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Enhancing language education in cross-border vocational education

Overview

Examples of
border regions

Cross-border vocational education

Plurilingualism

Intercultural competences

Languages, disciplines and professions

Cette page sera disponible en français en 2024. Veuillez vous référer aux pages en anglais pour le moment.

Introduction

Why do we teach intercultural competences?

How to be polite in social situations and in the workplace

Should I shake hands, just nod or bow?

How to deal with inter-cultural diversity at the workplace

Carte des régions frontalières

Les régions frontalières d'Allemagne-France-Luxembourg-Belgique, Allemagne-Danemark, Pologne-République tchèque et Lituanie-Pologne revêtent une importance particulière pour ce projet. Veuillez cliquer sur la carte pour en savoir plus sur une région particulière.

Intercultural competences make our communication more effective and help to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts. That is why language teaching should also focus on typical ways of communicating and behaving that go further than just the correct linguistic construction of a sentence - students should be made aware of particularities of interaction in specific contexts in order to make interaction more successful, trying to prevent uncomfortable misunderstandings. Typical situations with particular ways of behaviour and communication that may be addressed in language teaching - and especially in the context of cross-border vocational training - may include greetings and goodbyes, telephone calls, requests, invitations, presentations, etc.

Objectives

Learn why thinking about (our) language learning is important.
Get to know strategies for language reflection for teachers and learners.

Look at the following two examples:

Example 1: Greetings

Image by Freepik

Every conversation must properly begin and end. There are many different ways of greeting each other, in work contexts as well as social and personal settings. The 'greeting-code' depends on various factors, for instance, the hierarchy between the people involved and their relationship, the level of organizational structure of the company, the vocational context of the company and its culture or just the degree of formality when two people that don’t know each other meet. In order to initiate or sustain communication with a person who is working in a neighbour country, it is good to know official and unofficial ways of greetings and goodbyes. Nevertheless, some country-specific differences and tendencies can be observed.

Start with a short reflection on yourself and 'your culture'!

How do people greet each other in the professional contexts you know in your border region/country?
Which typical behaviours do you know?
What kind of behaviour do you see in which situation?
Did you perceive changes during and after the Covid-19 pandemic?

Now let's compare and have a look at some typical ways of greetings in the professional context of the Polish-Czech border region:

In this example border regions’ professional context, people greet each other every day when they meet for the first time. The greeting is not only influenced by the hierarchy that the involved persons have in the company, but also by gender. Following these factors, male workers on the same hierarchy level usually shake hands. When people with unequal hierarchical backgrounds meet, it is the supervisor who proffers the hand first. It is considered impolite to give the hand first if you are lower in hierarchy. Women rarely greet each other with a handshake. In private situations, they usually hug or kiss the cheek (three times in Poland) but at work, this is rare. They usually just say hello.

Examples of greetings in Polish and Czech:

In Polish

to supervisors:
dzień dobry, dobry wieczór, do widzenia

to colleagues:
cześć, hej, do zobaczenia, na razie, pa!

In Czech

to supervisors:
dobré ráno, dobrý večer, ahoj

to colleagues:
ahoj, hej, uvidíme se později, ahoj!

What are the customs in your region? How do you greet in professional settings? Do you know about differences in different professional settings? Which similarities and differences exist between your border region and the Polish-Czech border region?

Example 2: Telephone calls at work

Image by Freepik

Making phone calls often is daily business. Have you ever called a colleague in another country? Perhaps you may have noticed that the call was different to what you expected. Did the person answer the call using first name, surname and job title or with the last name and the company or differently? Already the beginning of a phone call can be confusing and hinder the conversation.

Think about more communicative intercultural situations at work and how they are solved in your border region, e.g. starting a business meeting, writing an email or letter, making a request…
The tasks above can also be used in class. It also gives you the chance to compare different ways of greeting, for example, because the students contribute experiences from different situations.
You can also switch into the students' perspective and ask yourself: What is important for them to know in a certain vocational context? Which aspects can you integrate in your language teaching?

Take away

Awareness and knowledge of ‘patterns’ of (linguistic and cultural) behaviour and the ability to behave appropriately make communication in 'foreign' cultural situations or intercultural professional contexts easier and more comfortable.
Promoting intercultural competences is important, especially in cross-border vocational educational settings.
Thinking about and discussing simple everyday situations, such as greetings or telephone calls, raises awareness of intercultural aspects. It helps learners to be more confident in communication, to support mutual understanding and to avoid misunderstandings.

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Formation professionnelle transfrontalière

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