«Colisión cultural: la interferencia de la identidad cultural lingüística de la lengua materna en la competencia pragmática en la lengua meta»

Yi-Fen Cecilia Liu
«Colisión cultural: la interferencia de la identidad cultural lingüística de la lengua materna en la competencia pragmática en la lengua meta»
Gist. Education and Learning Research Journal, vol. 13 (2016)

Gist. Education and Learning Research Journal | Institución Universitaria Colombo Americana (ÚNICA) | Bogotá | COLOMBIA


Extracto de apartados «Abstract» y «Abstract», en páginas 131 y 143-145 de la publicación en PDF. Véanse las referencias en la publicación original del texto.

«Abstract

»This reflective study explores a different perspective of intercultural communicative competency (ICC) by focusing on the speech acts that nonnative speakers of Spanish from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds find difficult to perform competently in various contexts in Colombia. This article covers a qualitative case study using interpretative phenomenological analysis to describe these foreign learners’ experiences. It aims to understand the role of their first language, culture, and identity in their use of Spanish and intercultural communication. The data was collected through interviews and reflection notes. The findings demonstrate the interaction and negotiation between the pragmatic knowledge embedded in participants’ mother tongue and the target language as they encountered contradictions of their native cultural identity and that of the target culture.

»Keywords: language, culture, cultural identity, pragmatic competence, intercultural communication.

»Conclusions

»As indicated, the aim of this study was to explore the speech acts in Spanish that non-native participants found difficult to use properly in their daily interaction in Colombia, the impact of their first language culture identity on this and their subsequent adjustments to achieve pragmatic competence in the target language. The findings of the study reveal that these participants are constantly trying to build and rebuild their target language identity whenever they use the target language.

»They felt a strong conflict between the attitudes, beliefs and social norms of the home langua-culture and the target one. The results also showed that these participants found themselves struggling to perform some speech acts competently in various contexts because the notions and connotations embedded in the expressions clash with their first language identity and culture.

»As their Spanish progresses, they constantly attempted to establish a connection with the target social community by trying to make sense of the meaning and purpose behind certain speech acts and to reestablish their cultural identity in the communication with their Spanish speaking interlocutor in social contexts in Colombia.

»The process of becoming a more effective speaker of the target language, involves mediating one’s own home culture-based values and worldview with the target culture ones. As a consequence, the respondents had a sense of insecurity, discomfort, and lack of confidence when speaking the target language. The findings revealed that it is not always necessary for language competency to maintain links between L1 and L2 in order to properly use and understand specific terms.

»These participants of different Spanish levels all encountered difficulty in understanding and using specific terms in Spanish at some point due to the interference of their first cultural identity. Not all of them managed to find third places for all the contradictions between their native languaculture and the target one. They rejected certain notions imbedded in the target language and accepted others. Even though they came to an understanding and acceptance of certain Spanish speech acts after a longer period of staying in Colombia, they still would not use them in their daily interaction because they do not have the habit of doing so in their home contexts.

»The findings of this study offer some implications for teaching practices and future research in Colombian context. Due to the nature of a qualitative case study, the present study recruited a small number of participants to gain deeper insight. Further useful research could expand the sample size and investigate further on the issues that learners of Spanish as a foreign language encountered both linguistically and pragmatically in relation to linguistic and cultural distance between their native tongue and the target one. Hence, more constructive suggestions can be provided towards helping foreign leaners achieve intercultural communication competence in Colombian contexts.

»Galvis (2011) pointed out that the pre-service teachers surveyed in his study found intercultural communication interesting, but yet not applicable in their teaching context in the public school sector due to the lack of meaningful encounters with foreign language speakers from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, even though the ideology of intercultural communicative competence was promoted at the theoretical level in teacher’s training at university.

»However, since 2015 the Colombian National Ministry of Education and El Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (SENA) have partnered with Heart of Change, Atlas Corps and Volunteers Colombia to develop and implement the English Teaching Fellowship Programs (ETF), which have brought hundreds of foreign professionals to Colombia to help provide quality English education to thousands of public school students and English teachers throughout the country. With the increase of exposure to authentic intercultural interaction opportunities, the impact and effects of these bilingual programs have on the development of intercultural communication competence can be examined and explored in the near future.

»Learning is a reciprocal process in foreign language classrooms where both teachers and students learn from each other to expand linguistic and cultural knowledge. No text book or materials can provide the sufficient cultural knowledge required for second or foreign language users to conduct their linguistic behavior competently and appropriately in cross-cultural situations. Hence, foreign language teachers play an important role in orienting the target language learners to their home culture and vice versa. If foreign language teachers have better awareness and understanding of their students’ natal culture, they will be able to better help students overcome the cultural disparities that prevent them from using the target language competently in varied contexts.

»In addition, it is essential to incorporate pragmatics knowledge in the foreign language curriculum and instruction to make the foreign culture less threatening and more accessible to the language learner. By fostering foreign language user’s target language pragmatics competence, they will be better able to establish the proper linkage between their first languaculture and the target one. This will in turn reduce learning conflicts and allow them to use the target language properly with confidence in various contexts.»