Crossing the bridge: foreign language students’ reciprocal images in (inter)cultural mediation between Portugal and Turkey

ABSTRACT

This study intends to highlight the role that Foreign Language Education (FLE), particularly in the Higher Education context, can play so as to contribute to the rapprochement of two distant and still mutually unknown countries such as Portugal and Turkey. In this sense, it ultimately aims at supporting the training of intercultural speakers, capable of promoting an effective Intercultural Dialogue between the two countries. A diagnosis is presented of the reciprocal images of Portuguese and Turkish students learning each other's language and culture. Conclusions are drawn on how their self- and hetero-images may pertain on the construction of their identities, on their awareness about and attitudes towards each other, on their motivation to learn each other's language, and on intercultural communication itself. Allying the study of Images of Languages and Cultures and the concept of Intercultural Competence in the study of students’ representations within the FLE research tradition, a content analysis was carried out of the responses given to an inquiry by questionnaire. Conative implications of the students’ images as revealed in the results were pointed out. Some important distinctions are highlighted in the reciprocal images of both groups. On this basis, recommendations for FLE are made focusing on the positive reconstruction of students’ reciprocal images.

Este estudo pretende destacar o papel do Ensino de Línguas Estrangeiras (ELE), no contexto do Ensino Superior, na aproximação de dois países distantes e ainda mutuamente desconhecidos como são Portugal e a Turquia. Visa-se, em última instância, fomentar a formação de falantes interculturais capazes de promover um efetivo Diálogo Intercultural entre os dois países. É feito um diagnóstico das imagens recíprocas de dois grupos de estudantes portugueses e turcos a estudarem a língua e a cultura um do outro. São tiradas conclusões sobre as implicações das respetivas auto- e hetero-imagens na sua construção identitária, conscientização e atitudes relativamente ao Outro, na sua motivação para o estudo da língua da sua contraparte e na própria comunicação intercultural. Com base na conjugação do conceito de Imagens de Línguas e Culturas com o conceito de Competência Intercultural no estudo das representações dos alunos na tradição investigativa em ELE, realizou-se uma análise de conteúdo das respostas a um inquérito por questionário, sendo apontadas as implicações conativas das imagens recíprocas dos participantes tal como as revelam os resultados. Com base nas diferenças observadas nas imagens recíprocas de ambos os grupos, são feitas recomendações relativamente à ELE com enfoque na reconstrução positiva destas imagens.

KEYWORDS:

• Foreign language education
• intercultural awareness
• intercultural competence
• intercultural dialogue
• images of languages and cultures

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Daniel Basílio has a graduation degree in Anglo-Portuguese Studies, a post-graduation in Educational Training by the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the New University of Lisbon, having concluded the Doctoral Programme in Didactics and Training, in the Department of Education of the University of Aveiro. The Foundation of Science and Technology (Portugal) has granted him a scholarship for his research project entitled ‘Reciprocal images of Turkish and Portuguese university students: for an (inter)cultural mediation between Portugal and Turkey’. He is also a member of the Research Centre for Didactics and Technology in Teacher Education (CIDTFF).

Maria Helena Araújo e Sá is a Professor at the Department of Education of the University of Aveiro (Portugal), where she teaches Language Teacher Education, vice-coordinates the Research Centre for Didactics and Technology in Teacher Education (CIDTFF), and co-coordinates the LALE (Laboratory of Research and Training in Foreign Languages). She has coordinated and participated in several national and international projects concerning intercomprehension and plurilingual and intercultural communication and she has run several training courses at national and international levels, having, for instance, coordinated the Galapro – Education of trainers for intercomprehension in Romance languages – project financed by the EU.

Ana Raquel Simões has a graduation degree in Portuguese/English Studies and a PhD on Language Didactics by the University of Aveiro (UA). After developing a Post-Doctoral fellow (November 2006–March 2008), she became an Auxiliary Researcher in CIDTFF (Research Centre for Didactics and Technology in Teacher Education), and is now a Professor in the Department of Education of the same university. She has taken part in several scientific commissions, organization of scientific events and international and national research projects. She supervises several PhD and Masters’ students and has developed research in the following areas: Intercultural Education, Plurilingualism, Teacher Education, and Student Mobility.

Notes

1. Davutoğlu (2010), the current Turkish prime minister, and Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, declared, for instance, that

[the relations between the two countries] have been strengthening in a steady manner, fuelled by mutual respect and sympathy between our peoples [ … ] our two countries have much in common [ … ] friendliness, generosity and sincerity [ … ] describe both our peoples [ … ] we share universal values such as democracy, pluralism and freedom that identify Europe.

In his turn, Cavaco Silva, the current Portuguese President, reaffirmed the Portuguese support for Turkey's accession to the EU in these terms:

With Turkey's accession to the EU, besides the enrichment brought by the integration of a great nation with a multifaceted cultural reality – the EU gains a growing strategic relevance, which will allow it to act with much greater weight in areas which are fundamental for its collective future. (Miranda, 2013)

2. For more information about the number of university institutions and students, both in Turkey and Portugal, please refer to Altınsoy (2011) and Direção-Geral de Estatísticas da Educação e Ciência (2013), respectively.

Additional information

Funding

This paper is integrated in a broader PhD project supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) under Grant SFRH/BD/48465/2008.