Teaching pragmatics and intercultural communication online

English in the Workplace (EWP) programs are increasingly surfacing across Canada to assist internationally educated professionals (IEPs) with the challenges of integrating into the Canadian workplace. One critical topic of these courses is targeted pragmatics (soft skills) instruction. By learning t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:TESL Canada journal 2013-06, Vol.30 (SI 7), p.98-107
Main Author: Waugh, Erin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alberta
Course Content
Cultural Pluralism
Curricula
English for specific purposes
Foreign Countries
Instructional Design
Intercultural Communication
Intercultural education
Online Courses
Pragmatics
Questionnaires
Second Language Instruction
Second Language Learning
Skill Development
Study and teaching
Teaching Methods
Technology application
Workplace Learning
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Summary:English in the Workplace (EWP) programs are increasingly surfacing across Canada to assist internationally educated professionals (IEPs) with the challenges of integrating into the Canadian workplace. One critical topic of these courses is targeted pragmatics (soft skills) instruction. By learning these skills, IEPs gain valuable tools for communicating effectively and appropriately with their Canadian-born colleagues and leaders. The workplace is also becoming increasingly culturally diverse, broadening the required skillsets of IEPs to include intercultural competence--the ability to adapt both cognitively and behaviourally across cultures to achieve communicative goals (Bennett, 1993). As an EWP instructor in a medium-sized institution in Alberta, I worked on the redesign of an EWP course with both pragmatics and intercultural components to be offered online. The course results showed learner development in both pragmatics and intercultural competence. In this article, I outline the theory that informed the course design, content, and assessment tools; discuss results of a sample of learners from four pilot offerings; and provide considerations for instructors and instructional designers tasked with the development of online courses of this nature.
ISSN:0826-435X