An encounter of two worlds : musical rhythms as a way to shape students’ intercultural competence

Abstract

The development of Intercultural Competence (IC) in an English as a Foreign Language classroom has been an important focus for language teaching. Thanks to the multicultural world that we live today and globalization, being interculturally competent implies knowing, relating to, and reflecting critically on different cultures from one's own. Thus, this study explored students‟ perceptions towards the local and the foreign culture and the way they mediated between them. This qualitative study also addressed students‟ attitudes, behaviors and skills used to shape their IC based on Byram‟s model (saviors) and the inclusion of musical rhythms as an important cultural aspect. Findings revealed that students explored their cultural background through local typical musical rhythms, also, they had a mindset of acceptance and value towards some foreign musical rhythms, demonstrated by their openness to learn about others‟ heritage; moreover, students were able to relate, interact and reflect upon local and foreign cultures valuing and respecting the one‟s own and others‟ culture as well. This research concluded that IC is dynamic since the saviors did not appear in a lineal order, the way IC is shaped is determined by inner characteristics of people and it might be considered an open and endless process.