Intercultural communicative competence development in journalism students

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Intercultural communicative competence development in journalism students

Natalia Mykytenko, Marta Fedorchuk, Olena Ivasyuta, Nataly Hrynya, Andriy Kotlovskyi, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv

The paper is focused on the intercultural communicative competence as an integral part of vocational training of journalism students. The aim of the paper is: 1) to define the intercultural communicative competence dimensions; 2) to outline the ways of development of intercultural communicative competence of journalism students; 3) to find out the attitudes of journalism students to intercultural communicative competence development; 4) to assess the levels of journalism students' intercultural communicative competence and develop recommendations for its development. A mixed research design was employed which involved 14 ESP teachers and 26 bachelor students of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv during the autumn trimester of 2021. The study shows that the students are fully aware of the necessity to develop intercultural communicative competence. Based on the survey of the ESP teachers, we outlined the dimensions of journalism students' intercultural communicative competence development and suggested the ways of building intercultural communicative competence in journalism students. The levels of assessment of intercultural communicative competence of journalism students were outlined and defined. The final results indicate that journalism students whose study was more practice than theory oriented (group 1) showed better learning outcomes than those who were mostly focused on the acquisition of theoretical knowledge (group 2). Methodical guidelines for ESP teachers were developed.

Keywords: intercultural communicative competence; journalism students; ESP teachers; knowledge; skills; attitudes; awareness.

Introduction

Recent events connected with the recognition of Ukraine's candidacy for the membership in the European Union have highlighted the necessity to rethink the role of intercultural communicative competence development in English for specific purposes (ESP) courses. ESP has been chosen as the field of research, because more and more adults in Ukraine need English to communicate professionally. Globalization and Ukraine's integration into the EU will increase the need for all kinds of specialists that can speak English (Lytovchenko, Ogienko, Sbrueva, Sotska, 2018). Cultural approach in teaching ESP in today's globalized job marketplace is of utmost importance. It responds to Byram's (1989) call to bring the learning of culture into the research that deals with foreign language teaching and learning. In Byram's (1989) description, the learners aim “must be to participate in the foreign culture and experience it from within as well as observe it and understand it from without” (p.49).

Cultural studies within ESP offer possibilities to bridge different cultures and eliminate misunderstandings that may arise when a “consumer” of one culture perceives and interprets facts, behavior, body language and words of a person who belongs to another culture (Banks, McGee Banks, 2003; Kramsch, 2000). The content of culture has clear parallels with the content of language, as a language itself, is a kind of cultural system. People do differ in language and custom, but the precise ways in which languages, cultures and peoples relate to one another are more complicated than we commonly assume. Hence, acquisition of intercultural communicative competence in language, including ESP learning is urgent nowadays.

Literature review

Intercultural communicative competence involves “the ability to understand the language and behaviour of the target community, and explain it to members of the `home' community - and vice versa” (Corbett, 2022, p. 2). It is “a process of meaning -making via communication and interaction across cultures” (Camerer, 2014, p. 219). This indicates that “an intercultural approach trains learners to be `diplomats', able to view different cultures from a perspective of informed understanding” (Corbett, 2022, p. 2). While mastering English and understanding its cultural contexts, learners “are better at intercultural communication, which results from the intercultural communicative competence level” (Sevimel -Sahin, 2020). As stated by Sevimel-Sahin (2020) there is a relationship between the development of intercultural communicative competence and mastering the target language (p. 141).

In the context of intercultural communicative competence development, the researchers have defined its dimensions. According to Sue, Wing, Sue, Neville and Smith (2019) intercultural communicative competence contains three main domains: “(a) attitudes/beliefs component - an understanding of one's own cultural conditioning and how this conditioning affects the personal beliefs, values, and attitudes of a culturally diverse population; (b) knowledge component - understanding and knowledge of the worldviews and cultural contexts of culturally diverse individuals and groups; and (c) skills component - an ability to determine and use culturally appropriate intervention strategies when working with different groups in our society” (Sue, Wing, Sue, Neville, Smith, 2019, p. 71). Sevimel-Sahin (2020) also consider the same components of this competence. Except dimensions mentioned above (Sue, Wing, Sue, Neville, Smith, 2019; Sevimel-Sahin, 2020), Fantini and Tirmizi (2006) add awareness, which means “being conscious and mindful of one's own worldview, and the possible differences between culturally diverse clients, and other group identities” (Sue, Wing, Sue, Neville, Smith, 2019). Hofstede and Hofstede (2004) propose another combination of components. The researchers think that three sub-components in the following sequence - awareness, knowledge, and skills - can lead to intercultural competence building. Knowledge and skills are sub-components that are present in all models of intercultural communicative competence but awareness and attitudes are optional.

Nevertheless, Ashwill and Oanh (2009) notice that “developing cultural awareness, acquiring cultural knowledge, and gaining and honing intercultural skills do not automatically assume a commitment to a more peaceful, just, and equitable world” (The SAGE Handbook of Intercultural Competence, p. 143-144). They are convinced that “educators must strive to create a fusion approach that unites both global citizenship and intercultural competence” (The SAGE Handbook of Intercultural Competence, p. 144).

Furthermore, the development of intercultural communicative competence is also related to the issues connected with testing intercultural competence (Camerer, 2014; Schnabel, 2015), the link between intercultural communicative competence and learners' motivation (Mirzaei, Forouzandeh, 2013), a critical understanding of students' intercultural experience (Huang, 2022), engagement in intercultural communicative competence and intercultural sensitivity (2021, Vu).

Within the range of ESP specialties cultural studies in journalism are quite important as well. Journalism embraces intercultural communicative competence in both oral and written English. Within oral English, intercultural competence in conducting interviews and discussions require careful preparation and guidance (Chugai, 2017). Writing in journalism requires both individual and collaborative skills and cultural features may manifest themselves in various ways (Fiialka, Trishchuk, Figo, Faichuk, 2021).

Intercultural communicative competence in journalism means “removing barriers” because cultural differences can obstruct professional communication and trust. Trust and distrust in journalism, various limitations that are at work in this sphere are strongly predetermined by culture (Engelke, Hase, Wintterlin, 2019; Archetti, 2022). Intercultural competence is an important step in building successful communication by j ournalism students.

The study is fully in line with current tendency of intercultural communication development, in which “culture and language are inseparable and constitute a single universe or domain of experience” (Kramsch, 2000, p. 217). In ESP context, language and culture intersect and different cultures coexist. Hence, language learning needs to be seen not as a purely abstract, cognitive, cerebral process but one that is embedded in action, emotion and aesthetic sensibility (Fleming, 2021).

According to the theory of Kramsch (2000), intercultural awareness constitutes the core of foreign language learning. Foreign language teaching is founded on the conviction that since we all are humans we can easily understand each other if we share the same code; all we have to do is learn that code and use it accurately and appropriately (p. 1). This view of foreign language teaching in general, and ESP in particular, is based on the following assumptions: we have the same basic human needs; this shared basis may be translated from one language into another. Both these assumptions imply that one language is essentially translatable into another. This tendency has been fruitful and it resulted in functional and pragmatic approaches to teaching ESP to journalism students.

Journalism is a fast developing sphere and these days we are witnessing a tendency of the specific language of mass media to transcend the limits of the realm of newspapers and magazines, finding its way into the social media, thus widening rapidly the sphere of its usage. The relationship between journalism, culture and society is a symbiotic one. Journalism influences culture and is influenced by it in its turn. In fact, as some argue, journalism is culture, a set of cultural practices which frame experience and public consciousness of the here and now (Hanitzsch, 2006; Weaver, 2012). Professional journalists are much exposed to cultural and social tendencies, they are on the verge of social changes, and hence, their cultural tolerance is of utmost importance. Journalistic skills are of little help to the community if journalists are not fully aware of their responsibilities to the society. As stated by Weaver, the traditional Western role model emphasizes “non-involvement and a watchdog function” of journalists (Weaver, 2012, p. 492).

The analysis of these works shows that different aspects of intercultural communicative competence in foreign language teaching have been studied quite thoroughly. However, building intercultural communicative competence in journalism students may need further research.

Thus, the aims of this research are: 1) to define the intercultural communicative competence dimensions; 2) to outline the ways of development of intercultural communicative competence of journalism students; 3) to find out the attitudes of journalism students to intercultural communicative competence development; 4) to assess the level of journalism students' intercultural communicative competence and develop recommendations for its development.

Methods

Research design

A mixed research design was employed in the study. The methods applied incorporated a quantitative study research design to collect needed data. For these purposes two closed-ended questionnaires were proposed for ESP teachers (in the Google form): the questionnaire “Intercultural communicative competence components” (Part I) with 15 questions, which had to be marked as “strongly disagree”, “disagree”, “neither agree nor disagree”, “agree”, “strongly agree”; the questionnaire “The ways to build intercultural communicative competence in journalism students” (Part II) with 8 questions, in which the ESP teachers had to choose either one or several issues. Also the questionnaire “The attitudes of journalism students to intercultural communicative competence development” (Part I) with 4 questions and the test (Part II) before and after the experiment was suggested. To assess the level of intercultural communicative competence in journalism students, the Fisher Criterion was used. The qualitative research method was implied to analyze and interpret the collected data.

Participants

In total 14 ESP teachers and 26 bachelor students of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv were examined anonymously for the development of journalism students' intercultural communicative competence during the autumn term of 2021. The study was conducted in accordance with ethical considerations. All students involved in the research were informed about the objectives of the study and consented to participate.

Research Procedure

In this study there were three stages.

At the first stage the students were divided into two groups (13 students in each one). In the first group, journalism students were better provided with practice than theory (2:1) for intercultural communicative competence development. On the contrary, the second group was focused mostly on theory.

Then the ESP teachers answered the questions of two questionnaires: “Intercultural communicative competence components” (Part I) and “The ways to build intercultural communicative competence in journalism students” (Part II). The aim of Part I was to outline the sub -components of intercultural communicative competence (knowledge, attitude, skills and awareness) and their content. Part II was focused on the ways of building intercultural communicative competence to prospective journalists.

The questionnaire “The attitudes of journalism students to intercultural communicative competence development” was aimed to find out the opinion of students about the development o f intercultural communicative competence. The aim of the test was to assess the students' level of the intercultural communicative competence development before the experiment. The test contained two tasks: 1) to analyze the situation and express the attitude; 2) to write the text using intercultural knowledge. The criteria for assessing speaking included: 1) relevance to the situation (1, 2, 3 scores); 2) fluency (1, 2, 3 scores); 3) language accuracy (1, 2, 3 scores); 4) intercultural appropriateness (1, 2, 3 scores). The criteria for assessing writing included: 1) relevance to the topic (1, 2, 3 scores); 2) organization (1, 2, 3 scores); 3) language accuracy (1, 2, 3 scores); 4) intercultural appropriateness (1, 2, 3 scores). 24 scores for both tasks in total.

At the second stage the experiment was conducted. During the autumn term of 2021 the intercultural communicative competence was developed. First, theoretical information was introduced, which was then followed by a number of communicative activities. The analysis of situations individually as well as in groups assisted the students to comprehend the importance of taking into account the intercultural component of situations, to broaden their knowledge about the specifics of different cultures, to form the proper attitude to people of other cultures, to learn to think critically, to develop students' self-reflection, to develop appropriate skills. Discussions and role plays allowed the students to use required knowledge, to drill skills necessary for verbal and non-verbal journalist communication, to understand the nature of cultural stereotypes and avoid their prejudices and to express attitudes in practice.

At the third stage, the after the experiment the test was suggested. In this test two tasks were offered and assessed according to the criteria of the pre-experiment test.

Data Analysis

At the first and the third stages, Fisher Criterion was used to assess the level of intercultural communicative competence in journalism students.

Results

The results of the survey of ESP teachers about the intercultural communicative competence development were summarized in table 1 (Part I).

Table 1. Intercultural communicative competence components (Questionnaire for ESP teachers, Part I)