Development of Intercultural Competences

The 26th of November, our UIUC mates were in holidays, so we had the pleasure to have a guest lecturer in class, Kaisa Hahl's. The seminar was about the development of intercultural competences. I would like to highlight that after reading her article I could clarify some ideas about what intercultural competences were. 

In general, I found this seminar really interesting since it was the first time that I could immerse myself in this topic. At the same time, I found it a little bit difficult sometimes because some ideas were new and abstract for me. Nevertheless, I would like to mention some key points that I learnt thanks to this class and I strongly believe that are really relevant for my future as a language teacher because nowadays there are normally several students from different linguistic backgrounds in schools.  

1. Teachers should not take for granted intercultural competences. They should plan when and how they will implement them in their lessons.

2. We can't think that multicultural and intercultural are the same. On the one hand, the first one only needs a group of people with different linguistic backgrounds. On the other hand, intercultural means that there is also an interaction inside the group.

3. The purpose of intercultural education is awaken the students' curiosity and interest in the importance of intercultural issues and make students consider their own prejudices, stereotypes, and behavior to deal with them in multicultural situations.

4. From my humble point of view, I assume that everyone has some prejudices or stereotypes in their minds. However, if we are teachers, we should avoid making explicits these prejudices and stereotypes to students.

Here you have two videos that I found in Youtube which criticize in a humorous way the prejudices that normally people have depending on citizen's background and culture. Enjoy it!

Moreover, to know more about intercultural competence click here (It's a fantastic article by Unesco!).

"Every effort has its rewards"

NEW KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ASSESSMENT

To see my reading assignment, please click here.

EXIT SLIPS

 

THE TRUTH

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR KIDS

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND this website to use it with kids in primary schools. I did not know about this tool before, and when I had the opportunity in class to explore it, I actually felt like a little girl excited   with a new present. This is because this webpage encourages the user to interact, investigate, and become a little scientist thanks to its awesome interface and content.

THE BIG PICTURE

During my last three years of Primary Education degree, I have been taught the general ideas about planning a teaching sequence. However, I had never studied in depth the steps that I need to follow to plan a project, and even less, the steps needed before implementing a project enhanced by technology. Hence, I really appreciate all the material provided by our professor related with planning a TEPBLL, because I strongly believe that it is really useful for my future as a language teacher. 

From my humble point of view, I can not highlight one specific theoretical aspect that was new for me because everything helped me a lot to understand the TEPBLL concept that has appeared in my mind so many times since I started this subject. That's why I have created a powerpoint explaining step by step, the process that we should follow before implementing a TEPBLL (based on the materials provided in the blog, the discussions in class and my personal thoughts).

False alarm!!!

This was my face when Melinda told us: "Today, we are going to do an exam" 

 ( A SURPRISE EXAM!!! ).

 My main feelings at that moment were:

When I had the exam in my hands, I started to feel a little bit more relax and happy (just a bit!) since I read the questions and I realized that I could answer several aspects that were asked. So that, I felt somehow proud of myself because all my previous work had a positive result in my learning process. But I still felt nervous...

Suddenly, we were told to make pairs in order to continue with the exam and try to widen our answers. I was really surprised because everything was really strange!! But at the same time, I started to feel more relaxed and happy. When I was with my mate doing the exam, we were really concentrated on the questions and I felt self-confident. We had a lot of ideas thinking together and we made a lot of effort in order to fill in all the questions of the exam.Thanks to this type of interaction, I made a big effort  thinking in all the contents and it helped me a lot to finally embraced several aspects related with the big picture. Moreover, the ideas and thoughts of my mate were really useful to widen my knowledge. So I actually think that it was really useful!

These are some examples of the exam questions that we could answer after a fantastic discussion between us:

Finally, we were told to make groups of 4 in order to continue with the exam. In that moment, I realized that it was a "false" exam. At that point, my mates started to feeling demotivated because we detected that each pair had the solutions of the exam of the other pair and vice versa. So that, I began to feel really bored. Referring to this type of interaction, I strongly believe that it was not as useful as the previous mentioned.

 THEN, IT WAS NO MORE A CHALLENGE... 

"Although this false exam got on my nerves, I believe that it has been really useful to embrace several aspects and realize that I am actually LEARNING"

 

Jibjab

Last day in class, I had the opportunity to explore this fantastic tool called Jibjab. I did not know about this program before and it really impressed me. I strongly believe that it is a good tool to use for telecollaboration, as it highlights the social factor.

If we are implementing a TEPBLL that involves partners from other parts of the world, Jibjab can be a good tool to present ourselves to our peers in a funny, motivating and creative way. Thus, in spite of making a video of presentation, we can elaborate an eCard choosing the topic or the characters thar we prefer, adding a message to this card and sending it to our mates. Moreover, it could be used to wish a happy celebration such as Christmas, Halloween, birthday, etc.

Furthermore, it could be a fantastic tool to create a warm atmosphere between the two groups of pupils since the can put their faces together in the eCards, so they are not actually together (they only see each other through a screen) but it seems so.

The only disadvantage that I can find is that the majority of videos or e-cards are not free. So that, if we want to create something free, we will have very few and limited options to choose.

Now, you will see an example of an e-card that I have created to wish a happy graduation:

Stressful moments

 I need to recognize that I've had days of stress and frustration, and today is one. I believe that the main problem is that I am used to traditional methods that are teacher-centered. Thus, the teacher explains the lesson and the theoretical aspects, and then we practice it. However, this course is totally different since it is student-centered. So that, we are responsible of looking for the information (which is normally on the blog) and understanding it. In other words, we are responsible of our learning process.

I am not against of this methodology, but it makes me feel frustrated, stressed and sometimes lost, because if I don't have a professional who explains me the theoretical part, I feel insecure. I don't know if I'm understanding everything well or if I'm missing some important aspect. Furthermore, I would like to point out that my intention is not to underestimate the moments where we share knowledge with our mates, because they are really useful to organize the ideas and meet other points of view and opinions, but for me it is inevitable to have these kind of feelings sometimes.

Nevertheless, I hope that I'm going to get use to this methodology during this course. I need to trust more myself, and believe that I'm going to achieve all my goals.