Role play: The Best Way to Teach Intercultural Communication?
Résumé
In our globalised and constantly changing society, Intercultural Communication has become
equally as important to learn and teach as Verbal and Nonverbal Communication. In the
context of Higher Education and language learning, as students prepare for their careers and
future professional employment, they should be given the opportunity to explore, analyze
and learn about realistic situations. For language instructors, the challenge is to actively
engage the students and stimulate their creativity while providing meaningful and practical
activities. Ideally, the objective is to provide significant learning experiences and
pedagogical approaches that will encourage and assist them in communicating during and
long after their higher education experience. This presentation proposes to present a role play peer
collaborative activity designed to teach Language for Special Purposes (Business English)
and render students more sensitive to Intercultural Communication issues. This didactic
approach was implemented in the IUT – TC department setting, but since the subject matter
is universal in nature, it can be readapted and used for many other settings and languages.
An analysis of the sixty student questionnaires will also be presented.