacher training pedagogy. ReferencesByram, M. (1997) Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. Clevedon:Multilingual MattersHua, Z. (2014) Exploring Intercultural Communication: Language in Action. London: RoutledgeSpencer-Oatey, H. and P. Franklin (2009) Intercultural Interaction: A Multidisciplinary Approach toIntercultural Communication. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Gender in the language of the British liberal press: Beta males and why sometimes it’s hard to be a woman