Raising Self-Awareness and Developing Intercultural Competence by Activating Personal Filters
Roč.5,č.1(2015)
All individuals are fitted with filters which affect their experience of the world, and which depend on various factors, including personal traits and cultural influences. Language is a reflection of the self, and of the culture and people it belongs to, thus when learning a new language each individual is approaching a different identity and culture with personal filters which act on the learning process. Learning involves approaching something new and inevitably leads to some change, which may occur without conscious awareness but is affected by the individual’s attitude towards novelty and diversity.
This joint project involved learners of English (Parma University) and of Italian (University of Salzburg) as L2, and aimed at indirectly testing these filters. The objectives were to verify if their filters are subtly expressed in their way of seeing themselves, their own language and culture, and the ‘other’ language and culture, and also raise their awareness of them. This hopefully is a stepping stone towards discovering aspects of their personality, developing sensitivity to differences and recognizing factors to be exploited to become more efficient learners.
awareness; intercultural competence; personal filters
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