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коммунистическое поколение ощущаются в каждой строке статьи.
Заключение: журнал «Восточная женщина» дает матерям простые практические знания о семейном воспитании маленьких детей и показывает им, пути как вести себя в сложных ситуациях. Одна из главных полезных особенностей этих статей заключается в том, что они написаны таким образом, чтобы помочь матерям не обвиняя их в своих ошибках. Вместо чувства вины у матерей, читающих эти статьи, развивается чувство ответственности и, как следствие, они вносят позитивные изменения в свое поведение.
Несмотря на то, что прошло почти столетие, просветительские и познавательные статьи в этом журнале по-прежнему актуальны. По-прежнему существуют проблемы с воспитанием, здоровьем и образованием детей раннего возраста. Совет «восточной женщины» актуален и необходим и сегодня. Эти педагогические сочинения пока не изучены, в связи с этим актуально изучать эти статьи.
Литература:
1. Аскерзаде Г . А., Таваккулоглы А. (2015). История азербайджанской журналистики. Баку. Элм. 455 с.
2. Баскаков. (1929). Каждая мама должна уметь воспитать своего ребенка. Журнал "Восточная женщина". №12, с. 10-12
3. Доктор Якуб Газиев. (1925). Можно ли бить ребенка? Журнал "Восточная женщина". № 4, с. 28-30
4. Доктор Т.М. (1929) Как следует кормить грудного ребенка? Журнал "Восточная женщина". №6, с. 34-36
5. Энвер Картекин. (1973). История революции и режима Турецкой Республики. Стамбул, Синан Яйынлары. 267 с.
6. А. С. (1930). Не бейте детей. Журнал "Восточная женщина". №4, с. 16-17
7. МС (1930). Ради воспитания нового человека. Журнал "Восточная женщина". № 12, с. 20-22
8. Педагог С.М. Ж. (1929). Как воспитать детей. № 8, стр.21-23
9. Рустамов Ф. (2013) Из истории развития азербайджано-турецких научно-педагогических отношений. Азербайджанская школа. №6, Баку: с. 21-27
10. Шахвердиев А.Б. (2006). История азербайджанской прессы. Баку, Образование. 252 с.
11. Хадиджа Гусейнова. (1929). Наши книги и читатели. Журнал "Восточная женщина". №-8, стр. 27-28
12. Халил Фикрет. (1924). Психическое и нравственное воспитание в раннем детстве. Журнал "Восточная женщина". №2, с. 3037
13. Халил Фикрет. (1925). Семейное воспитание. Журнал "Восточная женщина". №5, с.40-42
14. Халил Фикрет. (1925). Семейное воспитание. Журнал "Восточная женщина". №9, с. 52-53
15. Екиндес (1923). Воспитание детей - тоже тема. Журнал "Восточная женщина". №2, с. 333 7 )
INTEGRATING INTERCULTURAL ASPECTS IN EFL LESSONS AT SLOVAK _SECONDARY SCHOOLS_
DOI: 10.31618/ESU.2413-9335.2020.1.78.1005
Sándorová Zuzana
ABSTRACT
Over the last decades the importance of incorporating intercultural aspects in FL education has often been emphasized, especially by intercultural communication as well as foreign language pedagogy scholars. Yet the everyday teaching practice in Slovakia does not always reflect this viewpoint, as it has been revealed due to some research in the field.
The aim of the paper was to summarize the results of the observations carried out at secondary schools in Slovakia in order to map which intercultural aspects were developed suitably and sufficiently in the observed EFL lessons. The investigation showed that EFL courses at Slovak secondary schools tend to disregard the must of integrating cultural aspects in FL education. One of the reasons can be the lack of further education for in-service teachers in the given field; hence, the paper also includes some proposals for teacher development in terms of developing intercultural competences in FL courses.
Introduction
The fact that cultural differences can be detected in every area of human life draws attention to the necessity of intercultural communication in today's globalized world, and to the benefits that can be reaped from it. Liu et al. (2011, also Hidasi, 2004.) mention four reasons why intercultural communication is important. First of all, intercultural communication is needed in order to come to terms with the increasing diversity of the population, i.e., the multiculturalism
that a lot of countries face today. However, multiculturalism can also be understood as an attitude, referring to "a society's tolerance towards diversity and the acceptance of equal societal participation" (Kramsch, 1998, p. 20-23). In addition, in order to foster the acceptance of cultural differences, societies have to address the challenge of promoting intercultural understanding, i.e. making people aware that cultural diversities enrich their lives. Therefore, "the key to appreciating cultural differences is acquiring
intercultural knowledge and developing intercultural skills". Furthermore, intercultural communication can be enhanced through international business cooperation, and vice versa: international business exchanges can be promoted by a good understanding of cultural differences. Last but not least, intercultural communication is vital for facilitating cross-cultural adaptation, especially in terms of migration, but also in case of societies encompassing culturally different communities. Anxiety and uncertainty threaten social cohesion; however, they can be reduced by developing intercultural knowledge and skills.
Apparently, in order to become effective intercultural communicators, it is of particular importance to be aware of fundamental cultural differences, both in verbal and nonverbal communication. The sum of relevant skills and knowledge has become known as intercultural communicative competences (ICC).
1. Literature review
1.1. The concept of intercultural communicative competence
According to the Common European Framework for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (Council of Europe, 2001), all skills acquired by a person can contribute to the development of communicative competences; however, we have to differentiate between more closely connected abilities and less closely related skills. This idea is based on Byram's model of ICC (1997, p. 73), which comprises the following five factors: attitudes (savoir être), knowledge (savoirs), skills of interpreting and relating (savoir comprendre) and skills of discovery and interaction (savoir apprendre/faire), as well as critical cultural awareness (savoir s'engager). In these terms we have to distinguish between general and communicative language competences.
General competences consist of declarative knowledge (savoir), skills and know-how (savoir faire), "existential" competence (savoir être) and the ability to learn (savoir apprendre). While declarative knowledge comprises knowledge of the world, sociocultural knowledge and intercultural awareness, the "skills and know-how" group stands for a sum of practical skills and know-how and intercultural skills and know-how. In addition, existential competence is connected with the individuals' personality, as the ability to communicate is also affected by factors such as attitudes, motivations, values, beliefs, cognitive styles and personality types. Finally, the ability to learn refers to language and communication awareness, general phonetic awareness and skills, as well as to study and heuristic skills.
Communicative language competences is a sum of more language-related components which can be divided into linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic competences. Firstly, linguistic competences include lexical, grammatical, semantic, phonological, orthographic and orthoepic competences. Sociolinguistic competences involves "linguistic markers of social relations, politeness conventions, expressions of folk-wisdom, register differences and dialect and accent" (ibid., p. 118). Finally, pragmatic
competences, refers to the ability to use the language appropriately for particular purposes with regard to the sociocultural context and can further be divided into discourse, functional and design competence.
As it can be seen, in order to become an interculturally competent speaker of the target language, in addition to the linguistic issues, one must also be aware of the culture-related aspects of language use. Hence, the goal of FL education nowadays is to equip FL leaners with knowledge and skills that make them able to communicate with people from other cultures.
1.2. Intercultural communicative competences and FL education
Since the 1980s, in the field of FL education, the close relationship between language and culture has often been verbalised and stressed (Risager, 2006). Indeed, the majority of intercultural communication scholars share this viewpoint and consider culture a natural part of the FL learning. As Siercu (2005, p. 1) puts it, "FL education is, by definition, intercultural. Bringing a FL to the classroom means connecting learners to a world that is culturally different from their own". In addition, Hatoss (2004, p. 26) emphasizes that "we teach culture even when we are not intending to or are not aware of doing so", as language and culture are "inextricable phenomena" (ibid., p. 24); and, because of the close language-culture relationship, cultural issues are inseparable from the process of FLT (Bilá, 2010, Straková, 2001). Similarly, Byram (1991, p. 113) outlines that "the inclusion in intercultural communicative competence of critical cultural awareness as an educational aim of FL teaching is crucial"; this standpoint being reiterated also by Alptekin and Alptekin (1990, p. 21) in that "a language and its culture are two inextricable related entities, and as such should be taught together".
Supporting the previous viewpoints, Valdes (1986, p. 4) claims that "the tendency to treat the language quite independently of the culture to which it constantly refers cannot be justified; it disregards the nature of language". He goes even further when claiming that it is not enough to draw learners' attention only to this interdependence but also to its nature, so that they accept that learning a FL includes learning about the target culture, too. In addition, according to Damen (1987, p. 5), the success in FL learning is also "related to the acquisition of the cultural baggage that is carried along with any linguistic system". He goes on to state (ibid., p. 7) that "inhabitants of second and FL classrooms are engaged in culture learning and attempting ICC just as surely as those who embark upon packages tours to parts unknown".
Indeed, classrooms create a specialized setting for fostering ICC and for some FL learners it is the only place where the target culture can be experienced. Hence, the atmosphere of the classroom should be as open as possible to support ICC development. Similarly, Valdes (1990, p. 29) stresses that "culture itself penetrates all the corners of language education. If it cannot be escaped, it seems obvious that every teacher and every learner should be alerted to it and should make the most of it, to use it as a tool where
appropriate, and to approach it face-forward in order to make the learners' cultural knowledge as accurate and as useful as possible." Byram (1989) points out that by introducing the intercultural element into FL education, learners are given the chance to encounter and understand "otherness" both in linguistic and cultural terms. Similarly, Skopinskaja (2003, p. 54) sees the benefit of incorporating intercultural aspects in FL teaching through the methods of comparison and contrast, in terms of gaining "access to more diverse ways of seeing the world, better understanding of the first culture", as well as becoming less ethnocentric and more culturally relativist learners. In correspondence with these viewpoints, the CEFR (ibid., p. 43) claims that intercultural perspective in FL education enriches FL learners' personality, enhances their capacity for learning further languages and makes them more open towards new cultural experiences. In addition, another important benefit to be mentioned is given by Buttjes (1991), namely that through culture the motivation to learn the target language can be raised even in the early phases of language learning.
Despite the agreement between scholars on the necessity to incorporate cultural aspects into FL education, the viewpoints with regard to everyday practice in FL classrooms are rather divergent, especially when it comes to the extent to which cultural aspects are treated in FL lessons. Risager (2006) claims that, recently, there has been a significant shift in FL teaching towards an intercultural and culture-comparative perspective, which resulted in including issues related to FL learners' first culture. Similarly, Brooks (1997) notes that the majority of teachers regularly deals with cultural aspects in their FL lessons; however, despite their willingness the results are not always satisfactory. In addition, Richards (1985) says that there has been a shift in FL teaching away from the limited focus only on grammar forms to the communicative use of language, which has been also reflected in textbooks, which are organizing their content around speech acts instead of grammatical points.
As opposed to these opinions, Valdes (1990, p. 20) argues that, even though "the inclusion of culture in the FL curriculum has become more prevalent in recent years", there are teachers who still ignore or deny its importance. Controversially, without even realizing it, they do teach culture, as teaching culture is present in an FL education from the very first day of the course (as an example, Valdes mentions that greetings, a constant agenda in the first lessons in every beginner group). By recognizing the cultural nature of what is being taught, he holds, whether it is word order, tense or aspect, adding interpretation and explanation of the underlying values, learning can be more effective. Similarly, Lafayette (1997, p. 120) states that in the FL classroom, most of the time and energy is still spent on grammar and vocabulary, whereas culture "remains the weakest component due to its uneven treatment in textbooks and to the lack of familiarity, among teachers, with the culture itself and with the techniques needed to teach it". However, he adds that "textbook publishers are commercial enterprises whose primary
purpose is to serve the foreign language profession, not to change it". Hence, unless teachers demand teaching materials with communication and culture as primary interests, they will be provided with FL textbooks focused on grammar and vocabulary for years to come.
As far as the everyday practice of integrating cultural aspects into FL teaching in Slovakia is concerned, the research carried out by Reid (2014) revealed that many teachers teaching EFL at Slovak primary schools lack any knowledge of ICC and do not realize the importance of acquiring it. Therefore, the objective of this study was to shed light on the state of developing ICC in EFL lessons at Slovak secondary schools.
2. Method
For the purpose of the investigation focused on integrating ICC in EFL lessons at secondary schools in Slovakia, the method of observation was applied.
With regard to the aim of the observations, the following research question was formulated: Which aspects of the ICC are developed suitably and sufficiently, i.e. both implicitly and explicitly to a sufficient extent, in the observed EFL lessons?
2.1. The sampling strategy and the sample
In terms of the type of sampling strategy, purposive sampling was opted for. The sample consisted of fifty lessons which were taught by twelve teachers meaning that four or five lessons were observed per teacher. The observation took place in Nitra in Slovakia, at four different types of secondary schools, where approximately eight hundred students learnt English as their first FL.
2.2. The research instrument
As the aim of the present research was to count the frequency of predefined codes (see Appendix 1), the present research can be rather regarded as a structured observation. However, in order to help the work of the researcher, an observation scheme was also developed (see Appendix 2). It served to note down information which seemed to be useful for the explanation of the results or when the frequency of the occurrence was difficult to count, e.g. when doing listening comprehension activities or when tasks provided in the applied teaching materials were modified by the teachers. Thus, in fact, in addition to the observation schedule, when necessary, the technique of field notes was also applied.
2.3. The observer and the procedure
As far as the observer is concerned, she played the role of 'observer-as-participant', since both the teachers and the students were aware of her presence in the classroom (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007; Gavora, Koldeová, Dvorská, Pekárová & Moravcík, 2010). Even though the original plan was also to record the lessons, the researcher was not given the permission to use a video camera.
Before the actual observation, the observer was obliged to seek the headmaster's and teachers' permission and informed consent. In addition, the teachers were also pre-told about the purpose of the research. However, they were not particularly instructed to deal with intercultural aspects, so that the observer might get an objective picture of the everyday
practice of integrating intercultural issues in EFL lessons.
The data were processed, through applying the method of content analysis and using the mentioned set of categories and codes (See Appendix 1). However, both explicit and implicit treatment of the particular aspects, and the representation of the functions within the set of components were taken into consideration.
3. Results
Below are discussed the findings achieved through the observation by the categories of the research tool, i.e. sociolinguistic, pragmatic, sociocultural and intercultural competence.
3.1. Sociolinguistic competence (see Table 1)
Linguistic markers of social relations, i.e. greetings, addressing and expletives/fillers (codes 1-3) were all rather implicitly present in the observed lessons, and they occurred almost exclusively either in written discourses read by the students or as part of dialogues during listening comprehension activities. Amongst these aspects, the most frequently occurring one was addressing (code No 2) and both its informal and formal variants were equally represented (see Table 1).
As far as politeness conventions are concerned, i.e.: positive and negative politeness, appropriate use of please, thank you and similar expressions, impoliteness (codes No 4-7), similarly to the previous group, all of them were incorporated and almost exclusively unconsciously. In addition, except for appropriate use
3.2. Pragmatic competence (see Table 2) As shown in Table 2, discourse competence (code No 11) was developed both implicitly and explicitly
of please, thank you and similar expressions (code No 6), the number of the examples of these aspects was negligible.
With regard to expressions of folk wisdom (code No 8), the results show that this aspect occurred quite frequently in the observed lessons, and it is the second aspect out of ten that was treated actively. However, only phrasal verbs were treated both implicitly and explicitly and sufficiently whereas idioms occurred rather scarcely in the discourses. Furthermore, sayings, proverbs and quotations were not dealt with at all.
Register differences (code No 9) occurred most frequently out of all the aspects during the investigation. Even though the majority of the examples could be heard or read during reading and listening comprehension activities, i.e. implicitly, one quarter of the differences was treated explicitly, mainly in tasks on writing personal letters (see Table 1).
Finally, with regard to dialect and accent, differences (code No 10) were present exclusively in listening comprehension tasks and without drawing specific attention to varieties. In addition, there were not any examples of vocabulary and grammar differences between British English and other Englishes. Regarding the language of the speakers heard in the listening comprehension activities, the dominant variety was RP; even though there were some examples of General American English, British English dialects as well as International English. However, no other varieties were experienced.
Table 1.
and sufficiently during the observed lessons, chiefly in activities focused on describing people, objects, places, activities, events and writing personal letters; in
The occurrence ^ of the means of sociolinguistic competence in the observed lessons.
C.N. Code Implicit occurrence Explicit occurrence Total occurrence Examples
1 Greetings 42 11 53 e. g. Good morning. Hi. Bye.
2 Addressing 133 3 136 e. g. Sir. Madam. Linda.
3 Expletives/ fillers 79 2 81 e. g. you know, well, mm, right, er;
4 Positive politeness 13 6 19 e. g. Can I help you?
5 Negative politeness 26 3 29 e. g. I'm afraid we can't give you a refund.
6 Appropriate use of 123 8 131 e.g. Thank you. Could you pass me the salt, please?
7 Impoliteness 10 0 10 e.g. Oh, come off it!
8 Folk wisdom 89 45 134 e.g. Time is money. Her voice is as smooth as honey.
9 Register differences 307 94 401 e. g. Really cool. Take care.
10 Dialect/accent 104 0 104 RP, General American English, British English dialects, International English
TOTAL 926 172 1098
addition, story-telling and interacting in transactional situations, such as shopping or using public transport have also been applied.
When it comes to the skills of imparting and seeking factual information (code No 12), it is apparent that it was the most frequently occurring aspect of the pragmatic skills during the investigated lessons. This is not surprising, though, especially in terms of asking for information and answering such questions, as a lot of tasks have been based upon the enquiring-responding dichotomy. In addition, the New Opportunities Student's Books and Workbooks were predominantly used for teaching grammar; hence, questions and answers have been fairly frequent.
Based on the findings, it can be assumed that the particular aspects of expressing and finding out attitudes (codes No 13-17) were quite equally
With regard to suasions and socialising (codes No 18-19), the students were not actively involved in developing either of them. Together with communication repair and interaction schemata (codes No 21-22), suasions and socialising can be ranked amongst the components that occurred least frequently during the observations.
Last but not least, structuring discourse (code No 20) can be considered as the second most often occurring aspect of pragmatic skills; mainly, due to the high occurrence of greetings used for opening a discourse, as well as thanks to fillers that have been signalled hesitations. However, all the other functions
represented; even though to a much lesser extent than expressing modality. However, the aspects of expressing and finding out factual attitudes, expressing modality and expressing emotions share explicit treatment (in approximately 30% of occurrences). In modality, all its perspectives were equally represented, even though both obligation and permission were also treated explicitly, ability was catered for rather implicitly. In addition, expressing knowledge (code No 14) and expressing volitions (code No 16) were also treated rather implicitly. As far as the structure of the particular components is concerned, the dominant roles were played by functions, such as expressing opinions, expressing knowledge/ignorance and certainty, expressing wants/desires, as well as expressing likes/dislikes.
Table 2.
of structuring discourse were explicitly developed to a much lesser extent.
3.3. Sociocultural competence (see Table 3)
As far as everyday living (code No 23) is concerned, it is obvious that this aspect was treated quite often. However, based on the fact that students were not actively involved in acquiring this knowledge and, that the majority of the data focused merely on sports, it cannot be said that this component was treated appropriately. The same may be applied to high culture - arts (code No 24) as the second most often occurring aspect; since it was almost exclusively taught implicitly and the attention focused mainly on film issues.
The occurrence of the aspects of pragmatic competences in the observed lessons.
C.N. Code Implicit occurrence Explicit occurrence Total occurrence Examples
11 Discourse competence 30 48 78 e. g. Write you're a letter to your friend.
12 Imparting and seeking factual information 386 211 597 e. g. Have you got your receipt? Yes, I have
13 Expressing and finding out factual attitudes 50 16 66 e. g. I don't think so. You're absolutely right!
14 Expressing knowledge 71 3 74 e.g. What do you know about Wales? I don't know.
15 Expressing modality 99 36 135 e.g. I must finish now.
16 Expressing volition 50 5 55 e.g. I'd like to go to Spain.
17 Expressing emotions 60 25 85 e. g. I like doing energetic things.
18 Suasion 49 2 51 e.g. Why don't you go to Granada then?
19 Socialising 13 1 14 e.g. Congratulations!
20 Structuring discourse 169 37 206 e.g. I'm going to talk about...
21 Communication repair 3 0 3 e.g. Can you repeat it, please?
22 Interaction schemata 9 5 14 e.g. making purchases;
TOTAL 989 389 1378
Table 3.
The occurrence of the aspects ^ of sociocultural competence in the observed lessons.
C. N. Code Implicit occurrence Explicit occurrence Total occurrence Examples
23 Everyday living -low culture 225 31 256 e. g. We eat a lot of fast food here in the USA.
24 High culture -Arts 134 16 150 e. g. Which of the groups can you see in the photos from the film Mississippi Burning?
25 Living conditions 4 0 4 e. g. What do the photos say about lifestyle in the given countries?
26 Interpersonal relations 2 0 2 e. g. You can get married at sixteen in Britain, but you have to have your parents' permission.
27 Major values and attitudes 37 27 64 e. g. The national symbol of Canada is maple leaf.
28 Social conventions and rituals 37 46 83 e. g. It's a good idea to take something with you.
29 Body language 0 0 0 -
30 Prosodic qualities 0 25 25 e. g. The meaning of a sentence can change if you put the stress on a different word.
TOTAL 439 145 584
The occurrence of living conditions and interpersonal relations (codes No 25-26) was negligible. However, major values and attitudes, as well as social conventions and rituals (codes No 27-28) were treated both explicitly and implicitly. Nevertheless, the amount of data achieved can be regarded as rather insufficient. What is more, in case of the first given aspect, the majority of the information was provided only through tradition and social change, and social class; whereas in terms of the second given aspect, the students could learn merely about some Scottish festivals.
Finally, it could be assumed that body language (code No 29) was not given any attention at all. With
regard to prosodic qualities (code No 30), a few examples occurred during practising stress patterns; intonation, however, was not dealt with (see Table 3).
3.4. Intercultural competence (see Table 4)
As shown in Table 4, the role of the first culture (code No 31), played only an insignificant role during the observed lessons. Furthermore, the observed lessons did not pay any attention to the cultural differences between the target and the home culture (code No 32) almost at all. In addition, overcoming stereotypes and cultural sensitivity to contact other cultures (codes No 32-33) were not dealt with.
Table 4.
Occurrence of the aspects of intercultural competence in the observed lessons,
C. N. Code Implicit occurrence Explicit occurrence Total occurrence Examples
31 Role of the first culture - Reinforcing cultural identity 0 18 18 e. g. Think of celebrities in your country who had problems with fame.
32 Understanding the similarities and differences between the target and the home culture 0 2 2 e. g. What are the similarities and differences between your country and Wales?
33 Overcoming stereotypes 0 0 0 -
34 Cultural sensitivity to contact other cultures 0 0 0 -
TOTAL 0 20 20
4. Discussion
In order to answer the research question, i.e. which aspects of the intercultural component were developed suitably and sufficiently, i.e. both implicitly and explicitly to a sufficient extent, in the observed EFL lessons, first of all, the above discussed data have to be summarized.
With regard to sociolinguistic competence, during the investigated lessons, expressions of folk wisdom (code No 8) and register differences (code No 9) were treated most frequently and both implicitly and explicitly. However, linguistic markers of social relations, i.e. greetings, addressing and expletives/fillers (codes 1-3), and politeness conventions i.e. positive and negative politeness, appropriate use of please, thank you and similar expressions, impoliteness (codes No 4-7) occurred rather implicitly; in addition, with respect to positive and negative politeness (codes No 4-5) only to a very small extent. Furthermore, no attention was explicitly paid to differences between the varieties of English, i.e. dialect and accent variation (code No 10).
When it comes to pragmatic competences, during the observations, the EFL learners could develop mainly their discourse competences and skills of imparting and seeking factual information (code No 1112). In addition, expressing and finding out factual attitudes, expressing knowledge, expressing modality and expressing emotions (codes No 13-17) were also catered for; even though to a much lesser extent that in the previous components. However, all the other aspects of pragmatic competence, i.e. suasions, socialising as well as structuring discourse (codes No 18-20) were taught implicitly, or were not treated at all.
Based on the findings it may be concluded that, during the investigated lessons, the EFL learners could broaden their knowledge only of low culture -everyday living and high culture - arts (codes No 2324). However, even these aspects were treated rather implicitly and insufficiently. Furthermore, other aspects of sociocultural competence, such as living conditions, interpersonal relations, major values and attitudes, social conventions and rituals, body language as well as prosodic qualities (codes No 25-30) occurred only accidentally and to an insignificant extent.
Similarly, the observed EFL lessons did not contribute to the development of intercultural competence, i.e. the role of the first culture, cultural differences between the target and the home culture overcoming stereotypes as well as cultural sensitivity to contact other cultures (codes No 30-34) to a noteworthy extent either.
Drawing on the above summarized results, the answer to the research question is that during the observed EFL lessons, only the following aspects were treated suitably and sufficiently (i.e. both implicitly and explicitly to a sufficient extent): expressions of folk
wisdom and register differences (code No 8-9), discourse competence, imparting and seeking factual information, expressing and finding out factual attitudes (codes No 11-13), expressing modality (code No 15), and expressing emotions (code No 17).
Moreover, the ICC components identified as not taught suitably and sufficiently have further been divided into two groups. Thus, the category comprising the aspects treated partially suitably and sufficiently, (i.e. either merely implicitly or to an insufficient extent), includes the following components: greetings, addressing and expletives/fillers(codes No 1-3), appropriate use of please, thank you and similar expressions, impoliteness (codes No 6-7), dialect and accent (code No 10), expressing knowledge (code No 14), expressing volitions (code No 16), suasion (code No 18), structuring discourse (code No 20), low culture - everyday living and high culture - arts (codes No 2324).
Furthermore, the ICC components treated unsuitably and insufficiently (both implicitly and explicitly to a negligible extent) are as follows: positive and negative politeness (codes No 4-5), socializing (code No 19), communication repair and interaction schemata (codes No 21-22), living conditions, interpersonal relations, major values and attitudes, social conventions and rituals, body language as well as prosodic qualities (codes No 25-30), the role of the first culture, understanding of similarities and differences between the target and the home culture, overcoming stereotypes and fostering cultural sensitivity towards other cultures (codes No 30-34).
5. Conclusions
In view of the research findings, i.e. that only 9 out of 34 codes were treated suitably and sufficiently during the observed lessons, it may be assumed that, similarly to the research findings of Reid (2014) revealing the lack of ICC aspects in EFL lessons at Slovak primary schools, EFL courses at secondary schools in Slovakia do not really cater for intercultural issues either. The situation may be partially explained by the attitude of the teachers, i.e. in terms of the teaching objectives, intercultural aspects are not ranked as their priority. However, that can be the consequence of the lack of further education for in-service teachers in relation to developing ICC in Slovakia. Even though, in recent years the issue of integrating intercultural aspects in FL education is becoming more and more popular in Slovak higher education, in-service teachers are not offered any courses, workshops or seminars in the given field. Therefore, in the light of these facts, it might be worth considering that in-service teachers through workshops and lectures within their ongoing professional development be educated about the particular aspects of ICC and its status as a key competence in present-day globalized world. In addition, they should be motivated to improve their
skills in terms of developing ICC, as well as to constantly expand their knowledge of the target country culture. Last but not least, to the development of the given ICC aspects should also be paid considerable attention by the university teachers involved in teaching EFL methodology courses to EFL teacher trainees.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the management of the secondary schools for the permission to conduct the research in their institutions, as well as the teachers for their willingness to take part in the observations.
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Appendix N. 1: The research instrument of the observation
CATEGORY CODE N. CODE
Sociolinguistic competence 1 Greetings (CEFR, ibid., p. 119)
2 Addressing (ibid.)
3 Using expletives (ibid.) and fillers (SERR, ibid., p.120)
4 Positive politeness (CEFR, ibid.)
5 Negative politeness (ibid.)
6 Appropriate use of thank you and please (ibid.)
7 Impoliteness (ibid., p. 119-120)
8 Expressions of folk wisdom (ibid., p. 120)
9 Register differences (ibid.)
10 Dialect, accent (ibid., p. 121)
Pragmatic competence 11 Discourse competence (ibid., p. 123)
12 Imparting and seeking factual information (ibid., 126)
13 Expressing and finding out factual attitudes (ibid., p. 126)
14 Expressing knowledge (ibid.)
15 Expressing modality (ibid.)
16 Expressing volition (ibid.)
17 Expressing emotions (ibid.)
18 Suasion (ibid.)
19 Socialising (CEFR, ibid., van Ek - Trim, ibid.)
20 Structuring discourse (van Ek - Trim, ibid., p. 42-45)
21 Communication repair (van Ek - Trim, ibid., p. 45-47)
22 Interaction schemata (ibid., p. 126)
Sociocultural competence 23 Low culture - Everyday living (van Ek - Trim, ibid., p. 95)
24 High culture - arts (CEFR, ibid., )
25 Living conditions (van Ek - Trim, ibid.)
26 Interpersonal relations (ibid., p. 96)
27 Major values and attitudes (ibid., p. 96)
28 Social conventions and rituals (ibid.)
29 Body language(ibid.)
30 Prosodic qualities (ibid.)
Intercultural competence 31 Role of first culture in developing ICC - Reinforcing cultural identity
32 Understanding of the similarities and differences between the target and the home culture;
33 Overcoming stereotypes
34 Fostering cultural sensitivity towards other cultures
Aspects of ICC with assigned codes used during the observation based on the CEFR (ibid.), Threshold 1990 (van Ek & Trim, 1998), ISCED 3 (Gadusova, Bencikova, Ormisova & Vassova, 2011) and the Goal Standards (Statny pedagogicky ùstav, 2012)
Appendix N. 2: Observation schedule
1. Activity: instruction
2. Material(s):
a.) New Opportunities course-book package: component, page, exercise;
b.) Other materials: type (non-authentic, authentic), source, page, exercise, etc.
3. The content of the activity (students' questions and answers, reflections and opinions; teacher's questions and answers, modifications of the activities, additional information);
