Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) & Language Variation in Teaching Arabic as Foreign Language (TAFL)

In the late 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries, language and culture teaching has seen a renewed interest. Debates and studies conducted in general and applied linguistics, anthropology, and ethnopragmatics have proved that culture and language are inextricably intertwined.1 Indeed, culture is negotiated by the members of the speech community through their discourses, and language is the tool used to codify cultural assumptions and values. Even though the acquisition of Communicative Competence (CC) is still viewed as a primary goal, in modern times a new paradigm has begun to make its way in the understanding of Foreign Language (FL) instruction, which is now seen as the contact with and the discovery of alterity. Within this »cultural turn«, considered as the natural consequence of the »global village« effect,2 and the increased human mobility, Language Proficiency (LP) cannot but integrate the development of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). This ability, which begins with a critical reflection and a growing awareness of both the own and the target culture, allows the learner to successfully understand and communicate with representatives of the target culture, therefore providing a method for overcoming prejudice, discrimination, and misunderstandings. Acquiring ICC is undoubtedly a long-term and complex process, hard to finalize within the time and spatial constraints imposed by FL classroom education. This is particularly true for learners of Arabic as Foreign Language (AFL), who eventually (if not already in formal instruction, then later in real encounters) have to face an extremely eclectic and constantly evolving linguistic and cultural reality. Then ideally, becoming an interculturally competent interlocutor of Arabic implies not only to acquire dexterity of diglossia, but also to develop awareness of sociolinguistic values embedded in the choice of varieties. The question that arises is: How can ICC be easily and gradually practiced in AFL classes? Taking a cue from the intercultural oriented approach adopted in German as Foreign Language (Deutsch als Fremdsprache, DaF) at Goethe-Institut, the present paper aims to provide a theoretical foundation and a practical example for the integration of ICC in Teaching Arabic as Foreign Language (TAFL).