Syllabus for Teaching CrossCultural Communication

THE CULTURAL SYLLABUS AND ITS EFFECT ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING PROFESSION IN THE TOWN OF SHOUMEN Syllabus for Teaching Cross Cultural Communication THE CULTURAL SYLLABUS AND ITS EFFECT ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING PROFESSION IN THE TOWN OF SHOUMEN by Violeta Mondashka, ELMS, Shoumen and Stanislava Ivanova, Naval Academy, Varna Quite recently, while still writing this paper, the Bulgarian government started the official negotiations for the country’s integration in the European Communi.

Syllabus for Teaching Cross-Cultural Communication

THE CULTURAL SYLLABUS AND ITS EFFECT

ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING PROFESSION

IN THE TOWN OF SHOUMEN

by Violeta Mondashka, ELMS, Shoumen and Stanislava Ivanova,

Naval Academy, Varna

Quite recently, while still writing this paper, the Bulgarian governmentstarted the official negotiations for the country’s integration in the EuropeanCommunity This lays the foundations of a long and difficult process ofradical changes in all spheres of our political, economic and social lifeaimed at successful integration

In the context of these changes and in view of the new opportunitiesthey will provide, foreign language teaching acquires even greatersignificance with its aim of enabling successful communication in a foreignlanguage setting Linguistic performance alone, however, without culturalawareness does not warrant this success – an aspect that has long beenneglected by our educational system The Cultural Studies Syllabus hasbeen created to fill in this gap and to propose a way of integrating theteaching of language and culture It proceeds from our belief that language

is part of a culture and to participate meaningfully in an inter-culturalcontext, one needs to possess knowledge as well as skills for inter-culturalcommunication

The Syllabus promotes a new understanding about culture teaching

in terms of WHAT and HOW to teach “What” is concerned not merely withprovision of information but with developing inter-cultural awareness Suchawareness as stated in the Syllabus, grows out of a combination ofknowledge and skills The skill-based approach is crucial in helping the

students to develop not only knowledge but also willingness to understandthe complex aspects, which constitute culture Thus the CS provides notonly the aims of cultural education but it also proposes a new methodologyfor achieving these aims (How)

Since its publication in September 1998, a series of seminars havebeen run throughout the country “to enable a wider circle of practisingteachers of English and other foreign languages to use the Syllabuscreatively and through changing their own views on the teaching of cultureand improving their classroom behaviour to contribute to a large-scaleprocess of change in language education” (Leah Davcheva, Head ofCultural Studies, the British Council, Sofia)

The present paper is an attempt to assess the innovative effect ofthe Cultural Studies Syllabus on the English language teaching andlearning practice in the town of Shoumen It is mostly based on the reports

of the teachers who participated in the double seminar on theImplementation of the CS and carried out their small action researchprojects in their classrooms between November 1998 and December 1999

It also includes our impressions from conducting the seminar, observingour colleagues teaching with the syllabus and discussing related issues inboth formal and informal situations And last but not least, it is an account

of our personal experience of teaching cultural issues

Profile of the teachers

The teachers who responded to the idea of integrating culture inlanguage teaching came from different schools

Schools Number

ofteachers

School

Private Language School 1

Pre-intermediateLevel

12-13

Muslem Religious School 1 Tenth 16-17

The variety of the schools, as well as the different age groups of thestudents included in the research, provided the opportunity for exploringthe effect of the syllabus in a number of different teaching contexts

Since the Syllabus aims at innovation and change, further on in thispaper we shall deal with the different aspects of the teaching-learningprocess and how these were affected by the Syllabus We will be looking

at changes in the conventional teaching practice, what the students gained

from it and how it affected the teachers themselves We will also deal withthe innovative principles of the Syllabus that have been verified throughour experience

An important feature of the CS Syllabus is that it is skills-oriented(critical reading, comparing and contrasting, ethnographic and researchskills) This gives the teacher the freedom to use different topics to practicethe skills while at the same time avoids repetition The topics suggested bythe Syllabus proved to be both interesting and provocative and foundremarkable emotional response among the students These include:Christmas, Teenage Problems, “Fur Game? Fur-Get It!”, “I thought myteacher fancied me”, “Cross-cultural comparison of tourist materials,Reading photographs, Third Age, “Are we racist and xenophobic?”, etc.Many of the topics were chosen by the students themselves By comparingand contrasting different Christmas practices, the problems of Bulgarianand British teenagers, different British/Scottish advertsing strategies in intourist materials they became aware of different patterns of behaviourunder similar circumstances, arising from different cultural background (“Ithought my teacher fancied me”) In “Teenage work” they compared theirpredictions about finding work and the reactions of others (whatemployers, teachers, parents, peers think) and the reality of their findings

Part of the learning process was taken out of the classroom and thestudents were encouraged to take a greater responsibility for their learning

In many cases the comparison was based on research that the studentscarried out in their own culture (by developing ethnographic skills) ondifferent occasions: Christmas, teenage working, third age problems, etc.The students were provoked to find more about their own culture andacquire understanding of their own culture, a prerequisite of dealing withculture per se, before they could successfully develop awareness and

tolerance of foreign cultural practices Ethnographic research helpedstudents realize that learning can happen outside the classroom, that byobjectively observing they can learn more about themselves and gainincreased awareness of changes in their own culture The students in the

11th class admitted they could not attach the same emotional response toChristmas that they used to experience on New Year’s day

In the 11th class the syllabus prompted the idea of self-designing alesson on Christmas food and eating habits The students were asked toresearch specific social practices like fasting and celebration of the nightbefore Christmas; the symbolic meaning of the vegetarian and the number

of dishes laid on the table They provided typical Christmas recipes fromthe Bulgarian national cuisine In the process of research, however, thestudents came up with unexpected results They explored how theBulgarian cuisine has been influenced by the Greek, Turkish and Italiancuisine and how in turn it affected our neighbouring countries A specialpresentation was devoted to the Shoumen region, which added the localcolour to their intra-cultural awareness As a whole, Bulgarian cuisine wasidentified as a source of national pride

Information was also collected from the Internet and, along with theBritish tradition, the students learned a lot about Mexican and Chineseones The comparison was followed by a discussion on the changingnature of habits and traditions, English breakfast was discussed as well asdifferent strategies for fasting and dieting Thus, the students wereexposed to a variety of cultural diversities The CS was found extremelyhelpful by our American Peace Corp teacher As a foreigner she found itnatural to share parts of her own culture with the classes she taught TheSyllabus, however, provided a more structured approach to culturalcomparisons She tried the Christmas lessons in the prep, 8th and 9th

classes and found both the procedure and the materials equally relevant tothese three age groups She particularly liked the cross-cultural approach,which turned the lesson into a comparison between Bulgarian andAmerican Christmas traditions and not just a provision of knowledge aboutthe target culture Another aspect that was highly appreciated was theemphasis on intra-cultural awareness As a follow-up to the lesson, sheassigned a homework asking the students to describe the BulgarianChristmas traditions This is what she shared:

“Reading these was probably the most rewarding part of the lesson.Our discussions had helped them to delve deeper, to think more preciselyabout their own traditions and what they mean to them, as well as torecognize those things which are unique about their own culture.” Theemphasis on intra-cultural awareness was highly appreciated by theAmerican Peace Corps teacher “The first step toward understandinganother language is to recognize that our opinions are in part shaped by aspecific culture (our ‘box’), and that other people in other places mightapproach a similar problem in entirely different ways The new culturalstudies syllabus encourages students to take the first steps in this process

by introducing interesting and relevant topics that elicit debate andresponse, and then by asking students to compare this response with howpeople in another culture would respond.”

While comparing facts and social practices from their own cultureand the culture of the target language they seemed to acquire a broaderperspective of the role of both native and foreign culture for thedevelopment of their personalities By exposing the students to a variety ofcultural contexts we equip them with the tools they need to processinformation and form an opinion of their own

An important feature of the syllabus is that it is extremely versatilewhich allows the same topic to be used at various levels in a number ofdifferent ways The topic of Christmas proved be the most enjoyable oneround Christmas and it was explored in the widest possible range of agegroups (from 12-18) In each of the classes however the lessons onChristmas were focussed on different aspects of the holiday depending onthe language level and background experience of the students.

The CS crept into a quite unexpected teaching setting like theMuslim Religious secondary school The topic of Christmas provoked theidea of comparing and contrasting different religious holidays and thesocial practices that accompany them Residing in Bulgaria the studentsknew about Christmas but they have always felt it to be an exotic holiday,alien to their strong Muslim religious self-awareness However, they werewell familiar with the story of Ramazan Bayram from the Quran The lessonencouraged the students to look deeper into the significance of theirholiday as a symbol of purity and sincerity in human relations and respectfor the elderly people in the family A comparison between the two holidaysand the messages they carry for the members of the two different religiouscommunities raised their awareness of the existing common values alongwith the cultural and religious diversities They realised what an importantsignificance Christmas had for the Christian community The lesson, whilerespecting their ethnic and religious identity, made it possible for them toidentify with a different perspective, thus engendering tolerance

Flexibilty & Appropriateness to young learners

When writing the syllabus the target audience we aimed at were theEnglish teachers at the Language, Maths and Humanities Medium schools

However, a belief was expressed that it could be of help to any languageteacher Being among its authors, we were curious to see how it works withvery young learners Violeta tried the second Christmas lesson from theSyllabus with her young students at a private language school Those are12-year old children whose level of English can be defined as pre-intermediate or lower intermediate The aim was to practice comparing andcontrasting and research skills Before the Christmas holiday break, Thestudents were asked to carry out a small research in their own family andrelatives’ circle, answering very simple questions like:

Why do we celebrate Christmas?

Who do you celebrate with?

Where do you usually celebrate?

What do you / your parents / your relatives do before Christmas/ onChristmas day / on the next day?

The students responded sincerely and brought an account oftraditional practices many of which we were not quite familiar with Theytalked about “Budni vecher”, the vegetarian dishes, and the traditionalChristmas symbols It was difficult for them to express themselves fluentlywhile describing specific practices but the emphasis being the culturalcontext, they were not corrected, just provided with the words they needed.When they had agreed on the list of typical Bulgarian Christmas activities,they were handed the photo from the Syllabus and made a similar list ofthe British common activities Additional information was also providedfrom “Discovering Britain” with a glossary of the anticipated unfamiliarwords Then they were asked to find the difference between the two lists.The comparison between the two lists of activities brought awarenessmostly at affective level Some responded emotionally and quickly jumped

to conclusions like “Our holiday is better!” In the discussion that followedthere was a lot of comparing and contrasting It turned out that Bulgarianchildren enjoyed the way they celebrated Christmas They liked thepresents, disliked the turkey and the Christmas pudding and wanted theBulgarian “banitsa” with the lucky charms in it However, they wereattracted by particular items in the other culture as well – mostly by thefirecrackers and the Christmas stocking, though doubts were expressed as

to its practicality in terms of the size of the presents that can fit in it Theylearned about Boxing Day and compared it with our tradition of

“Koleduvane” They were also made aware of the mobility of culturaltraditions One of the families had celebrated the holiday abroad andanother boy reported about a family that chose to have turkey for theirChristmas meal

Another enjoyable Christmas lesson with young learners (in the fifthgrade) was based on comparing and contrasting Christmas cards Sincethose children study Russian along with English, the teacher chose tocompare Bulgarian, Russian and British Christmas postcards Again thechildren showed great enthusiasm, learned a lot about Christmas symbolsand made interesting observations They responded not only to the imagesbut also to the quality of the design They recognized the uniqueness of theBulgarian images: the traditional “buklitsa” and “surovaknitsa”, the applesand nuts on the folkstyle tablecloth – things they could not find in the othercards They admired the images of the animals and the fairy-talecharacters with “Snegurachka” (Snow White) in the Russian cards Theywondered why a view of Kremlin or of the Houses of Parliament should besent as a Christmas greeting They liked the Christmas stocking anddisliked the religious texts of the Christmas carols

Both lessons proved to be successful in providing young learnerswith insight into a foreign culture and traditions on a par with their own.Given the students age (12) it was unrealistic to expect them to speculateabout or account for the reasons of the cultural diversities and similaritiesthey noticed Yet, a lot of comparing and contrasting was practiced, whichenhanced their observation skills and provoked them to think aboutdiversity, to say nothing of the new words they learned in the mostenjoyable way Thus with a slight adaptation in the procedure and thematerials the Syllabus proved to be helpful for practicing the three culturalskills with younger learners.

Emotional Response

The opportunity to participate in the selection of topics not onlyenhanced the students’ motivation but also stimulated a surprisingingenuity in providing additional topic-related materials from most variedsources: questionnaires and interviews carried out in their own culture,Christmas cards from different cultures, newspaper articles andphotographs, tourist materials, Internet, etc The students were eager todiscuss, competed to be presenters, to shift the focus to topics theythought were relevant While discussing animal rights and xenophobia,such diverse topics as stray dogs, animals in Bulgarian zoos, dancingbears, the war in Kosovo, etc., were touched upon Various teachingtechniques were employed All the students got involved in takinginterviews and making posters in Jana’s project on teenage working Assome of them shared, they felt like journalists and enjoyed it very much

What the students gained

The direct results that could be observed were the practical skillsthat the students acquired:

• developed inter-cultural competence and ability to successfullycommunicate within a foreign cultural environment

• enjoyed reading the authentic materials in the syllabus and thefreedom to practise the language in discussing interesting topics

• developed their linguistic competence, improved their linguistic skills(reading authentic materials, writing on interesting topics, speaking,etc.), gained fluency

• practiced research and presentation skills (collecting and processinginformation, interviews, speaking in front of an audience, etc.)

However, there were some indirect influences on the studentsparticipating in the lessons, more subtle changes in their personal lifephilosophies The confrontation with another perspective of reality, anotheralternative view of the world, helped them shake off their ethno- andegocentrism and grow as persons and citizens of the world These aresome of the qualities that were aimed at:

• adaptability to changes in their own and foreign cultures

• tolerance: while working in teams they learned to listen moreattentively to each other, to respect each other’s opinion, team-workand team-spirit

• ice-breaking experience: changed the atmosphere in class,improved relations with other students, fostered new respect forteachers who teach interesting lessons in an enjoyable way

• built-in tolerance in the process of learning: appreciation of theopinions and values of others, sensitivity to cultural diversity, becamemore positive of their culture

• broader perspective: the Syllabus encouraged them to reconsiderthe cultural framework they have been brought up in and to acquireskills that will enable them to observe and analyse encounters withdiversity and to extend these beyond the framework of their culture

• emotional connection to material, satisfaction of challenge

• students’ attitude to work changed as a result of comparingpredictions and findings

• ethnocentrism - the students putting Bulgarians in the first place interms of racism and xenophobia realized it is not true

• perception of “right” and “wrong”: students realized their view is notuniversal (changed attitude towards the teacher in “I Thought MyTeacher Fancied Me”)

How the teachers changed:

Students were not the only ones affected by the changed approach

to culture Some changes can be observed in the teachers as well Theexperience affected them on two levels: as professionals and as persons.The professional growth can be better understood if we list some of thepossible problems identified at the first seminar In spite of theirwillingness, the participants expressed a lot of concerns, i.e.:

• lack of authentic materials, reference books and native speakers toconsult

• lack of cultural experience on the part of the students and theteacher

• lack of interest and motivation

• lack of confidence in dealing with sensitive topics

• suitability of lessons and topics to students’ age group and languageabilities

• curriculum constraints

The teachers felt challenged though not quite confident at thebeginning They started by sticking closely to the Syllabus, and (in manycases) by trialling the sample lesson that was taught during the firstseminar: ‘Cross-cultural comparison of tourist materials’

One and the same lesson was taught with different success indifferent classes (“The Fur-game”) In one of the classes the students wereshocked by the cruelty with which animals are killed for their fur Theyclaimed they would never wear fur.’ The discussion shifted to cleanliness inour town and they wanted to organise group to keep nature clean In adifferent class, same age level, taught by the same teacher, studentsrefused to see the problem or identify with it They thought that even if theystopped buying fur clothes that would not change things This made theteacher aware of how difficult it is for to attitudes change

Problems encountered during the lessons

Teaching the lessons had both a liberating and threatening effect onteachers It enriched them, provided them with many opportunities forgrowth and improvement in their professional capacity, helped theovercome the problems envisioned in the beginning, but also brought tothe surface other unforeseen problems

• Timing - difficult to plan

• Sensitive topics - not all students felt comfortable with discussingthem; some refused to voice their attitude on xenophobia; or the clash

in Kosovo (probably they didn’t share the same value system)

• Danger of imposing your own ideas; evaluate phenomena instead ofobjectively comparing them

• Tight spots and losing control of the lesson (a young teacher wasasked, ‘What would you do if you received a love letter from yourstudent?’)

• Lack of up-to-date information (British newspapers) - there werequestions about the British school system that she was unable toanswer

In these days of the learner centered approach, the responsibility forlearning is the learner’s “The teachers may help overcome difficult stages,may organize learning activities and try to stimulate the process, but cannever predict the outcome” (de Jong, 1996) Still, it was an ice-breakingexperience for the teacher/students relations: teachers came to know theirstudents better; provided for openness and mutual trust in their relations.All the teachers recognized this as a positive experience:

Gergana:’I found the lesson about fur…an enjoyable and valuable

experience Even though it didn’t show change of attitudes in one of the classes it provoked them to think about these matters…’

Janeta:’Working on the project was difficult and time-consuming but the

students enjoyed it and the results were rewarding.

Gabriela: ’…an enjoyable lesson Everybody was eager to present.’

The Syllabus gave them an insight into their new role of culture teachers

-as mediators, consultants and monitors of the process of teaching cultureand not providers of knowledge

• Provoked an interesting way of revising grammar through the CSmaterials; Ex Conditional sentences-‘I thought my teacher…’

• Provided a new perspective of the nature of cultural teaching andlearning and a more structured approach to it

• Supplied ideas on selecting and adapting materials that provokestudents’ interest

• Gained in confidence - ‘Each time it is better.’

• Acquired a better understanding of what students think/feel; of howthey perceive themselves as individuals - leads to better relationshipwith the students

• Improved classroom dynamics and classroom management

• Learned how to design their own lesson around skills

• Higher respect on behalf of the students

• Fascinating connection between teaching

• became more tolerant of others and “otherness”

• increased their own cultural awareness

The aim of the cultural studies teaching and learning, as exemplified by theSyllabus, and as evidenced in this paper is not only to develop languageand communicative competence, but also “to expand one’s own culturalawareness by learning about the cultural heritage of the English speakingpeoples and by so doing to arrive at a livelier appreciation of both cultures”(Byram, 1997) The Cultural Studies Syllabus has already made atremendous impact on the ELT practice in the town of Shoumen and haschanged the way teachers and learners view the world and themselves.The process of introducing the syllabus to the ELT community in Bulgaria

is on-going and will undoubtedly contribute to the future integration ofBulgaria in the European community

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Billington, R Strawbridge, S Greensides, L Fitzsimmons, A Culture

and Society: A sociology of Culture, 1991, Macmillan Education Ltd.

Byram, M Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative

Competence, 1997, Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Davcheva, L Berova, N Discovering Britain, 1991, Prosveta

de Jong, W Open Frontiers: Teaching English in an intercultural

context, 1996, Heinemann ELT

Montgomery, M Reid Thomas, H Language and Social Life, 1994,

The British Council

THE CULTURAL SYLLABUS AND ITS EFFECT ON TEACHING IN

The Cultural Studies Syllabus has been created to provide means for integrating the teaching of language and culture It promotes a new understanding about culture teaching, a combination of knowledge and skills, and proposes a new methodology for achieving these aims

Since its publication, a series of seminars have been run throughout the country The present paper assesses the innovative effect of the Cultural Studies Syllabus on the English language teaching and learning practice in the town of Shoumen

The Language Teacher A Japan-America Cross-Cultural

Syllabus: