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137 Apuntes de Investigación en la Enseñanza de Idiomas

The Teaching Practices of the Intercultural Dimension of

English in the Context of the Internationalization

of Higher Education (HE)

Gloria Josefina Ronzón Montiel

Universidad Veracruzana

Key words: Higher Education (HE), intercultural, internationalisation, teaching practices.

One of the most common working definitions of internationalization is to mean the integration of the
international and intercultural dimensions into the teaching, research, and services of HE (Knight,
2004). Largely, internationalisation is a complex process which involves different agents and stra-
tegies such as the teaching of languages and cultures. The English language is generally the most
delivered language in this context as it has become and remains the main medium of human social,
economic and political communication throughout the world. It is undeniable the role of learning of
an additional language in the context of the internationalisation when mutual understanding is at the
core of any negotiation. However, the lack of definition and articulation between the expected in-
tercultural dimension of internationalisation and the English language courses that espouse this goal
creates a problematic situation at the micro-level of syllabi, materials and classroom practices. This
presentation aims at describing the teaching practices of the intercultural dimension of two basic
mandatory English courses that are part of the internationalisation strategies of a Mexican HE institu-
tion. The data collected partly answered one of the research questions for a doctorate study, how
do these teachers’ perceptions of English as a global lingua franca language, relate to their teaching
practices generally and specifically for intercultural communicative competence (if at all)?

Literature Review

Theories of culture and language

Culture is a notoriously difficult concept to define and a subject of many academic fields. Therefore,
it is needed to clarify the sense and what for it will be used. The theoretical accounts of culture se-
lected to describe and analyse the teaching practices of the English language teachers who partici-
pated in this study were those that help to understand the evolving and emergent nature of language
and culture (Kramsch, 1998, 2006; Risager, 2006; Scollon et al., 2012) as systems that are socially
constructed (Vygotsky, 1962).

Intercultural approaches to language education
The approach of culture teaching is most ELT contexts seems to be pervasively influenced by the
national paradigm. This account of culture centralises its interpretation as something a person or a
society possesses and as a reified system shared by a group of people which is embodied in a num-