Intercultural studies within a CLIL approach

Interculturality and globalization have taken a very important role in society today. This is one of the reasons why the Department of Languages and Cultures at the University of La Sabana has offered the courses Introduction to Intercultural Studies and Intercultural Studies for their language learners. These courses offer participants the opportunity to become more familiar with intercultural competences by, for example, interacting with a variety of international guest speakers. However, up to the present, these courses have been taught as content courses in the English language and directed specifically to learners who already have relatively high competence levels in English. This paper explores the characteristics of the noted intercultural studies courses in comparison with more “traditional” English courses, as well as student expectations of and experiences with the intercultural studies content courses, in order to see how a more CLIL-based approach could be implemented in the context of the intercultural studies courses. Such a re-design would not only continue to benefit such advanced students but would open up new possibilities for learners with a wider range of language abilities, helping them build up their English through work with content related to intercultural competences. Equally, it would provide such language learners with a clearer purpose for learning the English language, as English would no longer be being taught in an isolated way but within a content-focused context that the participants see as relevant and practical.


INTRODUCTION
Intercultural communication competencies have been recognized as increasingly important in recent years. Cultural competences go closely together with the corresponding languages. According to Sudhoff (2010), "a learner does not simply acquire two distinct unrelated ways of acting and communicating. The language learner becomes plurilingual and develops interculturality" (p. 31). In response to this phenomenon, educational institutions have increasingly been attempting to prepare students as successful actors in this even more interconnected world, not only through additional training in terms of communications technologies themselves, but also through additional language training and intercultural studies courses. A related factor is mentioned by Kramsch (1993), who explains the concept of thirdness in foreign language education. This means that "a third space explores the potential for foreign language learners to establish an enriched cultural identity-one which is enhanced by the integration and fusion of the various cultural influences present and presented within the learning process" (Sudhoff, 2010, p.32).
Such intentions are encapsulated in two undergraduate courses-Introduction to Intercultural Studies and Intercultural Studies-which form part of an Intercultural Studies minor degree program from the Department of Languages and Cultures at the University of La Sabana (Chía, Colombia). This program aims at helping learners become more familiar with the importance of interculturality through a focus on topics such as intercultural communication, globalization, and the avoidance of stereotyping. The courses are particularly intended for learners who plan to study or work abroad by familiarizing them with the concepts of a globalized society in which interculturality is becoming increasingly important. Students engage with the course topics by reading theoretical articles, listening to guest speakers from cultures from all over the world, and watching movies drawn from various global traditions before moving on to reflect on the significance of multicultural values as exemplified in and expressed through the course materials and activities.
These intercultural studies courses serve as an alternative to the advanced levels of the more traditionally styled English courses that are also offered by the university. They are taught in the English language in a manner that has certain parallels with the concept of CLIL, but this article offers particular reflections on the possibilities of improving the courses by integrating more concepts from the CLIL approach into their design and implementation. In particular, the dual focus of CLIL on content and language, as well as CLIL's natural fit with interculturality, suggests a possible advantage in developing versions of these courses that have been re-designed for learners with lower levels of English, instead of being offered only to relatively advanced English speakers. While this article looks particularly at intercultural studies courses, it is suggested that the same general issues examined here could also apply to a wider range of content-related courses.

Interculturality and Intercultural Studies: Course Objectives
Apart from the general objective of strengthening learners' intercultural competencies, the mentioned courses also contain more specific objectives, illustrated here to provide a broader view of the course. Students, for instance, are intended to develop awareness of the importance of recognizing and valuing cultural differences in the modern world. Although most of the learners know that cultural differences exist, the courses provide more direct and specific familiarization; for example, by talking with people from different cultures about such differences. Reflections on movies drawn from different cultures serve as another instrument Spies Another goal for these courses is improving intercultural communication skills, with a particular focus on raising learners' awareness about the different communication strategies used by people from a variety of cultural backgrounds. As Baraldi (2009) observes, "the confrontation of different cultural presuppositions may favor the re-contextualization of the social system which embeds the interaction, but it also implies potential problems in the interaction" (p. 20). Accordingly, it is necessary to show learners the significance of these differences to help them become better able to comprehend that language is not the only essential factor when it comes to communication with people from other cultures, but an understanding of cultural elements and significances that exist in each culture is equally important. By learning about both direct and indirect forms of communication, learners are intended to become more familiar with approaches to communication in different cultures, and more aware of the various strategies that might be adopted for successful intercultural communication.
Another key focus in the courses is making students aware of the dangers associated with stereotyping so as to reduce these tendencies in possible study or work situations of the sort in which participants might find themselves when going abroad or when working with foreign people in Colombian contexts. Naturally enough, negative cultural clichés are an obvious obstacle to intercultural comprehension and understanding, though even positive stereotypes can contribute to confusion and misunderstanding in intercultural encounters. As an example, with respect to these topics the movie Crash (Cheadle & Haggis, 2004) was used to promote discussion about how cultural misunderstandings and prejudices could cause problems in real life situations.
The courses also aim to help learners explore the ways that moral values and traditions differ from culture to culture and how this affects people's behaviors. Comprehension of such values and traditions are essential to successful life and work in a different culture. In this way, learners developed a broader picture of the world that additionally encouraged further reflection on their own culture's morals and traditions.
Another course objective is providing learners with insights on how different educational systems around the world work. Here, for example, the students might read articles about school systems in different countries and debate over approaches to education. These kinds of topics are, of course, potentially of direct practical benefit for students planning to study abroad, but again there is also an opportunity to encourage reflection on their own culture's educational system.
Finally, the courses also include consideration of factors such as practical etiquette in other cultures being studied. For example, learners reflect on particular behaviors that are common or uncommon in different cultures, with view towards strategies for on modulating one's own behavior when in, for example, a work situation in another country.

CLIL and interculturality
The CLIL approach also fits closely with topics in interculturality and intercultural communications. CLIL also aims to prepare learners to communicate in a second language within a meaningful context; Graddol (2006), therefore, illustrates CLIL as "the ultimate communicative methodology" (p. 86). Furthermore, it makes participants learn a language in an academic context which does not occur in an isolated way since this would have the tendency of not being effective in terms of language learning success. Crandall (1994) illustrates this very clearly: Spies Coyle, Hood, and Marsh (2010) illustrate the 4Cs framework (Coyle, 1999), which shows the interrelationship between content (subject matter), communication (language learning and using), cognition (learning and thinking process) and culture (developing intercultural understanding and global citizenship). Intercultural classes and the CLIL approach can, therefore, be as closely allied, and the inclusion of culture with a strong emphasis on interculturality makes the 4Cs an appropriate framework within which to work. Indeed, all of the mentioned elements included within the 4Cs are essential parts of the subjects Introduction to Intercultural Studies and Intercultural Studies. CLIL aims to provide the learners with the intercultural communicative skills needed to express their ideas to people from a variety of different cultures. Twenty-first century learners are increasingly faced with the reality that a focus on one particular target culture associated with a given target language-for example, the notional national culture of a traditional majority English-speaking country, like the United States of America or the United Kingdom-may not be relevant, or at least sufficient, for their professional lives. Indeed, in many cases there might be benefits in focusing on "culture" in the sense of the norms and practices (in terms of both communication and behavior) of a professional discourse community relevant to the content being taught (MacKay, 1999, pp. 97-99). The advantage of this approach would be that learners would have an improved opportunity to become competent and fluent speakers within the context of a professional culture relevant to them, without necessarily focusing on a specific national, or even regional, variety of English (in which it might be difficult to address factors such as specific expressions dependent on cultural knowledge or even particular accents and vocabulary relevant to given ethno-geographically defined cultures). This can also be observed in Graddol (2006) when he illustrates the significance of "functional nativeness" (p. 110), a concept that refers to the fact that it is no longer necessarily relevant to be able to speak a specific national or regional variety of the English language but that the importance already lies rather on the competence of expressing ideas within a professional discourse or specific content area.

Fitting the courses into a CLIL approach
Although most of the participants in the Introduction to Intercultural Studies and Intercultural Studies courses already had a high level of written and spoken English, there were still some learners in the program who had major difficulties expressing their ideas coherently in English. For this reason, there should probably be an increased emphasis on language work within the courses, so that they offer a more valuable opportunity for all the learners, and not just some of them. With the courses, language is not being taught in an isolated way but within a context that the learners find interesting and relevant (see Participant perceptions of Introduction to Intercultural Studies). Sudhoff (2010) describes how CLIL and interculturality fit together: "the dual-focused nature of CLIL programs fosters per se the usage of the foreign language as a tool to communicate and work on content matter; as such, students utilize the foreign language in a functional as well as authentic way and deal with the tasks and problems the subject raises" (p. 33). Furthermore, CLIL has also effects on motivational factors. According to Wolf and Polzenhagen (2004), learners feel more motivated within CLIL which enables higher results and outcomes in their learning process.
Yet although the intercultural studies program examined in this study has certain parallels with an authentic CLIL program, in terms of its initial design it is focused rather more on content than on language work-and, indeed, most of the participants indicated that they did not in fact expect a specific focus on learning of the English language (see Participant perceptions of Introduction to Intercultural Studies). Nevertheless, there would be arguably benefits to making room for such a language focus through a more CLIL-like approach in order for the intercultural studies courses to represent a genuine alternative to the English language classes at the same levels. Retaining the focus on content would likewise retain the relevance (perceived equally by course designers and course participants), while adding a complementary and equal focus on language would allow a greater number of learners with a wider range of entry language levels benefit from the program. A key element in achieving this would be to include in the intercultural studies courses essentially the same language learning objectives that are explicitly included in the more "traditional" English classes at the same nominal levels.

METHODOLOGY
In consideration of the possibility that the mentioned intercultural studies might benefit from a re-structuring that fit them in a clearer CLIL approach, the learning objectives of the Introduction to Intercultural Studies the upper-level English course that it is offered as an alternative to were compared.
As a complement to this comparison of learning objectives, additional data was gathered on the expectations and experiences of 22 course participants in the current content-focused course Introduction to Intercultural Studies through analysis of reflective essays produced at the end of this course.

Identifying differences between Introduction to Intercultural Studies and the Level 7 English course
The Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures at the University of La Sabana, apart from offering intercultural studies courses, also provides traditional English classes graduated through seven levels of language competency, from introductory to advanced. After completing the seven levels, students are required to pass an international exam (either the IELTS or the TOEFL) before they can graduate from the university. The Introduction to Intercultural Studies course replaces the highest level (Level 7) of the proficiency program. For this study, the learning objectives of the Level 7 English course and of the Introduction to Intercultural Studies course were formally compared in order to obtain clear findings on their similarities and differences.

Identifying participant perceptions of Introduction to Intercultural Studies
The group in which the reflective essays were applied consisted of 22 students in the Introduction to Intercultural Studies course. The majority of the participants were Colombian, though two were from Germany, as part of an international interchange program.
In terms of oral competences, the majority of the participants had a high level-B2, according to the Common European Framework for Languages (Council of Europe, 2000)although 4 of the participants did reveal problems in expressing their ideas orally. These difficulties were identified through classroom observations, such as in cases where the learners had to express their opinions orally. In some such occasions, these students lacked the necessary Spies vocabulary to express their ideas and were forced to use words from Spanish (their native language). Although all the students in the Introduction to Intercultural Studies course had been required to pass the Level 6 English language proficiency course as a prerequisite, 10 of them (almost half the class) had problems with writing, typically in terms of poor structure or grammar. These problems were identified and assessed by means of a rubric applied to essays produced for the course, with a focus on criteria such as "development and content", "lexical resource", and "grammatical range".
Before the participants took the decision to get involved in the intercultural studies courses discussed in this article, most of them studied the course descriptions and materials. However, in order to better understand the participants' reasons for choosing the course Introduction to Intercultural Studies, their expectations of the course, and their experiences in it, the mentioned reflective essay at the end of the course asked the learners to discuss the following matters:  Reasons for choosing the course Introduction to Intercultural Studies.  Explanation if course expectations were fulfilled or not.  Opinions about the importance of interculturality.  Expectations of explicit language work. All of the learners were informed that their essays would be used for research purposes, and each confirmed their understanding of this in a signed letter of consent. The resulting reflective essays were analyzed through a qualitative research approach to determine:  The most common learner motivations in choosing the intercultural studies option (in contrast to a more traditionally oriented language course).  To what extent the expectations the learners had at the beginning of the course were fulfilled.  To what extent and why the participants thought interculturality was important.  To what extent language use or learning was an important factor in their choosing this course.

Learning objectives from Introduction to Intercultural Studies and the Level 7 English course
Comparison of the syllabi from both the Level 7 English language proficiency course and the corresponding Introduction to Intercultural Studies course (see Methodology) illustrated that the two programs have quite distinct and isolated focuses. On one hand, the Introduction to Intercultural Studies course focuses almost exclusively on content related to interculturality-such as intercultural competences, intercultural communication, globalization, and the avoidance of stereotyping. Although these topics were found to be relevant to the learners, the current design of the course rather presents a subject taught in English than providing a real alternative for learning the English language. Spies The Level 7 English language proficiency course, on the other hand, was found to concentrate almost exclusively on linguistic concepts without explicitly taking cultural aspects or other content material into account. 1 Essentially the two courses, Introduction to Intercultural Studies course and the Level 7 English language proficiency course, have entirely non-complementary learning objectivesdespite being presented as options for the highest level English language students. The only real points of comparison would be that both course options require the students to produce written work. Yet although students in the Introduction to Intercultural Studies course are assessed on linguistic competences as expressed through writing (in the essays they must write for the course), there are no explicit learning objectives related to instruction oriented toward improving those competences.

Participant perceptions of Introduction to Intercultural Studies
Analysis of the participants' reflection papers revealed that many saw considerable practical benefits from the intercultural studies program:  20 participants stated that it was important for them to practice the English language.
 15 participants mentioned that they wanted to acquire knowledge about different cultures.  6 Students wanted to be prepared for a later stay in a foreign country, and to be prepared for a future job experience abroad.  4 students mentioned that they wanted to prepare themselves for future exchange programs abroad  1 student mentioned to get a view from the outside about cultural stereotypes (mentioned by a foreign participant)

Analysis of results
Based on the results of the learners' papers, it was found that 20 participants chose the course "Introduction to Intercultural Studies" in order to practice their English skills. As the courses are completely taught in English, many of the learners saw them as a chance to be in greater contact with the language. Nevertheless, it should be emphasized that most of the course participants already had a relatively high level in the English language-generally in the B2 to C1 range, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages), and so to a great extent the courses serve those students as an opportunity to maintain existing, rather than to acquire significantly more advanced, English language skills. However, there were also participants who did not have the mentioned language level (B2-C1) and who also stated the importance of practicing the English language. Accordingly, it is suggested that versions courses Introduction to Intercultural Studies and Intercultural Studies that were re-designed within a CLIL approach would enable both the more and less advanced to build up their language level 1 Appendix B: Language skills in the intercultural studies courses provides a summary of language learning objectives derived from the Level 7 English language proficiency course, although that appendix presents them as they might be included within the context of CLIL-based intercultural studies course. during the semester, giving them all a more relevant opportunity to practice their English in a learning environment focused on communication and interculturality. Another expectation expressed by 15 participants was the acquisition of knowledge about different cultures. The course descriptions emphasized that a variety of international guest speakers would participate in the course, and a number of students indicated their interest in learning from these speakers about their points of view on political issues, work relationships, or to the experience of studying in their home countries. Likewise, they expressed the belief that this contact experience would enhance their understanding of current developments in the globalized society. From the learners' points of view, the guest speakers from a variety of foreign cultures who visited the classes on a regular basis were consider an especially attractive source of information about different cultures. In line with the participants' reflections, the course offered the possibility of extended insights of different world cultures with the intention of providing the participants with a look outside their everyday context. The acquisition of knowledge of cultural background gives learners a relevant motivation for learning and using the English language. It is not, as in many cases with the traditional English classes, about studying the language for external reasons, such as exam grades, but about meaningful communication with different people from all over the world. This, consequently, is a realistic preparation for future situations; in the modern globalized society, one needs to be prepared to travel abroad to work or to study-which brings us to the next point.
In line with the intention of these courses, 6 participants noted that they saw these courses as a chance to become better prepared for eventual work experience abroad. They saw the opportunity to obtain insights about cultural differences from the international guest speakers as an initial but important step that might be essential for them at a later stage of their professional or personal lives. On a related note, 4 learners also expressed the belief that it would be important to get involved in international exchange programs so as to continue their undergraduate studies at different universities in foreign countries.
One other interesting point was raised by one of the international participants, offering a distinct but complementary point of view in comparison to the Colombian participants. Their reasons for choosing the course were somewhat different to those of the local students. One of the foreign students mentioned that they wanted to get a point of view "from the outside" about cultural stereotypes, in the sense that although we may be aware of a particular set stereotypes from our own culture, it can be interesting (and useful) to learn about the potentially quite different stereotypes held by another culture. In this case, it can be observed that one can be not only more aware of foreign cultures, but also to be aware of the significance of one's own culture.

General strategy for CLIL-focused re-organization of the intercultural studies courses
Given that the CLIL approach emphasizes the simultaneous learning of content and language, redeveloping the intercultural studies courses along CLIL lines would imply restructuring the courses to include not only content relevant to topics in intercultural studies but also specific linguistic competences. Specific learning objectives and a graduated path of progression in terms of reading, listening, writing, and speaking skills (see  Appendix B: Language skills in the intercultural studies courses ), as well as grammatical competence, would need to be defined and included in the official course syllabus so that both the course instructor and students would know what would be expected in terms of both content and language learning. Some of these areas are already covered by the current courses, while others would need to be strengthened. In contrast to the existing course design, in which the focus is almost exclusively on content, the proposed re-design would include an additional but parallel focus on English language learning. At present, language competences are evaluated only incidentally through content-focused essays, but a new CLIL-focused approach would provide a graduated process through which participants work on their language skills, and evaluation strategies would assess their progress in attaining both content and language objectives. These courses in their current form are very much approached as content subjects taught in English, with the expectation that students must gain a sufficient level English before commencing the courses; essentially, a classic bilingual education approach. By changing the courses to utilize a CLIL approach, however, not only these more advanced language learners could benefit from the intercultural content. As Graddol (2006) observes, "it [CLIL] differs from simple English-medium education in that the learner is not necessarily expected to have the English proficiency required to cope with the subject before beginning study" (p. 86).
Utilizing a CLIL approach would also give learners a chance to focus on content that was of interest to them, giving use of the target language a specific purpose as a medium for accessing, working with, and using information. Moreover, learners with lower language levels who were embarking on a CLIL course with a content focus (intercultural competences) that current students have found relevant and motiving, might be expected to themselves find greater relevance and motivation for improving their language skills.
A CLIL-based approach would, naturally, take a more implicit approach to language learning than a traditional ELT. Instead of learning the language in an isolated context, students would focus on working with the language as a medium of communication. Nevertheless, it is not sufficient to concentrate, for instance, on free conversations without giving clear instructions.
Instructions are an essential part of the CLIL approach which is also illustrated by Coyle, Hood and Marsh (2010), who emphasize that "successful language learning can be achieved when people have the opportunity to receive instruction, and at the same time experience real-life situations in which they can acquire the language more naturalistically" (p. 11). This would enable the learners to use the language within an authentic context; for example, through conversations with the international guest speakers.
However, the instructor (or designer) of a CLIL-focused course needs to be aware that planned progress through the course probably needs to be adjusted, so that each participant has a realistic chance to comprehend language components as well as the content taught. Coyle, Hood, and Marsh (2010) have suggest an adaptation of Cummins (1984) BICS/CALP Matrix as a CLIL Matrix (Figure 1) that serves as a guide for strategic planning in CLIL educational contexts. This CLIL Matrix (Figure 1) provides guidance for planning the pace of learner progress over time, with the understanding that learners' cognitive competences are unlikely to directly match their linguistic competences. Perhaps especially at the beginning of a course, it may be appropriate to moderate (in comparison with either traditional language courses or pure content courses) the amount of either cognitively demanding content or linguistically demanding communication that is required of the learners, so as not to impede overall learning progress.
In the of a redesigned, CLIL-focused intercultural studies course that expected to admit learners with lower language levels (in comparison to the relatively high levels demanded by the current, exclusively content-focused course), learners might begin in or moving towards units and tasks informed by Quadrant 2 (higher cognitive demand but lower linguistic demand) of the CLIL Matrix so that content learning would not be impeded as the learners began to slowly enhance their linguistic skills. In such a progression, cognitive demands are maintained so that the participants are motivated through working with content that is both interesting and also sufficiently challenging. Learners would, then, gradually work with more demanding linguistic knowledge, moving into units and tasks informed by Quadrant 3 (higher cognitive demand and higher linguistic demand). In other words, the difficulty of the language elements introduced and used during a term or semester would gradually increase in order not to overwhelm learners or to face them with language barriers that they would be unable to overcome.

Conclusions
This study has examined the rationale for incorporating the CLIL approach in re-designed intercultural studies courses offered as alternatives to traditional language courses at the university level. In such a CLIL-based program, with regards to linguistic content, participants will be guided through an implicit learning process with assessment processes designed not only to evaluate their content learning and in writing (as in the current intercultural studies courses) but also in other areas of linguistic competence (listening, speaking, reading, and general grammar). Yet at the same time, by facing such language instruction through the medium of the course content, learners might be expected to gain a clearer purpose regarding their learning and would have immediate possibilities for using the learned language in praxis by communicating with people from different cultures and different nations.
As such, a CLIL-based approach offers an effective way of learning not only for already proficient speakers of English, but also-indeed, perhaps especially-for speakers who still need to improve their language skills. This would be the most essential difference in such a CLILbased program. Developing an appropriate pace for the courses (see Figure 1 and accompanying discussion) would be essentially for keeping learners on track with regards to both the content material and their language learning process.
Naturally, it would be necessary to closely monitor the implementation stage of such a newly designed CLIL program in order to evaluate whether it was meeting the new objectives successfully, but the natural fit of CLIL approaches with the topic of interculturality and the evidenced attraction of the content for students, if combined with a careful integration through graduated progression of linguistic learning objectives from the traditional English classes with the intercultural studies content, should offer strong possibilities for an overall enhancement of learning experiences and outcomes. Spies

APPENDICES Appendix A: Example Plan for a 5-Week CLIL-Based Intercultural Studies Course
Reading Listening Grammar Writing Speaking Week 1

Session:
Reading of the website "Overview of the American education system" Students paraphrase the obtained information and are faced with a variety of questions about the text

Session:
Students will work on infinitives and gerunds. They will use the formerly utilized website to analyze the page with these two grammatical forms. Afterwards, they will do exercises in which they have to differ between both forms.

Session:
Participants discuss relevant ideas of the obtained information and compare them with their own educational context. This work takes place in small groups.
Week 2 1. Session: The participants will listen to a guest speaker who talks about multiculturalism.
They are encouraged to make sure that the contents are understood by concept questions.

Session:
The learners are to write a short reflection of not more than 200 words. After receiving instant feedback in the class, they will post their contributions in an online forum that will be available on Virtual Sabana.

Session:
The learners are to interact with the guest speaker and are to make further questions about the topic. The learners have to be prepared beforehand about the topic by means of independent research.
Week 3 Session 1: Reading skills class. Students are shown different reading strategies such as scanning and skimming.
Session 2: Reading of the article "Towards a definition of multiculturalism" Before participants start to read, they are to work on pre-reading activities to be prepared step by step for the topic After the reading activity, they are to answer a variety of questions about the text in pair work Session 3: Students are to be made familiar and reminded of the use of modal verbs and past modals.
In the last 30 minutes of the session, the participants work on exercises about modal verbs in present and past in pair work.
Week 4 Session 1 & 2: Students watch the movie "Crash". Before watching the movie, they have to work on questions related to the movie. The movie will be shown under the topic "Multiculturalism and stereotypes" Session 3: Discussion round about the movie "Crash".
Week 5 Exam for assessment Exam for assessment Exam for assessment Exam for assessment Exam for assessment