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1.2Interculturalencountersasawareness-raisingsituations
1.2Interculturalencountersasawareness-raisingsituations
Theroleofinterculturalencountersinraisingstudents’awareness
andsharpeningtheirsensitivityisundeniable.Awarenesscoversvarious
dimensions,namely:(1)measaperson(individual’sidentityandself-
awareness,realisingone’sstrengthsandweaknesses);(2)measamem-
berofaparticularsocialgroup;(3)measalanguageuser,and(4)me
asaconversationalpartner.
Severalauthors(Kapuściński2004:25;Kramsch1998;Sievers2008)
comparetheinterculturalencountertoamirror,becauseitreflectsthe
characterofone’sownculturegroup(Sievers2008)orcertain(personal,
individual)features.Italsouncoversthethingsthatwewouldliketohide
(Kapuściński2004:25).AccordingtoKramsch(1998),theintercultural
encounteristhemomentwhenindividualsviewtheOtherthroughthe
lensesofthemselves,whichhelpsthemtoreconstructtheiridentityor
reinscribeit(VanHoutumandVanNaerssen2002:132).Theauthors
believethatone’ssocialidentityresultsfromasocialprocessofcontinu-
ous“re-writing”oftheselfandofsocialcollectives.Migrationenhances
aconstantprocessofre-inventionandself-re-definition.Interculturalen-
countersrevealcertainfeaturesofourcharacter,andtheymightpromote
self-focus,change,andself-development.Lévinas(inKapuściński2004:
24)claimsthattheencounterwiththeOtherisaprivilegedphenomenon
asitmakesusawareofthefeaturesthatwehaveandthosethatwe
needtodevelop.AsKristeva(1991,inVanHoutumandVanNaerssen
2002:132)succinctlyputsit,wearestrangerstoourselves.Inthecourse
ofinterculturalencounterswearealwaysbecoming,whichisagradual
andconsciousprocessbasedonsomefactors.Lévinasbelievesthatmeet-
ingtheOtherface-to-faceimpliesdialogueandresponsibility(citedby
Kapuściński2004:26).Malinowski(inKapuściński2004:25)pointsout
thatsuccessfulencountersdependonsomeessentialfeaturesofcharacter,
suchas:one’sownidentity,awarenessofone’sownpotential,valueand
maturity.Ifapersonisdevoidofthesefeatures,s/hewillwithdrawfrom
theencounters,perceivingthemasface-threateningsituations.
Anotherdimensionofinterculturalencountersrelatestolanguage
awareness.DialoguewiththeOther,conductedinaparticularsocial
context,promotesthepersonalexplorationoftheL2.Ithelpsanindi-
vidualtofindouthowlanguageworks,thusextendingperson’sknowl-
edgeofthelanguageandofhimself/herselfasalanguageuser(Bourke
2008).Inparticular,itraisestheindividual’slanguageawareness,which
canbeunderstoodas:
consciousperceptionoflanguagemechanisms,includingsomeirregu-
larities,levelsofformality,registers;
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