SESSION 2D
Paula Dimmell & Sandra Caon-Parsons
Intercultural Competence – the ‘force’ behind Global Citizenship

Abstract
In a galaxy far far away, perhaps if the Gungans, Ewoks, Wookies, Droids, Tuscan Raiders and humans had been given the opportunity to participate in our Global Citizenship program, peace would have prevailed.
If Darth Vader and the empire had a program like 'Towards InterCultural Awareness for Global Citizenship', they would have had the capacity to work within a galaxy that included a variety of perspectives and move effortlessly amongst diverse cultural environments without misunderstandings.
Communication skills were as fundamental for success in the galaxy as they are today. Global Citizenship is not a new ‘force’. Many educational and higher education institutions cite Global Citizenship in their strategic goals. However, just knowledge of intercultural understanding or regular contact with other cultural groups does not lead to intercultural competence, which is needed to become a global citizen.
As diversity within the classroom is not enough, we have developed an organised and intentional program that aims to give learners structured opportunities to develop a set of skills for operating successfully in diverse cultural environments.  These skills include negotiating within ‘varieties’ of English, developing communication across cultures, building collegiate networks and an increased awareness of global perspectives.
This session will illustrate practical ways to create opportunities for concrete experiences in the classroom and demonstrate how this has been done at the University of Adelaide’s ELC. We will share sample tasks, lesson plans, program logistics and some of our students’ and teachers’ experiences of the program.
Show you the way, the ‘force’ of Global Citizenship will.

Bio
Paula Dimmell is the Education Program Manager for TESOL/EAL programs and Sandra Caon-Parsons is the Education Advisor at the University of Adelaide’s English Language Centre (ELC). They have both worked extensively as teachers and teacher trainers, and have vast experience working in cross-cultural environments both in Australia and internationally. They have a strong background in program design and a long term commitment to internationalisation of the curriculum through embedding the development of skills required for intercultural competence.
Paula and Sandra have also both been involved in the development of materials and courses within the University of Adelaide, incorporating cross cultural perspectives while taking into account different learning styles and teaching modes.