Communication interculturelle dans l'enseignement de langue etrangere : Analyse des opinions des enseignants à travers les exemples de la France et de la Turquie

Nowadays, the borders among countries are gradually disappearing by the effects of communication technologies and globalization. Therefore, intercultural communication is now a necessity in the international platform. To preserve cultural diversity by developing the concepts of "other" conscious and "respect" to different cultures, with reference to be aware of his/her own culture and to identity-conscious, is among the motives forming the basics of intercultural communication. In that point, as it is stated in The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), current foreign language curriculum should be prepared appropriate to the goal and practices of acquiring intercultural communication skills. Without doubt, the teachers have the biggest responsibility in making students attain these skills as well as in every educational process. The aim of the study is to define, to investigate, and to compare the views of foreign language teachers on international communication. A qualitative case study, which enabled us to define the views of foreign language instructors on international communication skills in foreign language teaching, was carried out to reach that aim. The instructors were chosen from France and Turkey. In this context, twenty instructors, seven instructors from the Department of French Language and six instructors from the Department of English Language of Jean Jaurès University in France, Toulouse, six instructors from the Department of French Language of Anadolu University School of Foreign Language Teaching, in Turkey, were firstly given a questionnaire to obtain their general opinions on the issue. Then, a semi-structured interview, based on the questionnaire, was applied in order to examine the opinions in details. The data was obtained in eighteen months. At the end of the data analysis, five main themes (relationship language-culture, intercultural communication practices in foreign language teaching, difficulties in intercultural communication practices, pedagogic documents, teacher and intercultural communication) and twenty seven subthemes were determined. It was found that cultural identity is an important factor that affects the world view, thought system, language use, and behaviour pattern in society. Nonverbal cues also carry meaning and convey messages between speakers during communication, such as verbal cues. References, arising from cultural differences that vary from culture to culture, sometimes cause different interpretations and even misunderstandings. In foreign language education, intercultural communication skill contributes to the development of the other consciousness that leads the student to recognize and to interact with what is different from himself. Teachers who are an intermediary also among all students who come from different cultures as well as the target and source culture play a leading role in the development of intercultural communication skill in foreign language teaching process. Teacher is responsible for students' recognising their own identity by discovering their cultural codes, and developing the consciousness of other and relativity through the target language-culture. In this regard, all the teachers who participated in the study were observed to have experienced difficulties in including the intercultural approach into their courses, even though they were aware of the function of foreign language teaching of intercultural communication to a certain level. On the other hand, it was revealed that none of the participants received any training on intercultural communication. In our study it was found that the teachers in three different contexts generally agreed upon language-culture relation, intercultural communication practices, difficulties they encountered in these practices, and course materials although each of the teachers gave examples from their own contexts; however, they were found to have disaccorded on the issues such as teacher competence, abroad experience, objectivity and impartiality within the scope of intercultural communication. However, these differences were not found in the comparison groups but among the participants of within each group. Keywords: Intercultural communication, Communication skill, Foreign language teaching, Teachers' opinions