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Intercultural competence and assessment: perspectives from the INCA Project 487

investigate their wider applicability and usefulness. Colleagues from the Uni-
versity of Bayreuth are exploring whether a reduction in the number of compo-
5
nents of the INCA model would be valid. They are also interested in finding out
the extent to which the INCA assessment results can assist in predicting inter-
cultural success, i.e. intercultural adjustment or co-operation in an international
team, and a study to this end is underway. In the UK, the INCA grid is the object
of a feasibility study into the development of National Occupational Standards
in intercultural competence and the INCA Portfolio is being linked explicitly to
the UK Adult and Vocational European Language Portfolio as that is reviewed.
Projects are also underway in the public services and manufacturing sectors to
explore the extent to which the INCA model can be applied more generically.
Further research into the intercultural competence framework, the assessment
exercises and the practical benefits of the model are thus needed and are cur-
rently being carried out.
The instruments, as developed by the completion date for the INCA project,
may be seen at http://www.incaproject.org/ [Accessed 1 February 2007]

Notes

1. In 2003, LNTO merged with the Centre for Information on Language Teaching and
Research to form CILT, the National Centre for Languages.
2. For a description of BASIC, see Graf and Harland (2005) and Lustig and Koester
(1999).
3. The computerized testing and assessment vehicle developed as part of the project.
4. ‘Localization’ entails not only a good translation of texts but also checks on the ap-
propriateness – and frames of reference – for such elements as place names and names
of characters in role-plays etc.
5. A qualitative analysis has already been conducted to this end at the University of Bay-
reuth (Armann 2004).

References

Armann, Susanne
2004 Entwicklung und Erprobung eines Interkulturellen Assessment Centers für
Ingenieure [Development and Trialling of an intercultural assessment
centre for engineers]. Diplomarbeit [diploma thesis], University of Bay-
reuth, Germany (Unpublished).
Bennett, Milton J.
1993 Towards ethnorelativism: a developmental model of intercultural sensitiv-
ity. In: Michael Paige (ed.), Education for the Intercultural Experience,
21–72. Yarmouth: Intercultural Press.