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Jacqueline Van Houten was the 2015 president of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and 2010-12 president of the National Network for Early Language Learners. She is World Language Instructional Lead for Jefferson County Public Schools in Kentucky and served as the World Language and International Education consultant at the Kentucky Department of Education. Prior to her state work, Jacque taught French at the elementary, high school, and university levels. She currently serves as a NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-DoTask Force member.

In planning learning experiences for the new school year, teachers will want to incorporate the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can Do Statements for Intercultural Competence (IC) to ensure a focus on the Communications and Cultures standards. The IC Can-Dos break down the Cultures standards and work in tandem with the Language Can-Dos to provide proficiency level benchmarks and indicators that guide teaching and learning. These statements, which show what learners can do to express and grow their interculturality through language, work well as unit and lesson goals, while the examples suggest activities and assessments that engage learners in authentic language use. However, this document, like many other pedagogical tools, can be overwhelming at first glance. Here are some tips to help start the process.

• Select IC Can-Do level-appropriate Benchmarks and Indicators to serve as learners’ long-term proficiency goals. Share these goals with your learners to give them a guiding vision and help them see what they are capable of achieving. Make sure to include both Investigation and Interaction goals and share the complementary Language Can-Dos for a more detailed explanation of language sub-level expectations. Consider Intercultural Communication as the ultimate goal and the language Can-Dos as a micro-focus on how to use language in that cultural context.

• Look over the IC examples under your chosen Indicators and select statements that directly support your unit theme, project or topic. Consider how you might use these examples as jumping off points for classroom activities, student projects, learning scenarios or as demonstrations of learning in performance assessments.

• Use IC examples to craft your own short-term targets and guide your learners to create their personal short-term goals, based on what is being learned, what local or global community partners are involved or what passion project is being explored. A fundamental benefit of using the Can-Dos is developing learners’ ability to set goals, with residual effects of being able to see incremental progress and building intrinsic motivation.

• Contextualize each language learning experience. Whether using project-based learning, TPRS, or thematic units, every language learning lesson should be organized in a context or setting to make the use of language authentic and real, and the investigation of culture products and practices natural.

• Create ways for learners to recognize and reference cultural products and practices in context and interact with native speakers, then reflect on the process. This is crucial to the development of IC for learners to become aware of and analyze the cultural perspectives of their own society as well as others.

References

Byram, M., Nichols, A. & Stevens, D. (Eds.) (2011) Developing intercultural competence in practice. Bristol, U.K.: Multilingual Matters, LTD.

Heyman, G. D., & Dweck, C. S. (1992). Achievement goals and intrinsic motivation: Their relation and their role in adaptive motivation. Motivation and Emotion, 16(3), 231-247.

Moeller, A. J., Theiler, J. M., & Chaorong, W. (2012). Goal setting and student achievement: A Longitudinal study. Modern Language Journal, (96), 291-300.

Wagner, M., Perugini, D. C.. & Byram, M. (Eds.) (2017). Teaching Intercultural competence across the age range: From theory to practice. Bristol, U.K.: Multilingual Matters.