Beliefs of Danish teachers of Spanish regarding inter-cultural competence in the Spanish language class-room

Abstract

This article presents a teacher cognition study regarding the implementation of interculturally oriented foreign language teaching in the Spanish classroom in Denmark. Through an Internet-based questionnaire, the study taps the beliefs and ideas of Danish high-school teachers of Spanish about the concept of “intercultural communicative competence” and the obstacles they encounter regarding bringing their ideas into practice. The results show that the teachers are aware of the importance of an intercultural approach, which goes beyond the mere transmission of cultural facts and information, but are constrained by the low language level of the students, which obliges them to concentrate on the teaching of grammar and basic language skills. To some degree, the lack of intercultural focus in Danish examinations and in teacher training adds to the difficulty of assigning time and resources to this aspect of language teaching, in spite of ministerial requirements.

Keywords: intercultural communicative competence, teacher cognition, teaching of Spanish as a foreign language