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UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE TRUJILLO ESCUELA DE POSGRADO
UNIDAD DE POSGRADO EN EDUCACIÓN Y CIENCIAS DE LA COMUNICACIÓN
Intercultural approach and reading comprehension in secondary education students, Simón Bolívar School – Mache, 202 0
TESIS
PARA OPTAR EL GRADO ACADÉMICO DE
DOCTOR EN CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN
Autora : Ms. Castillo Honorio, Brenda Marilin Asesor : Dr. Calderón Calderón, Carlos Enrique
TRUJILLO – PERÚ 2023
Registro N°.: …………
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JURY SHEET
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Dr. Eduardo Wilson Angulo Montoya PRESIDENT
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Dr. Nelver Eduardo Vera Mostacero SECRETARY
_____________________________________
Dr. Carlos Enrique Calderón Calderón MEMBER
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DEDICATION
To God who is always next to me, in my ups and downs.
To my family and friends who supported and encouraged me from the beginning to the end.
To my grandparents, always in my heart.
To me, for having had the strength to overcome all the difficulties, emotionally and physically, along this journey.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank my advisor Mr. Carlos Calderón for his constant support and guidance. He encouraged me with great enthusiasm throughout the research.
I also would like to thank all the people that helped me in some way, friends, professors, family.
I would like to mention Mr. Eduardo Angulo for being an excellent friend and teacher, and for having shared with me all his experience and knowledge.
Most importantly, I want to thank my students that participated in this study. I’m so proud of them, the great human beings they are becoming.
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INDEX
Dedication……….…..… iii
Acknowledgment ………...… iv
Index ……….. v
Resumen……….… vi
Abstract ……….….… vii
I. INTRODUCTION……… 8
II. MATERIAL AND METHODS……….. 42
2.1. Subject of study ……… 42
2.2 Data collection instrument……… 43
2.3 Methods and techniques……… 45
2.4. Data analysis ……… 46
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION………..… 47
IV. CONCLUSIONS……….. 59
V. RECOMMENDATIONS………... 60
VI. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES……….….... 61
APPENDICES ……….… 68
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RESUMEN
EL presnte estudio “Intercultural approach and reading comprehension in Secondary Education students, Simón Bolívar School – Mache, 2020” es un trabajo realizado para implementar el programa basado en el enfoque intercultural con el fin de mejorar la comprensión de textos en inglés de los estudiantes de tercer grado de secundaria de la I.E.
"Simón Bolívar" ubicado en Mache en el año 2020. Se usó el diseño cuasi-experimental, en el cual se considera un "Pre-Test" y "Post-Test" con dos grupos intactos. La muestra en la que se realizó esta investigación fue de 53 estudiantes de tercer y cuarto grado de educación secundaria, en el distrito de Mache, provincia de Otuzco.
Se aplicó una prueba que consta de 20 ítems diseñados para medir la comprensión de textos, la cual tiene tres dimensiones: literal, inferencial y crítica, respectivamente, considerando 10 ítems para la literal, 7 para la inferencial y 3 para la crítica.
Se concluye que el programa basado en el enfoque intercultural mejora significativamente la comprensión de textos en inglés de los estudiantes de tercer grado de la I.E. Simón Bolívar, Mache, 2020.
De igual manera, las dimensiones literal, inferencial y crítica mejoraron significativamente después de aplicado el programa basado en el enfoque intercultural.
Palabras clave: enfoque intercultural, comprensión de textos, programa
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ABSTRACT
The present study “Intercultural approach and reading comprehension in Secondary Education students, Simón Bolívar School – Mache, 2020” is an investigation carried out to implement a programme based on the intercultural approach aiming to improve reading comprehension in English of third grade students from "Simón Bolívar” school located in Mache in 2020. The quasi-experimental design was applied, in which a "Pre-Test" and
"Post-Test" constituted by two intact groups were considered. The sample used in this study was conducted out of 53 of third and fourth grade secondary students, respectively, in Mache District, Otuzco Province. A test consisting of 20 items designed to measure reading comprehension, which has three dimensions, was applied. The dimensions are literal, inferential and critical, respectively, considering 10 items for literal, 7 for inferential and 3 for critical.
It was concluded that the programme based on the Intercultural Approach significantly improves reading comprehension in English of the experimental group at Simón Bolívar School- Mache, 2020.
Similarly, the literal, inferential and critical dimensions improved significantly after applying the programme based on the intercultural approach.
Keywords: intercultural approach, reading comprehension, programme.
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I. INTRODUCTION
The present research “Intercultural approach and Reading comprehension in Secondary Education students, Simón Bolívar School - Mache, 2020” was carried out in order to obtain the Degree of Doctor in Sciences of Education, taking into account the research guidelines, as well as the corresponding protocol. Systematic observation was used as technique. Among the instruments used, there is the test to measure the level of reading comprehension in its three dimensions.
According to the parameters of the scientific framework, this research is structured in six main sections as follows.
Section I refers to the theoretical framework, and includes the research problem background, the theoretical bases that study the respective variables -with their dimensions and indicators, as well as the hypotheses and objectives.
Section II presents the methodology, the research method and research design, as well as the population and sample. It also refers to statistical treatment. In this section, the selection of the instrument, its validity and its reliability are exposed.
Section III includes the results and discussion after completing the application of the programme. Tables and figures were required as a product of the statistical treatment.
Section IV presents the conclusions.
Section V presents some recommendations.
Section VI includes the proposal of the Programme based on the intercultural approach to improve reading comprehension, which aims to be applied in a wide number of schools.
Finally, section VI includes all the literature consulted, and the authors quoted, according to APA.
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RATIONALE
Our world has been changed, and is still changing a lot. The way human beings communicate has also changed; including technology and mass media to establish relationships within society.
Since language teaching has become an issue of interest especially in Latinamerica, many language teaching programmes have been implemented in order to reach a wider scope.
That’s why Méndez (2015) affirms that “In a global world marked by the continuous contact between individuals from the most diverse communities or cultural environments, it is necessary that language teaching prepares the student to accept, understand and enjoy otherness.”
In the same way, Doyé (1999), quoted in Méndez (2015), mentions that during the last decades of the 21st century, intercultural competence has become a key element in language teaching, since it has the advantage of integrating cognitive, pragmatic and attitudinal components in the classroom.
Nevertheless, the issue of Interculturality is not new, Méndez (2015) refers to Byram et al.
(2002) who presented a five components or savoirs paradigm, a set of knowledge, attitudes and skills that the intercultural citizen must possess: intercultural attitudes, knowledge, interpretation and relationship skills, discovery and interaction skills, and critical cultural awareness... “The intercultural approach supports a stable identity, an attitudinal preparation and a personal disposition to get the best out of the intercultural contact situation based on a non-ethnocentric and prejudice-free positioning…”(pp. 11-13)
The large sociocultural and linguistic diversity in our country leads to understand interculturality as the dynamic and permanent process of interaction and exchange between people from different cultures, a peaceful living based on agreement and complementarity, and respect for their own identity and differences as well.
Minedu (2017) states “This conception of interculturality starts from understanding that in any society on the planet, cultures are alive, they are not static or isolated, and in their interrelation, they generate changes that contribute naturally to their development, if their identity is not impaired or there is claim of hegemony or dominance by any.” (p.24)
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The CNEB (Currículo Nacional de Educación Basica in Spanish) has been implemented throughout the country. It proposes to include in the curricular planning 7 Cross-cutting approaches. They work in an interrelated manner in the competencies that students are expected to develop, guide pedagogical work, and print characteristics to the various teaching and learning processes. (Minedu, 2017, p.11)
However, the gap is still wide; one of the most currently criticized aspects is the educational material that Minedu provides equally, regardless of the region. Unfortunately, it does not respond to the reality to which it is destined. In spite of the great effort of the publishing houses to satisfy that need, it has not been possible to include meaningful material. For instance, in the most remote areas far from the city, rural students do not feel that there is a motivation to observe images or read stories that do not reflect their feelings or culture. On the contrary, they find great difficulty in trying to understand terms, recognize places or food that are totally unfamiliar to them.
La Libertad is a region that presents coast, Andes and part of Amazon areas thanks to its geography and location; which makes it a multicultural region.
This research was carried out with the students from Simón Bolívar School in Mache, which belongs to the Province of Otuzco, located in the Andes at 3,323 AMSL, a small town with a lot of history, rich culture and traditions.
Learning a new language is learning a new culture that brings with it new ways of acting, dressing, speaking different from their own. Therefore, it is necessary to take actions that facilitate this process. It is evident that students feel helpless many times, when they don’t understand the situations presented in the teaching material suggested by the Ministry of Education. Nevertheless, what undoubtedly causes them more problems are the texts that tell stories of unknown places that do not compare in any way to their context. Hence, they are not significant to them.
According to Vásquez (2011) "We do not have a study on the educational expectations of the children themselves because they simply are not taken into account in our curricular analysis." It is important to take into account in the curricular planning those aspects that are part of the daily life of the students, use their context to be able to relate it to others based on respect and intercultural dialogue, but above all their needs.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Among the research carried out in our context and abroad regarding the subject of study, the following can be mentioned:
Oliden's work (2018) to obtain the academic degree of doctor in education, Diseño de un modelo didáctico con Enfoque Intercultural, para el desarrollo de las competencias comunicativas orales en los estudiantes del nivel secundaria, Universidad César Vallejo.
Chiclayo, Peru proposes “Modelo didáctico con enfoque intercultural, para el desarrollo de las competencias comunicativas orales de los estudiantes del quinto grado del nivel secundario, de la I.E. 10196 “Nuestra Señora del Carmen” La Pilca – distrito de Olmos – Lambayeque” which considers the involvement and effective, creative and integrated participation of external and internal agents to the Educational Institution in every process of the model, taking into account the existing problems in the institution, in order to reach quality levels adequate education to contribute to the improvement of Peruvian education.
His qualitative research serves as an educational management tool to improve pedagogical practice in a subject to fifth grade students of secondary school in rural areas, based on the validation of the instruments through the Delphi technique known as expert judgment to which was tested.
Undoubtedly, the intercultural approach allows students to develop communication skills, not only in urban cities, but also in rural areas whose students have many disadvantages. It is important to be clear that there is always a difference between students living in the city and the ones that live in the countryside, due to the cultural gap that until now has not been shortened. That is why teachers must implement strategies that serve as a link between these two opposite worlds in order to make students competent and able to develop in different contexts without any inconvenience and avoiding distinctions.
Pereira, H y Ramos, L (2016) in their “Diseño de libros de texto para la enseñanza del inglés: una propuesta curricular”, they determine as a research topic the need of the design of teaching material with cultural content typical of a region to facilitate the learning of the English language. The qualitative research describes the production of teaching material that includes typical issues of a region to assess these expressions and thus be able to fill the lack of it in textbooks delivered to public schools in Chile.
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Five books were produced and delivered in Tarapacá and surrounding areas, whose contents include relevant information from the region; unlike the texts distributed by the government that are prepared for students from other contexts.
Of course it is not a mistake to present the student material that opens their minds to new worlds; but according to the intercultural approach other cultures should be valued from the respect for one's own; students cannot be expected to know new cultures if they hardly know their own. It is essential that this is achieved from the classroom.
Likewise, Flores, T. (2014) proposes in her work “Elaboración de material didáctico para la enseñanza del inglés en Primaria”. Universidad de Valladolid, Spain, that diverse materials should be used in the classroom to facilitate the acquisition of new knowledge, but these materials should be novel and adapted to the group in experiment.
Although this process would be somewhat tedious and take some time, it would be worthy in the long run.
She also mentions other resources used in the classroom, but she emphasizes the importance of using textbooks. The experimental research had as a sample a small group of students with whom the material prepared by the author was used. The material consists of didactic units organized in lessons that include activities and material prepared by the research teacher.
The researcher concludes that, the materials used during the sessions with the students have adjusted to the needs of the group and therefore have been successful.
However, I believe that the material that the teacher has developed is not significant enough since it does not frame real context or situations. All potentially significant material should not only be attractive, but also reflect the real context of the students.
Similarly, Porta Linguarium magazine published in 2014 the article Competencia Intercultural en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras by Silvina Paricio, in Coruña, Spain. Aims to clarify what is understood as intercultural competence in foreign languages teaching. It refers to various works that have been concerned with investigating the relations between language and culture and the reasons that have led to the need to enhance an integrated teaching of both is made in the introductory section. Subsequently, some key concepts on the intercultural approach or intercultural dimension applied to language
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teaching are pointed out and a conceptual framework is provided on which this dimension is based.
The current Foreign Language Curriculum for Compulsory Secondary Education in Spain was analysed, in which linguistic skills and the importance of sociocultural aspects and intercultural awareness are recognized, which suggests that students know customs, forms of social relationship, features and particularities of the countries in which English is spoken. While it is true that learning a new language brings us closer to new cultures, the same ones that are constantly changing, teaching staff mission is to be a mediator between the student and the new culture. That is why it is necessary to use innovative teaching resources such as authentic texts, audio and video recordings, pictures, graphs, drawings, and so on.
The article clearly addresses the relationship between intercultural competence and language teaching, having as main axes the appreciation of cultural diversity, tolerance and awareness of one's own cultural identity and others’. Being this premise the basis of the Intercultural Approach in our country and why this research focused its attention to intercultural content in the didactic material that the government provides to public institutions.
Cortez, M. (2017) elaborated a quantitative research project in order to obtain the degree of Bachelor in Sciences of Education, major English, at Universidad Central del Ecuador, whose name is “Estrategias Didácticas con Orientación Intercultural en la Enseñanza de Lengua Extranjera: inglés” was selected because one of the variables is a matter in this research, in which the author places special emphasis on the use and definition of the term interculturality, since in Ecuador, where the research was carried out from 2010, becomes a transversal axis in its Curriculum, in both basic and high school education.
It should be noted that this orientation is also being adopted in the Peruvian Education reform, which can be evidenced in the National Curriculum, a document that contains the new Cross Curriculum Approaches, which displaced the Transversal Axes that have been working in the Curricular Planning some years ago.
Within the conclusions, the author determines that language teachers know the value of Interculturality in the planning and development of the Curriculum; therefore, it must be
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developed in the foreign language teaching process. However, that does not happen according to his findings.
On the other hand, there is no involvement of English within interdisciplinary and transversal axis such as interculturality. When comparing its reality with ours, many similarities were found, spite of English is a subject of special attention for the MINEDU, it is not reaching the objectives set. That is why teachers must manage strategies with intercultural orientation in their daily practice.
Similarly, Varón, M. (2009) in his research “Componente Cultural, libros de texto y enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera” which constitutes a study of the doctoral thesis entitled Cultural component in teaching English in Colombia: Analysis of tasks and iconography in high school textbooks. 194-2008, states that the main objective is to explore, contrast and compare the explicit and implicit concepts of theories about culture that have practical applications in teaching English textbooks. After the author made an exhaustive review of some authors who have devoted themselves to examine the issue of including cultural content in textbooks for language teaching. He mentions Cortazzi and Jin (1999) quoted by Varón (2009) for whom the distinction between cultural content and cultural medium is very important in the analysis of textbooks. These same authors establish a dichotomy between the contents of the one or local culture and the contents of the foreign culture or cultures in the school texts for teaching English as a foreign language. These aspects should then be considered in the process of preparing textbooks for educational purposes, especially if it is spoken about transmitting a language to another different from mother tongue. (p. 96)
Finally, he concludes that what is needed is the insertion of appropriate methods to teach and learn the culture, which facilitates a reflective use of the materials.
The intercultural approach and its relationship with English learning in the students of first grade of secondary school of the “Colegio Experimental de Aplicación de la Universidad Nacional de Educación Enrique Guzmán y Valle”, Chosica, 2013, thesis to apply the Professional Degree of Bachelor of Education Specialty: English-French presented by María Elena Charcape Gonzales and Laura Jannina Quintana Rocha, Universidad Nacional de Educación, 2013, Lima, Perú.
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The authors delimited the term interculturality, which is part of the theoretical framework, and then the criteria of the intercultural approach are mentioned, necessary information for this investigation. Below are detailed activities that suggest to work around the capabilities of English, which include purely Peruvian cultural issues. Here is emphasized the intentions of including these types of activities in the text that are going to elaborate based on the Intercultural Approach. It is important to mention that in the temporal space in which the research was carried out, they were still considered Transversal Axes in the National Curriculum.
Among the conclusions, the following are mentioned: the intercultural approach, customs and tourist places are significantly related to learning English, which will support the present investigation when developing the didactic material based on the intercultural approach.
JUSTIFICATION
Many authors and literature have been consulted in order to select the most appropriate information that, of course, meets the present investigation objectives.
The matter of language transmission, from an integral perspective, requires broader categories than merely linguistic ones, since it implies incorporating the language and its context as contemplated by applied linguistics (intercultural pragmatics, intercultural communication and intercultural learning) and vision Anthropological teaching as a historical process. (Sáez, 2018)
There are different perspectives that support the possibilities of the intercultural approach, especially in a multicultural country like ours.
First, The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment (CEFR) points out that nowadays the methodology of foreign languages teaching and learning (L2) exceeds strictly linguistic or strictly psychological issues. Secondly, from the field of teaching of the L2 in the last decades, as Byram affirms, it is not conceivable by the majority of the teaching community a teaching learning without incorporating the context where said language is spoken.
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Sáez (2018) confirms the above and affirms, "Intercultural pragmatics, intercultural communication and intercultural learning are some of the areas of applied linguistics that study the link between language and culture."
Kramnsch (2014) also supports these ideas when he says “Then it can be inferred that the intercultural is referred to the integrative conception between language and culture.” (p.5)
The treatment of the Intercultural Approach in the several areas of Regular Basic Education must occur in a transversal way, with special attention in English, since that language is part of a foreign culture. It is necessary that students first identify, know and respect their own culture, which is an expression of what they really are. So that, learning ways of life, traditions, customs of the target language, English, becomes more significant, but that above all it fosters in them the need to learn it and thus, establish similarities and differences between both cultures.
As Programa Curricular de Educación secundaria (2017) points out:
The pedagogical work of English considers the cultural, social, ethnic, religious, gender, learning styles and level of language proficiency associated with the challenges that is demanded from the English teacher in charge, who must propose activities and use educational resources that promote respect, tolerance and openness among all students.
Diversity is an important factor that enriches the learning process in the classroom and the teacher must have different alternatives to develop motivational sessions that are meaningful and at the same time challenging for students.
In addition, learning English at schools refers to interculturality as the interaction between people, with whom different cultural knowledge and practices are shared in order to build common goals. In this sense, interculturality is not the mix of cultures, nor exclusive to the native people. It means; it is not a product but a dynamic process of negotiation and constant confrontation that contributes to the construction of communities.
Therefore, meaningful learning that encourages the development of interculturality in all its forms and generates proper conditions to keep them in force in globalization and cultural exchange contexts should be promoted. Assuming the challenge of constructing an intercultural didactic that collects the proper forms of learning from students in their culture and be articulated with the methods and techniques provided by learning this second language.
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Taking the aforementioned lines as a starting point, the programme developed included significant material, especially written texts that represent Mache’s culture in all its expressions, thus fulfilling the objectives of the Intercultural Approach, taking into account the values of respect for Cultural identity and intercultural dialogue.
In that sense, Paricio (2014) quoting Sáez (2018) affirms:
As it was previously indicated, the communicative approaches, predominant until recently in language teaching, have been criticized for fostering an instrumental conception of their learning, obviating or reducing the cultural dimension to an anecdotal role [...] Communicative approach failed mainly in two aspects: 1) not being aware that the learning of another culture was insufficient to promote understanding between cultures, since, in order to achieve this last purpose, it is required to have an awareness of the culture itself.
(p.219)
The National Curriculum for Basic Education (Minedu, 2017) states that “educational materials and resources must be designed and / or selected taking into account the maturational characteristics of students, their needs and learning styles. They must respond to their context and promote cultural diversity, as well as the eco-efficiency in which the application of 3Rs is reinforced”. (p. 54)
Similarly, Ferradas (2016) criticizes materials used and emphasizes that:
Teachers have a huge variety of educational resources, both printed and on various media (DVD, CD, digital content). However, the pedagogical resources of global production are inadequate to work on the objectives we propose today when learning an additional language […] These materials often have a merely cosmetic diversity. Despite the use of images of people of different races and backgrounds and texts about different geographical areas, many manuals continue to reinforce an urban middle class model in which users from different environments and social classes are not often represented as speakers of the target language. Rarely students are invited to respond with texts that express their identity.
Thus, this research aimed to formulate a proposal in which aspects that represent the intercultural approach could be included, besides the material evidenced it by including content that identifies students. That is, aspects of their closest context, their cultural expressions, geography and at the same time relate them to the outside world both
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nationally and internationally, in order to get students interest and achieve the main objective: to improve reading comprehension in English.
The didactic programme was applied during 16 weeks that makes up an academic term, it was structured on 16 learning lessons with a duration of 50 minutes each, in which the competency: Read different types of texts written in English was strengthened.
PROBLEM
To what extent does the programme based on the Intercultural Approach improve reading comprehension in third grade Secondary Education students from Simón Bolívar School - Mache, 2020?
HYPOTHESES
Hi: The programme based on the Intercultural Approach significantly improves reading comprehension in third grade Secondary Education students from Simón Bolívar School – Mache, 2020.
Ho: The programme based on the Intercultural Approach doesn’t improve reading comprehension in third grade Secondary Education students from Simón Bolívar School – Mache, 2020.
Specific Hypotheses:
Dimension 1 – Literal
H1: The programme based on the Intercultural Approach significantly improves reading comprehension in English in its literal dimension in third grade Secondary Education students from Simón Bolívar School – Mache, 2020.
H0: The programme based on the Intercultural Approach doesn’t improve reading comprehension in English in its literal dimension in third grade Secondary Education students from Simón Bolívar School – Mache, 2020.
Dimension 2 – Inferential
H1: The programme based on the Intercultural Approach significantly improves reading comprehension in English in its inferential dimension in third grade Secondary Education students from Simón Bolívar School - Mache, 2020.
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Ho: The programme based on the Intercultural Approach doesn’t improve reading comprehension in English in its inferential dimension in third grade Secondary Education students from Simón Bolívar School - Mache, 2020.
Dimension 3 – Critical
H1: The programme based on the Intercultural Approach significantly improves reading comprehension in English in its critical dimension in third grade Secondary Education students from Simón Bolívar School - Mache, 2020.
H0: The programme based on the Intercultural Approach doesn’t improve reading comprehension in English in its critical dimension in third grade Secondary Education students from Simón Bolívar School - Mache, 2020.
GENERAL OBJECTIVE
- To determine to what extent the programme based on the intercultural approach improves reading comprehension in third grade Secondary Education students from Simón Bolívar School – Mache, 2020.
Specific
- To explain how the programme based on intercultural approach influences reading comprehension in third grade secondary students from Simón Bolívar School - Mache, 2020.
- To explain reading comprehension improvement in its different dimensions: literal, inferential and critical.
- To determine how intercultural elements of the programme: customs and traditions, personal relationships and tourist places influence in the dimensions of reading comprehension (literal, inferential and critical).
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THEORETICAL-CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
1. EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME
1.1. DEFINITION: An educational programme is a document that allows organizing and detailing a pedagogical process. The programme provides guidance to the teacher regarding the content to be taught, the way in which he has to develop his teaching activity and the objectives to be achieved.
According to Rodríguez Espinar et al (1993) quoted by Parras et al (2008), they are systematic actions, carefully planned, oriented towards goals, in response to the educational needs of students, parents and teachers inserted in the reality of a centre.
(Castillo, 2014)
Repetto et al. (1994) give another definition, the orientation programme is the design, theoretically based, and the application of pedagogical interventions that aim to achieve certain objectives within the context of an educational institution, family or the community, and that has to be systematically evaluated in all its phases. (Castillo, 2014 quoting Parras et al, 2008)
1.2. CHARACTERISTICS:
The programmes are designed and developed taking into account the needs of the centre or the context.
The programme is aimed at all students and focuses on the needs of the group.
The students are active agents of their own orientation process.
The programmes are organized by objectives throughout a temporary continuum, which allows us to realize why they act in the way they are acting.
The evaluation is permanent along the programme. Monitoring and evaluation of the processes are carried out. (Parras et al, 2008)
1.3. STAGES TO ELABORATE AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME:
In general, many similarities are found in the different proposals for the development of a programme.
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Making a synthesis between all the proposals it could be phases: initiation, design, execution and evaluation. As Parras et. al (2008) point, “all authors propose an initial phase of the model based on the analysis of the context in which the intervention is going to be carried out, with the essential purpose of adapting it to the multidimensional reality of each centre and of each educational context.” (Quoted by Castillo, 2014, p.20)
The development of the Programme based on the Intercultural Approach to improve reading comprehension in 3rd grade students of Simón Bolívar High school from Mache supports its activities on the theoretical basis of competency-based approach, communicative competence in English, communicative approach, sociocultural theory and meaningful learning.
2. INTERCULTURAL APPROACH
Among the Interculture Approach there are a lot of information from different points of view. This research is focused of the educational field, especially in the languages teaching one. In that sense, Byram & Fleming (1998) mention that the intercultural approach has its basis on a concept of culture that accepts different cultures as structurally related to each other. Consequently, this concept contemplates the encounter or interaction between cultures, and their attempts to know, understand and recognize each other. As in the case of the foreign culture approach, the intercultural approach is mainly directed to the country or countries under study, but it also addresses the student's country and the relationships between the countries under study and the student, and possibly another. Since the 1980s, the intercultural perspective has increasingly influenced language teaching. Among other factors, there is interest in studying the opportunities that students may have to reflect and come to understand their own country. (pp. 244-245)
Likewise, it is essential to transform a State that has seen itself as culturally homogeneous, by one that is representative of its cultural diversity and guarantor of the rights of peoples and cultural groups, historically excluded. The Ministry of Culture affirms that interculturality must be transversal and multisectoral to government policies. In that sense, the Vice Ministry of Interculturality has an important normative role that aims to dictate the intercultural policy of the State in coordination with the other sectors and levels of government. (Ministerio de Cultura, 2019)
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This conception of interculturality proposes that in any society on the planet cultures are alive, they are not static or isolated, and in their interaction they are generating changes that contribute to their naturally development, provided that their identity is not impaired nor does it exist claim of hegemony or dominance by any.
Vásquez (2011) affirms that an intercultural teaching is necessary to show this reality, build positive awareness of our diversity and build capacities in students to accept and live with diversity [...]
It has proved that, in bilingual contexts when community and students language and culture from them, the results are better. However, there are not enough studies about the implications of an intercultural treatment of the curriculum and meaningful learning achievement, which respond to the international standards but above all, respond to the local development processes. (p.9)
Intercultural Approach Treatment
The intercultural approach has values that involve certain attitudes and ways of demonstrating them:
Respect for cultural identity: It implies accepting the value of diverse cultural identities and relationships where they belong. It is demonstrated when; teachers and students welcome everyone with respect, without underestimating or excluding anyone because of their language, their way of speaking, their way of dressing, their customs or their beliefs.
In the same way, teachers speak the students' mother tongue and accompany them with respect in their process of acquiring Spanish as a second language. As well as, teachers respect all the variants of Spanish that are spoken in different regions of the country, without forcing students to express themselves orally only in standard Spanish.
Justice: It is a willingness to act fairly, respecting everyone, demanding, and recognizing rights to those who are entitled. Then, teachers directly prevent and face all forms of discrimination, fostering a critical reflection on their causes and motivations with all students.
Intercultural dialogue: it implies the promotion of an equitable interaction between diverse cultures, through dialogue and mutual respect. Teachers and managers promote a
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continuous dialogue between different cultural perspectives, and between them with scientific knowledge, seeking complementarities formulated at the different levels for the treatment of common challenges.
2.1 INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION
Intercultural education is a holistic educational approach that has an inclusive character that starts from the respect and acknowledgment of cultural diversity. It is crucial to achieve a comprehensive education which seeks to eradicate elements that interfere with the coexistence between cultures such as: Discrimination, exclusion, racism.
This type of education refers to a reformist trend in educational praxis that tries to react to the cultural diversity of today's societies.
Some of the principles formulated by intercultural education:
• Promotion of respect between coexisting cultures
• Acceptance of cultures in contact
• Perception of diversity as a value and not as a deficiency
• Increased educational equality
• Promote communication and coexistence
An education to learn to live in society and in the cultural diversity that today's world offers us, developing values such as respect and tolerance towards others. We are therefore facing a transformative education, not only at the educational level, but also with projections to society, considered by some to be a new approach towards Anti-racist Education.
It is developed in an interdisciplinary and transversal way, it has a holistic approach, that is, it is not about punctual education, and an example of this is the “Day of…” (Day of Peace, Day of Diversity ...), very common in our school culture, but it is an education that is always present in the continuum of the teaching-learning process and also globalizing, affecting all possible educational dimensions.
In Intercultural Education, there are challenges to face; one of them is the possible presence of different languages among the participants.
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2.2 INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE
The intercultural approach implies certain skills that the student must achieve throughout the Regular Basic Education in each of the areas, the competencies that have similar capacities and these, at the same time, reflect specific performances around a meaningful situation and real contexts.
Foreign languages teaching and learning must be related to the students context, socially, politically, economicly and culturally. Intercultural competence in language teaching is considered the fifth skill.
Dimensions of Intercultural Competence, taken from Fajardo (2011) Dimension 1: Knowledge
1.1 Knowledge of one's own culture: history, beliefs (religious, moral), values, characteristics (clothing, food, territory), cultural products (crafts, mythology), general processes of social interaction.
1.2 Knowledge of other contact cultures: ditto all of the above.
1.3 Understanding of cultural diversity.
1.4 Awareness of the way in which a culture can be disfigured in stereotypes from external points of view, and how they influence the relationship with that culture, that is, how stereotypes are elaborated and maintained and how they influence us to act.
1.5 Awareness of the cultural conditioning of all behaviour.
1.6 Understanding the meaning and consequences in behaviour of: sexism, racism, xenophobia, prejudice and all kinds of discrimination because of difference.
Dimension 2: Attitudes
2.1 Curiosity, positive interest and openness towards the other, that is, constant learning capacity and flexibility to enrich the world model.
2.2 Acceptance of difference as the norm instead of imaginary homogeneity.
2.3 Accept a horizontal relationship with cultural difference, expressing confidence in the value of your own culture.
2.4 Ability to recognize contrasts and similarities with other cultures, that is, accept the validity of other ways of thinking.
2.5 Ability to relativize the parameters of your own culture, that is, be self-critical and thus increase your understanding of your own culture.
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2.6 Ability to put yourself in each other's shoes.
2.7 Show respect and tolerance.
2.8 Availability to cooperation, negotiation and conciliation.
2.9 Rejection of demonstrations of racism, sexism, xenophobia, prejudice and discrimination, in general.
Dimension 3: Skills and abilities
3.1 Learning, ability to search for and acquire new knowledge about other contact cultures.
Be able to ask people from different cultures about their customs.
3.2 Interpretation and understanding of new knowledge about other cultures.
3.3 Linguistic mediation: listening, negotiating, dialogue, conflict resolution.
3.4 Analyse and recognize communication patterns and behaviours that lead to manifestations of racism, sexism, xenophobia, prejudice and discrimination in general.
3.5 Comparison of different cultural forms, or between one's own culture and others.
3.6 Understanding of differences, of the origin of misunderstandings.
3.7 Interaction: ability to use all this knowledge in real situations of communicative interaction.
3.8 Confidence and quietness to tackle conflictive issues.
2.3 INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
We can define intercultural communicative competence as the set of cognitive, affective skills that allow appropriate behaviours to be manifested in a given social and cultural context. It causes an interaction between diverse individuals; such a context at first cannot be anything other than school, since it is there where interculturality should be promoted through communication, favouring respect, the integration of different knowledge, making it a solid environment in values and communication. (Pérez & Garzón, 2012)
Most of Latin-American countries speak Spanish, which have placed great emphasis on teaching a second language as a key to opening doors to a globalized world. It is not new, that English has become the universal language. There are important investigations from neighbouring countries such as Chile, Colombia, Ecuador in South America; and Mexico in North America, which highlight the importance of developing intercultural communicative competence in the teaching of foreign languages since some decades.
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As an example, Pérez & Garzón (2012) mention that the curricular guidelines for foreign languages proposed by the Colombian Ministry of Education makes it clear that two factors play an important role to foreign language communicative competence development. One internal and the other external, the internal factor is made up of knowledge and the appropriation that the speakers posses of their language, their culture and their expectations in front of other cultures and other languages; while the external factor includes the interactions between languages and cultures, such factors also affect the affective and the cognitive. (pp.72-73)
2.4 SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY
It is important to mention the contribution of sociocultural theory to learning, especially in a new language, where language and culture go hand in hand.
Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist who carried out his main investigative work during the second decade of the last century, initially developed sociocultural theory. […] the same that distinguishes four research domains, as it follows.
First of all, the phylogenetic investigates the differences between humans and other living beings; then, the sociocultural evolution approach is the result of mediating tools or cultural artefacts such as computers, the writing or the number system in the development of civilization. Next, the ontogenetic investigates the internalization of mediation during childhood, its effect on the physical and mental development of the child; and, finally, the microgenetic domain is related to short-term investigation of cognitive development during a specific activity. To Vygotsky (1980), the individual's activity cannot be understood without taking into account the society in which it has developed. Thus, it is considered that the creation of new knowledge takes place through the interaction between members of the speech community, artefacts as means that unite the personal with the collective and also through the interactions that take place in a given context (Cabaleiro, 2017) (Vygotsky, 1962, 1980); quoted by Martínez-Carrillo, 2008).
Vygotsky (1980) and his collaborators were the first to systematize and apply the sociocultural approach to language teaching and language development. […] Learning and development take place in contexts socially and culturally defined, and since historical
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conditions are constantly changing, new contexts and learning opportunities arise.
(Cabaleiro, 2017)
Cabaleiro acknowledges the work of (Gregory, 2002) and focuses on the union between culture and cognition through the relationship between activities, tasks or events.
According to this author, the sociocultural approach is based on the idea that development occurs through learning a new language and its culture; and on the other hand, takes into account the role of the mediator. This facilitates the transfer of the learner from what Vygotsky calls zone of proximal development (ZPD), understood as the difference between what an individual or group can achieve on its own and what it can achieve in an activity through imitation and receiving the necessary help.
Similarly, Antón (2010) affirms that sociocultural theory puts the student in the foreground as a social agent in language learning, also the instruments that are provided by the social context of learning and that will facilitate student to learn the target language and culture. (Cabaleiro, 2017)
It is important to remark cultural practices, and, in the same way, it is necessary to consider how culture works within language, accepting that language can’t be understood completely out of the cultural context.
Mackerras (2007) quoted by Cabaleiro (2017), considers that, the sociocultural approach allows students to become intercultural learners capable of interweaving everyday and learned concepts applicable to the formal and cultural aspects of a new language.
All in all, a vision of learning in which the social environment and collaboration mediated by language as a psychological tool play a fundamental role stands out from the sociocultural perspective. It is important to note that although sociocultural theory shares with other theories an interest in the impact of language and the social and cultural context on learning, its theoretical postulates clearly distinguish it from social constructivism and are incompatible with second language acquisition models based on at the input (Krashen,1980), input process (VanPatten,1996) and interaction (Long,1996). (Antón, 2010)
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Sociocultural and Second Language Acquisition Theory:
According to Second Language Acquisition Theory all interactions happen in a social context, whereas, students are in contact with their peers and teachers. They are exposed to different costumes, traditions and behaviours. Learning a new language means to learn a new culture.
Anton, (2010) affirms, in recent decades, sociocultural theory has made a dent in the field of second language acquisition in the Western world. Lantolf and Frawley (1984) and Frawley and Lantolf (1985) are among the first who adopted sociocultural theory as the frame of reference for their research on second language acquisition.
Antón (2010) affirms,
[…] The aspects of theory that have garnered most attention have been collaborative work in the Zone of Proximal Development. Scaffolding in collaborative interaction between students and in the interaction between teachers and students in the classroom, the use of private speech, linguistic play and gestures with a mediating function, the negotiation of identity through language, the theory of activity, and dynamic evaluation. […]
2.5 INTERCULTURAL PRAGMATISM
Teaching languages is therefore much more than teaching simple linguistic formulas. How students shape context through the new language determines the meanings they explore, discover, and exchange.
Pragmatic knowledge can only be acquired through observation, analysis and feeling of the completely social context.
According to Rábano (1997), the importance of context in L2 classes (second language), from the attempt to enhance communicative competence and intercultural values, leads us to emphasize the following pedagogical aspects:
Teaching as shaping contexts of interaction cannot be done, as has been done, directly, by providing doses of isolated events. Recent case studies show that by learning a series of
"useful" phrases or a series of words that students learn, they do not know how or when to use them in real conversations.
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These investigations also show that pragmatic knowledge can only be acquired through observation, analysis and feeling of the completely social context. And what is more evident: children are not strangers to all this; which means that their verbal emissions, from surprisingly early ages (first year of life) will be highly conditioned, if not determined, by this entire complex social system.
[…] Put into practice the concept of interculturality in an English class as a vehicle for reflecting on the "new" and "own" culture towards the cultural exchange of students and teachers. (Kramsch, 1993, cited by Rábano, 1997, p.275)
This reflection on "own" and "new" culture is conceived as the common thread in the development of social and cultural identity towards the transformation of students and teachers into intercultural values.
3. ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
The National Curriculum for Regular Basic Education states the following: “English is one of the most widely spoken language in the world and has managed to become international that is used in several fields. It is called the lingua franca due to its use as a communication link between a large number of speakers of other languages, which has shortened gaps between countries worldwide” (Minedu, 2017, p.201)
The importance of learning English is valued as a global communication tool that facilitates access to information and new technologies. The command of English allows connecting with different realities and contexts, expanding the access to best academic, technological, scientific, and cultural and employment opportunities.
Due to the singularities of the context, the National Curriculum proposes the subject:
English as a Foreign Language since it is not the language used to communicate among Peruvians. This situation implies that students are not exposed to its frequent use outside school. Therefore, the use of English is proposed to be developed in a communicative and active context for the EFL student. Its teaching is aligned with the new competency-based approach and international standards such as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages as well (CEFR).
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The devoloping of many competencies is necessary for the students to achieve the Graduate Profile of Basic Education. The language social practices and the sociocultural perspective are incorporated by promoting and facilitating the development of the following competencies by students in an EFL classroom:
● Communicates orally in English as a foreign language.
● Reads different types of texts in English as a foreign language.
● Writes different types of texts in English as a foreign language.
3.1 COMPETENCY-BASED APPROACH
It is important to clarify what teaching with a competency-based approach consists of, so it is necessary to have the concept of competency.
Diaz’s et al. (2010) work the following definitions: initially Chomsky (1965) as a skill expressed this term, where the pair competency/performance was related. Competency was understood as the capacity of genetically determined language, which is, the set of abstract principles, rules, and knowledge that allow us to understand and produce an infinity of new phrases or particular forms of language. In addition, that this potentiality becomes, in each subject, a real competency only exposed during childhood to limited data or linguistic experiences and, on the other hand, performance was understood as the effective use of this capacity in specific situations.
U.F. Overton (1985) is also taken into account, who considers competencies as capacities that materialize in carrying out specific tasks, "solving problems" and "creating products, exposing a model where the competencies are related to the moderator".
In the same document other conceptions are presented which are closer to the one we know today, […] they are made under the sociolinguistic approach and are contradictory to the definition given by Chomsky. This conception adopts that these abilities are their own and are part of the individual's genetics; under this approach, competencies are defined as skills that emerge, rather than unfold, from interactions with others, and are transformed through them, but in specific immediate situations and contexts. Therefore, competency is defined as a function of a particular activity, that is, of contextualized situated performance, (Vigotsky, 1979, quoted in Díaz et al, 2010, p. 13)
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Under the different conceptions, new decisions are adopted that generalize knowledge, being and expertise as part of the competencies.
The curriculum development is based on the concept of competency and the incentive behind the process of change. It is defined as “the development of complex capacities that allow students to think and act in various fields […]. It consists of acquiring knowledge through action, the result of a solid base culture that can be put into practice and used to explain what is happening”. (Cecilia Braslavsky).
A competency can be used as the organizing principle of the curriculum. In a competency- oriented curriculum, the profile of learners at the end of their secondary education is used to specify the types of situations that students have to solve effectively at the end of level.
Depending on the type of training, these prototypes of situations are identified either as belonging to real life, as related to the world of job or within the internal logic of the discipline in question.
Choosing competency as the organizing principle of the curriculum is a way of transferring real life to the classroom (Jonnaert, P. et al, Perspectives, UNESCO, 2007). It is, therefore, about leaving behind the idea that the curriculum is carried out when students reproduce theoretical knowledge and memorize facts (the conventional knowledge-based approach).
(UNESCO, 2019)
The National Basic Education Curriculum is structured based on four key curricular definitions that make possible to specify in educational practice the intentions expressed in the Graduation Profile. These definitions are: competencies, capacities, learning standards and performance. (Minedu, 2017, p. 35)
Competency is understood as a person’s ability to mix a set of skills to reach a given purpose in an specific situation, by acting in a pertinent and ethical way.
Being competent means getting the situation that must be faced and evaluating the possibilities you have to solve it. This means identifying the knowledge and abilities that one possesses or that is available in the environment. It also refers to combine personal characteristics and socio-emotional abilities that achieve an effective interaction within the contex. This will require the individual to remain alert regarding subjective dispositions.
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The development of competencies in a student is a continuous, aforethought and conscious construction, fostered by teachers, educational institutions, and educational programmes.
This development occurs throughout life and has expected achievements for each school cycle.
The development of National Curriculum for Basic Education competencies throughout this level allows the achievement of the Graduating Profile. These competencies are developed in a linked, simultaneous and sustained way along the educational experience.
English as a subject of Basic Education has three competencies students must develop throughout their time in regular basic education (kindergarden, primary and secondary).
One of them is the competency that refers to the language input through written texts presented in different ways. Thus, to be competent in this regard, it is necessary to combine three skills and their respective performances, which will be detailed later.
Capacities: Capacities are resources applied in order to act competently. The means students use to solve problematic situations are knowledge, skills and attitudes. These capabilities implicate simple operations. On the contrary, competencies are more complex.
Knowledge include the theories, concepts and procedures bequeathed by humanity in different fields of wisdom. The school works with knowledge built and validated by the global society in which they are embedded. In the same way, students also build knowledge. Hence, learning is a living process, away from the mechanical and rote repetition of pre-established knowledge.
Skills refer to a person's talent, expertise or aptitude to carry out some tasks successfully.
Skills can be social, cognitive, motorm and so on.
Attitudes are dispositions or tendencies to act in agreement or disagreement according to a specific situation. They are habitual ways of thinking, feeling and behaving according to a value system that is shaped throughout life through the experiences and education received. (Minedu, 2017, p. 37)
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3.2 APPROACH THAT SUPPORTS THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPETENCIES IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
The subject is based on the communicative approach incorporating the social practices of the language and the sociocultural perspective.
It is based on authentic situations to develop communication skills […]
It incorporates the social practices of language because communicative situations are not isolated: they occur when people participate in their social and cultural life.
From these practices, students experience the uses of language to understand and progressively master it in a contextualized way.
It is sociocultural because these language practices are located in diverse social and cultural contexts, and generate individual and collective identities.
Thus, orality and written language adopt their own characteristics in each of these contexts, which means taking into account how language is used according to the sociocultural characteristics of the speaker.
This approach points out the importance of communicating instead of focusing on grammatical rules or isolated vocabulary; it means that, it highlights the use that is made of the language in place of the theoretical knowledge available of it. Students work on four skills which are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. And this development is carried out through simulated and meaningful communicative activities that begin in the classroom and are transferred to different social contexts. (Minedu, 2017, pp. 201-202)
3.2.1 Communicative Approach
Paricio (2004), quoting Byram, (1997); Byram and Risager (1999); Byram and Zarate, (1997); Kramsch (2001), mentions that the model to follow when teaching one language was the native speaker’s which was common in communicative approaches. It was understood that the main achievement of students was the acquisition of linguistic competence in a certain degree that had to be as close as possible to a native speaker’s performance.
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This model was called into question because, although a non-native speaker could possibly achieve linguistic skills that look like a native speaker skills; culturally, they could never identify themselves with it, nor is desirable that they should. The aforementioned is seen from an integrated teaching of language and culture point of view.
Manrique (2014) quoting Richards & Rodgers (2004) who affirm that communicative language teaching origins date back to the late 1960s, thanks to the changes that occurred in the tradition of language teaching in Britain at the time. Until then, language teaching was based on structures where Situational approach to foreign language teaching predominated. According to the authors, in situational language teaching, it was taught through the practice of basic structures and activities based on what were called meaningful situations. (Understanding the teaching-learning process as a phenomenon that depends on specific situations where different uses of language are developed depending on the situation represented). Richards & Rodgers state that by the mid-1960s Applied British Linguists began to worry about the theoretical claims underlying situational language teaching. (p.153)
3.2.2 Communicative Competence
In the Anglophone world Hymes’ critique of Chomsky developed the concept of
‘communicative competence’ and, in the Germanophone literature Habermas did it. Hymes discussed that linguists who wanted to understand language acquisition first need to pay attention not only to how grammatical competence is acquired, but also to the ability to use language properly.
Thus, it emphasizes sociolinguistic competence and this concept was fundamental for the development of the CLT (Communicative language teaching), when Hymes’ description of the acquisition and communication of the mother tongue among native speakers was transferred to the description of the objectives of teaching and learning the foreign language. Byram (1997) criticizes Hymes’ theory by saying that:
“I shall argue later that this transfer is misleading because it implicitly suggests that foreign language learners should model themselves on first language speakers, ignoring the significance of the social identities and cultural competence of the learner in any intercultural interaction. […]”. (p.7-8)