Raising intercultural awareness through speaking tasks in fifth graders classroom project

In recent years the intercultural communicative competence has been regarded as an important element in EFL education around the world, being the subject of study of many authors such as Byram (2002), Kramsch (2002), Meyer (1991), Gomez (2010), Barletta (2009), and Alvarez & Bonilla (2009). Intercultural education has started to be considered along with linguistic, sociolinguistic, and pragmatic competences, as mentioned by the “guía 22” in the Colombian context as an integral part of teaching the English language. The purpose of this study was to raise intercultural awareness through speaking tasks in young learners, in a primary public school in Pereira, Colombia. The project involved 35 fifth graders whose ages ranged from 8 to 10. Data was gathered through the use of classroom observations, and journals, then it was analyzed in and on action reflection to draw the conclusions. The results revealed that it was possible to foster intercultural awareness in young learners, however, authentic material needed to be adapted or created, a careful lesson planning considered, and appropriate content for the age of learners to fit their cognitive processes, in order to develop the skill of recognizing similarities and differences between cultures presented in specific pieces of language. As a conclusion, including contents related to cultural aspects are highly engaging and motivating for learners, besides it generates a sense of tolerance and respect towards others’ ways to express themselves. Furthermore, the use of Spanish in the EFL classroom is not necessary for students to understand and interpret meaning. The reported results can help in future research on how to develop the intercultural competence.