Course description
This course proposal is conceived with today’s students’ needs in mind. However, the course content, readings and teaching methods may be updated to take into account global changes, advancements in digital technologies and pedagogical tools.
Future generations of academics and experts across different fields need to be able to collaborate cross-culturally in a globalised world. Academic and business environments are increasingly multinational and multicultural, as is the case of Venice International University, where English as medium of instruction (EMI) is adopted to cater for an international and multilingual student body. Intercultural awareness is an essential component of effective cross-cultural communication, along with proficiency in the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF). For this reason, intercultural competence has been included in the most recent version of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).
This course aims to develop students’ understanding and mastery of intercultural competence when using ELF to communicate cross-culturally. Students will be familiarised with a non-essentialist theoretical framework to intercultural competence. Non-essentialism premises that identities are plural, changing and non-fixed. This approach posits that putting an excessive focus on culture reifies the latter, making it an outside entity (IEREST, 2015). Instead, the focus is on individuals with unique cultural aspects that might differ depending on the context and across different contexts, thus avoiding stereotyping and challenging current polarising views of identity and culture. The latter is often associated to norm-based assumptions of what is considered appropriate or inappropriate within a certain context, regardless of cultural, generational and individual differences. Students will therefore analyse and discuss cross-cultural etiquette (and netiquette) on issues such as punctuality, deadlines, politeness, written and spoken conventions, to anticipate and offer practical solutions to handle misunderstanding and conflict. Students themselves will establish a set of rules for intercultural communication and collaborative work within the group and will be encouraged to refer to the guidelines throughout the course.
Students will also explore the concepts of multicultural identities, global English, language ownership, linguistic diversity and multilingualism. Recent approaches to teaching ELF challenge the view that authenticity belongs to native speakers but to all speakers using English to communicate, regardless of their first language (Pinner 2016, Reynolds 2022). Accordingly, the course material will expose students to English speakers with multi-layered identities and speaking different varieties of English, challenging their assumptions about identity, accent and focusing instead on individuals’ story and intelligibility.
Thanks to the mixed nationalities and languages present in the student body of the class and the Venetian context, students will be able to experience intercultural communication firsthand. By discussing the issues in the module and collaborating for a common goal, students will develop awareness of potential issues in multilingual and cross-cultural dialogue. Linguistic diversity within the VIU classroom will also be an asset when discussing multilingualism (Dendrinos, 2018). Students will be able to draw on their knowledge of other languages and language-learning experience to build a toolbox of verbal and non-verbal communicative strategies to achieve intelligibility and mutual understanding in ELF, along with practical solutions to avoid and/or overcome any potential difficulties arising from linguistic differences and contrasting cultural viewpoints.
Educational videos are widely used to create, share and disseminate content in an effective, pleasant and engaging way. The interview seems an appropriate format to put intercultural competence in practice. Therefore, a video-based project including an interview on the themes addressed during the course is the final goal of the course.
Learning outcomes

This module will provide students with an understanding of a non-essentialist theoretical approach to intercultural competence in relation to the notion of multicultural, multi-layered identities. Students will also consider different points of view on key controversial issues linked to the role of English as a lingua franca and its implications on multilingualism. Students will also learn practical language-learning strategies such as reading and writing skills, phonological awareness of different varieties of English accents, word and sentence stress, intonation, pace and non-verbal communication to communicate effectively in an intercultural context. Through a collaborative video-based project, students will develop soft skills including autonomy, teamwork and project management. Students will also familiarise themselves with video editing software and will have the opportunity to use their creativity to create a tangible finished product.

Teaching methods
The course will be taught through a blend of lectures, seminar discussions, group assignments and small-group activities. A student-centered pedagogical approach will be adopted throughout the course to promote active, autonomous learning. The lectures will introduce the main topics with a series of jigsaw video and reading comprehension tasks, and will be made interactive by using tools such as Wooclap and Kahoot. The seminars will include student-led activities such as small group discussions, creating quizzes using Kahoot, oral presentations and short videos. Each lecture/seminar will focus on one or two videos/articles per week. Students will be asked to sometimes consult the class material in advance of seminars and prepare seminar assignments together. Videos and podcasts involving multiple speakers are chosen to raise students’ phonological awareness and have them familiarise with the interview format needed for their final project. To challenge students’ beliefs on the role of ELF, students will also do activities where they must not communicate using English and only use non-verbal communication. Students will then practice language-learning strategies such as shadowing, paraphrasing and using verbal and non-verbal techniques to clarify meaning. The course adopts a project-based design to foster collaborative, multimodal learning, knowledge sharing and problem-solving. Students will be required to use video-editing tools to complete their final project.
- A discussion forum will allow students to ask any questions on the course or the course material. Students will all contribute to two Padlets:
- An “Intercultural communication strategies” page with a set of group “rules” and strategies for effective cross-cultural communication.
- A “Technology toolbox” page, where they add on to a list of useful blog examples and free video editing tools provided by the tutor aimed at their final project: a video interview with other students/academics or people working/studying in Venice, based on a related topic of their choice, based on the theme of multicultural/multilingual identities.

Assessment
- Students will submit a 250-300 word reflective blog or journal entry on what they have learnt over the semester. The chosen format is inspired from the special feature “Visti dagli altri” from the Italian newspaper Internazionale. Students will write about their perception of intercultural communication with one of the nationalities encountered during their experience in Venice (either another student or person living in Venice). The tutor will provide a choice of questions/topics. This will count for 40% of the overall course assessment.
- The final group project counts for 60 % of the overall grade. Students will work autonomously in groups of 2/3 to film a practical example of an intercultural encounter, consisting of an interview with other students/academics or people working/studying in Venice, based on related topic of their choice.

The video must be in English, but students are encouraged to use voiceover, subtitles creatively in order to include a variety of languages. The tutor will monitor each group’s work and suggest a selection of free, online video-editing tools they can choose from, along with guidance and deadlines as to how to proceed.

Bibliography and recommended reading
Adichie, C. (2009), The danger of a single story. TEDGlobal. http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html (Accessed June 2022)
Anderson, G., David Harrison, K,. (2007). How much do you know about the world's languages?.
https://langhotspots.swarthmore.edu/quizquestions.html (Accessed June 2022)
Canwen X., I am not your Asian stereotype, TEDxBoise https://www.ted.com/talks/canwen_xu_i_am_not_your_asian_stereotype (Accessed June 2022)
Crystal, D. (2013). Will English Always Be the Global Language?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kvs8SxN8mc (Accessed June 2022)
Crystal, D. (2020). Global English and Social Injustice: The Need to Listen. Nordic Journal of English Studies. 19(3), pp. 167-169.
Creative Multilingualism Research Programme. (2020). How languages help in your career. University of Oxford, Open World Research Initiative, 2016–2020 https://www.creativeml.ox.ac.uk/careers/ (Accessed June 2022)
Dendrinos, B. (2022) Multilingualism matters, Podcasts, Curriculum & Teaching, Mobility, EAIE
Dendrinos, B. (2018). Multilingualism language policy in the EU today: A paradigm shift in language education. Training Language and Culture. 2. 9-28.
Eat Sleep Dream English. 11 English Accents from Around the World in 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dGl_9Kk18c (Accessed June 2022)
Eat Sleep Dream English, English Accents from Around the World.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPamb8pfe30 (Accessed June 2022)
Gabriels, W., Rayón, J. (2022) Students as key collaborators. Strategic networks, Policy & Strategy. https://www.eaie.org/blog/students-key-collaborators.html (Accessed June 2022)
IEREST. (2015). Intercultural Education Resources for Erasmus Students and their Teachers, Koper: Annales University Press.
Ives-Keeler, K., (2014). What's the future of English? https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices- magazine/whats-future-english (Accessed June 2022)
Pinner, R. S. (2016). Reconceptualising authenticity for English as a global language. Multilingual Matters, 208, 29-95.
Reynolds, A. (2022). EMI through virtual exchange at Bordeaux University. Journal of Virtual Exchange, 5,49-60. https://doi.org/10.21827/jve.5.37479
Sauvage, E. (2018). The Hidden Dimension of Happy Cultural Cooperation. Management international, 23(1), 91-102.
Schneider, Simon & Heinecke, Liv. (2019). The need to transform Science Communication from being multi-cultural via cross-cultural to intercultural. Advances in Geosciences. 46. 11-19. 10.5194/adgeo- 46-11-2019.

Required preliminary knowledge
Though no specific preliminary knowledge is required, some basic knowledge of audio and video editing tools is required.

Last updated: February 29, 2024