Abstract

Since multicultural situations have become a global phenomenon, integration of multicultural elements into English as a foreign language (EFL) education for learner’ intercultural competence (IC) is imperative. The current study was conducted based on implementing multicultural literature reading in adult EFL learning in an open and distance learning (ODL) classroom with the purpose of exploring if multicultural literature is a possible catalyst for adult EFL learners’ intercultural competence. The data were collected from a required course on English Reading: Level 3 at an open university in Taiwan. Qualitative data collected from students-teacher discussion in an online forum, students’ reflective journals, and a students’ post-course open-ended questionnaire survey revealed that to adult EFL students, multicultural literature reading led to in-depth knowledge construction of a multicultural target-language society, intercultural connection in the form of awareness of intercultural universality and critical reflection, and the development of cognitive and affective empathy. Opposing evidence from some participants is also discussed to shed some light on the possible factors that influence individual responses to multicultural literature reading.

Keywords: intercultural competence (IC), multicultural literature, EFL, Open and Distance Learning (ODL), adult and continuing education, Taiwan

Abstract
This paper addresses the issue of combining multicultural education with the intercultural approach in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom in light of the increasing migration in Taiwan as well as in other countries in the world. The combination recommended in this study includes the development of positive attitudes towards both the native target-language speakers and the immigrants in the EFL learners’ home society; awareness and appreciation of diverse languages and cultures co-existing in the target and the learners’ own societies; and laying down the foundations of a critical approach to take-for-granted issues. The rationale that the study adopts for introducing multicultural education in EFL curricula is based on the assumption that it helps learners develop their linguistic and cognitive skills, proper attitudes, knowledge and skills to interact with culturally diverse others appropriately and effectively, cultural awareness, and critical thinking, goals that are compatible with the prevailing intercultural approach in EFL teaching. The framework proposed for the implementation of this process includes tentative issue/themes, language skills, learning outcomes, methods of instruction and evaluation, materials and resources, and instructional activities.

Keywords: intercultural competence, multicultural education, multicultural competencies, framework, critical pedagogy

Demotivation or low motivation has been always at the centre of concerns in the English classroom in Taiwan's junior high schools. The present study investigated the potentiality that Culture Studies has to motivate Taiwanese junior-high-school pupils to learn English, and tried to establish the relations between pupil interests in Culture Studies and their orientations, attitudes, and motivation toward learning English. A total of 480 Grade 1 and 2 pupils from the region of Taipei City and Taipei County answered a questionnaire assessing their desire to learn Culture Studies in the English class, as well as their orientations, attitudes, and motivation towards learning English. Quantitative results indicate that in general, pupils were interested in knowing more about English-speaking countries; that Culture Studies is a useful way trying to increase Taiwanese pupil motivation to learn English.

In contrast with the personal nature of residential teaching, the mediated nature of open and distance learning makes ODL an institutional/organizational performance or accomplishment which means that there are agents other than the teacher participating in the teaching and learning process. Agents can be human and non human, thus teaching in ODL becomes a hybrid association between humans and nonhumans that enables the university/organization to do things that individuals could not do otherwise.

The paper shall present the preliminary analysis of a study that answers the question what are the human and the non human agents that take part in ODL and make learning possible? Using the ventriloqual approach where agents participating in the accomplishment of an organizational action are seen/heard as they are incarnated in an interaction, the study collected recordings of teacher-students interactions in two open universities-- the UP Open University and the Open University of Kaohsiung – and analyzed for agents that figure in the accomplishment of educational objectives.

Surfacing the agencies staged at teacher-students interactions will tell what pedagogy, technology and management system lend weight in ODL organization's performance.
Understanding such agencies would mean understanding what can sustain, promote and advance ODL..

The issue of modernisation (which in the Asian countries means westernisation and industrialisation) and promoting native culture has been under discussion in Taiwan in the 1990s. However, do the two ideas of opening up to the international world and preserving native culture have to be in conflict? The author conducted and empirical research in 1996 to investigate the possible effects of Culture Studies would have on the learners' own cultural identity if it was included in English teaching in Taiwan's junior high schools. A measurement was design to measure the subject pupils' identity with their own culture. In this measurement, cultural identity is divided into two categories: cultural value identity and cultural behaviour identity. The research includes two parts: the survey and the experiment. Findings from this research can be summarised as follows: 1. It is evident from data analysis that the pupils have a strong identity with own cultural values (e.g., respect for the old and parents, thrift, and generosity) although their behaviour are quite western-oriented (e.g., using English names, making friends with foreigners, wearing clothes with English letters, and inserting English words in conversation). Findings thus suggest that there is little relationship between the pupils' cultural value identity and cultural practice identity. 2. The English teachers do not think that Culture Studies would weaken pupils' identity with own cultural values but they worry that it may have negative influence on pupils' own cultural practice identity. In the experimental research, the findings suggest that the pupils' own cultural value identity became stronger after the experimental culture-teaching course; while there is no change in their identity with own cultural practices. 3. findings from another questionnaire administered after the experimental research suggest that on the one hand, Culture Studies seems to have impact on the pupils' cultural identity because they begin to admire English pupils and want to be "others."