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Enhancing intercultural communicative competence in an online
collaborative assessment environment: CEFcult project
Jacek Tadeusz Waliński
Abstract: The CEFcult Project provides an online environment that enables
self-, peer- and expert evaluation of spoken language proficiency and
intercultural communicative competence in professional communication. By
combining the CEFR scales for language proficiency with the INCA rating
scales for intercultural competence the project has translated the concepts of
linguistic competence and intercultural competence into a single assessment
framework (based on Byram’s model of Intercultural Communicative
Competence) that is applicable in practice through the use of operationalized
scales. The project has developed a flexible collaborative assessment platform to
measure and raise intercultural communicative competence through
implementation of real-life scenarios based on spoken interaction typical of the
modern international enterprise.
Educators and professionals in intercultural
communication and collaboration can contribute to the CEFcult environment
with new custom scenarios and further expansion of the assessment framework.
Keywords: CEFcult, intercultural competence, intercultural communicative
competence, assessment, oral proficiency, learning platform, CEFR, INCA,
WebCEF
1. Introduction
Facing a financial crisis, baby bust, and increasing global competition, the
European Union needs to implement profound changes in education, economy
and society in order to cope with challenges of the present times. There is an
urgent need to equip Europeans, both young and old, with increased mobility
skills, initially focused on learning, but ultimately for jobs, competitiveness,
cultural exchange and European citizenship. As outlined in the European Report
of the High Level Expert Forum on Mobility (RHLEFM 2008) the Union needs
to forge a new generation of citizens with openness and multicultural
cooperation skills for intercultural dialogue in the globalizing world.
Another document (CEDEFOP 2009) focusing on Europe's future
occupational skill needs recognizes challenges for the European economy in
globalization, ageing population, and productivity gap that require a more
flexible labor force capable of adaptation to changing demands of the present
economy. Taking into consideration the increasing contact between people from
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different linguistic and cultural backgrounds through international migration and
collaborations, workers need to develop adequate linguistic and intercultural
skills to act successfully in the global market.
Moreover, it has already been established (CILT 2006) that European
business is losing ground due to insufficient language skills. Thus, a central
element of this new mobility and flexibility strategy is to expand the
opportunities to learn a second and third European language, especially in
professional settings. To develop the required flexible labor force, graduate,
post-graduate, and vocational education needs to advance pedagogical efforts to
support learners in understanding and building their international
communication skills.
The above mentioned studies clearly point out that being successful in
international communication requires not only foreign language skills, but also
the ability to deal with the cultural diversity of a foreign country environment.
To address this problem CEFcult project was established to provide a platform
for integrated training of intercultural and oral language skills, thereby
addressing increased needs for this type of training in commercial and
educational institutions.
2. CEFcult system development
The CEFcult has been in existence since November 2009. It is funded by the EU
Lifelong Learning Programme of the Education, Audiovisual & Culture
Executive Agency (project no. 505246-LLP-1-2009-1-BE-KA2-KA2MP). The
project consortium brings together 12 partners from 8 different counties
including: KU Leuven (coordinator); Open Universiteit Nederland; Technische
Universität Dresden; Groep T - Internationale Hogeschool Leuven; Université
de Savoie; Università di Bologna; University of Lodz, University of Helsinki;
University of Jyväskylä; The Open University (UK); Fontys Hogescholen;
Euneos Oy (commercial partner). The project is advised by an Advisory Board
composed of academics, e-learning professionals, global employers and
international language training and assessment organizations. To learn more
about project objectives and structure visit the project website at:
www.cefcult.eu
The CEFcult project focuses on the increasing demand for foreign language
competence for intercultural communication which, for the reasons mentioned
above, can currently be observed in institutions and enterprises acting at the
trans-European and global level. To satisfy this need the project has developed
an online learning platform to train and assess intercultural communication
competence in spoken interaction. The CEFcult system provides a flexible
environment for integrated assessment of oral language skills together with
intercultural communication skills in a self-directed, socially embedded way.
Enhancing intercultural communicative competence: CEFcult project
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The platform has been built on CEFcult's predecessor, the WebCEF project
(www.webcef.eu), which created a platform for collaborative online assessment
of oral proficiency using the CEFR scales (Council of Europe 2001) for oral
production. The assessment of spoken language is particularly complex due to
the multiplicity of components in this macro-skill and to the variety of language
teaching and assessment traditions. Thus, to achieve this goal the WebCEF
platform (Walinski 2011) included a showcase with representative samples of
spoken production at different CEFR levels in selected European languages,
annotated by experienced teachers and assessors with the CEFR descriptors
presented in an online grid. It was used for comparison of oral skill assessment
among language teachers and teacher trainees as well as for providing their
students with a safe environment for online self- and peer-assessment.
However, the CEFcult online learning platform is gauged towards the
assessment of oral proficiency for intercultural communication purposes in the
realm of enterprise. Among its target users are employees about to (re)enter the
workplace in another country, business language teachers, and in-house trainers
working in a commercial setting. The project assumes that learners entering the
platform engage in oral activities for intercultural communication purposes in
scenarios typical for entrepreneurial activities. Therefore, the project’s ultimate
output is an e-learning platform that allows for self-, peer- and expert
assessment of intercultural communicative competence in a commercial context.
3. Assessment of Intercultural Communicative Competence
Assessment of intercultural competence is a profoundly complex task since, as
summarized by Deardorff (2006, p.242), in the past 30 years even a definition of
intercultural competence has not been fully agreed among scholars. However,
her earlier study (Deardorff 2004, p. 194) points out that a generic definition
commonly accepted by intercultural scholars defines it as “the ability to
communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations based on
one’s intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes”. Deardorff research (2006,
p. 255-257) resulted in two innovative, static and dynamic, models of
intercultural competence illustrating a cyclic and complex nature of its
acquisition. However, she also noticed that among educators Byram’s definition
is regarded as highly suitable for pedagogical purposes. Byram defines
intercultural competence as “Knowledge of others; knowledge of self; skills to
interpret and relate; skills to discover and/or to interact; valuing others’ values,
beliefs, and behaviors; and relativizing one’s self. Linguistic competence plays a
key role (…)” (Byram in Deardorff 2006, p. 248).
In Byram’s model (Byram 2009, p. 323) presented in Figure 1 below,
Intercultural Communicative Competence is composed of two closely related
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areas including communicative competence, and intercultural competence. The
communicative competence consists of linguistic competence, sociolinguistic
competence, and discourse competence. Intercultural competence consists of
three components (knowledge, skills and attitudes) and is supplemented by five
values: (1) intercultural attitudes, (2) knowledge, (3) skills of interpreting and
relating, (4) skills of discovery and interaction, (5) critical cultural awareness
(Byram et al. 2002, pp. 11-13). These five major intercultural competences are
strongly interrelated. Byram argues that “the basis of intercultural competence is
in the attitudes of the person interacting with people of another culture.”
Without this basic competence, the other four cannot truly develop.
Figure 1. Byram's model of Intercultural Communicative Competence
The Byram’s model of intercultural communicative competence has been
adopted for the execution of the CEFcult project due to a number of reasons.
First of all, it sees the development of intercultural communicative competence,
Enhancing intercultural communicative competence: CEFcult project
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as a combination of communicative competence and intercultural competence,
both of which are fully supported in the CEFcult learning platform. Moreover, it
fits well within recent Deardorff’s models mentioned above, but is less complex
and therefore easier to implement in practical assessment conditions. Finally, it
is widespread in the European context and has formed the basis for the majority
of work currently published by the Council of Europe on intercultural
competence, including the assessment scales of intercultural competence defined
in the INCA scales that have been implemented in the CEFcult assessment
system.
4. INCA scales
The Byram’s model presented above provides vital insight into the assessment
criteria for intercultural communicative competence, however it is not specific
enough to be applied for objective assessment in practice. Therefore, the project
looked for available assessment frameworks that could be applied for practical
evaluation on the CEFcult platform. Unfortunately, the sociolinguistic
competence is not very thoroughly covered in creation of the CEFR scales. As
put by Byram (2003, p. 5) "For although the CEF included a discussion of
intercultural competence and intercultural awareness, the question of assessment
and the defining of levels of intercultural competence, had to be left aside as the
CEF went to press. Furthermore, rapid change in contemporary Europe means
that the ways in which the CEF can be read and used are also changing.” This
has been confirmed by North (2008, p.30, 40-41) who states that the
sociolinguistic dimension in the CEFR scales is not fully backed by empirical
data.
Therefore, the system employs an additional framework, namely the INCA
scales, for assessment of intercultural competence. The INCA project
(www.incaproject.org) developed a framework, a suite of assessment tools, and
a portfolio for the assessment of intercultural competence linked to language and
subject knowledge competence. Although still tentative, the INCA scales
measure a learner’s proficiency on six intercultural competence dimensions
referred to as six elements of competence: “It has been observed how people in
groups of mixed cultural background recognize and deal with the differences
that emerge as the group works together. From such observations, it has been
possible to identify a number of ‘elements’ of competence that people bring to
bear on the situation. These elements are not definitive. Intercultural competence
can include other ‘elements’ of competence, but the INCA project ‘elements’
provide a snapshot, useful as an assessment tool, to provide a baseline to inform
training programmes.” (INCA Project 2004, p. 5-7). These six elements include:
1. Tolerance of ambiguity; 2. Behavioral flexibility; 3. Communicative
awareness; 4. Knowledge discovery; 5. Respect for otherness; 6. Empathy.
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Figure 2. A fragment of the assessor version of the INCA framework
The assessment according to each of these scales is performed by evaluating
learner behavior or responses and relating those responses to descriptors that
represent a level of proficiency in a competence. As shown in Figure 2 above,
each of the elements is described at three (Basic, Intermediate, Full) levels of
competence, corresponding to the abilities achieved by a learner. As the
descriptors are rather abstract, in the CEFcult system they are operationalized
for each specific assessment scenario, which relates the abstract descriptors to
the specific situation that the learner enacts.
5. Scenarios
The CEFcult platform includes scenarios and tasks that require activation of
both language and intercultural competencies. Learners are asked to perform
specific tasks that have been devised to stimulate certain intercultural behavior
through spoken language. They sometimes make use of trigger texts or videos to
create an intercultural context first. Those tasks are usually a part of a larger
scenario, which is a description of a real-life situation accompanied by a series
of assignments for the learner designed to prompt spoken interaction. In the
CEFcult platform, the scenarios are intended to provoke, apart from spoken
conversation, a certain type of intercultural behavior, which is assessed at a later
stage together with oral proficiency. A task usually provides a single assignment
to be accomplished by the learner. For example, one scenario covers a job
interview for a multinational company, which includes such tasks as presenting
yourself, describing suitability for the job, talking about extra-curricular
activities, and closing the interview.
Enhancing intercultural communicative competence: CEFcult project
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In CEFcult these scenarios can have several formats, including monologue,
dialogue and group role-play situations and the resulting behavior is captured
using audio/video recording equipment. Thus, in result three major types of
scenarios are used, depending on how the learner is asked to interact.
• The learner individually sits in front of a computer to perform tasks:
intended behavior, actual behavior, and observations in reaction to trigger
texts or videos are captured in a video recording. Live interaction is also
possible (e.g. online job interview).
• The learner performs a task in dialogue situation with others (e.g. teacher,
other learner, or the assessor). The resulting dialogue is captured as a
video recording and made available on the platform.
• The learner performs a task as part of a group role play with others (other
learners and/or assessors). The role play is captured in a video recording
and made available on the platform for assessment.
As intercultural communicative competence development is an ongoing process,
new scenarios can be added to sustain its headway (e.g. through increasing level
of intercultural subtlety in tasks). Educators and professionals in intercultural
communication and collaboration can contribute to the CEFcult environment
with new made-to-measure scenarios and further expansion of the assessment
framework. In the development of scenarios, it should be taken into
consideration that a scenario should be clearly defined by multiple dimensions,
like task type, language used, scales used to assess the results, format,
production and observation/reflection, etc. Since in the CEFcult system learners
invite both peers and experts to assess their recordings, it may also be also
necessary to provide clear guidelines for assessors of the scenarios, including
self-assessment, peer assessment and expert assessment.
6. Project outcomes and summary
The project has contributed to the ongoing development and validation of both
CEFR (language proficiency) and INCA (intercultural competence) frameworks.
Moreover, by linking the CEFR scales with the INCA scales, the CEFcult
project has translated the concepts of both linguistic competence and
intercultural competence into a single assessment framework, based on Byram’s
model, that is applicable in practice through the use of operationalized scales.
The major outcome of the project is an innovative and user friendly online
learning platform based on modern principles of a Web 2.0 websites, for
language learners to assess and raise their foreign language speaking
performance combined with intercultural communicative competence in a
multilingual professional environment. However, the platform itself is not
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limited to implementation in professional training and can be as well used for
general education, simulations and trainings in the broad area of intercultural
competences through implementation of different scenarios that can be easily
added to the system.
Apart from the platform the project intends to develop other substantial
outputs, including:
• a set of scenarios (authentic communication tasks) through which learners
can assess their speaking skills for intercultural professional purposes in
different European languages;
• research-supported guidelines for foreign language teaching and
educational policy based on observed international inter-rater differences;
• viable and tested models for collaborative assessment among higher
education institutes, enterprises, and other cooperation initiatives;
• training materials for self-, peer- and expert assessment in education and
enterprises.
Figure 3. Actions available to a CEFcult platform user
The project promotes the new e-learning culture bringing together self-learning
in the realms of business and education. As shown in Figure 3 above the
platform puts the learner in the center of attention. By encouraging self-
awareness, and the self- and peer-assessment, it enables learners to become
more autonomous. The environment is designed to support informal learning
initiatives - initiated by learners themselves, but can also be used in formal
learning settings (e.g. in schools or universities).
As shown in the diagram (Baten et al. 2010), the learner is in charge, but
experts can be called in to feed the assessment from a professional perspective.
Enhancing intercultural communicative competence: CEFcult project
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Learners are able to record themselves and make annotations, and to submit
their assessments for peer review in social networks, e.g. LinkedIn, etc. They are
also provided with an opportunity to employ the e-Portfolio based assessment in
line with European Language Portfolio (Council of Europe 2010) guidelines for
internal learning and monitoring processes in educational institutions and other
organizations.
Therefore, the platform should be viewed as a vehicle in which learners and
assessors apply their interests, critical thinking, and creative ideas to self-
selected areas of interest. It provides a secure environment that assists language
learners in refining and improving their performance and intercultural
communication skills in situations where spoken language is related to
intercultural professional communication. As employees increasingly work in
multi-cultural settings, such system offers an invaluable tools to build not only
language skills, but also the ability to deal with cultural and linguistic diversity.
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