Intercultural communication

Successful intercultural communication enables students to deal with new and unfamiliar situations and establish positive relationships with new people.

Encounters with cultural ‘difference’ encourage students to develop greater insight into themselves and their own cultural identity.

Intercultural communication does not require us to forsake our own cultural identity or adopt the cultural practices or values of other cultures; rather it encourages us to be curious and respectful.

Intercultural communication is much deeper and broader than developing knowledge of other countries and cultures.

Intercultural communication should focus on building skills which promote an atmosphere in the classroom which allows learners to take risks in how they may think or feel about things, and to develop a sense of empathy towards others. Intercultural communication skills are best developed in a safe and inclusive classroom where students are free to examine and reflect on their own experiences and beliefs.

Incorporation of intercultural communication skills into the curriculum supports students in making connections between their own worlds and the lives and experiences of others.

Download the intercultural communicator poster to display in your classroom, and use it with students to guide discussions.

If it were my home...

Skills – prepares, observes, compares, reflects, inquires, empathises

Using the If it were my home website, students review and compare statistics on what it would be like if they lived somewhere other than Australia.

Teaching and learning ideas

1. Class discussion – choose a country where the target language is spoken to compare with Australia.

• What may be the advantages and disadvantages of living in that country compared to Australia
• In your view, what are the limitations of the presented data? In what other ways can quality of life be measured?
• What other research will you need to do to find out about day-to-day life in that country?

2. Design a bilingual infographic in [language] with the title "I'd like to live in [country] because...". You can choose any country in the world. Write 5 reasons in [language] about why you'd like to life there, for example I'd like to live in France because...

• I am learning French.
• I like skiing.
• I can drink lots of coffee.
• France is very multicultural.
• The beaches are beautiful.

Greetings around the world

Skills – prepares, observes, compares, reflects

Teaching and learning ideas

1. Brainstorm the ways people may greet each other, in your own culture and in other cultures you may be familiar with.
2. Watch the video – were there any greetings you missed? Were there any greetings you had written down which weren't included in the video
3. Make your own stop-motion animation on how people greet each other in [the target culture], with [language] examples.

Sister schools

Skills – observes, compares, respects

This video explores the sister-school relationship between two schools – one in Australia and the other in Indonesia.

Teaching and learning ideas

• Brainstorm the different backgrounds in the class.
• Watch the clip with the class and then discuss:

- What similarities and diffferences exist between the students at the two schools?

- What can you learn by participating in a sister school relationship?

- If you had to present one of your favourite hobbies to the class, which one would you choose?

- Would you choose a different hobby if you were presenting it to a class in another country? Why or why not?

• Create an online presentation (for example video with captions or Google Slides) to show your sister school about your class' favourite hobbies. Each student is to contribute 1 slide, with a self introduction and infromation about 2 hobbies, for example My name is Alex. I play soccer at school every Tuesday and I play Oztag with my friends on Thursdays.

Dinnertime around the world

Skills – observes, compares, inquires, reflects, respects

The slides below explore the different cultural traditions around mealtimes throughout the world.

Teaching and learning ideas

• Read through the poem and discuss with students their own cultures around mealtimes.
• Respectfully compare differences of culture between students .
• Allow students to inquire and learn about different traditions from each other.
• Challenge students to consider the mealtime cultures of other nationalities using the images from the slides.
• Reflect on new information learned.