CROSSCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Material on Material on CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN LANGUAGE TEACHING compiled by Phan Thi Kim Loan, M A INTRODUCTION Culture and communication are inseparable because culture not only dictates who talks to whom, about what, and how the communication proceeds, it also helps to determine how people encode messages, the meanings they have for messages, and the conditions and circumstances under which various messages may or may not be sent, noticed, or interpreted Culture is the foundation of.

Culture and communication are inseparable because culture not only dictates who talks to whom, about what, and how the communication proceeds, it also helps to determine how people encode messages, the meanings they have for messages, and the conditions and

circumstances under which various messages may or may not be sent, noticed, or interpreted Culture is the

foundation of communication (Samovar, Porter, & Jain, 1981)

This Cross-Cultural Communication in Language Teaching course will inpart give you a general overview of the issues newcomers may face whenthey live in a foreign country, work in a cross cultural environment orinteract with a new culture: cultural self-awareness, cross-culturalcommunication, stereotypes, and values This course is intended to helpprepare you through a combination of useful information and thought-provoking exercises

It’s not possible to talk about culture without making generalizations.Cultural generalizations are statements of likelihood and potential At best,

a generalization can tell you how people from a particular culture maybehave in a given situation—not how they will behave or how they willalways behave

Cultural generalizations can be helpful in the process of learning tounderstand other cultures, but be ready to set them aside when it is clearthey have no meaning Generalizations become dangerous when theyresult in negative stereotyping

I COMMUNICATION, CULTURE, & CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

1 What Is Culture?

For the purpose of this course, here is the way to think about culture:

Culture is a people’s way of life, their design for living, their way of coping with their biological, physical and social environment It consists of learned, patterned assumptions (worldview), concepts and behavior, plus the resulting artifacts (material goods)

Second, culture includes value systems Values are formed based on how

we learned to think things ought to be or how people ought to behave,especially in terms of qualities such as honesty, integrity, and openness Third, culture is also defined by material products such as food, clothing,and music, etc

Culture is often compared to an iceberg: you can see only a small portion of

it, as most of it is hidden beneath the surface The tip of the icebergrepresents the visible aspects of culture, such as behaviour, music,literature, and dress In this analogy, the remaining huge chunk of ice

beneath the surface represents the invisible dimensions of culture, whichinclude assumptions, values, and beliefs

Venturing into different cultures without adequate preparation can be just asdangerous as manoeuvring a ship through icy waters without charts, hoping

to be lucky enough to avoid sharing the same fate as the Titanic!

Observable Features of Culture

 child raising beliefs

 understanding of the natural world

 rules of social etiquette

 concept of personal space

 notions of modesty

You can see that there is a relationship between those items that appear above the waterline and those that appear below it In most cases, the invisible aspects of culture influence or cause the visible ones Religious beliefs, for example, are clearly manifest in certain holiday customs, and notions of modesty affect styles of dress

• Ideas about leadership • Democracy

• Ideas about modesty • Ideas about fairness

• Understanding the natural world • Foods

• Importance of time • Concept of self

• Styles of dress • Concept of beauty

• Rules of etiquette • General world view

• Gender roles • Housing

• Holiday customs • Decision making

• Religious beliefs • Religious rituals

• Values • Ideas about friendship

• Eating habits • The importance of work

• Music • Concept of personal space

• Modes of transportation • Measures of success

• Folklore • Slang

• Stereotypes • Celebrations

By examining hidden culture (i.e., people’s values and beliefs systems) you

will have a better understanding of people’s behaviours and what to make

of them Not all of us interpret things the same way For example, in NorthAmerica one might say to a colleague or acquaintance, “We should plan ongetting together for a drink next week.” Often this invitation is not followedthrough in the following week, and the plan is postponed to the next month.While this behaviour is considered acceptable in many North Americancircles, it is perceived by Danes to be fickle, since Danes typically onlymake commitments to social engagements if they intend to follow through

as presented Be aware that your behaviours may not be interpreted inanother country in the same way as they would be in your home country

Self-Reflection

For each of the following behaviours, write down your interpretation of the behaviours in terms of your own cultural values, beliefs, or perceptions:

1 A person comes late to a meeting

2 Someone makes the “okay” hand gesture at you (holding their hand up, palm facing you, with their thumb and forefinger forming a circle and the last three fingers held straight up)

3 Someone kicks a dog

4 Someone in a store says he or she wants to purchase a pair of pants

In North America the “okay” gesture is used as a way of saying things aregoing well, while in many other cultures it can be considered rude or

obscene In England the word pants means “underwear.” People in England use the word trousers for what in North America is known as

“pants.” Local understandings like these make aspects of living in anotherculture tricky An innocent remark or a gesture on your part can result in abreakdown in communication It is easy to know about the materialproducts of a particular country (e.g., food, music, clothing), but it is moredifficult to figure out what the values and beliefs are, as those are hiddenbeneath the surface of the culture

People from the same culture often share a similar background, whichleads to like perceptions, interpretations, and values Culture can beuniversal—that is, there are ways in which people in all groups are thesame—and it can be personal—that is, there are ways in which each one of

us is different from everyone else You will find some things in your hostcountry’s culture to be similar to yours, while other things will be different.Sometimes, these differences are very subtle It is your job while accessing

another culture to figure out what those differences are

Reading Assignment:

"Culture is the "glue" that binds a group of people together."

(Douglas-Brown- 1994)

"Culture is an elusive construct that shifts constantly over time and

according to who is perceiving and interpreting it."

(Linda Harklau- 1999)

"Culture" is a broad concept that embraces all aspects of human life It includes everything people learn to do It is everything humans have

learned Culture shapes our thoughts and actions, and often does so with

a heavy hand" (Seelye- 1984-1993) Of its several meanings, two are of

major importance to teachers (according to Brooks, 1975*):

 Hearthstone or "little-c" culture: Culture as everything in human life (also called culture BBV: Beliefs, Behavior, and Values)

 Olympian or "big-C" Culture: the best in human life restricted to the elitists (also called culture MLA: great Music, Literature, and Art of the country)

We should realize that knowing the language, as well as the patterns of everyday life, is a prerequisite to appreciating the fine arts and literature; therefore we need a balanced perspective of culture when designing

curricula

The "big-C" Culture is already taught in the classroom; it is the "little-c" onethat needs to be emphasized, especially in the FL classroom

According to the US senator, Paul Simon, "Knowledge of the world's

languages and cultures is more vital than ever In order to compete in the global community, we must be able to communicate effectively and to appreciate, understand, and be able to work in the framework of other cultures." In the past, culture used to be distinct from language; nowadays,

it has become integral to it If it is important to teach a foreign language to enhance communication, it is also vital to instill in students an intellectual and emotional appreciation of the culture of that foreign language, so that communication will not be impaired

Dewey (1897) said that "It is true that language is a logical instrument, but

it is fundamentally and primarily a social instrument." If language is

"primarily a social instrument," how can it be divorced from the society that uses it? (Seelye p 4)

Jay (1968) argued that "Bilingualism is not in itself the answer to cultural understanding among people With knowledge of the language must exist

a similar knowledge of the social, religious, and economic attitudes of a people." (Seelye p 6)

Learning a language in isolation of its cultural roots prevents one from becoming socialized into its contextual use Knowledge of linguistic

structure alone does not carry with it any special insight into the political, social, religious, or economic system Or even insight into when you shouldtalk and when you should not (Seelye 1993, p 10)

"The study of language cannot be divorced from the study of culture, and vice-versa (Seelye p 22)

"A language is part of a culture and culture is part of language; the two areintricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing

the significance of either language or culture."

(Douglas-Brown- 1994)Why language and culture are inseparably connected (Buttjes 1990, p 55):

(Buttjes, D (1990) Teaching foreign language and culture: Social impact and political significance Language Learning Journal, 2, 53-57.)

1- Language acquisition does not follow a universal sequence, but differs across cultures;

2- The process of becoming a competent member of society is realized through exchanges of language in particular social situations;

3- Every society orchestrates the ways in which children participate in particular situations, and this, in turn, affects the form, the function and the

content of children's utterances;

4- Caregivers' primary concern is not with grammatical input, but with the transmission of sociocultural knowledge;

5- The native learner, in addition to language, acquires also the

paralinguistic patterns and the kinesics of his or her culture (Buttjes, 1990,

p 55)

A Conceptual Model of Culture Learning:

Earlier models (Brooks, 1975; Nostrand, 1974) tended to view culture as a relatively invariate and static entity made up of accumulated, classifiable, observable, thus eminently teachable and learnable "facts." This

perspective focused on surface level behavior, but did not look at the

underlying value orientations, nor did it recognize the variability of behaviorwithin the target cultural community, the participative role of the individual

in the creation of culture, or the interaction of language and culture in the making of meaning (Moore, 1991) By contrast, the more recent models mentioned above see culture as dynamic and variable, i.e., it is constantly changing, its members display a great range of behaviors and different levels of attention to the guiding value orientations, and meaning is

continuously being constructed through human interaction and

communication This major transformation in perspective has also been characterized by conceptual shifts from culture-specific to culture-general models of intercultural competence, cultural stereotypes to cultural

generalizations, cultural absolutes to cultural variations (within and across cultures), and culture as distinct from language to culture as integral to

language Language in this process plays a fascinating and complex

double role: it is a medium for as well as shaper of culture

Definition of culture learning:

"Culture learning is the process of acquiring the culture-specific and

culture-general knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for effective

communication and interaction with individuals from other cultures It is a dynamic, developmental, and ongoing process which engages the learner cognitively, behaviorally, and affectively."

Culture learning goals and outcomes:

In this newer perspective, the learning goals shift from the memorization of cultural facts (including sociolinguistic conventions for language use) to higher order learning outcomes including: the acquisition of "interactional competence" (a term suggested by Allen and Moore at the 1996 culture conference in Minneapolis) and learning how to learn about culture

According to Paige (1997), such learning would include:

1 learning about the self as a cultural being,

2 learning about culture and its impact on human communication, behavior, and identity,

3 culture-general learning, i.e., learning about universal, cross-cultural phenomena such as cultural adjustment,

4 culture-specific learning, i.e., learning about a particular culture, including its language, and, learning how to learn, i.e., becoming an effective language and culture learner

THE CULTURAL COMPONENT OF LANGUAGE TEACHING 1

Claire Kramsch

The current interest in the role of culture in language teaching is due to anumber of factors, political, educational, ideological Both in Europe and inthe U.S., albeit for different reasons, there is a great deal of politicalpressure now put on foreign language educators to help solve the socialand economic problems of the times Educators fear that the mereacquisition of linguistic systems is no guarantee of international peace andunderstanding After years of communicative euphoria, some languageteachers are becoming dissatisfied with purely functional uses of language.Some are pleading to supplement the traditional acquisition of

"communication skills" with some intellectually legitimate, humanisticallyoriented, cultural "content" Others, who teach their language to non-nativespeaker immigrants, are under pressure to absorb (read: acculturate) intotheir society growing numbers of newcomers And there is of course therecrudescence (recurrence) of nationalism around the world that drawspolitical capital from increased links between national languages andnational cultures The reasons for the growing "culturalisation" of languageteaching are many, the motives often contradictory

After a short definition of terms, I will first review the history of therelationship of language and culture in language teaching I will then try tosurvey the current landscape as it relates to various educational traditions

in which languages are taught In a third part I will suggest a theoreticalbase for exploring the cultural component of language study

Definition of Terms

The term "cultural" has often been associated with the term "social",

as when one talks about the "socio-cultural" factors affecting the

teaching and the learning of foreign languages Many scholars do not

distinguish between the social and the cultural In this paper, I will takeboth adjectives to refer to the two sides of the same coin, namely, thesynchronic and the diachronic context in which language is used inorganised discourse communities Both terms refer to an individual's placewithin a social group and his/her relation to that group in the course oftime In the words of Adrienne Rich: "A place on the map is also a place inhistory" (1986)

First let us agree on a definition Irrespective of whether we are talkingwritten or oral culture, highbrow or popular culture, noteworthy events orevents of everyday life, the term "culture" has always referred to at least

two ways of defining a social community The first definition comes from

the humanities; it focuses on the way a social group represents itself and

others through its material productions, be they works of art, literature,

social institutions, or artifacts of everyday life, and the mechanisms for their

reproduction and preservation through history The second definition

comes from the social sciences: it refers to what educators like Howard

Nostrand call the "ground of meaning", i.e the attitudes and beliefs, ways

of thinking, behaving and remembering shared by members of that

community (Nostrand, 1989: 51) This latter definition is in many wayssimilar to the one given by social scientists like Richard Brislin in his book

Applied Cross-Cultural Psychology "Culture", he writes, "refers to widely

shared ideals, values, formation and uses of categories, assumptionsabout life, and goal-directed activities that become unconsciously orsubconsciously accepted as "right" and "correct" by people who identifythemselves as members of a society." (Brislin, 1990: 11)

Both definitions have given rise to two different approaches to the study

of culture: the historical and the ethnographic The first is based on the