Intercultural learning
Encyclopedia
Intercultural learning is an area of research, study and application of knowledge about different cultures, their differences and similarities. On the one hand, it includes a theoretical and academic approach (see e.g. "Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS)" by Milton Bennett, Dimensions of Culture by Geert Hofstede
). On the other hand, it comprises practical applications such as learning to negotiate with people from different cultures, living with people from different cultures, living in a different culture and the prospect of peace between different cultures.
Currently, intercultural learning is a topic which receives much interest. This is mainly due to the rise of cultural studies
and globalization
. Culture has become an instrument for social interpretation and communicative action. Intercultural learning is primarily important in the context of the foreign language classroom.
Basic training modules include:
, which is the ability to act and relate appropriately and effectively in various cultural contexts. Intercultural competence is generally thought to require three components on the learner's side: a certain skillset, culturally sensitive knowledge, and a motivated mindset. In greater detail, the skills, values, and attitudes that constitute intercultural competence include
The teacher's task is to induce the learning of all in these aspects in the learner. Being successful, intercultural learning results in culturally competent learners.
, such as "little c" and "big C" culture. While the latter one is also called "objective culture" or "formal culture" referring to institutions, big figures in history, literature, etc., the first one, the "subjective culture", is concerned with the less tangible aspects of a culture, like everyday patterns. In intercultural learning, a mixture of these two is to be employed, but it is especially the apprehension of subjective culture that triggers the development of intercultural competence
.
Also, it is important to differentiate between "culture-specific" and "culture-general" approaches when intercultural learning is concerned:
Intercultural learning requires the teacher to employ a mix of "culture-specific" and "culture-general" approaches in order to address the larger issues of ethnocentrism, cultural self-awareness, etc. because intercultural competence cannot be achieved by the single acquisition of knowledge about a specific culture or the pure ability to behave properly in that culture.
Geert Hofstede
Geert Hofstede, born as Gerard Hendrik Hofstede is an influential Dutch social psychologist and anthropologist. He is a well-known pioneer in his research of cross-cultural groups and organizations. He has played a major role in developing a systematic framework for assessing and differentiating...
). On the other hand, it comprises practical applications such as learning to negotiate with people from different cultures, living with people from different cultures, living in a different culture and the prospect of peace between different cultures.
Currently, intercultural learning is a topic which receives much interest. This is mainly due to the rise of cultural studies
Cultural studies
Cultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...
and globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
. Culture has become an instrument for social interpretation and communicative action. Intercultural learning is primarily important in the context of the foreign language classroom.
Basic training modules include:
- Information about the country, introduction to culture and history
- The normNorm (sociology)Social norms are the accepted behaviors within a society or group. This sociological and social psychological term has been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit...
s and valueValue (ethics)In ethics, value is a property of objects, including physical objects as well as abstract objects , representing their degree of importance....
s of the society - The role and the characteristics of communicationCommunicationCommunication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
- Social contacts: Friends and acquaintances
- Women - life and role
- LeisureLeisureLeisure, or free time, is time spent away from business, work, and domestic chores. It is also the periods of time before or after necessary activities such as eating, sleeping and, where it is compulsory, education....
activities and customs - Eating and drinking
- The relations at work and management
- Doing business in the country
- Education
- Studies and professional training
- Norms, laws, and tabooTabooA taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
s - Action plan for the first two months in the country
Definition
The main goal of intercultural learning is seen as the development of intercultural competenceIntercultural competence
Intercultural competence is the ability of successful communication with people of other cultures.A person who is interculturally competent captures and understands, in interaction with people from foreign cultures, their specific concepts in perception, thinking, feeling and acting...
, which is the ability to act and relate appropriately and effectively in various cultural contexts. Intercultural competence is generally thought to require three components on the learner's side: a certain skillset, culturally sensitive knowledge, and a motivated mindset. In greater detail, the skills, values, and attitudes that constitute intercultural competence include
- intercultural attitudes (like openness, curiosity, readiness)
- general knowledge (of the theoretical aspects of how social groups/products/practices work and interact)
- skills of interpreting and relating (a document of another culture to one's own culture)
- skills of discovery and interaction (like the ability to discover information about another culture and the ability to communicate in real-time interaction)
- critical cultural awareness (that there are different cultures next to one's own)
The teacher's task is to induce the learning of all in these aspects in the learner. Being successful, intercultural learning results in culturally competent learners.
Theories on approaching Culture
In the context of intercultural learning, it is important to be aware of different subcategories of cultureCulture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, such as "little c" and "big C" culture. While the latter one is also called "objective culture" or "formal culture" referring to institutions, big figures in history, literature, etc., the first one, the "subjective culture", is concerned with the less tangible aspects of a culture, like everyday patterns. In intercultural learning, a mixture of these two is to be employed, but it is especially the apprehension of subjective culture that triggers the development of intercultural competence
Intercultural competence
Intercultural competence is the ability of successful communication with people of other cultures.A person who is interculturally competent captures and understands, in interaction with people from foreign cultures, their specific concepts in perception, thinking, feeling and acting...
.
Also, it is important to differentiate between "culture-specific" and "culture-general" approaches when intercultural learning is concerned:
- "culture-specific" approaches mainly aim at the achievement of competence in a particular target culture (C2) and are closely connected to specific language learning (L2Second languageA second language or L2 is any language learned after the first language or mother tongue. Some languages, often called auxiliary languages, are used primarily as second languages or lingua francas ....
). Competence in both C2 and L2 is usually thought to generate culturally appropriate behavior in a particular cultural context. - "culture-general" approaches, on the other hand, are not targeted on a particular culture. Instead, they are concerned with "universal categories" which function as general characteristics of cultures in general. These categories can be used to make cross-cultural comparisons, for example. Thus, "culture-general" approaches provide a cognitiveCognitionIn science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. Cognition is studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science...
framework for cultural analysis.
Intercultural learning requires the teacher to employ a mix of "culture-specific" and "culture-general" approaches in order to address the larger issues of ethnocentrism, cultural self-awareness, etc. because intercultural competence cannot be achieved by the single acquisition of knowledge about a specific culture or the pure ability to behave properly in that culture.
Contexts for intercultural learning in the classroom
Contexts that are seen as appropriate for intercultural learning in the classroom are those which promote the acquisition of intercultural competence consisting of the components mentioned above. Examples:- communication between members of different cultures via e-mail: not yet a standard in everyday schooling, but it serves many useful purposes for intercultural learning
- authentic print text: fictional texts are the ideal medium for intercultural learning since it is the substrate of a specific culture and its history, while it simultaneously contains culture-general aspects; it stimulates personal identification and it offers numerous options for creative activities; also it may induce discussions of aspects of subjective, as well as objective, culture - useful examples: Malorie Blackman'sMalorie BlackmanMalorie Blackman OBE is an author of literature and television drama for children and young adults. She has used science fiction to explore social and ethical issues. Her critically and popularly acclaimed Noughts & Crosses series uses the setting of a fictional dystopia to explore racism...
Noughts and Crosses series, Qaisra Shahraz' "A Pair of Jeans"; non-fictional texts are definitely useful in this context as well. - film: authentic film especially improves the language proficiency (and thus intercultural sensitivity), because it means direct and authentic contact with the L2; it also guarantees access to the evaluation of audiovisual media and maybe even new mediaNew mediaNew media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
- useful examples: Bend it Like BeckhamBend It Like BeckhamBend It Like Beckham is a 2002 comedy-drama film starring Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Myers, Anupam Kher, Shaznay Lewis, and Archie Panjabi first released in the United Kingdom. The film was directed by Gurinder Chadha...
, Save the Last DanceSave the Last DanceSave the Last Dance is a 2001 romantic drama dance film produced by MTV Films, directed by Thomas Carter and released by Paramount Pictures on January 12, 2001. The film stars Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas as a teenage interracial couple in Chicago who work together to help the main...
, My Beautiful LaundretteMy Beautiful LaundretteMy Beautiful Laundrette is a 1985 British comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Hanif Kureishi. The story is set in London during the period when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, as shown through the complex—and often comical—relationships...
Activities
As with most activities employed in the classroom, activities for intercultural learning are supposed to keep the affective domain of learning in mind, that is, they are to keep the students motivated and enable them to somehow identify with topic that is dealt with. For intercultural learning this is especially true because this field is likely to turn into a delicate matter.- An example of an activity which focuses on the stereotypes and prejudices that people are likely to have is called "Who should be hired?". This exercise animates students to choose from a huge number of people (from different cultures, of different sexes, and different ages, etc.) the person they would hire from an employer's point of view.
- Most suggested exercises that are believed to support intercultural learning, and in this especially to promote empathy, are of a role-play nature. They especially support students in making the shift in perspective: their own culture becomes a strange one and is looked at from the outside, while the target culture becomes familiar.
Future prospects - What is to be done?
The concept of intercultural learning aiming at the development of intercultural competence also requires a new understanding of the teacher him/herself. S/He is no longer a mere communicator of knowledge, but a mediator and moderator, and has to be educated accordingly. In times of globalization and hope for peace, this issue needs to be researched further and remain of huge interest.See also
- Intercultural bilingual educationIntercultural bilingual educationIntercultural bilingual education or bilingual intercultural education is an intercultural and bilingual model of education designed for contexts with two cultures and languages in contact, in the typical case a dominant and an underprivileged culture...
- Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS)
External links
- www.efc.be/ftp/public/cpi/TCFF%20Intercultural%20Learning.pdf, a text by Luis Amorim on the topic of Intercultural Learning for the efc (EUROPEAN FOUNDATION CENTRE)
- www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/cfsi-icse/cil-cai/home-en.asp, the Canadian Centre for Intercultural Learning
- www.intercultural-learning.net/, Nile - A European Network for Intercultural Learning