Intercultural Language Learning

ObjectivesSession 2• Reflect on the concept of culture.• Examine approaches to culture in

language teaching.• Enhance our understanding of

Intercultural Language Learning• Examine the rationale of

Intercultural Language Learning

What is culture?

“Culture is a complex system of concepts, attitudes, values, beliefs, conventions, behaviours, practices, rituals and lifestyle of the people who make up a cultural group, as well as the artefacts they produce and the institutions they create.”

• (Report on Intercultural Language Learning

Commonwealth of Australia 2003 p45)

Cultural systems are transmitted to members

of a cultural group through the process of

socialisation.

Much of this transmission is

not consciously acquired.

Individuals grow up accepting that the cultural codes of their community

are usual, normal and natural.

They accept them as the way the world is.

Language plays a primary role in the transmission of these cultural codes.

Both the language forms

- the visible-

and the messages conveyed by them

- the invisible -

provide cultural knowledge.

In this way, language and culture are inextricably linked.

To acknowledge the inseparability of the relationship between language and culture

the term - linguaculture -has been coined.

Let’s look at some of the ‘invisible’ messages in

Australian linguaculture.

• the Top End• the big smoke• the black stump• Sydney to Hobart• first Tuesday in November• tall poppy• brown paper bag

Culture in language use can be found in :

• the importance placed on speaking in a society• approaches to interpersonal relationships

- proximity versus distance- hierarchy versus equality- consensus versus conflict

• approaches to understanding

politeness

• level of ritualisation

• expression of emotions and feelings

In order to learn about culture it is necessary :• to engage with the linguistic

and non-linguistic practices of the culture

• to gain insights into the way of living in a particular cultural context.

(Kramsch, 1993a; Liddicoat,1997a)

Four broad approaches to culture in language teaching

have been identified.

1. High Culture

2. Area Studies

3. Culture as Societal Norms

4. Culture as Practice

1. High Culture Approach

• Cultural competence here is viewed as control of an established canon of literature.

• There are minimal expectations of using the language for communication with native speakers.

• The relationship between language and culture may be quite tenuous as there can be an emphasis on the text itself rather than viewing it as a window onto broader aspects of culture.

2. Area Studies Approach

• Here, sociocultural learning is learning about the history, geography and institutions of the target language country.

• Cultural competence is viewed as knowledge about the country.

• This knowledge can be acquired without the study of the target language.

3. Culture as societal norms

Cultural competence here is viewed as knowing about what people from agiven cultural group are likely to do and understanding the cultural values placed upon certain ways of acting or upon certain beliefs.

A limitation of this approach is that culture

can be presented as static and

homogeneous.

There is a danger that stereotyping can occur.

A ‘static’ approach to culture:

• does not assist learners to understand and participate in cultures as they change in different times, places and contexts.• ignores the range of cultural possibilities that exist within a society• focuses on a perceived cultural norm for some dominant group• may establish stereotypes of the culture

4. Culture as Practice

In this approach, culture is viewed as sets of practices, that is, as the lived experience of individuals.

Actions are seen as context-sensitive, negotiated and highly variable.

Cultural competence here is seen as the ability to interact in the target culture in

informed ways.

Culture as Practice takes a ‘dynamic’ view of culture.

• Here, culture is recognised as being highly variable and constantly changing.

• Individual members of a culture enact the culture differently and pay different levels of attention to the cultural norms which operate in their society.

In this approach, cultural competence is seen as a process in which students

engage right from the beginning of their language

learning.

It is NOT about them being observers of facts that they

are required to recall.

In the Culture as Practice approach, language learners

develop an intercultural perspective where the culture

and language in which they live -

the First place

are made apparent alongside the target culture and language -

the Second place.

Using this knowledge, learners move to an intercultural position

which forms the basis for the ongoing development

of their intercultural communication skills.

This intercultural position is referred to as the

Third Place .

This ongoing development includes establishing the

learner’s own identity

as a user of another language.

The approach to culture that best supports

Intercultural Language Learning

is the

Culture as Practice Approach.

What is Intercultural Language Learning?

Intercultural language learning involves the fusing of language,

culture and learning into a single educative approach.

• It begins with the idea that language, culture and learning are fundamentally interrelated processes.

• It places this interrelationship at the centre of the learning process.

Intercultural Language Learning involves developing

with learners an understanding of their own language(s) and culture(s)

in relation to an additional language and

culture.

It is teaching them to look for the invisible

cultural features of a foreign language.

Learners engage in a dialogue:

• in which there is room for negotiation to take place.

• where different points of view are recognised, mediated and accepted.

ILL involves learners in:

• the ongoing transformation of themselves.• their ability to communicate.• their understanding of communication in their own, and across, languages and cultures.• the development of their capacity for ongoing reflection and learning about languages and cultures.

Fundamental Premises of Intercultural Language

Learning.

• Language plays a primary role in the transmission of cultural codes.• Both language forms and the messages conveyed by them provide cultural knowledge.• Language and culture are inextricably linked and cannot be separated.

Features of Intercultural Language Learning.• Learners explore their own language(s) and

culture(s) and the target language and culture.• They discover the relationship between

language and culture.• They develop conceptual and analytic tools for

comparing and understanding cultures.• They develop a reflective capacity to deal with

cultural difference and to modify behaviour where needed.

(Report on ILL p 23)

The First Place refers to to learners’ own language(s) and culture(s).

The Second Place refers to the target language and culture.

The Third Place refers to the position between languages and cultures - between the self and the other.

The third place is not a fixed point

common to all learners.

Rather, the nature of the third place is negotiated

by each individual learner as an intersection of the cultural

perspectives of the self and the other.

The third place is a position of elevated understanding between

the first linguaculture and the target linguaculture.

It is a higher-order level of intercultural learning than merely learning about a

culture and comparing it to one’s own.

The learner has to make choices about what to hold on to and what to

relinquish, what to adopt and what to let

pass.

In order to arrive at their third place

students need to develop a variety of learning strategies

ranging from reflective observation

to active experimentation.

It is our role as teachers to help students develop the strategies of:

• observation

• exploration

• reflection

• mediation

It engages the learner:

cognitively behaviourally

affectively.

The process of finding one’s third place is:

dynamic developmental

on-going

Intercultural Language Learning teaches learners how to distance themselves from their own linguaculture and see it for what it is:

• as just one possible world view • and not the only world view.

Responding to compliments in Japan

How do you respondto compliments?

What do you noticehere?

What is similar?

What is different?

Why?

How would you respond?

• You have a beautiful garden. Oh no, it’s full of weeds.• You’re wearing pretty

earrings today. Oh no, they are very cheap

and old.• Your husband looks very

dignified. No, he doesn’t. He’s fat.• Your Japanese is very good. No, not yet.

Leave-taking / Notions of friendliness in South America

How would you feel in this kind of situation?

Why? Why does B say the

things he does? What would you

do ? What solution would

you suggest?

A. I think I’ll go home now.B. Oh, but you can’t leave

now.A. Well, I have to get up

early tomorrow morning to catch my flight.

B. That doesn’t matter. Come and watch my latest video. It’s a really

great movie.A. Thank you, but really I

can’t.B. No, you must. I insist ….

What are the goals of

Intercultural Language Learning?

1. the development of language proficiency

2. the development of the ability to communicate across languages and cultures - i.e. intercultural language competence

3. the development of an awareness of language and how it works

An overall goal of ILT is to help learners transcend

their monocultural view of the world through learning another language and culture leading them progressively towards intercultural competence.

Why should we promote

Intercultural Language Learning?

• Present day Australia is a linguistically and culturally diverse

society.

• Multiculturalism without multilingualism encouraged for all promotes a passive form of multiculturalism.

Passive multiculturalism implies tolerance

rather than participation in

‘otherness’.

Dislodging the apparent immutability of our cultural

interpretations of the world requires considerable effort.

We need to educate the mind in order to:• identify the cultural boundaries within

which we operate • acquire the willingness to venture into the

foreign and to potentially be changed by it.Lo Bianco, Liddicoat, Crozet : Striving for the Third Place -

Intercultural Competence through Language Education

The emerging consensus now is that intercultural

competence is not achieved through osmosis.

Becoming interculturally competent requires an

intellectual effort.

Communicative language teaching overlooked the links between

language and culture.

It overlooked the necessity to understand communication

between non-native speakers and native speakers as

intercultural communication rather than communication in

the target language.

Kramsch argues that the native speaker as a target norm is, in fact, inappropriate in second language

acquisition.

She argues that the very concept of native speaker is out-dated and inappropriate given the large-scale variations in linguistic norms and linguistic competence among “native speakers” of the same language.

(Kramsch 1999)

Many researchers now argue that the focus should be placed on the “intercultural speaker” as the target for second language teaching and learning.

• The focus is on developing bilingual speakers.

• This doesn’t mean that two monolinguals inhabit the same body. Rather, learners develop the ability to use two languages.

• They develop the strategies to deal with another culture.

Increased globalisation, internationalisation as well as

the ‘technologisation’ of employment have changed the nature of many work places and work practices with much more

emphasis on effective communication.

Pauwels, A. 2000, Globalisation and the

impact of teaching languages in Australia.

“Language skills and cultural sensitivity will be the

currency of the new world order.

Our future prosperity and security will depend on our ability to

understand (other) cultures and build bridges to the citizens of these nations and all our immediate

neighbours.”

Cosgrove, P. 2002, Working together on languages

education ; a national seminar, Melbourne.

“If our future is to be one of peace and prosperity our kids will need a capacity to engage

in a dialogue with others of different cultures and creeds.

And that applies within Australia and abroad.”

Cosgrove, P. 2002, Working together on languages

education ; a national seminar, Melbourne.

In the globalised world of the 21st century, it is vital for world peace that human

beings develop the strategies and skills needed to interact

successfully and in an informed way with other

cultures.

Students need to become

“interculturally competent players “ as well as “sensitive

observers”.

(Carr 1999)

Objectives

•Session 3• Examine the pedagogy underpinning

intercultural language learning.

• View and discuss a unit of work based on intercultural language learning.

• Identify cross curricular links

How can intercultural language learning be

applied in the classroom?

Since culture is fundamentally integrated with language,

intercultural language learning needs to be part of language

teaching right from the beginning.

It is not something we do later on.

Intercultural Language Learning is captured in five general principles which guide curriculum design and classroom

interaction.

These principles are :

1. Active construction2. Making connections3. Social interaction4. Reflection5. Responsibility

The principles of intercultural language learning directly support

Productive Pedagogies

• Intellectual quality

• Supportive classroom environment

• Recognition of difference

• Connectedness

1. Active Construction

• Learning involves the purposeful and active construction of knowledge within a socio-cultural context of use.

• Learners explore language and culture through active engagement.

• They develop a personal, intercultural space with multiple dimensions.

Active constructionLearners :• use language purposefully in a range of tasks in which they discover and create meaning in interaction with people, texts and technologies.• develop personal ways of responding to linguistic and cultural difference.• explore the culturally conditioned nature of human behaviour.

Active construction

Teachers :• encourage interaction with peers and others.• encourage ‘noticing’.• give time for formulating questions, observing, discovering, discussing and experimenting.• select/design tasks that stimulate student interest and extend their thinking about language and culture.

‘Noticing’

This noticing may be a positive or negative evaluation of an

interaction. Experiences may feel

comfortable or uncomfortable. They may be evaluated as having been successful or

unsuccessful.

There is no right or wrong answer.

It is not about making moral judgements.

There is no “one size fits all”.

Students work out the solution for themselves.

It is about their individual journeys, involving observation,

exploration, reflection, mediation and experimentation.

Teachers respect the integrity of the students’ decisions.

2. Making connections

• Learning is based on previous knowledge and requires challenges to the initial conceptions that learners bring to the classroom.• These challenges lead to new insights through which learners make connections to reorganise and extend their existing framework of knowledge.

Making connections

Learners :• develop ways to re-think their initial conceptions and to transform themselves and their knowledge• combine learning of language and culture with learning across the curriculum• develop a growing understanding of language, culture and values and their interdependence

Making connections

Teachers :• begin tasks with the understandings that learners bring from home or their local community. • draw upon the diversity of their learners.• provide scaffolding through interactive questioning, instruction, resources and technology.• encourage learners to observe, predict, compare, explain, integrate and inquire.• encourage interaction and connections across texts and contexts.

3. Social Interaction

Learning involves :• communicating about linguistic and cultural difference and similarity.• communicating across linguistic and cultural boundaries.• being able to recognise these boundaries and exploring why they are constructed.• engaging with new conceptual systems through language.

Social Interaction

Learners :• engage in interactive talk and questioning with the teacher and others.

• see their own and others’ cultures in a comparative light.

• recognise that social interaction is central to communication.

Social Interaction

Teachers:• promote the social involvement of all learners.• value and promote discussion, thinking, inquiry and experimentation.• listen to and build upon student responses.• acknowledge learners views, judgments and rationales.• draw upon multiple ideas, knowledge, beliefs, values and behaviours.

4. ReflectionLearning involves :• critically and constructively reflecting on linguistic and cultural differences and similarities and questioning differences.

• critically and constructively reflecting on one’s own intercultural behaviour.

• articulating the multiple dimensions of one’s own intercultural space and identity.

ReflectionLearners :• reflect critically on language, culture, knowing and learning.• develop the capability to reflect on and engage with difference and develop ways of modifying behaviour.• monitor their own production and its effects on others.• question stereotypes.• develop a metalanguage for discussing the relationship between language and culture.• understand the need for that metalanguage development.

ReflectionTeachers :• encourage new learning through language and

about language.• promote reflection on linguistic and cultural concepts.• create an intercultural space for engaging with cultures without students abandoning their primary culture(s).• discuss goals, processes and judgments with learners.• provide clear and accurate feedback.• foster the development of intercultural sensitivity.

5. Responsibility

Learning depends on learners’ attitudes and disposition towards learning.

Learners accept responsibility for contributing to successful communication across languages and cultures. Learners accept responsibility for developing an intercultural perspective.

ResponsibilityLearners :• seek and respond to feedback on their own learning.• take responsibility for their own learning.• show willingness to interact with people from diverse languages and cultures.• develop awareness of the validity of diverse value and conceptual systems.• recognise the need to de-centre from their own

cultural perspective.• understand the naturalness of multiple perspectives.

Responsibility

Teachers :• support the setting of personal goals.• foster engagement with difference.• foster awareness of generalisations.• foster co-operative learning.• encourage self-monitoring and self- assessment.• demonstrate understanding through

personal attitudes and behaviours.

It is evident that direct correlations can be made between the principles of

intercultural language learning and pedagogy across the curriculum.

Ultimately, what does intercultural language learning involve for

teachers and students?

For teachers, it means:• developing an overall stance, an orientation, a way of thinking and doing in relation to their work as curriculum designers and teachers.• they need to address the ways in which students will learn about their own - and other - languages and cultures.

For students :• it involves encouraging them to develop a similar stance • which will assist them towards the development of intercultural sensitivity.

We believe that the implementation of

intercultural language learning will make a

qualitative difference to students’ engagement in

learning languages.

Intercultural language learning not only

reformulates what it means to teach a language.

It provides new and richer ways of linking languages to

other learning areas.

Sources :

Report on intercultural language learning

Anthony Liddicoat, Leo Papademetre, Angela Scarino, Michelle KohlerJuly 2003

Striving for the Third Place : Intercultural Competence through Language EducationJoseph Lo Bianco, Anthony Liddicoat, Chantal CrozetLanguage Australia, Melbourne, 1999

Teaching Invisible Culture : Classroom practice and TheoryEdited by Joseph Lo Bianco and Chantal CrozetLanguage Australia 2003