Language as a barrier for achieving intercultural communication between teachers and students in primary school

Kamceva Panova, Lidija and Jankova Alagjozovska, Natka and Jovanovska, Sashka (2021) Language as a barrier for achieving intercultural communication between teachers and students in primary school. Knowledge – International Journal, 49 (2). pp. 283-289. ISSN 1857-923X

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Abstract

Schools have been facing difficult and significant challenges and tasks that will enable them to be open
to accepting students from different cultural identities for a long period of time. Schools are working on their
development and promotion, changing their mission and vision in order to be a place where they will gain
knowledge about the values of different cultures. The most important thing for a school to achieve this is: the
possession of intercultural competencies (teachers) and the skill to communicate between all stakeholders in the
educational process in schools: student - teacher - parent - local environment.
Intercultural competence is actually the establishment of interaction and communication with members of other
cultures, adaptation of verbal and non-verbal communication styles while accepting, equally, different
communication styles, adoption of intercultural attitudes, knowledge and skills, for better understanding and respect,
the adoption of effective behavior towards other cultures determined through the prism of intercultural sensitivity.
However, in achieving intercultural competencies and intercultural communication, teachers face barriers that slow
down, complicate, and sometimes hinder the mutual understanding. One of those barriers are misunderstandings due
to not knowing the other language. Linguistic diversity in multiethnic schools, whether monolingual, bilingual, etc.,
is a barrier to intercultural communication.
The problem of not speaking the language of learning/instruction by Roma students is a big barrier in achieving
intercultural communication at schools between the teacher and the student and among the students themselves.
Hence, the questions are posed: How can we understand each other if we do not share the same cultural experience
;how can successful communication be fulfilled in order to achieve respectful atmosphere and not only diversity
tolerance; how should we behave in order to be culturally diverse and achieve the mutual global aims at the same
time? The first step towards intercultural communication should be the eagerness and readiness to meet "the others:
learning some phrases in their language. The best example for breaking the stereotypes, prejudice and fair that are
present among some teachers would be if the teachers say "good day" in their mother tongue language in the
classroom. Bilingualism and multilingualism should be accepted by the teachers as a challenge whereas they should
adopt basic knowledge of the language of their students in order to establish better relationship and motivate the
students and their parents as well. But how ready are our teachers for this move despite the fact that they encounter
this kind of problem in their daily work.
Keywords: intercultural competence, intercultural communication

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	Humanities > Languages and literature Social Sciences > Psychology
Divisions:	Faculty of Philology
Depositing User:	Saska Jovanovska
Date Deposited:	10 Feb 2022 12:18
Last Modified:	10 Feb 2022 12:18
URI:	https://eprints.ugd.edu.mk/id/eprint/29301

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