GAINING CULTURAL COMPETENCE THROUGH THE GLOTTODRAMA PROJECT

Abstract

In a world characterized by globalization and mobility understanding cultures and communicating with people of different cultures has become significantly important. As cultural competence is part of communicative competence, integrating culture into language learning has become a must in education. Culture helps learners to be culturally competent and communicate efficiently in different societies. The European Glottodrama project run by EuroEd Foundation Iasi initiated an innovative language teaching methodology. The language course combining drama and language techniques with a very strong cultural component was applied to a group of 20 international students from the University of Medicine in Iasi studying Romanian as a foreign language. According to the Glottodrama method, the cultural element is very important as a profound understanding of a dramatic text means presenting culture in action. The article highlights the learners’ opinions and attitudes towards the role of culture in foreign language learning and some of the activities designed to develop cultural competence.

Keywords

• cultural competence
• communicative competence
• drama
• language