Journal: Journal of Higher Education Research DOI: 10.32629/jher.v7i4.5419
Abstract
English-language films are often selected for the intercultural course in higher education to present cultural practices, identity negotiation and social problems. However, the traditional way is often only to identify and compare cultural differences, treat films as open-book records of culture, and thus reinforce fixed national categories. By means of combining intercultural education, critical thinking and the theory of film representation, this conceptual paper puts forward five levels of interpretive position: observation, contextualisation, perspective-taking, representation critique and self-reflective repositioning. In fact, the above components are a series of tasks and not a hierarchical list; these can help students learn how to think about who “others” are in movies and how to evaluate these representations from various perspectives, such as their own life experiences and culture. The proposed framework aims to transform films from sources of cultural information into sites for critical thinking and intercultural reflection.
Keywords
intercultural learning; English-language films; critical reflection; reflective tasks; film pedagogy; higher education
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[5] Dewey J. How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process D. C. Heath and Company; 1933.
[6] Schön DA. The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action: Routledge; 2017.
[7] Vishwanath TP, Mummery J. Reflecting Critically on the Critical Disposition Within Internationalisation of the Curriculum (ioc): the Developmental Journey of a Curriculum Design Team. Higher Education Research and Development. 2019;38(2).
[8] Byram M. Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence: Multilingual Matters; 1997.
[9] Agudelo JJ. An Intercultural Approach for Language Teaching: Developing Critical Cultural Awareness. Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura. 2007;12(1):185-217.
[10] Deardorff DK. Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization. Journal of Studies in International Education. 2006;10(3):241-266.
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