Dear colleagues, here is the 2nd CPF.
2nd Call for Papers
INTERCULTURAL COMPENTENCE: A CONCEPT IN NEED OF RETHINKING?
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY / NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND MAYNOOTH,
5-7 September 2019
Over the past decades, the concept of intercultural competence has become an increasingly relevant construct for foreign-language teaching/learning, as well as for cognate disciplines such as pedagogy, psychology, anthropology, cultural studies, business management and others. It was originally derived from Chomsky’s notion of linguistic competence, later broadened from a pragmatic point of view by Hymes to the notion of communicative competence, and then further broadened to the current concept of intercultural competence. Linguistic competence was, however, originally understood as an innate phenomenon, whereas intercultural competence obviously has to be acquired.
The recent increase in migrants and refugees in central Europe and elsewhere and its resulting conflicts have put the concept of intercultural competence to a serious test in everyday life, which it appears to have failed in some regards. Many states in Europe and beyond are rife with sociocultural tension, hostility and fear, and the rise of far-right and racist political parties is only one indicator of the frictions evolving. This scenario was not what had been anticipated by the proponents of intercultural competence: there frequently seems to be no resilient third space between the cultures, and many citizens (as well as many migrants) did not develop any significant receptiveness of the cultural Other. Attitudes appear to harden, rather than to move in the direction of openness, tolerance and understanding. Of course, there are many complex reasons playing into this scenario, but it might be time to critically revisit the concept of intercultural competence, both in terms of its underlying cultural-relativist framework and in terms of the validity of its usefulness for the disciplines of applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, intercultural and critical pedagogy, cultural studies, linguistic anthropology, language philosophy and related areas.
Possible questions for discussion could include, but are not limited to:
Is the concept of intercultural competence too elusive to have a real and measurable impact on the individual?
Does the concept of intercultural competence require a more stringent definition to make it more relevant and measurable? If so, how can this be achieved?
Can alternative concepts such as “symbolic competence” or “transcultural competence” capture the richness of the construct of “intercultural competence”?
Can the relatively vague definition of intercultural competence and its manifestations be considered operational, as in practice they refer to the context-dependent and constantly changing nature of spontaneous human behaviour?
What is the status of intercultural competence in the foreign language classroom? How can it be mediated and how can its development be measured?
Do models of intercultural competence tend to gloss over cultural differences in a cultural-relativist framework of presumed processes of mediation, which might lead to modes of complacency and passivity, rather than resulting in an active stance of critical inquiry?
Does the concept of intercultural competence contribute to homogenising and culturalising tendencies of inquiry, thereby advocating reductive notions of (inter)culture and of competence?
How does the concept of intercultural competence combine the extremes of structure and process orientation?
Is the concept of intercultural competence outdated or too general, so that it has to be replaced by a range of more precise, meaningful and consequential concepts? Can it even be defined in more precise and consequential terms, if it is not related to a particular social, cultural and subjective context?
Is the concept of intercultural competence mainly a cognitive phenomenon, or does it include psychological traits such as attitudes, affective aspects and constructions of identity?
Is the concept of intercultural competence in need of explicit extension to include emotional, performative and virtual dimensions?
To what extent are the norms, terminologies and discourses of intercultural competence focused on western categories and contexts? Can marginal experiences and discourses from non-Western cultures constructively contribute to or extend the current dominant discourse on intercultural competence?
How is intercultural competence acquired, developed and processed by the individual learner?
Abstracts (up to 250 words in Word format, including a short bibliographical note) for 20-minute papers should be sent as email attachment to Prof. Dr. Theo Harden ([log in to unmask]) and / or Prof. Dr. Arnd Witte ([log in to unmask]) . Please include your affiliation in the body of the email.
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 30th April 2019
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