This document summarizes research from the icEurope project on intercultural foreign language learning through international web collaboration. The project involved students from 4 European countries collaborating online in English. Analysis of student discussions found they used various intercultural communication strategies in English, including comparing cultures, asking for clarification, and humor. The web collaboration helped increase intercultural awareness and language skills while allowing authentic international communication.

1. Intercultural foreign language learning (ICFLL) through international web collaboration in Moodle With the support of the EU Lifelong Learning Programme Grant 142672-LLP-1-2008-1-DE-COMENIUS-CMP Claudia Warth University of Tübingen (Germany) [email_address] www.ael.uni-tuebingen.de www.iceurope-project.eu CALICO 2010 June 8-12, 2010 Amherst, MA

5. Intercultural communicative competence Understanding cultural concepts (own – other) In L1 and L2 „… is the complex of abilities needed to perform effectively and appropriately when interacting with others who are linguistically and culturally different from oneself” (Fantini 2005)

10. A glimpse at the icEurope Moodle Language and culture notes (for learners) Teacher‘s notes (didactic and technical tips for teachers)

11. “ Language & Culture Notes“ - example

18. Examples from icEurope web collaboration ‘ traditional English breakfast by Mustafa E.- Wednesday, 3 March 2010, 08:05 AM it is very diffrent i think. In Turkey we don't eat meal in breakfast.i watched that video i can't eat them we eat olives, cheese cucumber,tomatoes, like that 2. Avoidance (of topic) Re: Drinks by Tuba C. - Wednesday, 10 March 2010, 02:59 PM My family doesn't drink alcoholic-drinks . Because alcoholich drinks aren't healty for people.In addition,when one person drinks alcoholich drinks,the person can't control himself. requires additional cultural knowledge on recipient’s side

19. 4. Differentiating & comparing concepts About the traditional English breakfast by Kiril K. - Wednesday, 17 March 2010, 06:54 AM Well, in my opinion the full English breakfast is quite big. I am not sure how English people can eat so much in the morning. I suppose that they don't eat this breafast every morning(especially when they have to get up early) as it is pretty time-consuming to make. However, it looks very delicious. I haven't tried a full English breakfast yet. Breakfast in Bulgaria might […]

20. Re: 3.) What would you suggest to your intercultural team mates as a fantastic dish, pastry etc. that is typical in your culture? by Rocco C. - Saturday, 27 February 2010, 06:41 PM Culture in Italy is a quite different from place to place , and expecially from northern Italy to southern Italy. In my country , for example, there is a long tradition about food that I'm always glad to hear from my grandmother. So, when my extended family is together (expecially at Christmas or at days like this), we use to eat a lot of tasty things ( according to us obviously! ) For example, in my culture , during special events, is not unusual to eat spaghetti with clams and seafood as main course, and fried fish (expecially prawns and cuttle fish) as second course. They are important for my culture because Neaples is important expecially for its sea! Let me show you some pictures. […]

21. 5. Mitigating Re: Intnat'l team #1: Music guesses - song Bulgaria by Merve S. - Tuesday, 20 April 2010, 06:09 PM Sorry,I don't want to be too offensive,but I don't like it because it is very slow and the women doesn't say very good (Edited by [ own teacher’s name ]- original submission Tuesday, 20 April 2010, 08:17 AM) Re: Intnat'l team #1: Music guesses - song Bulgaria by Zsofia P. - Thursday, 22 April 2010, 07:19 PM […] Um...don't get me wrong, but it seems a bit stilted and silly for me. Well, it's possible that it has to be . […]

22. 8. Reflecting on how to express s.th. / making suggestions for communicative moves Re: What should you when you don't like the served food? by Nicola C. - Tuesday, 16 March 2010, 07:38 PM I think this is a very embarrassing situation, especially when you're a guest in another family. Of course you can't say anything like "I don't like that" . Unfortunately you have to taste the food or you may say "even if I don't like the foreign dishes ,that is very good". […]

26. Lázár, I., Huber-Kriegler, M., Lussier, D., Matei, G. S. & Peck, C. (Eds.) (2007). Developing and assessing intercultural communicative competence. A guide for language teachers and teacher educators. European Centre for Modern Languages. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. O'Dowd, R. and Ware, P. (2009). Critical issues in telecollaborative task design . In: Computer Assisted Language Learning, 22:2,173-188. O'Dowd, R. (2007). Online Intercultural Exchange: An Introduction for Foreign Language Teachers . Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Pölzl, U. (2003). Signalling cultural identity: the use of L1/Ln in ELF. Views, 12(2), 3–23. Retrieved January 29, 2009, from www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/views/03_2/POEL_SGL.pdf. Seidlhofer, B. (2002). The shape of things to come? Some basic questions about English as a lingua franca. In K. Knapp & C. Meierkord (Eds.), Lingua Franca Communication (pp. 269–302). Frankfurt/M., Berlin, New York, Wien u.a.: Peter Lang. Warth, C., Kohn. K., et al (2009). Grassroots & context analysis: Intercultural competence, foreign language learning, assessment and e-learning for intercultural web collaboration projects. Research report within the Comenius project icEurope. Tübingen: Universität Tübingen. Warth, C. (2009). Interkulturelles Englischlernen mit Moodle - E-Learning Aktivitäten in einer deutsch-amerikanischen Web-Kollaboration. In: Zeitschrift für e-learning. / Special ed.: E-Learning in der Schule. 3/2009. Innsbruck: Studienverlag. Yassine, S. (2006). Culture issues in FL teaching. Towards the fostering of intercultural awareness. In: Annales du patrimoine / Annals of Legacy. No. 05 / 2006 University of Tizi-Ouzou: Mostaganem.

27. Thank you for your attention and feedback! This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This presentation reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.