Songul Dogan Ger: Developing Students’ Cultural Diversity Awareness and Intercultural Communicative Competence in English Classes
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7 The Place of Culture in Teaching Materials Used in an International School in Budapest – Data Source 3: Teaching Materials Analysis
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7.3 Findings
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7.3.3 The Components of ICC
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7.3.3.4 Components of Intercultural Communication in the Year 8 Materials

7.3.3.4 Components of Intercultural Communication in the Year 8 Materials

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The Year 8 teaching materials demonstrated a marked shift toward the inclusion of controversial social issues, particularly within the fiction units. These materials, while still grounded in the target culture, introduced students to topics such as systemic racism, segregation, and inequality. All components of ICC were present in varying degrees, with a strong emphasis on knowledge and understanding and skills, and more limited attention to action and attitudes.

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The development of attitudes was most evident in the Black American Experience unit, which foregrounded empathy, respect, and the challenging of stereotypes. Through role-play, reflective writing, and discussion tasks, students were encouraged to consider the lived experiences of figures such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Scottsboro Boys. Quotations from To Kill a Mockingbird and personal narratives were used to promote emotional engagement and perspective-taking. The activity asking how students would feel if forced to give up their bus seat mirrored the real-life injustice Rosa Parks faced, helping to personalise abstract historical issues. These tasks were often framed around imagined empathy, for instance, “How would you feel if you were character X?” or “Do you feel sympathy for Y, and why?” While these questions fostered affective engagement, their scope remained largely individual and hypothetical, without linking students’ reflections to broader social analysis.

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The materials also introduced students to challenging cultural stereotypes, notably through video clips portraying negative depictions of Black individuals in American films. Analysing these media examples helped students deconstruct biased representations and develop discourse-level critique, a skill further enhanced by the evaluation of language used in these portrayals. Visual images representing various ethnic groups also featured throughout the units; however, in most cases, these were left unexplained. One notable exception was the Blood Brothers unit, which explicitly addressed multiculturalism in Liverpool by explaining the presence of diverse immigrant communities. This was one of the few instances where CDA was directly and clearly embedded in the textual content.

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Knowledge and understanding were particularly strong across the fiction units, especially in terms of sociohistorical context. Students were introduced to the historical trajectory of Black American life, from slavery and segregation to the civil rights movement. Biographical details, legislation, and cultural milestones were contextualised to enhance students’ comprehension of the texts. Nonverbal communication norms and hidden cultural meanings—such as body language and covert discrimination—were also briefly touched upon, hinting at the potential to develop intercultural sensitivity beyond verbal language.

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The materials consistently encouraged skills of interpreting and relating, particularly through character analysis, reflective questions, and drama-based activities. Students were invited to write from multiple viewpoints, critically evaluate moral dilemmas, and judge actions from different cultural standpoints. These tasks facilitated multiperspectivity, a key component of ICC. At the same time, linguistic and discourse skills were integrated into the units through detailed literary analysis. Students explored similes, symbolism, emotive language, and authorial tone, often linking linguistic form to cultural meaning. These activities primarily focused on target culture texts, yet the critical literacy skills they fostered were broadly transferable.

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The component of action remained underdeveloped, although not entirely absent. Where present, it emerged through tasks encouraging students to critique stereotypes or voice alternative perspectives in discussions. However, opportunities for students to engage in community-oriented projects or compare these issues with their own cultural realities were notably lacking. Despite covering powerful themes such as inequality and social justice, the materials missed the chance to guide students toward concrete actions or sustained dialogue about how to confront these issues in real life.

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

The nonfiction materials used in Year 8 were limited to a single unit, yet they introduced powerful themes such as poverty and conflict by addressing working conditions in India and the war in Iraq. These texts provided opportunities for developing CDA, yet the activities remained focused on linguistic elements—distinguishing between objective and subjective language—rather than promoting sustained intercultural reflection. Students were not asked to consider how these issues might relate to their own contexts, nor were they encouraged to reflect on global injustice or engage in comparative analysis.

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

In conclusion, the Year 8 materials showed increased engagement with deep cultural issues and the lived realities of marginalised groups. The fiction units, in particular, provided rich content for developing empathy, knowledge, and critical reflection. Yet despite their strong thematic focus, the activities often fell short of transforming emotional engagement into sustained critical awareness or civic action. The nonfiction materials, while addressing significant global issues, did not fully capitalise on their intercultural potential. A more deliberate scaffolding of action-based tasks and comparative discussions would allow students to move beyond individual reflection towards intercultural dialogue and ethical engagement, thus aligning more closely with the goals of CDA and ICC.
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