Turning Constructionist Intercultural Communicative Competence and Complex Systems Theory into Praxis
Abstract
While approaches to intercultural communicative competence (ICC) view the phenomenon as a modular notion, recent studies emphasize its constructionist nature. Thus, in this exploratory article we analyze critically current perspectives on ICC and discuss the potential applicability of the theory of complex systems for research on ICC drawing from a constructionist perspective. In order to illustrate the perspective, we evoke research on developing ICC of European teacher trainees of English, non-native speakers of the language. The results of a qualitative analysis indicate that ICC meaning cannot be captured through models advocating either psychological or contextual reductionism. Instead, ICC requires an approach which reconciles the cognitive and the social through a complex systems perspective on the constructionist framework.
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Copyright (c) 2017 Ariadna Strugielska, Katarzyna Piątkowska
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