Chapter I. Theoretical backgrounds of forming intercultural competence of the young learners based dialogical texts 1

3.1.Stages of the experiments
The conceptual base of this research project draws from a number of different disciplines. This chapter reviews a range of literature related to those disciplines and the component issues of the project. It contextualises the present study within the research literature and serves to illuminate the research questions. It supports the goal of the project, to provide an authoritative illustration of intercultural competence in young language learners. The review is presented in two broad sections. Section 2.2 focuses on theoretical models, and begins with discussion of the conceptual understandings of language and culture and ensuing links between language and culture. The review briefly traces changes in the anthropological concept of culture, and changes in research methodology in recent times. The bridging discipline of semiotics brought about changes in understanding of language, and consequent changes in sociocultural language methodology. While this understanding of convergence has been achieved at a theoretical level, a model of language and culture as split entities can still exist in the classroom. The emerging intercultural language learning theory can be seen as lying at the intersection of changes in understanding of language and culture, embedding language learning in cultural context and personal reflectivity. Section 2.2.3 briefly traces the development of theoretical models of intercultural language learning, to better conceptualise the balance of elements, and how a progressively better informed model can be described. It concludes with a brief overview of research attempts to measure intercultural development. In the second section, section 2.3, the literature review focuses on research studies which illustrate the three component issues of the study, a case study school, its students and teachers. Firstly, it places the case study school in context, by reviewing studies of immersion programs in other schools in Australia and abroad. Secondly, it focuses on elements of the student experience. A different notion of culture was developed by the 1920–1930s interpretive urban ethnography carried out in the United States by the Chicago School of anthropology. Interpretive researchers such as Frazier (1937, 1957) and Park (1952) spent long periods in direct personal contact with their subjects, gathering large quantities of detailed qualitative data to acquire an in-depth understanding of how participants create meaning in everyday life. The epistemology of interpretive research stems from the work of Weber (1864–1920) and the concept of Verstehen (understanding), the study and understanding of everyday lived experience (Weber, 1958). Culture lies in actions and can only be interpreted by reference to the actor’s motives, or purposes. This background underpins the cultural anthropology of Geertz (1973), of relevance to this project’s interest in accessing the students’ conceptual world of intercultural competence. Geertz’s interpretive theoretical stance uses the understandings of semiotics in culture and symbols This section traces the development of understandings of the nature of language. The conceptual models of understanding language have been critical to the way it has been taught, and also to the status of research methodologies employed in language research. This reviews briefly considers language as syntax, the influence of semiotics, and the sociocultural approach which has resulted in the use of new methodologies. The purpose is to highlight the extent of the difference represented in intercultural language learning, where qualitative attitudes of cultural reflection and understanding are the focus and qualitative research methods are employed. Scarino (2007) refers to a ‘paradigm war’ in language research, which could be described in broad terms as between measurement and description, represented in the theoretical and research tensions traced below Empirical research which focused on syntactical development in language was always quantitative in nature, with an inherent positivist epistemology. Quantitative testing of language acquisition in immersion classrooms has used common batteries of tests of non-verbal cognitive abilities tests, basic skills tests, and various second language receptive and productive skills tests (Cummins & Swain, 1986; Lambert & Tucker, 1972; Swain & Lapkin, 1981). Unseen internal motivations of a learner’s behaviour and the cultural setting of the language were not of interest in quantitative research. The work of Firth (1966, 1968) and his student Halliday (1975, 1978) pioneered the analysis of language in its social context and established the interdependence of language, culture and society, and language as a social phenomenon. Halliday (1978) describes language as a ‘social semiotic’ and as ‘shared meaning potential’ in a social context. Halliday emphasises that language is meaningful in context and how language ‘actively symbolises the social system, representing metaphorically in its patterns of variation the variation that characterises human cultures… Language is a form of interaction and it is learnt through interaction’ (Halliday, 1978, p. 18). Halliday linked the linguistic sciences and both mother-tongue and foreign language teaching (Halliday, McIntosh & Strevens, 1964). His systemic–functional model inspired new attention to language’s role in all education. Vygotsky’s (1986) influence on education was also extensive, particularly through his description of social interaction and language as being the necessary fabric in which learning takes place. The sociocultural approach offers ‘an alternative paradigm in which to understand teaching and learning’ (Mackerras, 2006). In sociocultural theory of learning and development, thought and language reflect, and are created by, setting. The sociocultural approach connects the target language to everyday concepts and context. Baker (1993) writes that measurement alone ‘fails to capture fully various conceptual dimensions and categorizations… [L]anguage tests and measurements are unlikely to fully represent an idea or theoretical concept’. Baker argues that measurement and testing need to be partnered by rich descriptions.⁹²