Linguistic and cultural immersion and Reflective Intercultural CompetenceEAIE – Prague, 18 September 2014This project has been funded with support from the

European Commission.

Elena Cellai - UlisseJules Bella Owona- SIS

Nadine Rombert Trigo – UFPAntonia Pérez Bolívar – CELEI

This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot

be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained

therein.

EUFICCS: European Use of Full Immersion, Culture, Content, Service approach for Language Learning, is a project co-financed by the European Union through the Lifelong Learning Programme – Key Activity 2 Languages (November 2011-October 2014)

The project is developed by 4 institutions with long experience in providing language training in their national languages and strong pedagogical, intercultural and teaching expertise:

The EUFICCS project

Associazione Culturale Ulisse and Siena Italian Studies (SIS) – Italy;

Universidade Fernando Pessoa (UFP) – Portugal;

Centro de Lenguas y Educación Intercultural (CELEI)– Spain.

EUFICCS aims at contributing to motivate

language learners and enhance their capacity to

learn more efficiently the language of the

country where they study, train or work, in order

to allow them to acquire the knowledge of a

second language and culture and become social

actors of the host culture

AIM

WHAT IS EUFICCS?

EUFICCS (European Use of Full-Immersion: Culture Content & Service) is the union of guided and spontaneous acquisition of a second language in order to develop Reflective Intercultural Competence through the components of its acronym and the employment of Reflective Writing.

Guided full immersion into the language and the local community

An immediate intensive contact with the local language, cultural habits and routines by living with locals

A first phase of intensive language courses to quickly get the basics

A second phase of ordinary language courses coupled with academic courses in the local language

Volunteer activity in a local association/institution with students having to deal with specialized language

Participation with locals in cultural and artistic activities and events

Exploration of different areas to discover diversity within the country

For EUFICCS, culture can be described as a SPIDER WEB supporting all forms of expressions and experiences.

Like a spider, students weave their own web in order to arrive to and connect the various aspects of reality surrounding them, gauging themselves with the difficulties that they face (the web could break, the strings could be weak) and successes that they encounter (the web is strengthened, allowing them to grasp and keep information to be studied).

CULTURE

Different academic disciplines and their contents (e.g. art history, literature, business, social studies etc.) are taught in the second language through Non Level Concept (NOLC): in content classes, students sit together, irrespective of their linguistic level

CONTENT

Similarities can be found with the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach which is an educational approach to teaching and learning where subjects are taught in non-native language.However 2 fundamental points distinguish NOLC and CLIL:

1) CLIL functions in foreign language context while NOLC functions in second language context.

2) CLIL works in classes with more homogeneous proficiency while NOLC works in classes with more heterogeneous proficiency

CONTENT

STRATEGIES FOR NON-LEVEL CONCEPT Initial content linguistic input A2 or B1 CEFR level, yet

making available material to students with higher language proficiency and/or knowledge of the subject.

Specific didactic materials elaborated by the teacher and selected according to the class interests/progresses.

Ability of teacher to convey complex contents and concepts: this does not mean to over-simplify or handle them in a reductive way, difficult topics may be explained in simple words using simple sentence structures but maintaining technical terminology

Glossary with the specific terms of the sector built up by the students class after class and reviewed by the teacher

Peer-to-peer learning (activities in pairs, small groups, studying together etc.).

CONTENT

Participation in voluntary service activities (with immigrants, assisting teachers at school, offering company to elderly and disabled people, etc.) in agencies of the host community

SERVICE

The previous four dimensions are cross-cut by a fifth dimension, the practise of REFLECTION, as a means to develop Reflective Intercultural Competence (RIC).

Since 2008 SIS and Ulisse faculties have developed an assessment tool, RICA, to measure this unique competence . The tools has been adopted by all the EUFICCS partnersas a

REFLECTION

1. Course book - one for each target language - related to the theme of “Migrations and Mobility”, based on the NOLC (6 didactic units, realized as an e-book)

2.Teacher handbook – one for each target language - containing indications for teachers of language and academic courses in order for them to know how to organize their classes and understand their role in the EUFICCS methodology

3.Guidelines (in English) to use EUFICCS in further European languages

The EUFICCS project: the products

The EUFICCS partnership will continue the development of EUFICCS, also through a new proposal to submitted under the Erasmus Plus 2014-2020 Programme

New partners from different countries participating in the Erasmus Plus Programme

FUTURE OF THE EUFICCS PROJECT

1)Extending EUFICCS to further language families for the learning and teaching of other languages as second languages;

2)Providing instructors (internal and external to the partnership) with specific training for the execution of the different components of the EUFICCS methodology and the introduction into their institutions’ offering;

3)Building an online platform to allow teachers and students to carry out a process of Reflection and acquisition of the Reflective Intercultural Competence through the e-learning didactic

FUTURE THE EUFICCS PROJECT:

A specific competence gained through a structured and guided reflection process. It implies a conscious elaboration of intercultural encounters thus allowing a full engagement of the student who – hopefully – become a social actor in the host culture

Reflective Intercultural Competence (RIC)

Reflection represents the link between experience and learning, uniting the two opposite poles of acquisition -academic and experiential- which are combined using the EUFICCS methodology.

Through reflection the student creates his/her own understanding with an intercultural perspective.

Reflection also serves as an antidote to intercultural stress.

Reflection while immersed in the C2

Although reflection is an individual process, it is guided and structured in our Reflective Writing course.

Class meets once a week during which the students share journal entries with the instructor and their peers concerning their studies, service and overall experience.

The journal entries provide data on the RIC developmental levels of the students.

Reflective Writing Class

In the RW Class the role of the instructor is a delicate one and implies a deep cultural sensitivity.

The instructor is a key reference point and represents the social actor par excellence. He/she is the perfect bridge between two cultures and, even better, has a multicultural identity himself/herself

He/she facilitates the encoding/decoding of all cultural signs of the C2.

The role of the Reflective Writing Instructor

Reflective Intercultural Competence Assessment Model analyzes the development of RIC through the FICCS approach and then the EUFICCS methodology

Having defined RIC as a distinctive competence, there is a necessity for a specific assessment tool in order to evaluate the development of RIC.

The RICA model follows the tradition of developmental models such as DMIS (Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity) by J. Bennett & M. Bennett (1986). In these models “as one’s experience of cultural difference becomes more complex and sophisticated, one’s potential competence in intercultural relations increases” (Bennett J. and Bennett M. “Developing Intercultural Sensitivity” in Handbook of Intercultural Training (2004). p. 152)

The RICA model (F. Biagi – L. Bracci)

Service-learning students proceed in the development of RIC at a faster pace since they are stimulated by a much deeper and sustained engagement in the C2.

Thus far approximately 100 journals have been analyzed which can confirm this hypothesis.

The RICA hypothesis

Pre-contact (1)

Contact (2)

Culture Shock (3)

Superficial Understanding (4)

Deep Understanding (5)

Social Acting (6)

Glocal Acting (7)

The core levels of RICA

Students are immersed (physically and/or mentally) in their own culture and they can have different perceptions about the C2: prejudice, negative and positive stereotypes, total lack of exposure, lack of interest, strong excitement for the new adventure, positive expectations…

1. Pre-contact

Students have a first superficial contact with the C2, it is mostly a phase of observation where students can be anchored to their own culture at different degrees.

2. Contact

It “is precipitated by the anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse” (K. Oberg, 1954)

Students manifest contrasting emotions and feelings such as euphoria, disorientation, fear, rejection of their own culture C1 and/or the C2, etc.

There can be times of frustration mostly due to language barriers and to the difficulty to adapt..

3. Culture shock

Students dwell in a sort of limbo where they start to notice and reflect upon the most obvious cultural differences; they can show proper cultural behaviors in the form of routines and automatic and subconscious acts, and begin to deconstruct stereotypes regarding the C2.

There can continue to be some frustration due to language barriers and due to the difficulties in adaptation, as seen in level 3. .

4. Superficial understanding

Students can show several attitudes based on their personalities, expectations and previous experiences such as flexibility, respect, appreciation, suspension of judgment, overcoming of some prejudices.

Sometimes a new perspective about their background and past experiences in their own culture can result.

Often the student comes to feel “at home” also in the C2, acknowledging a developing dual/ “plurima” identity.

Also, a growing sensitivity for differences within the C2 might be developed, as well as a sensitivity for differentiating among various C2s..

5. Deep understanding

The full achievement of RIC. When the student reaches this stage, he/she changes his/her role. He/she is not a spectator anymore but he/she becomes an actual actor on stage of the C2, spanning different cultures and multicultural identities.

Therefore, in this stage the competence becomes a fully active one and the final transformation of knowledge into competence takes place.

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6. Social Acting

Upon further reflection, a seventh level has been developed that encompasses a further and long-term achievement of RIC, which can be described in the following paragraph. It should be noted that the achievement of this level of RIC is extremely rare and we have not had the possibility to witness this level among our students thus far.

Glocal Acting: Students exhibit a multicultural personality: they are aware of the complexities of cultures not their own and have a strong capacity to adapt almost automatically to any cultural context. The glocal actor is in constant search for fresh intercultural settings because as a multicultural personality he is most at ease in other cultural contexts. Of additional value is his ability in his home community to become quickly an intercultural mediator giving back to his community what he has learned abroad.

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7. Glocal Acting

Student journals are a collection of weekly entries to which they add their final reflections at the end of their sojourn.

The journal analysis is structured the following way: reading of the entries in chronological order, selection of proper cultural reflections, level matching.

Criteria for selection:

Substantial Reflective content: less observations/descriptions and more reflection. Well structured journals: weekly reflective entries that allow us to trace student’s RIC development.

Student’s permission, respecting student’s privacy.

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Journals analysis and criteria

In order to give a visual representation of the students’ RIC development, we have chosen to create the RICA Graph. On the X-axis we have placed the time variable measured in weeks. On the Y-axis we have placed the RICA levels.

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RICA graph

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Graph S-L

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Graph non S-L

The results shown by the RICA graphs provide an initial confirmation of our hypothesis that Service-Learning students reach level 6 at a faster pace than Non Service-Learning students.

The studies carried out at SIS and Ulisse confirm that true full-immersion cannot exist without engagement in the host society, because the highest level of reflective intercultural competence is only achieved through this civic engagement in the C2.

Conclusions

THANK YOU FOR THE ATTENTION!

the EUFICCS Consortium