InterculturalCompetence en
InterculturalCompetence en
Gerhard Neuner
Universität Kassel
Lynne Parmenter
Waseda University, Tokyo
Hugh Starkey
University of Leicester
Geneviève Zarate
Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris
The opinions expressed in this work are those of the author and do
not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Council of Europe.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Michael Byram .......................................................................................................5
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4
INTRODUCTION
One very obvious result of these changes is the need to take forward the
unfinished discussion of intercultural competence in the CEF, for it is in the
acquisition of intercultural understanding and the ability to act in
linguistically and culturally complex situations that European citizens could
benefit from a common framework of theory and practice not only for
linguistic but also for cultural learning.
5
The articles in this collection are a contribution to the debate which is needed
to ensure that such a framework is created, and that ultimately the CEF itself
can be further developed to meet the changes in European society.
The first article by Neuner traces the historical development within language
teaching of the representation of other cultures, and the ways in which the
political context, in particular the bilateral relations between countries, can
affect those representations. The role of textbooks has been crucial in this and
Neuner shows how these have reflected international political relations at
specific points in European history. He contrasts this with the perceptions
learners have, with the influence of learners’ existing schemata and
representations of other countries and cultures, showing that it is in the
mutual influence of their own perceptions and of external representations, in
textbooks and other media, that the interim worlds of learners’ experience of
other countries and cultures are created. He illustrates how this can and
should be taken into consideration in teaching, how exercises and other
teaching materials can be invented which take the processes of interaction
between different representations of other countries into account. In the final
stage of his argument he reminds us that what has hitherto been the focus of
the conceptualisation of otherness in language teaching, namely the concept
of a national culture and national identity symbolised and expressed in the
language being taught, is now being questioned. The ‘culture of self’ beyond
national political and linguistic borders, is posited as a response to
internationalisation and post-modern experience. In a ‘concrete utopia’ of a
community of such individuals, postulated by Jürgen Habermas in the late
1960s, the qualities which are now included more than ever in the aims of
intercultural language teaching would be the basis for social interactions
where prejudice, representations of national stereotypes and the potential
conflict these create, would be overcome. For Neuner, the realisation of such
a utopia might be achieved through creating a sense of European identity and
community, and through ensuring that language and intercultural learning is
accessible to all. In this, he makes explicit the relationship of language
teaching to its political and social context, and the contribution language
teaching can and must make towards the education of European citizens.
In the second article, Starkey explores this relationship more closely, and in
particular considers how language teaching can contribute to ‘education for
democratic citizenship’ in the context of the work and policies of the Council
of Europe. He shows that this has long been one of the educational aims of
Council of Europe work on language teaching, and that Council of Europe
declarations on human rights are crucial to the ways in which language
6
teaching can become more explicitly and actively an integral part of
education for democratic citizenship, giving examples of what this means for
methodology in the classroom and beyond. Some of this kind of work is
already taking place in European classrooms, and in this respect, language
teachers are engaging with the social and political realities which surround
them and their learners. Like Neuner, Starkey demonstrates that language
teaching must and does respond to contextual conditions. What both of them
argue is that language teaching professionals of all kinds, whether teachers,
curriculum developers or policy-makers, should become more aware of their
contexts and bring them into their theory and practice in careful and
systematic ways. In doing so they will be realising the educational purposes
of an approach to language teaching where the development of intercultural
competence is taken seriously, but they will also be engaging with some
significant moral and political issues to which I shall return below.
Zarate brings us back to the question of how the CEF needs to be developed
in the future. Her concerns like those of Neuner and Starkey, are with the
changing social and political context. She begins and ends with the practical
issue of mutual recognition of certification and diplomas, which has
constantly been a pre-occupation of European authorities with a view to
encouraging greater mobility. Zarate points out however that mobility takes
different forms, that these are changing, that earlier forms influenced the
production of Council of Europe documents such as Threshold Levels, and
that the rapidly developing realisation of a common European political, social
and economic space is creating new conditions for a common European
identity and concept of citizenship which need to be taken into consideration
as the CEF develops. Her argument is that the full realisation of such a
common space needs to be preceded by a deconstruction of old conflicts and
hostilities. We need to overcome the duality of most language teaching -
which implicitly compares and contrasts ‘own’ and ‘foreign/target’ language
and culture, as Neuner also showed - in order to develop the notion of
mediation and the language learner as social actor interacting with other
citizens in multilingual situations on equal terms. She then analyses the CEF
as a product of its context, suggesting that it now needs further refinement in
the conceptualisation of intercultural competence, to respond to change. She
sees in the European Language Portfolio (ELP), which is closely related to
the CEF but is a more recent development, the opportunity for the creation of
a symbolic space of exchange of certification, but also of experience inside
and beyond educational institutions, a space which symbolises the
commonality which is the implicit political aim of European states. Her
conclusions take the form of proposals for future work to strengthen the
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contribution of the CEF and the ELP to the creation of a European
endeavour.
The fourth article, by Parmenter, takes us beyond the European context and
requires us to engage with the process of decentring, which is precisely one
of the crucial dimensions of intercultural competence, in order to relativise
the concepts which are taken for granted in our European context and debate.
She begins for example with concepts of self and the individual, which in our
European perspective is a firm if nonetheless developing identity, and
contrasts this with the concepts of ‘no-self’ and ‘fluid identities’ in
Buddhism, and in their realisation in the complex contexts of contemporary
Japan. She points out that notions of identity and multiple identities are taken
for granted in our debate, and though there is some challenge from post-
modernism, even this is still within the pre-conceptions of European thinking.
In the final part, Parmenter turns to the question of how the promotion of
intercultural competence is not just part of a utilitarian aim for language
teaching, but also an explicit contribution to the personal development of the
individual, to their acquisition of desirable attitudes towards otherness, as
discussed by Neuner and Starkey. Here she sees convergence of European
and Asian approaches to teaching and learning. There is currently in East
Asia a trend to reduction of acquisition of ‘knowledge that’ and an increase
of ‘knowledge how’ which corresponds to European trends in general and to
the conceptualisation of intercultural competence in particular. On the other
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hand, she points out that in East Asia, the relationship of teacher and learner
is more important than content. It is more than a question of authority and
discipline; it is, rather, a consequence of the responsibility of the teacher for
the moral, humanistic development of the pupil. In the European context, the
moral dimension of education for democratic citizenship and intercultural
competence is increasingly recognised, as Starkey shows, but the significance
of this for the relationship between teacher and learner is often overlooked.
The moral responsibility of the language teacher is thus made evident in
Parmenter’s article to a degree not often acknowledged in the European
context, and it is to the issue of moral, and political, responsibility, that I now
wish to turn.
* * *
9
The promotion of intercultural competence has however even stronger moral
complexities. It is, as Parmenter points out, a responsibility of the language
teacher to contribute to the personal development and growth of learners, but
we need to be aware that concepts such as empathy, decentring, or tolerance
of ambiguity, to take some examples from Neuner, are not necessarily
perceived as desirable in every context. As one teacher of English in Japan
has said to me, she finds the expectation that learners should become open to
otherness and willing and curious to explore other cultures not necessarily
acceptable as a purpose of her teaching, when her students are happy and
secure in their own environment. The issue is further complicated by the
relationship of teacher to learner at different stages and ages of education.
Where a teacher is responsible for pupils, young people being educated in
compulsory schooling, there is perhaps a different level of responsibility to
that of a teacher of university students or apprentices in vocational education
who are legally adults and responsible for their own education.
Thus, there are in intercultural competence, ethical and moral debates which
language teachers and language teacher educators seldom handle, but they
can turn for help to philosophers of education such as John Dewey. Although
Dewey pays little or no attention to language teaching and learning, his
arguments are relevant. He argues for education as a progressive and political
act, pointing out that education can be conservative i.e. it preserves a society
as it is, or it can be progressive i.e. it promotes change for the better in a
society:
a society which not only changes but which has the ideal of such
change as will improve it, will have different standards and methods
of education from one which aims simply at the perpetuation of its
own customs
Democracy and Education 1916 (1985 ed. p. 87)
In the 21st century it is clear that perpetuation and preservation are no longer
an option. All societies are changing. The question is whether they have an
ideal towards which they want to change or whether they are just drifting
without direction. Dewey's ideal direction was that societies should change
towards a situation where all individuals and groups interact with each other
in a full and free expression, sharing some common values even if they
maintain some values and ideas which are specific to them. In this vision of a
combination of common and specific values, Dewey anticipates the questions
which Europeans are now facing: how they can be specifically French,
Catalan, Scandinavian or whatever regional identities they cherish, and also
10
European or international. He also anticipates the resistances to change of
closed groups. This will happen:
(wherever) one group has interests "of its own" which shut it out from
full interaction with other groups, so that its prevailing purpose is the
protection of what it has got, instead of reorganisation and progress
through wider relationships.
What the language teacher can take from Dewey is a reflection on their
contribution to progressive education, to the political role which education,
including language education, plays in changing societies for the better. Of
course what we mean by 'better' is a major question which is not answered in
the same way everywhere in the world, but Dewey's proposal is that
democracy is the best means of developing towards societies in which every
individual and every group interacts and plays a full role with shared values.
Here, Dewey again anticipates the priorities of the new European realities
rapidly developing around us and symbolised in the emphasis on policies of
education for democratic citizenship and human rights, which as Starkey
shows can be fundamental to language teaching.
If, then, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages shall
at some point in the future include a clearer statement of the aims of
intercultural education, as Zarate wishes, it is evident that the moral and
11
political implications of such a statement need to be considered. The
prescription of desirable attitudes and dispositions might go unnoticed
because they are precisely the moral tenets which underlie much European
thought. They are however in potential tension with the prescription of what
is linguistically desirable competence and behaviour when the latter is
founded on the native speaker as the ideal to be imitated. The precise position
on the native speaker is unclear in the CEF and other Council of Europe
documents. The CEF postulates at one point an ideal of a plurilingual speaker
whereas descriptions of Thresholds are dependent on native speaker
intuitions, and realisation of the levels stated in the CEF would presumably
be judged by native speaker standards. Because this is contested ground, with
much debate on ‘linguistic imperialism’ and ‘cultural politics’ in language
teaching, the CEF is already enmeshed in the complexities of morality and
politics1.
The issues become even more evident when the question of assessment is
considered. The CEF was published without resolution of the problem of
establishing levels of attainment in intercultural competence as the authors
would have liked. They declared this a question which would have to be
resolved in later editions. Were this to happen, the assessment of desirable
and prescribed behaviour and attitudes would introduce language teaching
professionals to ethical issues which do not arise when they concentrate on
the assessment of linguistic competence. Descriptors of what a person ‘can
do’ as basis for placing them on one of the six levels of the CEF, are overtly
descriptive and are intended to be objectively validated and morally neutral,
putting aside for the moment the question of native speaker power.
Descriptors of ‘tolerance of ambiguity’ or similar dimensions of intercultural
competence on the other hand are likely to imply a moral judgement of what
is acceptable or not, what is within the description or not.
1 The change of title and emphasis from the Modern Language Division to the
Language Policy Division of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg is indicative of the
increasing political significance of language education.
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problems of validity, reliability, and impact, but more importantly the ethical
issues involved. Intercultural competence requires a change of perspective on
self and other, on the world of one's socialisation and the worlds one meets
through language learning. It involves affective as well as cognitive change,
and may be a challenge to one's identities as a speaker of one (or more)
particular language(s) from childhood. These are issues which language
teachers approach with care - and all the more so those who are responsible
for assessment. Yet the language teaching profession - and other teachers too
- cannot ignore the need to ensure that their learners are not just acquiring
linguistic skills and knowledge. It is self-evident that relationships between
people who a generation ago might have had very little contact, are now
commonplace. In the reduced spatial and temporal dimensions of the
contemporary world, they need to interact and understand each other on a
basis of mutual respect, on a basis of intercultural competence.
Michael Byram
Special Adviser to the Language Policy Division
Council of Europe, Strasbourg
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SOCIO-CULTURAL INTERIM WORLDS IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
Gerhard Neuner
Universität Kassel
TABLE OF CONTENTS
15
3.1. The perception of the target world in the learners’ minds ..................36
3.2. A framework of interdependent levels influencing learning ..............40
3.2.1. Some conclusions concerning our perception of
the foreign world....................................................................42
3.3 The intercultural approach to the foreign world: integrating
the two worlds .....................................................................................48
3.4. A summary of didactic dimensions of socio-cultural aspects
from the point of view of foreign language learning ..........................50
References ............................................................................................................58
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1. Introduction: The dichotomy of teaching and
learning
On the one hand there is the perspective of teaching with its concentration on
socio-cultural content, i.e. the presentation of information according to a
preconceived view of the world of the target language in official documents
like syllabuses and textbooks and its variation in the different methods of and
approaches to foreign language teaching.
In foreign language teaching and learning we do not deal directly with the
“real world” of the target language but with a world
- filtered by media (textbooks [various types of texts, ranging from
fictional to expository texts]; audio-visual media [tapes / cassettes /
CD; photographs / drawings]; internet; teacher’s reports; etc.)
and
- filtered by the selection of information and its interpretation by the
‘authorities’ such as ministries which approve textbooks for the use in
schools.
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This leads then to our first question: What are the factors that influence the
formation of this officially sanctioned picture of the foreign world and what
brings about changes?
On the other hand we have the perception of the foreign world by the learners
and its representation in the learners’ imagination which may vary
considerably from the officially sanctioned picture.
We know from experience that pupils quite often do not learn what they are
supposed to learn, that they do not simply adopt the pre-formed and
‘prescribed’ view of the target world presented in their textbooks, but in their
minds create (or already have created) their own images and fantasies about
the foreign world which are unstable and which in the process of learning the
target language (and gathering more knowledge or experience of the foreign
world outside the classroom) may undergo remarkable changes.
Our second question is therefore: What influences the view of the foreign
world in the learner’s mind and what leads to changes of the images of the
world of the target language in the process of learning?
We can thus state that there are changing and unstable concepts of the foreign
world at both ends: in the presentation of socio-cultural content (teaching)
and in the perception of the foreign world in the learner’s mind (learning).
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cultural studies (Landeskunde) but it has undergone remarkable changes (cf.
Neuner, 1997).
This was modelled after the teaching of ‘dead languages’ like Latin and
Greek and in the 19th and early 20th centuries was the almost unrivalled
method of foreign language teaching, concentrating on the presentation and
analysis of correct linguistic form, appropriate translation and the reading of
literature. Concerning socio-cultural aspects, it emphasised the selection and
presentation of socio-cultural achievements (“Big C”: arts and literature) and
their personification by great men (and, occasionally, women), and events in
the history of the target country. In its more modern version, it also
comprised ‘facts and figures’ (realia) and ‘life and institutions’ of the target
country.
In one of the leading textbooks of the 1950s for the teaching of English in
West Germany, Learning English, we find the following topics concerning
the USA:
Quite obviously, the lasting dominance of this method, among other reasons,
was due to the fact that institutional foreign language teaching for a long time
was limited to an elite group of pupils – in the Federal Republic of Germany
until the 1960s it comprised no more than 5–10 % of an age-group in
Gymnasium - and aimed at participation in intercultural exchange beyond
trivial topics according to the ideal of the ‘educated and refined gentleman’.
Characteristic of this group was its relatively pronounced homogeneity, in
respect to age, readiness and ability to achieve, and social background
(middle class). There was a consensus among teachers that what the
textbooks offered was in the interests of the pupil and that his/her view of the
foreign world should be formed according to the established picture.
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2.1.2. The Audio-Lingual/Audio-Visual Method
From the 1960s the rising demand for foreign languages led to offering
foreign languages to groups beyond the Gymnasium (‘foreign languages for
all’, including pupils of Hauptschule and learners in contexts outside and
beyond the state school system (e.g. Volkshochschule; professional training)
and resulted in defining a more pragmatic concept of foreign language
teaching (foreign languages for international communication in private and
professional contexts).
The Communicative Approach from the late 1970s further developed these
aspects by concentrating on speech acts characteristic of everyday
20
communication and emphasising the use of authentic texts (for the German
scene cf. Byram, 1993).
Example: From a table of contents of a textbook for German as a foreign
language (Deutsch aktiv, 1979):
Hand in glove with the emphasis on speech acts and the use of authentic texts
goes the selection of socio-cultural topics according to everyday life
experiences of ordinary people:
- how they live with other people (family; friends/lovers;
peer group; community; state; etc.)
- how they work
- how they spend their leisure time
- how they travel (mobility)
- how they communicate with each other
- how they relate to their environment
- how they relate to norms and values
- etc. (cf. Neuner, 1988b).
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Example: From a table of contents of a textbook for German as a foreign
language for advanced learners
(Sichtwechsel, 1984):
Chapter 1: Perception and interpretation
2: Perception and specific cultural experience
3: Perception and specific group experience
4: Development of meaning
5: Development of meaning in the foreign language
6: Speech acts and their realisation in language
7: Language and social interaction
8: Manipulation by language
9: Cliché and ritual
10: Language and stereotype
12: Argumentation
22
2.2. A framework of interdependent levels constituting
teaching
23
2.2.1. Level 1: general socio-political factors
24
that the working class – under the guidance of the Marxist-Leninist
party – is leading the struggle for a happy future for all of mankind,
that the active solidarity is an expression of the worldwide battle of
the people against the common enemy…
Comparison between the life of workers in our Republic, with those of
certain other countries, will strengthen the pupils’ conviction of the
superiority of socialism (Lehrplan für Englisch, 1978,12).
It is interesting to note that in the Socialist Countries during that period we
find a rather contrasting image of Germany in textbooks that deal with
German as a foreign language, which corresponds with the political
constellation: while the socialist ‘brother nation’ GDR is presented in
friendly terms, the FRG as representative of the ‘capitalist opponent’ is
treated rather unfavourably.
Selection of and emphasis on negative/critical aspects of life in the Federal
Republic of Germany.
An example from a Russian textbook for German of the 1980s:
25
This may lead to a motivational dilemma for the learners of such a target
language: How can they be persuaded to learn a language when at the same
time they are presented with a negative image of the people and their
country?!
One way out of this dilemma is to use a ‘didactic trick’, i.e. almost entirely
omitting the treatment of socio-cultural aspects of the target country and,
instead, inviting people of the world of the target language to one’s own
world and introducing them to the benefits of one’s own socio-culture in their
language (cf. Neuner, l979c; Ammer, 1987; Abendroth-Timmer, 1998).
For example, in English for you, the official textbook of the G.D.R. in the
1970s and 1980s, we find chapters like “Visiting the G.D.R.” (vol. 4) and
“About Life in the G.D.R.” (vol. 7). The following passage is taken from vol.
4 (1977), lesson 5 (54 ff.):
26
the Anglo-American worlds brought to the attention of humanity
(ADNV-Lehrplanentwurf (syllabus), 1951,3).
In the chapter of Learning English, vol. 3, which deals with Henry Ford, we
find the following passage:
Ford’s principle has been one of the most powerful forces in the
making of twentieth-century America: that a nation safe from
exploitation and extreme poverty is a nation of delightful buyers of
goods, to everybody’s profit… and that therefore one can make
money by lowering the class barriers. Thus is Marxism defeated.
(quoted from Funk, 1978,77)
And in the same textbook we learn about J.F. Kennedy that he was ‘… a
legendary figure, the symbol of a modern knight who died before his task
was done‘ (vol 2, 35).
27
More often, we find implicit references to such educational guidelines, for
example in textbooks it can be traced in the ‘message’ that is conveyed in the
selection (or omission) of certain topics, in the way a perspective is opened
on a topic, or in the background information that is conveyed in the
situational context (e.g. photographs) of texts and exercises, and in the
references which exercises make to socio-cultural aspects.
Or:
Great Britain obtains raw materials from her Dominions. Britain has
obtained raw materials from her Dominions. Germany obtained raw
materials from her colonies.
The British fleet protects the Dominions. It has always protected the
Dominions. The German fleet protected our colonies. Did not the
German fleet protect our colonies? (vol. 4, 1922)
28
Here are a few examples from textbooks for German. First from the early
1950s, where the emphasis is on appropriate appearance and behaviour:
29
Then from the 1970s where there are clear-cut social roles for boss and
secretary:
“In the office”
30
Finally in the mid-1990s, with an affluent German society, it is indicated
what young people (should) have in their rooms:
At this level the specific objectives for the teaching of the target languages
are defined.
Traditionally, we distinguish between 3 dimensions of objectives
a) the cognitive dimension (knowledge)
b) the pragmatic dimension (language skills)
c) the emotional dimension (attitudes)
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realia in its further development). In this case there are a number of
disciplines from which socio-cultural knowledge is derived, among them
most prominently geography and history, but also social sciences,
anthropology, arts; etc.
32
may considerably influence the way the foreign world is presented in
textbooks (cf.. Neuner, 1979c, 254 f.) and result in a random selection of
aspects of a specific socio-cultural topic and in a fragmentary and distorted
picture of the target world.
An example:
The treatment of “New York” in textbooks for English as a foreign language
in its combination with different aspects of grammatical features.
We had started from London at 1. p.m., but, of course, New York time
is six hours behind London… Before the helicopter came down I had
already seen some of New York’s famous skyscrapers… I had heard
of Fifth Avenue…´, but I hadn’t expected to see so many people
there… After we had looked at the shops, Aunt Sally asked if we
would like to see Harlem, the Negro Quarter of New York. But we
had suddenly become very tired…
(Learning English – Modern Course , Gym 3, chapter 3)
There are so many things to see that I don’t know where to start. The
boat-trip was most exciting. David didn’t want to sit down. He
preferred to stand at the railing and watch the sights glide past.
33
After the trip David wanted to see something of the life in the
streets… David watched the policemen control the flow of cars with
their whistles. He was surprised to see… David was amused to see…
They watched the fountains and heard the band play the latest pop
tunes… Arthur had visited London many times and found it
interesting to compare it to New York. Arthur thought that London
and New York were much alike in appearing to be one gigantic mass
of streets and houses…
(The Good Companion/A New Guide, vol. 3, chapter 1)
Most people imagine New York to be… a city of huge skyscrapers. Perhaps,
too, they think of such things as:
Have you ever dropped anything from a tower or the roof of a house?
If you have, you’ll know that it takes several seconds to hit the
ground. If you dropped a stone from 1350 feet it would take 9
seconds! If you’re wondering about speed, you’ll be interested to
know the answer: 200 mph. But don’t think you can drop things from
the World Trade Center! It just isn’t possible – even though tourists
are allowed to go to the top.
If you visited New York and went to the World Trade Center, you
could take fantastic photos.
34
From the top you could see the whole of New York and probably a lot
more. You’d be a quarter of a mile high – higher than some birds fly.
(English, G 4A, chapter 1)
In general, it is apparent that the “official view” of the foreign world that is
pre-formed in syllabuses and presented in textbooks is never objective, but
inevitably tends to be influenced by overruling political considerations (or, at
best, by what authors of textbooks consider feasible in their own subjective
terms – which are mostly created by middle-class standards), educational
guidelines or the predominance of grammatical features. We also realise that
the criteria for shaping the image of the foreign world may vary considerably
and sometimes even lead to fragmentary or even contrasting and
contradictory representations of the same socio-cultural topics.
35
populate the foreign language textbooks and as ‘puppets of the grammatical
progression’ are only allowed to use phrases that the grammar syllabus of the
current lesson ‘puts in their mouths’ (cf. 2.2.3.2.)
In any case, in foreign language instruction the learners meet not the target-
world ‘as it is’, but rather a ‘pre-filtered construct’ of the target world. They
are presented with an interim world which has been prepared on premises
firmly rooted in our own world.
This must be born in mind when we turn to the ‘foreign world in the heads of
the learners’ in the following section.
36
37
I: Interviewer
P: pupil
(my translation)
I: What are you learning about at the moment in your English class?
P: Well, we are learning something about a family that moved from
York to Leeds.
The family’s name is Pearsons: there is a man, a woman, Kevin and
Kate. Kate is Kevin’s sister. And then there’s Ronny; he’s Kevin’s
friend.. They all live in Selby Road, where they opened a shop. They
also have a delivery truck which they need for the shop.
38
I: Do you see any difference between the Pearson family and a
German family?
P: No, except that the Pearson family speaks English.
I: How are York and Leeds different from German cities?
P: The houses are different. They’re built different. Otherwise, there
aren’t any differences – except for the language, of course.
I: What do you like about the textbook?
P: It’s easy to imagine what it’s like when they talk to each other. It’s
easy to put myself in their position.
I: What has happened to these people so far (i.e. in the five previous
chapters)?
P: Kevin and Kate moved to a new school. A new teacher arrives there
one day. She introduces herself. Her name is Mrs. Griffin. I think
she’s stupid because she keeps asking “Where is the pen?” or
something like that. She’s just stupid.
I: And the children?
P: Well, Kevin’s really smart. He answers all of the questions at
school. The other pupils are only called “boys and girls”.
I: And Kate?
P: Kate’s average. The only one who’s really stupid up to now is the
teacher (turning to the second picture). Kate is reading; she’s on top
of the delivery truck.
I: What do you think of the family in general?
P: The family? They’re OK, I guess. They’re about 50-50. For
instance, I think it’s stupid the way they talk to each other: ‘Look
this is our new flat. And that is our new shop’. That’s really stupid.
I: Why?
P: Because they usually wouldn’t talk like that to each other. I think it
would be good if we got a text where something happens instead of
one where they just say a bunch of stupid things. For instance, I can
learn much more when we use texts in which the people are doing
something. I get tired of learning when I read these two dialogues
(i.e. the two dialogues entitled “Selby Road”).
I: What is the best thing that you like about the textbook?
P: I like reading the real texts. (looking at the pictures) The pictures
aren’t interesting. Other textbooks have better pictures.
39
pupil judges the textbook fairly critically, he is interested in the peer group
(the family’s children and their friends) and he obviously identifies with the
“main character”, Kevin. If we observe the textbook through the eyes of the
eleven-year-old, it becomes evident that the pupil “decodes” the teaching
material differently than the textbook authors would like. His primary
concern is neither with grammar nor vocabulary (the primary concerns of the
authors and, in consequence, the teachers!), but with the people, their actions,
and the circumstances they find themselves in.
It is apparent that the pupil relates the world he finds in the English book to
his own world. At least initially, he is convinced that he can understand the
‘foreign world of the English’, despite its different nature, from the
background of his own experience: to him it appears to be ‘in principle like
us’. He seems to integrate the elements and units of the foreign world
(people, setting, actions, language, etc.) into the categories of experience with
his own world and thereby gains a stable base for his perception of and his
judgements about it.
What is of special interest to us is the fact that while reading the dialogues
and observing the illustrations, in his fantasy he creates some kind of ‘world
in between’ his own world and the world of the English and by referring back
to his own world he ensures that he can interpret this kind of interim world as
‘normal’ (i.e. corresponding with the basic norms and experiences of his own
world).
40
There are
areas of general socialisation: such as family, social milieu, peer group,
work, media (in particular television and, in recent years, internet),
individual factors: such as age, gender, general knowledge of the world
and special knowledge of (and maybe experience with) the target-
language country; intellectual capacities, interest and motivation, etc.
(cf. Ellis, 1994),
which have influenced his view of the foreign world outside school and
before he starts learning the foreign language (cf. Byram and Esarte-Sarries,
1991; Hufeisen and Lindemann, 1998, 47-48). They probably have a much
stronger effect on creating the image of the foreign world than foreign
language teaching might ever have.
41
3.2.1. Some Conclusions Concerning Our Perception Of The
Foreign World.
As long as we stay in our own world our own experiences and the underlying
norms and values seem ‘normal’ to us. But learning a foreign language
inevitably brings us into contact with a new world in which, although their
world ‘in principle’ is similar to our own world (in its elementary dimensions
of living) and they do rather the same things as we do, people have arranged
their environment differently and arrange their social behaviour according to
different conventions. Therefore, we may experience different patterns of
behaviour and a different arrangement of social structures and institutions.
When dealing with the foreign world we use the same modes of perception
which have been developed in and refer to our own world. This means that at
first glance we cannot perceive the foreign world other than ‘through our own
42
socio-cultural glasses’. The following frontispiece of a book of the Baroque
period illustrates this metaphor:
Das Erlernen einer fremden Sprache sollte (…) die Gewinnung eines
neuen Standpunkts in der bisherigen Weltansicht seyn und ist es in der
That bis auf einen gewissen Grad, da jede Sprache das ganze Gewebe
der Begriffe und die Vorstellungsweise eines Theils der Menschheit
enthält. Nun weil in eine fremde Sprache immer, mehr oder weniger,
seine eigene Welt -, ja seine eigene Sprachansicht hinüberträgt, so
wird dieser Erfolg nicht rein und vollständig empfunden
(quoted from: Meyer, 1995, 48)
[Learning a foreign language should (…) result in gaining a new viewpoint in the
previous world view and, indeed will, to a certain degree, because every language
contains the entire fabric of concepts and the ways of thinking of one part of mankind.
But because one always more or less carries over one’s own world and one’s own
view of language into the foreign language, this result will not be reached purely and
completely.]
43
3.2.1.3. Abstractions And Categorisations
Cognitive psychology (cf. Kintsch and van Dijk, 1978) makes us aware of the
fact that what we perceive we transform into concepts (cognitive units which
underlie words) or propositions (clusters of concepts combined to form more
complex structures) and that we store knowledge in so-called schemas, which
can be organised in different ways:
- in the form of frames (abstract organisation of knowledge);
- in the form of schemas (network of propositions in a highly
systematised way);
- in the form of scripts (modelling of concrete sequences of actions and
episodes);
- or in the form of prototypical representations (cf. Aitchison, 1994;
Kleiber, 1993).
44
When I gave my international students the same task it was not surprising
that their concept of a tree was influenced by their experiences of their own
environment:
45
Again, we may assume that this procedure also refers to more complex units
and structures beyond the perception and representation of physical objects.
And although some of them had already spent years as students in Germany
most of them – especially the ones that came from outside Europe – said that
their ‘images of the world’ remained tightly knit to their own previous socio-
cultural experience.
The same procedure, then, applies when we try to come to terms with the
foreign world. It is inevitable that we develop and use generalisations and
stereotypes when we deal with it (cf. Müller, 1981; Kramsch, 1993; Tomalin
and Stempleski, 1993). People approach the world not as naïve, blank-slate
receptacles who take in stimuli as they exist in some independent and
objective way, but rather as experienced and sophisticated veterans of
perception who have stored their prior experiences as ‘an organised mass’,
and who see events and objects in the world in relation to each other and in
relation to their prior experience. This prior experience then takes the form of
expectations about the world, and in the vast majority of cases, the world,
being a systematic place, confirms these expectations (Tannen, 1979:144,
quoted in Kramsch, 1993:42).
As we have noted, our contact with the target world (within the foreign
language class or outside) is hardly ever a direct one but filtered via the
media and the foreign language itself. As a consequence, our immediate
experience with the foreign world is substituted by ‘inner events of
participation’ in our imagination which in essence are fictional and in which
cognitive-mental and emotional-affective aspects are interwoven. The
learner, therefore, establishes a ‘fictional scenario’ of the foreign world in
which he individually arranges this ‘inner stage’ with projections and
properties from his own world (knowledge, experience) and from bits and
pieces of information about the foreign world that he has gathered. The whole
process of ‘setting the scene’ in one’s imagination very much resembles the
way we deal with fictional texts. When designing didactic concepts of foreign
language teaching we tend to overlook the fact that these fantasies about
participation with the foreign world (people, events, etc.) play an essential
role in stimulating motivation for foreign language learning.
46
If our categories are not sufficient to help us arrange and interpret ‘new
things’, we
- either rearrange and reinterpret them until they ‘fit’ or
- ignore and forget them (they find no ‘anchoring place’ in our
memory) or
- we isolate them as “foreign elements” which we find disturbing
or threatening, if substantial aspects of our own norms are at
stake (e.g. taboos).
(cf. Byram and Esarte-Sarries, 1991; Farr and Moscovici, 1984;
Castellotti and Moore, in press)
In such a case the interim foreign world that is created is very close to our
own world interspersed with highlighted similar elements of the foreign
world and has little to do with the reality of the foreign world.
It may also happen that we perceive the foreign world as an ‘object’, but
rearrange and re-interpret what we perceive according to the elements, units
and structures of our own world thus distorting proportions and structures. As
a result, an interim foreign world is created in our imagination which
contains clearly marked elements of the foreign world but in its basic
structures is created by our own world.
47
War, and the new German Cinema. This German image of America, of which
Americans are unaware, has deep roots in the way Germans perceive
themselves, their hopes and fears, their dreams and aspirations (Kramsch
1993:208).
It may also happen that our own socio-cultural categories fail to help us to
come to terms with the foreign world. In such a case the foreign world
appears to us to be ominous, alarming or even threatening, above all, if
sensitive areas of ‘normality’ (e.g. taboo areas) are touched upon. The
images of the foreign interim world in such a situation remain shadowy,
nebulous and blurred. We may fail to ‘make sense’ of what we experience
and feel threatened by such an alien world. Our ‘natural reaction’ will be
confusion and sometimes an averse reaction that may lead to rejection and
prejudices.
48
The interim world in this intercultural approach is constituted by the ‘two
sides of the coin’ – the awareness and acceptance of one’s own world and the
perception and acceptance of the foreign world. It is the basis for developing
tolerance towards others, gaining interest in their world and a deeper insight
into our own world and can substantially contribute to living together in
peace as ‘neighbours in the same house’.
In order to deal successfully with the two worlds a few qualifications - which
are also essential for developing one’s own socio-cultural and personal
identity (cf. Mead, 1934) - ought to be developed:
empathy
role distance
tolerance of ambiguity
awareness and representation of own identity (cf. Krappmann,
1969).
Empathy
This implies venturing into the foreign world and trying to understand it
‘from within’, i.e. try to understand ‘the others’ in their own socio-cultural
contexts and realising that what may look ‘strange’ to oneself may be
‘normal’ for them. Empathy helps us to understand the ‘otherness’ of the
people of the world of the target language in their own world.
Role distance
Role distance means another change of perspectives, the ‘view from outside’
upon our own world which helps us to realise that not all people share our
view of our own world and, as a consequence, may have opinions about us
which to us appear as prejudices. Role distance helps us to gain a different
perspective upon ourselves.
Tolerance of ambiguity
It is sometimes hard to bear the fact that the ‘others are different from us’.
One of the major tasks of the intercultural approach, therefore, is the
development of strategies of negotiating ambiguity, e.g. signalling non-
comprehension and, maybe, embarrassment; inviting interpretation and help;
referring to ‘safe clues’ in a critical situation or context; tracing roots back to
’safe ground’; explaining one’s own position; asking for and giving reasons.
49
It is essential that the learners realise from the beginning that in learning a
foreign language such breakdowns in comprehension and communication are
quite natural and will occur again and again at all stages of foreign language
learning and use. Such awareness will help the learners to sustain interest,
gain calmness and overcome ‘dumbfoundedness’ in critical situations.
This implies that in addition to teaching the learners to using the new
language successfully in everyday situations in the foreign country (in
face-to-face interaction with native speakers), emphasis should also be
placed on the development of discursive communication strategies such
as comparing, inferring, interpreting, discussing, reasoning, etc.
50
In an intercultural concept of sociocultural learning the criteria for the
selection of topics do not aim exclusively at ‘completeness of
information’ and ‘representativity’ but also take into account learner-
oriented aspects like
- the learner’s interests (and needs)
- easy access of information for the learner
- comprehensibility of information
- the positive affective appeal of phenomena to the learner.
Both the cognitive and affective aspects will be essential for their successful
use of the foreign language in pragmatic situations.
Tasks and exercises that explicitly refer to intercultural learning are gradually
finding their way into foreign language textbooks. I would like to draw the
attention of my readers to two publications that approach the question of how
to develop tasks and exercises for intercultural learning in a more systematic
way. The one is written in English and French and mainly refers to source
51
material in English (Byram and Zarate, 1995), the other is written in German
and is derived from Sichtwechsel, one of the very early example of textbooks
for the teaching of German as a foreign language that are devoted to the
intercultural approach (Bachmann, Gerhold and Wessling, 1996).
Byram and Zarate in their brochure Young People Facing Difference (1995)
describe a series of graded activities (4 stages) relating to intercultural
learning as described in sections 3.3. and 3.4. For each activity objectives are
defined and the relationship to the general context of the intercultural
approach is described. Teacher’s notes, a ‘warm-up’ exercise and hints for
teaching materials complete each activity.
52
4.2. A typology of exercises and tasks for intercultural foreign
language learning
53
Stage 4 Developing communicative competence in intercultural situations
1. Analysing the effect of speech acts and their linguistic realisations
2. Analysing strategies of communication
3. Analysing socio-cultural features of certain text types
4. Analysing and comparing styles of expression
5. Translation and interpretation
6. Giving feedback (active listening)
7. Cultural interplay
8. Adopting roles in a discussion
9. Paraphrasing
10. Meta-communication (talking about communication)
- as human beings we are inevitably tied into social groups and structures
which not only form the conventions, routines and rituals of our daily
life, but also mark our system of norms and values which we use in
order to make judgements about what we perceive and observe in the
world around us; in other words, as human beings in the course of
socialisation we attain social identity as members of a specific group;
this is shown when we do empirical research in intercultural social
studies
- when dealing with the foreign world we deal with a vis-à-vis which in
its substance and appearance may be different from our own world, but
the way we deal with such a ‘vis-à-vis beyond our socio-cultural
borders’ is similar to the way we deal with things unfamiliar within our
own socio-culture; we refer our perceptions and observations of the
foreign world to our own individual/socio-cultural background and use
54
its elements, units and structures for the negotiation of the meaning of
what we experience.
It is interesting to note that in recent years this ‘modern’ view has been
challenged by a ‘post-modern’ position which questions the impact and
rejects the influence of the social environment on the formation of a person’s
identity and postulates an explicitly individualistic ‘culture of self’ beyond
national, political or linguistic barriers and limitations (Singh, 2002). This
seems to be the radical opposite to the postulate of ‘collective identity’ of
totalitarian states.
It also indicates that the vast movement of global migration which has set in
not only may lead to a clash of cultures, but also may lead to the formation of
55
a plurilingual and pluricultural personality, a personality who ‘feels at home’
in more than one world.
In such a discourse ‘on equal terms among equal partners’ we may enter the
path to what Habermas paradoxically calls “konkrete Utopie” – an utopian
vision which under certain conditions and circumstances may become reality.
56
concept of ‘culture of self’ may be interpreted as the fulfilment of the
‘modern’ intercultural approach.
However, given the rather desolate past and present state of many societies,
such a vision can only be achieved and practised in comparatively small
communities that are committed to following the rules of discourse in the
sense of Habermas. These have been - and are - elitarian communities – not
necessarily elitarian by birth or social status, but mainly by spiritual consent.
In past centuries one can discover such ‘intercultural’ and ‘transnational’
communities in religious groups or circles of scholars or in the field of arts
and literature – such as in mediaeval society to a certain degree in monastic
communities, in orders of knighthood or among the poets of Minnesang or
the writers of Arthurian epics. In the European context most of these groups
referred back to what Wandruszka (1991) calls the ‘European identity’
(Greek-Roman and Christian heritage). And in this respect it is certainly
worth taking seriously, because it give us hopes for a ‘better future’ and
provides us with pedagogical guidelines and perspectives of a world free of
power, suppression and violence where mutual understanding and living
together in friendliness and peace can be realised.
57
empathy for others and love of one’s own and the other’s language
and culture are not opposites. Acceptance of other people in their
otherness and international solidarity are, therefore, the objective of
the process of education in foreign languages.]
References
1. Syllabuses
2. Textbooks
58
3. Secondary Literature
Abendroth-Timmer, D. 1998, Der Blick auf das andere Land. Ein Vergleich
der Perspektiven in Deutsch-, Französisch- und Russischlehrwerken,
Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
59
Habermas, J. 1971, Vorbereitende Bemerkungen zu einer Theorie der
kommunikativen Kompetenz. In: Habermas, J., Luhmann, J. Theorie der
Gesellschaft oder Sozialtechnologie, Frankfurt/M: Fischer.
Kintsch, W. and van Dijk, T.A. 1978, Toward a model of text comprehension
and production, Psychological Review 85, 365 – 378.
60
Id. 1988b, Towards Universals of Content in the Foreign Language
Curriculum: a Cognitive-Anthropological Approach. Language Culture
and Curriculum, Vol.1, No.1, 33 – 52.
61
Tomalin, B. and Stempleski, A. 1993, Cultural Awareness, Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Wandruszka, M. 1991, “Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt”. Das Bild des
Menschen in Europas Sprachen, München/Zürich: Piper.
62
INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE AND EDUCATION FOR
DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP: IMPLICATIONS FOR
LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY
Hugh Starkey
University of Leicester
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction............................................................................................65
8. Conclusion .............................................................................................79
References ............................................................................................................79
63
64
1. Introduction
65
teaching strategies and the overall context in which we teach. It follows that
we should be concerned to ensure meaningful integration with the curriculum
as a whole, for example in England with what is known as Citizenship and
Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE), in other countries languages
with education for citizenship, civic education, social studies or political
education.
66
2. What are Human Rights?
Human rights are set out in internationally recognised texts and provide a
legal, ethical and moral framework for the regulation of relationships
between states, between people and between states and people. Although
human rights have antecedents in the 18th Century, notably the French
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of 1789, international, as
opposed to national statements of human rights are a mid 20th Century, post-
1945 phenomenon.
personal rights such as: equality before the law and equal
entitlement to rights; right to life, liberty and security of person; freedom
from slavery, torture, arbitrary arrest; right of fair public trial and
presumption of innocence.
rights in relationships between people, such as: right to privacy;
freedom of movement; right to nationality; right to marry, have children,
own property.
public freedoms and political rights including: freedom of thought,
conscience and religion; right to freedom of opinion and expression;
right of peaceful assembly; right to elect a government.
economic, social and cultural rights including: right to work, rest
and leisure; adequate standard of living for health; education;
participation in cultural life.
67
He also noted that the final three articles of the Universal Declaration
emphasise the rights to a social order, at all levels up to global, where human
rights can flourish. In particular, the final article outlaws actions and
activities intended to destroy rights and freedoms (Osler and Starkey, 1996).
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), which has
been adopted by virtually every country in the world, is a further indication
of the universal acceptance of legal obligations to respect human rights. The
rights in this convention are the entitlement of all young people under the age
of eighteen. They guarantee a right to the provision of shelter and essential
services, including education; protection from harm and exploitation; and
participation appropriate to age and maturity in decisions that concern them
(Verhellen, 1997 and 2000).
Universal acceptance that human rights standards apply to all children and
adults throughout the world, was confirmed in the Vienna Declaration of
June 1993. Representatives of states accounting for 99% of the world's
people, reaffirmed their commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights as the means to freedom, justice and peace in the world (UNHCR,
1994). Thus, human rights attach to all human beings equally, irrespective of
origin, status, culture or language.
68
3. Human rights and language teaching: aims and values
69
Recommendation R (85)7 on teaching and learning about human rights in
schools explicitly endorses human rights as core values underpinning the
curriculum. The concept of human rights is also included in a list of key
concepts, identified for Citizenship within the National Curriculum for
England on (QCA, 1998). These are:
70
communicate in a second language. The rationale is described by one pioneer
of this movement:
Young school learners would probably make a first visit (abroad) with
a school party where their most pressing needs would be taken care of.
They would want to buy postcards, a present to take home, an ice
cream and a coke and use some polite expressions to people they met.
Later they might go on an exchange where they would need to
converse with the family, exchange some personal information,
express likes/dislikes and preferences and possibly use services such
as a bank and a telephone. Later again they might go independently
with their parents and act as interpreters for the rest of the family
(Page, 1996:100).
In fact, although the programmes of study for 11–16 year-olds have been
freed of specific content, the influence of textbooks and examinations results
in learners remaining stuck in the role of tourist / consumer for the five years
of their secondary schooling:
Perhaps the biggest problem (and the main cause of boredom) is that
those topics are visited and revisited year after year adding on a little
more vocabulary each time (Callaghan, 1998: 6).
This vision of the language learner as child within the family, pupil within
the school and consumer within society has persisted, so that in the year 2000
the speaking test in French for 16 year old speakers of English was based on:
71
home life
school life
self, family and friends
free time
your local area
careers, work, work experience
holidays
(OCR 2000a).
There are, as we shall see, ways of teaching Citizenship through such topics.
However, reference to the public sphere has to be consciously introduced in
spite of rather than because of the topics.
One consequence is that the learning of languages may lack broad appeal.
Callaghan (1998) points out that the majority of sub-topics in the syllabus
appeal to girls rather than boys, though several are equally disliked by both
sexes. For example she found that House and Home was enjoyed by girls,
who liked to describe room furnishings in detail. The boys tended merely to
list items of electrical equipment. Family and Daily Routine includes
descriptions of household tasks. However, girls are much more likely to
have experience of these tasks than boys. She concludes:
She suggests that if the teaching was re-structured to include a debate on the
gendering of household tasks, this could include both groups more equally
and promote some awareness of equality issues.
72
5. Language Teaching and Citizenship: taking
opportunities
The example of the role-play given above was intended to shift perceptions
rather than be an example to be followed in a teaching situation. Role-play
is a very useful technique in language teaching, as in education for
citizenship. It is a technique that requires attention to warm-up, ensuring
participants feel comfortable with the task and taking care when going into
role and when coming out of role. Moreover, particular care is required if
learners are to take on roles which involve them in racist or sexist discourse,
as the feelings of both players and audience risk running out of control. The
introduction of role-play is a good opportunity for language teachers to
collaborate with their colleagues teaching drama (Byram and Fleming,
1998; Ur, 1982; Wessels, 1987).
73
A move away from closed and true / false questions in reading and listening
comprehension, to open-ended questions where opinions are genuinely
sought and discussed can invigorate language classes. The communication
gap can also be the opinion gap. Some examinations do recognise the
possibilities for languages to address Citizenship. For instance guidance for
preparing examinations in England suggests:
74
6. Citizenship and languages in the upper secondary
school
The study of social and political issues is common at this stage and it
provides opportunities for developing two of the three main aspects of
Citizenship as defined by Crick (1998), namely ‘social and moral
responsibility’ and ‘political literacy’. However, the study of texts about
political issues does not, of itself, lead to political literacy. Other skills need
to be developed simultaneously. A Council of Europe Recommendation on
teaching and learning about human rights in schools suggests that these are:
skills associated with written and oral expression, including the ability
to listen and discuss and to defend one's opinions; skills involving
judgement such as ... the identification of bias, prejudice, stereotypes
and discrimination; social skills, in particular recognising and
accepting differences (Council of Europe, 1985 cited in Osler and
Starkey, 1996: 181-3).
This perspective needs to be made explicit to the learners from the start and
one way of addressing this is to study human rights instruments in the target
language. Such a study enables students to link the various topics they study
to wider issues of human rights and is likely to prove interesting and popular
(Starkey, 1996:108).
75
Where a discussion is chaired, the authority of the chair is
respected.
Even heated debates must be conducted in polite language.
Discriminatory remarks, particularly racist, sexist and homophobic
discourse and expressions are totally unacceptable at any time.
Participants show respect when commenting on and describing
people portrayed in visuals or texts.
All involved have the responsibility to challenge stereotypes.
A respectful tone is required at all times.
It goes without saying that teachers are party to these agreements and will not
use sarcasm, irony and disparaging judgements.
Some syllabuses include the study of far-right political parties and terrorist
organisations. In a democratic society it must be assumed that this has been
chosen in order to demonstrate the unacceptability of the discourses and
actions of such movements. An understanding of human rights as the basis
for democracy is essential background for such study. This is particularly
important when preparing an essay topic such as one proposed by an
examination board in England in its specimen material, namely: ‘Explain the
success of the National Front amongst some sections of the French
population’ (OCR, 2000b). Without reference to human rights, such a topic
invites the rehearsal and indeed the justification of racist policies.
How are teachers to help their students to study authentic texts critically?
Material in text books may contain stereotypes of ethnic minorities, for
example. One answer lies in the development of skills of critical discourse
analysis and critical cultural awareness.
76
CDA can provide a set of guidelines for interrogating an authentic text, so
that students engage with the content critically at the same time as they
attempt to understand other more superficial aspects of the text. For
instance, learners may confront texts of a possibly xenophobic nature to
explore the discourse mechanisms of racism.
Having made this critical analysis of the linguistic and stylistic features of
the press coverage of immigration, students felt confident to discuss the
issue and to make comparisons with coverage in their own national and
local press. They then wrote an account of their findings and their feelings
about them (Prieto Ramos, 1999).
77
forms found within particular national communities, such as French Cultural
Studies (Forbes and Kelly, 1995). In essence culture is conceptualised as
'neither aesthetic nor humanist in emphasis, but political' (Fiske, 1987).
Both the CDA and the Cultural Studies approaches help to develop what
Byram (1997: 63-4) characterises as 'critical cultural awareness'. This is an
ability to evaluate critically and on the basis of explicit criteria, such as
human rights, perspectives, practices and products in one's own and other
cultures and countries. This involves the ability to:
78
Make an evaluative analysis of the documents and events by
reference to an explicit perspective and criteria such as human
rights, liberal democracy, religion, political ideology.
Interact and mediate in intercultural exchanges, being aware of
potential conflict between one's own and other ideological positions
and attempting to find common criteria. Where this is not possible,
to negotiate agreement on places of conflict and acceptance of
difference.
8. Conclusion
References
79
Byram, M. 1997, Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative
Competence. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
80
Fiske, J. 1987, 'British Cultural Studies and Television'. In: Allen, R. (ed.)
Channels of Discourse: Television and Contemporary Criticism. Chapel
Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
81
Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations, 2000b, OCR Advanced
Subsidiary GCE in French, German, Spanish; OCR Advanced GCE in
French, German, Spanish.
82
Starkey, H. 2000, Human Rights. In: M. Byram (ed.) Encyclopedia of
Language Teaching and Learning. London: Routledge.
83
IDENTITIES AND PLURILINGUALISM:
PRECONDITIONS FOR THE RECOGNITION
OF INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCES
Geneviève Zarate
Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris
TABLE OF CONTENTS
84
4.2. Transverse competences and competences dependent
on a language ............................................................................106
4.3. Enhancing multiple identities: the potential benefits
of the European Language Portfolio........................................110
Conclusion: Prospects for future work...............................................................113
References ..........................................................................................................114
85
86
Introduction: The aim of this study1
This text emphasises the identity dimension which is implicit in the Common
European Framework of Reference for Languages and the European
Language Portfolio, endeavours to define communicative AND intercultural
competences, and concentrates on enhancing the prospective symbolic
benefits of promoting cultural plurality, stressing:
87
the conceptual contribution of the social sciences in general, and of
anthropology in particular, to re-mediating national or ethnic
identity clashes;
the potential increase in credibility for the teaching debate of
concentrating on the symbolic interrelations between languages and
cultures;
competences linked to the activity of linguistic and cultural
mediation;
the possible role of the Portfolio in transfrontier recognition of these
competences.
The concept of transfer, which is broached first of all in the general context
of language teaching and subsequently in the narrower framework of
1 Resolution (95) 38 on the Council of Europe’s cultural strategy, adopted by the
88
intercultural issues, is here taken as an instrument for recognising a
commonality of interests, a common area in which competences constructed
in different mutually complementary cultural contexts are exchanged and
validated. Action to co-ordinate and connect them helps construct a common
“democratic identity”. Following on from the economic and political
construction of Europe, under the sign of a common “European identity”, the
questions underlying the term “democratic identity” can be interpreted as the
need to deepen a debate which is now centred on the sharing of common
cultural values.
Where the founding principles of the European Union are concerned, the will
to construct an area of shared values is one of the principles underpinning the
Maastricht Treaty (1992) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the
Union (2000). The latter text states, for instance, that “the peoples of Europe,
in creating an ever closer union among them, are resolved to share a peaceful
future based on common values”.
1 A Strategy for Action: the CDCC’s Priorities 1997-1999, 1997 Strasbourg, Council
for Cultural Co-operation, January, CDCC (97) 2, p. 11.
89
1.3. Discrepancy between affirmations of principle and actual
realities
90
2. The cultural intermediary model
The European Union has its own specific cultural policy. Title IX, Article
128 of the Maastricht Treaty provides a definition of culture, codifying two
different levels: a common European culture, and national cultures, preserved
by the concept of national sovereignty. “Improving the knowledge and
dissemination of the cultures of Member States” is one of the objectives
aimed at establishing a bedrock of common values.
1 Lévi-Strauss, C., 1977, Structural Anthropology, Volume II, Chapter 18, Race and
91
So we shall avoid universal use of universality, which imposes ideologically
constructed models. In order to obviate the risks inherent in a “universal
effect” lending the fallacious credit of “a universal expression to the
expression of individual interests”1, we shall envisage universality as an
epistemological category identifying laws that systematise the observable
diversity of languages and cultures.
The further work conducted in the 1970s by the Council of Europe in the
field of teaching innovation was a major factor in assigning a specific
functional status to the “foreign(er)” concept. We shall be detailing the basic
principles of the Threshold Level, inaugurated in 1974, as forerunners of a
mode of social thought and matrices that have provided descriptions of more
than 21 European languages and three different levels (Waystage, Threshold,
Vantage). All in all, the role attributed to this concept fits into a dual
native/foreign relationship, although the definition given by van Ek in 1986
of socio-cultural competence takes account of the specific status of the
learner, who must also “extend his communication horizons beyond his own
linguistic community”2. The native speaker’s standard competences serve as
a reference for determining the learner’s level, and the categories used to
organise social relations are defined in generic terms (family, professional,
gregarious, commercial and civil, and media relations, in the Threshold
Level), as is the learner’s identity (tourist or migrant), providing access only
to a description of the realities of the target culture.
1 Bourdieu, P., 1994, Raisons pratiques. Sur la théorie de l’action, Paris: Seuil, p. 130.
See also Language and Symbolic Power, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1991.
2 van Ek, J. A., 1986, Objectives for Foreign Language Learning, Strasbourg, Council
92
environment in social groups of his choice with the ease of a native speaker”1.
The competences relevant to a transfer of competence linked to one language
and culture to another have no place in this binary model.
93
The use of a generic category, namely mobility, facilitates a more objective
description of such experiences, even if they involve different motivations,
objectives and durations of residence abroad. These descriptors tend to
neutralise any outsider status and promote the characteristic qualities of
familiarity with a new environment.
Charter was proclaimed at the Nice Summit (December 2000). This instrument is the
reference frame for the common values on which European Union members draw to
develop their integration, and which must be accepted by future new members.
94
by providing a third area for dialogue to overcome a conflict-inducing
dualism.
95
opens the way for further defining the competences peculiar to what has been
called an “intercultural mediator”, who is a frontline operator in a plural area.
Social actors who take on the role of mediator occupy a specific position,
which requires them to renounce the categories of thought within which they
were socialised and the immediate identity-related solidarities linking them to
their community of origin. In order to occupy this third position they must
also distance themselves from all the affiliations which are generally
involved in communication in the other community with which they are
interacting. The potential benefits of this position, simultaneously sidelining
the effects of familiarity and distance, have been extensively explored and
highlighted, particularly as regards drawing stark contrasts between the
culture of belonging and a foreign culture. In both the process of interpreting
speech: “Dans le domaine de la culture, l’exotopie est le moteur le plus
puissant de la compréhension (…). A une culture étrangère, nous posons des
questions nouvelles telles qu’elle-même ne se les posait pas” (In the cultural
field exotopia is the most powerful driving force for understanding. We put
novel questions to a foreign culture, questions which it has never even asked
itself)1; and the effort to shake off classifications bluntly contrasting the
outsider with the insider: “The relation of externality (…), which I call
objectivist, is more common in ethnology, probably because it corresponds to
the vision of the outsider, but some ethnologists have also played the game -
the double game - of participation in native representations: the bewitched or
mystical ethnologist”2. How can this paradoxical position characterising the
anthropological attitude be recognised and systematised within a transfrontier
organisation of competences?
3 Byram, M., Zarate, G., 1997 ‘Definitions, objectives and assessment of sociocultural
competence’. In: M. Byram, G. Zarate and G. Neuner, Sociocultural competence in
language learning and teaching, Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Also published in
Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, October 1996, under
the title “Defining and Assessing Intercultural Competence: Some Principles and
Proposals for the European Context”, pp. 239-243.
1 Baktin, M., 1894 Esthétique de la création verbale (The aesthetics of verbal
96
3. Recognising intercultural competences: current
ambiguities of the Common European Framework
of Reference for Languages
1 Initially claiming to write from the angles of both linguistics and anthropology, Hymes
97
adheres rigidly to the “competence/performance” duo, it progressed more
quickly in didactics (“poetic competence”, “literary competence”, etc) and in
language teaching, as witness the variety of uses made of the term in the
Council of Europe’s work from 1986 onwards (cf. van Ek: linguistic, socio-
linguistic, speech, strategic, socio-cultural and social competences) and in
both versions of the Common European Framework of Reference.
98
expression “approaching others”. This expression is annotated in the
definition of “learning skills” as follows: “knowing how, or being disposed,
to discover 'otherness' - whether the other is another language, another
culture, other people or new areas of knowledge”1. However, this definition
is evasive, and is so general as to leave a number of uncertainties which make
it difficult to operationalise. The reference to the “relation to the other” has
been removed from the definitive (2001) version of the Framework and from
the definition it gives of “learning skills”.
Further deletion can also be noted between the 1996 and 2001 versions of the
Framework. The 1996 version of the Framework, which centres on
competence to communicate through (a) language(s), describes various types
of language activities2. In this list of competences, the cultural component is
only partly involved in the socio-linguistic and pragmatic components. While
the text specifies that the socio-linguistic component is there to stress the
importance of the cultural dimensions in constituting the ability to
communicate, this competence is broached from the angle of the usual social
standards. Where the pragmatic component specifies the knowledge, know-
how and life skills relating to a language system, it refers solely to the non-
verbal dimension of communication (gestures, mimicry and proxemics).
Where socio-linguistic competences are concerned, the cultural reference is
highlighted, although it concentrates on the native speaker as the model to be
imitated and is therefore prescriptive. The pragmatic competences, on the
other hand, have a functional and procedural aim.
99
restricts its scope in an intercultural situation (phonetic skills and language
awareness).
100
reference to “culture” covers all these categories, but it also masks
the ill-defined contours of these concepts;
On the other hand, the sociology of things foreign and the relation to the
Other uses a terminology rather more independent from national histories.
The commonest terms for classifying cultural diversity and the elementary
forms of the relation to the other include ethnic group, social classes and
minorities. The sociological approach problematises the differentiation
between national and ethnic communities, between collective identity and
national belonging, between linguistic community and identity strategies. It
brings up the common uses of the concepts of “people”, “race”, “nation”,
“language” and “citizenship”, when they lead to ambiguities or confusion
between “migrant”, “foreigner” and “illegal immigrant”. The “sociology of
the foreign” clarifies the criteria for categorising social units, particularly
when the latter are used to stigmatise, differentiate or integrate and
amalgamate. While the last Threshold Levels do not disregard such aspects2,
they only deal with them indirectly.
1 See Neuner, G., op. cit.; Elias, N., 1969, Über den Prozess der Zivilisation French
translation: La civilisation des mœurs. Paris: Calman-Lévy, 1973; Braudel, F., 1986,
L’identité de la France. Espace et histoire Paris: Editions Arthaud; and Duby G.,
Mandrou, R., 1968, Histoire de la civilisation français. Paris: A. Colin.
2 “These works can also constitute, per se, valuable reference points for interpreting
101
3.3. Establishing actual equality in descriptions of cultures
102
In all these examples, confusions fuel an implicit hierarchy of cultures, which
is incompatible with the official principle of equality. They prevent us from
broaching the cultures as equivalent units, which is a vital precondition for
mutual recognition of what might be mutually recognised in a transfer.
Unless this precondition is met, a competence which enjoys prestige in one
context is likely to be dismissed as worthless in another. In implementing
actual equality between cultures in a teaching context, a competence which
originates in a given culture must not be affected by the fluctuations in
international representations of this culture, whether positive or negative. If a
principle of systematic equivalence is to be unanimously accepted by all the
partners concerned they must share the same symbolic area of reference.
1 The ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) for transferring academic credits
103
4.1. A symbolic area of exchange
104
merely taken at face value. Competences linked to connecting up two
cultures unequally recognised at international level can thus be recognised
regardless of the direction of the exchange: the transfer of the values of the
more recognised national or community culture towards the less recognised
one is generally accepted as being “normal” or desirable. In an area where the
movement of values is regulated symbolically, any exchange which would be
unequal in a liberal economy of representations is just as beneficial to the
“dominated” culture as to the “dominant” culture. A social actor who
connects up two cultures with disparate international profiles and symbolic
credits can reap the symbolic benefits linked to both abundance and rarity,
whatever his/her original linguistic and cultural context (“dominant” or
“dominated”).
105
4.2. Transverse competences and competences dependent on
a language
Secondly, the concept of “cultural area”2 can also help create transverse skills
vis-à-vis the cultural proximity of different languages. This concept is often
used to compare different languages in situations where neighbourly relations
are to be promoted for political or administrative reasons. For instance, a
given language may be taught in a department dealing with “Romance
languages”, “European languages” or “Mediterranean languages”, depending
on the local interests of the university offering the language course. Cultural
diversity can be a unifying argument for countries sharing the same language
for the defence of their respective national languages against rampant
globalisation: the Cotonou Declaration of the International Organisation of
the French-Speaking World advocates linguistic and cultural solidarity based
on “la variété exceptionnelle de ses cultures, disposant, à côté des langues
nationales, d’une langue commune, le français” (the exceptional variety of
its cultures, with the common language of French being used alongside the
various national languages)3. These reference points, which fluctuate in
accordance with institutional and political interests, show the fluidity of the
cultural boundaries defining a common heritage vis-à-vis the current
1 This concept has been developed along a variety of lines, especially where early
learning is concerned. Cf. Candelier, M. et al. Evlang - Éveil aux langues (Projet
SOCRATES / LINGUA 42137-CP-1-97-1 - FR - Lingua - LD ; Doyé P. 1999, The
Intercultural Dimension. Foreign language Education in the Primary School, Berlin :
Cornelsen Verlag.
2 There has been less emphasis in language teaching on the work of historians of
attitudes and everyday life, who inform us about shared histories on either side of
state borders. These shared experiences include eating habits, exile, literature,
regional rebellions, marine traffic routes, pilgrimages, etc, which forge lasting links in
the universe of current day-to-day practices, which become obvious to visitors abroad
when they probe beneath the immediate surface. This work should be better integrated
in the teaching field to facilitate interpretation of the concept of “cultural area”.
3 Cotonou Declaration, 2001 Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie/Agence
106
classifications used in language teaching. Other notions such as context,
representations and mediation facilitate a description involving connections
capable of dealing with plurality by highlighting the link-ups between
languages and cultures, exploitable potential and the results of personal
experience of the relation to otherness. However, such an ambitious project
should give these concepts a much higher profile.
Disciplinary reflection from the socio-historic angle might clarify the debate.
One example of the work emphasising the socio-historic aspect is the project
on proximity arising from a shared linguistic area, centred on the Romance
languages, viz Italian, French for the Italians, French for the Spanish and
Spanish for the French1. However, we should bear in mind that such socio-
historic proximity is not synonymous with ease of teaching: “it is precisely in
the field of closely related languages/cultures that misunderstandings are
liable to take root, when differences confuse and similarities irritate (…) and
when ideologies, in the board sense, are unevenly shared by the genuine
transmitter and receiver of the learning process”2. Cultural proximity requires
interpreting skills just as advanced as those needed in the more obvious cases
of cultural and linguistic remoteness.
1 Galatea Project; results published in Dabène, L., Degache, C., (Ed.), 1996
Comprendre les Langues Voisines, in Etudes de linguistique appliquée Paris: Didier
Erudition, October-December, No. 104. Or also: Benveniste C.B., Valli A. 1997
L’intercompréhension : le cas des langues romanes in: Le Français dans le Monde.
Paris: Hachette, janvier.
2 Lévy-Mongelli, D., ‘Logiques situationnelles, extratextualité et attitudes culturelles
107
2 and 3 can change places and roles, regardless of mathematical rules:
sometimes we have to go through 3 to reach 2 starting from 1.
But the truth of the matter is that in the Framework the reversal of
perspective potentially triggered by the reference to plurality is toned down in
that it calls “general” competences which might be better apprehended from
the transverse angle, thus facilitating transition from one language or culture
to another without having to go back to square one to discover a novel
language or culture. How can the whole complexity of pluricultural
experiences in a plurilingual context be taken into account in the various
modes of certification?
The study by Byram and Zarate (1993) defined four competences that can
develop the intercultural dimension of language teaching; some were defined
as being independent from any specific language (life skills (‘savoir-être’),
learning skills (‘savoir-apprendre’), while others were language-dependent
(knowledge (‘savoirs’), know-how (‘savoir-faire’)). Life skills are defined as
being independent from the content of any given foreign language but as
being developable only in the context of learning a specific foreign language.
Learning skills are independent from the learning of a given foreign language
but are the result of learning several foreign languages. Knowledge is
dependent on learning a given language and a given context for its use and
has no transverse dimension. Know-how depends on learning a given
language and cannot be directly reinvested in learning another language.
108
The Framework does not draw this distinction between transverse
competences and competences dependent on a given language, and although
it does mention the four competences it only uses them in a very restrictive
manner: “The problem lies in the fact that knowledge and factual recall are
only one dimension of the competence which the Common European
Framework calls ‘socio-cultural’ but which others would define differently
and call ‘intercultural competence’”1. Byram also incorporates five
components defining intercultural competence: “attitudes (curiosity and
openness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and belief about one’s
own); knowledge of social groups and their products and practices in one’s
own and in one’s interlocutor country, and of the general process of societal
and individual interaction; skills of interpreting and relating (ability to
interpret a document or event from another culture, to explain it and relate it
to documents from one’s own); skills of discovery and interaction (ability to
acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to
operate knowledge, attitudes and skills under the constraints of real-time
communication and interaction); critical cultural awareness / political
education (ability to evaluate critically and on the basis of explicit criteria
perspectives, practices and products in one’s own and other cultures and
countries)”2. These components are also clearly in line with the recognition
of general competences independent of any specific language.
109
These proposals might help create an organised, fluid and open space for
certifying intercultural competences. This space is organised because it
facilitates definition of levels of competence; it is fluid because it enables
people to move from one language to another, from one culture to another,
and from a specific culture to another language using the resources already
acquired in another language or culture; and it is open because validating an
intercultural competence does not necessarily involve validating a linguistic-
type competence of an equivalent level. This flexibility should set sufficient
transfers in motion to fuel a common area for exchanging intercultural
competences.
110
a brief definition of what is, in fact, an unbalanced competence, scratching
the surface of the complex link between plurilingual and pluricultural
competences: “multicultural profile configured differently from the
multilingual profile (eg good knowledge of the culture of a community
whose language one does not know well, or sketchy knowledge of the culture
of a community with whose dominant language one is nonetheless well
acquainted”. Other options still require practical treatment: a link-up with the
European Charter of Regional or Minority Languages1, whose dominant
objective is of a cultural nature, that is to say to promote regional or minority
languages as a threatened aspect of the European cultural heritage, notably by
easing the problem of minorities whose main distinctive feature is their
language2.
The Framework touches on the concept of social actor, but the learner
remains the principal reference point. While this latter term does indeed refer
to an actual reality, namely an ongoing learning process, it shuts the
individual into one specific role. This designation sidelines the examination
of identity issues, which involves recognising interests shared by all the
various cultural communities behind European diversity. Irrespective of any
kind of national belonging, the concept of social actor places the person in a
plural social environment and promotes a dynamic vision of his/her
competences. None of the experimental versions of the European Language
Portfolio invite the individual to record intercultural experiences, with the
apparent exception of My first Portfolio3 which comprises a section on “My
tastes” and “My friends”. In fact, this version adopts an extended view of
social relations in self-assessment of competences, and incorporates all kinds
of experience, whether they occur inside or outside schools or institutions.
111
- First of all, the Portfolio introduces a new concept into teaching:
personal experience. By identifying and gradually recording their
linguistic and cultural achievements, social actors shift the emphasis on
to an experience which cannot be reduced to mere school experience. If
they accept the rules, they set out not only their own language
biography but also their personal experience of Otherness. Discussions
have already begun on linking up this newly identified component of
the learning process with the more traditional ones1. These discussions
should be continued and lead to practical action.
112
Approaching intercultural competences and their evaluation presupposes
renouncing certain persistent and deeply-rooted irrational preconceptions.
Specific language levels do not necessarily have their corresponding cultural
levels. Proximity and distance between languages and cultures should be
gauged with reference not to the learner’s national culture but to criteria
independent of any specific national context, while incorporating personal
experience. In this spirit, proximity is defined in accordance with the socio-
historic footing of the languages and cultures in question, creating a common
linguistic or cultural heritage. It also depends on the social actor’s individual
experience. Measured by the yardstick of this socio-historic footing,
proximity does not mean easiness, since proximity too can be a source of
imposture.
While European Year of Languages (2001) was aimed at the general public,
this campaign did not explicitly embrace enhancement of cultural diversity,
even though this is the level at which teaching reform might be expected, as
the challenges relating to identity underlying the foundation of a citizens’
Europe are taken up. So by way of conclusion we would like to posit that the
field of intercultural competences must first be clearly identified before it can
be properly described, and would therefore like to mention both
communicative AND intercultural competences.
113
- introducing the symbolic dimension into didactic description so as to
take account of the complexity of identity-based functions: identities
sometimes passed over in silence, sometimes unveiled; use of an open
range of identity positions (local, regional, national, ethnic, linguistic,
European, international and other identities) which take account of the
successive readjustments prompted by individual experience of
transnational mobility; approaches to the Other that are reversible in
cases of transition from a situation of non-contact to one of actual
proximity;
- creating teaching tools that can flesh out the objectivation (intercultural
awareness): teaching resources functioning on the basis of linking up at
least three languages and three cultures; taking account of intercultural
expertise even without any corresponding linguistic competence; self-
evaluation of competences. The Portfolio is the existing tool most
conducive to this approach;
These suggestions for future work should help promote the movement and
recognition of intercultural competences, firstly by defining the object of a
transfer, secondly by augmenting transfer flows, and finally by guaranteeing
the reliability and openness of the objects of such exchange.
References
114
Benveniste, C.B., Valli A., 1997, “L’intercompréhension: le cas des langues
romanes”. In : Le Français dans le Monde. Paris: Hachette, janvier.
Dabène, L., Degache, C. (Dir.), 1996, “Comprendre les langues voisines”. In:
Études de Linguistique Appliquée. Paris: Editions Didier, octobre-
décembre. N°104.
115
Declaration and programme on education for democratic citizenship, based
on the rights and responsabilities of citizens, 1999, Strasbourg: Council
of Europe, DECS/ EDU/CIT (99) Decl E.
Gallissot, R., Kilani, M., Rivera, A., 2000, L’imbroglio ethnique. En quatorze
mots clés. Lausanne: Éditions Payot Lausanne.
Lo Bianco, J., Liddicoat, A.J., Crozet, C., 1999, Striving for the Third Place.
Melbourne: The National Languages and Institute of Australia.
Morgan, C., Cain, A., 2000, Foreign Language and Culture Learning from a
Dialogic Perspective. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
116
Schnapper, D., 1998, La relation à l’autre. Au coeur de la pensée
sociologique, Paris: Gallimard, (Collection NRF Essais).
van Ek, J.A., 1986, Objectives for Foreign Language Learning, Strasbourg,
Council of Europe, Volume 1, Scope.
117
118
DESCRIBING AND DEFINING INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE – INTERNATIONAL
PERSPECTIVES
Lynne Parmenter
Waseda University, Tokyo
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Purpose ......................................................................................................121
119
5. Summary....................................................................................................141
5.1 Alternative philosophical concepts and values .................................142
5.2 Alternative cultural-social-psychological concepts and values ........142
5.3 Alternative political-economic-historical concepts and values ........142
5.4 Alternative education concepts .........................................................143
5.5 Alternative alternatives .....................................................................143
References ..........................................................................................................144
120
1. Purpose
The aim of this paper is therefore to present alternative concepts and analyse
their implications for ICC in a non-European context. The danger in doing
this is that it is easy to succumb to simplistic stereotyping and over-
generalisation. To avoid this danger, I would like to make explicit the
assumptions which underlie the writing of this paper:
121
1. Most concepts are inherently present in the dominant philosophies and
practices of most cultures and societies.
2. Over history, many concepts have been adopted and adapted across
cultures and societies.
3. In the current age of globalisation and mass media, there is a constant
interplay of concepts and images among societies and cultures.
What this means is that the generalisations which have to be made in order to
write the paper should be approached with caution. To illustrate the above
points through just one example, Western individualism and Eastern
collectivism are often set up as dichotomous concepts upon which to base all
kinds of theories. As has been pointed out recently, however, Confucianism
(the main stronghold of collectivism) can be read as advocating individualism
(Inoue 1999), while a more collective perspective can be attributed to western
philosophy (Rosemont 1997). To identify one concept with one philosophy
and to ignore all the other concepts inherent in that philosophy is over-
simplistic (point (1) above). Furthermore, in both Europe and Asia, there has
been a significant ‘voyaging’ of concepts. Concepts of individualism are not
only inherent in Eastern philosophies and cultures, but have also been
imported to Asia over the past 400+ years by Western explorers,
missionaries, traders, teachers and so on. Similarly, ‘Eastern’ philosophies
and their associated concepts are themselves widely travelled. The concept of
collectivism attributed to Confucius’ teachings has travelled not only across
2500 years of history, but also across thousands of kilometres of land and
sea. Collectivism in Emperor Wudi’s China (140-87BC, when Confucianism
was a state doctrine) differs as a concept from collectivism in 10th century
Wang dynasty Korea, and again from collectivism in Tokyo in the year 2000
(point (2) above). Finally, the third point is a distinctive feature of
contemporary society. The development of commercial printing, followed by
radio and television, and now the Internet, means that people now have direct
access to concepts and to a multitude of interpretations of those concepts. As
Barker (1999: 59) argues, the globalisation of television has brought about a
dislocation of ‘culture’ (and concepts) from place, and has led to the
juxtapositioning of a variety of global discourses. The same process of
‘deterritorialization’ (Tomlinson 1999) of concepts and discourses applies to
other information and communications technology, particularly the Internet.
As a result, it is no longer possible to confine ‘collectivism’ to the East and
‘individualism’ to the West. On the contrary, both collectivism and
individualism are available as global discourses, to be negotiated and
renegotiated by individuals, organisations and societies in all areas of the
world (point (3) above).
122
Although it has to be accepted that all concepts exist (at least potentially) in
all cultures and societies, then, concepts may not be accorded the same value
in all cultures and societies. The meaning and degree of value or importance
attached to a particular concept may vary:
In this paper, the focus is on the first of these five variances, the meaning and
value accorded to concepts across regions (in this case, East Asia and
Europe). In order to do this, generalisations have to be made which
unfortunately ignore the subsequent four points. This fact should be borne in
mind throughout the rest of the paper.
123
2. Concepts of self in society
At the most basic level, the way in which a person sees himself/herself in the
society in which s/he lives affects the notion of intercultural communicative
competence. All communication is premised on assumptions of how people
see themselves and others, and the relationships between self and others.
Although these assumptions are to some extent shared in East Asia and
Europe, the following East Asian concepts may not be immediately familiar
to Europeans:
124
and fluid. This idea actually converges with Western postmodern theories of
multiple, shifting selves (Giroux 1997). Such theories of multiple identities
seem to be accepted implicitly in Council of Europe projects, where the
development of a European identity alongside existing national and other
identities is advocated, as in the following aim, taken from the project,
‘Language Policies for a Multilingual and Multicultural Europe’ (1997-
2000):
At the same time, the influence of ‘Western’ theories of self is also strong.
For example, university courses in educational philosophy and psychology,
as well as teacher employment examinations, usually focus predominantly on
the research and theories of Western philosophers and psychologists (e.g.
Kyouin shiken jouhou kenkyuukai 2000). An attempt to resolve this apparent
conflict of ‘selves’ is made by Lebra (1992), who proposes three types of
Japanese self: interactional, inner and boundless. The interactional self refers
to the dimension of self which is in direct contact with others in a social
125
context. The inner self (or kokoro, lit. trans. heart/mind) is more stable,
defined by Lebra as a basis of autonomy from the social world and as the
residence or shrine of the soul. The boundless self:
How does a fluid, shifting self manifest itself in interaction? Recent research
on Japanese ideas of self and identity emphasise the importance of situational
co-ordinates in defining the self or selves (Bachnik & Quinn 1994, Kondo
1990, Rosenberger 1992). The identification of situational co-ordinates has
varied over history. For example, in Tokugawa Japan, these co-ordinates
were prescribed, and people were categorised as a member of a family,
community and class. In the Meiji, pre-war and war period, the co-ordinates
were prescribed and people were seen as a member of the nation. In the post-
war years, the establishment of these co-ordinates has become the
responsibility of the individual. In a fragmented market of identity contexts,
some people seek these co-ordinates in the family or workplace, others in
traditional patterns, social groups or religions (Mathews 1996).
126
the ‘I’, the ‘you’ and the link between the two are merged into a single
process of ‘human relationship’. As Bachnik (1986: 51) perceives:
In terms of implications for describing and defining ICC, this point has
greater significance. Current descriptions of ICC are based on the premise
that an independent self can be developed which is then capable of
intercultural communication with others. In the scenario of a ‘pure’ East
Asian relational self, this is an impossibility, because the ‘other’ is an
essential prerequisite to forming the self. Without the relationship, the
intercultural self cannot be developed. In terms of assessment, too, the idea of
assessing an individual’s intercultural competence in isolation from an
intercultural relation would present difficulties.
127
meaning ‘I’ or ‘me’. Parallel sets of words in Japanese include tatemae (face)
and honne (real feelings) and omote (front, face) and ura (behind). All the
sets of words are used to express a differentiation between ‘inside’ or ‘in-
group’ and ‘outside’ or ‘out-group’ behaviour. Relating these concepts to
Lebra’s (1992) dimensions of self, outlined above, the soto, tatemae and
omote are equivalent to the ‘interactional self’. This is the dimension of self
and space which is activated in situations where a certain level of formality,
or self-boundedness, is required. On the other hand, Lebra’s ‘inner self’
relates to the uchi, honne and ura. This is the dimension which allows for
spontaneity and relaxation of self-restraint. Lebra’s ‘boundless self’ overrides
any distinction between the pairs of terms, entailing as it does disengagement
from such dichotomies. It should be noted, though, that the interactional self,
or soto, is considered just as real as the inner self, or uchi. Different
dimensions of self are appropriate to different situations and relations, but all
dimensions are equally ‘true’ and equally real.
Recent research on uchi and soto supports the idea that they are useful
concepts for understanding Japanese society, but stresses that the concepts
should be perceived as variable points on a continuum rather than opposing
dichotomies (Bachnik & Quinn (eds.) 1994). As Rosenberger (1994: 97)
points out:
Making a still life of soto and uchi contexts has its problems because
these are always fluid according to the perspective one takes. Like a
series of Chinese boxes, what is soto in relation to one uchi soon
becomes uchi in relation to a more public, detached level of soto.
128
An awareness of such distinctions is important for the purposes of describing
and defining ICC. The same basic principles of group identity and uchi and
soto govern concepts of self in East Asia and Europe. However, the
implications of group identity in governing behaviour and language within
and between groups is perhaps different. A recognition of these distinctions
of behaviour and language in the definition and description of ICC would
make it more applicable to contexts, such as in East Asia, where group
membership determines forms and content of interaction to a significant
degree.
129
literature (known as the nihonjinron, lit. trans. discussions of the Japanese
people) is concerned with proving and describing Japanese uniqueness, in
terms of ethnicity and culture. Nihonjinron writers lean heavily on the ethnic-
genealogical model of national identity, particularly through the assertion of
homogeneity theories. These theories of ethnic homogeneity are gradually
losing factual and ideological credibility in Japan (Oguma 1995, 1998), but
they are still supported by the government through such measures as
immigration policy (e.g. the rationale for the 1990 change in immigration law
which facilitated the immigration of third-generation Japanese from South
America) and education policy (the assumption in education policy
documents that all children in Japanese schools are Japanese born and bred).
Similar theories seem to play an important part in national identity
development in other East Asian countries. For example, Korean elementary
school children learn from the government textbook for social studies ‘the
fact that’ their country was founded by Tangun Wangom, who was the
grandchild of the gods (Korean Education Department 1997: 10).
Interestingly, an almost identical myth exists in Japanese Shinto beliefs, but
is not taught as part of the school curriculum.
Fifty-six stars,
Fifty-six flowers,
Fifty-six brothers and sisters are one family.
(People’s Education Press 1996)
In textbooks in China, Korea and Japan, the use of ‘we’ and ‘our’ as a
narrative style is striking in social studies and moral education textbooks,
especially at the elementary school level. Such narrative style plays its part in
effecting the explicit government policies of these nations to develop a
130
national, cultural identity through education (Monbusho 1998, OECD 1998).
This is the ‘in-group’ writ large.
In East Asia, there is a deep and widespread awareness of the world beyond
the nation. Globalisation and internationalisation are keywords of Asian
politicians, economists, policy-makers and ordinary people. Although
commodities (e.g. McDonalds hamburgers and Nike trainers), information
(e.g. world news and international sporting events) and principles (e.g.
human rights and democracy) have, to some extent, become common
currency, shared by people in Asia and America, Africa, Australasia and
Europe, their interpretation and use are often culture- and society-specific.
Although nation-states can no longer ‘opt out’ of the globalisation process –
any attempt to do so would probably result in political isolation and
economic starvation – they are not obliged to accept without question the
dominant discourses of internationalisation and globalisation. This leads to
what Featherstone (1995: 113) phrases “a plurality of national responses to
the process of globalisation”.
131
On the one hand, the increasing concern with ‘other cultures’ and with
global trends is to be greatly welcomed. The ‘internationalisation’ of
the curriculum appears, on the face of it, to be a strong step in the
direction of a concern with the global circumstance. On the other
hand, we must realise that in considerable part that step is predicated
on the proposition that countries which do not promote ‘international
education’ will suffer in economic and political terms in an
increasingly interdependent world. In other words, much of the drive
to ‘internationalise’ the curriculum is based on, or at least legitimised
in terms of, national or regional politico-economic self-interest.
132
If ICC is to be responsive to a variety of contexts, it needs to take account of
such national responses to the process of globalisation. ICC demands
knowledge of the world from various perspectives, and willingness to
question ones own assumptions and values. In a situation where national
education policy and curriculum responds to globalisation by filtering
knowledge of the world through a national lens, and endorsing it with
national attitudes, it will probably be difficult for teachers and students to
acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for developing ICC
fully.
The issue of how roles affect communication was touched upon in section 2.2
on group identities, where it was noted that group identity is often expected
to dominate over personal identity in interaction with outsiders. In this case,
the individual’s role as a member and representative of the group is more
salient than the individual’s personal characteristics and opinions. At this
point, the issue of roles becomes closely tied up with the issue of face,
defined as the assumptions made and maintained by interlocutors about each
other and about their relationship. Scollon & Scollon (1995: 36) point out
that the concept of face is more familiar to Asians than Westerners and that:
133
There is reason to believe that the “self” projected by Asians is …
more strongly under the influence of assumed or unmarked cultural
assumptions about face.
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disagree with or deny something verbally, and even 9/10-year old children
are adept at the usage of such communication styles.
Another factor which affects ICC within the framework of foreign language
education is the history and nature of foreign language education in Asia. In
most countries of Asia, English is either a second/official language or is the
first and/or only foreign language taught in schools. Most Asian countries are
multilingual and multicultural but, rather than sanction this situation through
education policy, as is happening in Europe, most countries opt for education
of and/or in English. English is also the accepted lingua franca of
communication within Asia. As Phillipson (1992: 47) stresses, however,
English is not neutral and “the dominance of English is asserted and
maintained by the establishment and continuous reconstitution of structural
and cultural inequalities between English and other languages”. The extent of
such social and cultural inequalities varies widely between Asian countries.
In the Philippines, for example, English is a basis for deciding access to
economic wealth and political power, whereas this is less marked in Japan
(Tollefson 2000: 13). Nevertheless, there is throughout Asia an ambivalence
regarding English. On the one hand, English is the key to economic and
educational success. On the other hand, it is the language of the coloniser.
While this coloniser no longer has a physical or political presence in most
regions, it lives on in historical memory, and is succeeded by cultural and
economic colonisation by the USA. In this respect, English in Asia can be
viewed now as in earlier times as ‘the eye of the colonial panopticon’
(Pennycook 1994: 103). It is for this reason that calls for ‘culture-free’
English language education receive widespread support in many parts of Asia
– the idea of the language as a tool for economic success without the cultural
baggage of dominance has appeal.
135
In terms of ICC, this ambivalence regarding the status of the foreign/second
language has significant repercussions. Firstly, the whole concept of needing
to include intercultural competence in foreign/second language education is
likely to be resisted by some people, who would prefer English to be, as far
as possible, a ‘pure’ tool of communication. Secondly, the definition and
description of ICC would need to take account of the deep ambivalence felt
towards English (and towards the second most popular foreign language in
Asia, Japanese, which shares the same associations of economic success and
colonial history in most of East Asia). Thirdly, the definition and description
of ICC needs to take into account the issue of the relative power of certain
languages (and people speaking those languages) vis à vis others. To assume
that all languages are politically and economically of equal status is of course
ideologically correct and may work in Europe, but it is a long way from
reflecting reality in most of Asia.
136
can be made about the influence of ancient philosophies on contemporary
individuals, it is probably that the Confucian emphasis on the value of
studying and learning continues to be subscribed to by the majority of
individuals in East Asia today. In fact, due to the present revival of
Confucian values, where Western-educated East Asian scholars are
reconstructing Confucianism in modern and post-modern contexts (Yao
2000: 260), this aspect has become even more significant, being used as an
explanation of East Asian educational achievement and commitment.
In terms of the content of learning, the emphasis in East Asia has traditionally
been on ‘knowledge that’ rather than ‘knowledge how’ (Ryle 1949). This
emphasis on ‘knowledge that’ has led to the domination of factual
information, memorisation and multiple choice entrance exams as the content
of education. In terms of political control, too, ‘knowledge that’ is easier to
control centrally than ‘knowledge how’, and most East Asian governments
publish very detailed education policies and curricula, and also operate
textbook-publication or textbook-authorisation systems, ensuring that the
knowledge acquired by students is the knowledge that the government wants
them to have.
137
new emphasis on creativity and thinking skills (Singapore Ministry of
Education 1998). In this process, East Asian governments are adopting and
adapting education theories and practices from the West, but are also turning
back to a re-analysis of Confucianism. As Yao (2000: 282) summarises:
Confucius said: “To study and not think is a waste. To think and not
study is dangerous.” (2:15)
Confucius said: “Is anyone incapable of following words of correct
instruction? But it is self-transformation according to it that is
important. Is anyone incapable of enjoying words of gentle advice? But
it is inquiring deeply into their meaning that is important. If I enjoy
without inquiring deeply, and follow without changing myself, how can
I say that I have understood?” (9:23).
138
transformation’. However, it may be worth remembering that current practice
in East Asian schools is still heavily biased towards the ‘knowledge that’. In
the present East Asian context, far more emphasis would be placed on
‘knowledge’ (savoirs) than the savoir-apprendre or savoir-faire aspects of
ICC, and that knowledge would probably need to be (or would be) much
more explicitly defined before being acceptable as an element of the school
curriculum.
Any discussion of ways of teaching and learning in East Asia has to take into
account not only educational philosophy but also the notions of relational
identities and roles (discussed in sections 2.2 and 3.1 above). Teacher roles
and student roles are clearly defined and are similar in classrooms throughout
East Asia. The teacher is clearly higher and the student lower hierarchically,
and this determines the language, behaviour and attitudes expected of each
party. Jin and Cortazzi (1998) summarise the roles of the teacher and student
in the East Asian classroom. In terms of learning, the teacher gives
knowledge, gives help and guides students. Students are attentive, take in
knowledge, and actively engage in learning mentally (but usually not
verbally). In terms of communication in the classroom, the teacher directs
communication, and students defer to and co-operate with the teacher’s
directions. As has been reported by many observers of East Asian
classrooms, then, the teacher is in charge of learning and students submit to
the teacher’s control.
Delving to a slightly deeper level, though, the issue is not just one of control
and authority. The role of the teacher in East Asia is to develop a deep human
relationship with each individual student, and to contribute to the lifelong
education of that individual. This ‘human relationship’ role derives from
Buddhist and Confucian teachings (Reagan 2000), and is prominent in
contemporary education theory. For example, in a report of their study of
Japanese probationary teachers, Shimahara & Sakai (1992: 157) remark on
the importance of:
139
ligature, and that developing it takes precedence over technical
competence in teaching.
In other words, the relationship between teacher and student comes before
methods and content of teaching. The student is also expected to contribute to
this relationship, and one of the aims of moral education in Japanese junior
high school, for example, is to “deepen a feeling of love and respect for
teachers” (Monbusho 1999: 55). It is only once this relationship is established
that teacher and students can embark upon the collaborative project of
learning. In fact, the relationship between teacher and student in East Asia
often outlasts classroom interaction by decades. In Hong Kong, for example,
students go to visit their former teachers to pay their respects at New Year. In
Japan, teachers are required to give speeches at the wedding ceremonies of
students they taught a decade or more earlier. At a more informal level,
students readily go to their former teachers for advice on life decisions, even
when they are already in their 20s or 30s.
The implications of this point for defining and describing ICC lie in the fact
that ICC is learner-based. The role of the teacher in European descriptions of
ICC is minimised, and this would make it less accessible in many non-
European contexts. Similarly, little attention is paid to the relationship
between teacher and students in the European context, whereas this is central
to the East Asian (as well as many other non-European) concept of ways of
teaching and learning.
In most East Asian societies, the role of education in the moral development
of the individual is seen as an integral and central function of the school. For
example, the Singapore Ministry of Education begins its ‘Desired Outcomes
of Education’ with the following statement:
140
Similar explicit ‘values’ statements can be found in the policy statements of
most East Asian nations and, indeed, are at the core of education policy in
these countries, as Yao (2000: 283) points out:
As far as definition and description of ICC are concerned, this is probably the
area in which ICC would fit even more easily into an Asian context than into
a European context. The concern with values and attitudes would be unlikely
to raise ethical concerns in many Asian contexts, but would be seen as adding
depth and meaning to the ICC project. The nature and content of specific
values and attitudes would differ, naturally, but the existence per se of a
moral and values dimension would probably be considered positively.
5. Summary
141
education. Obviously, such concepts span a wide range of academic
disciplines and discourses, and I would like to use this summary to regroup
alternative interpretations by discipline rather than by theme, in order to gain
another perspective on the issue.
142
with some of the richest and poorest nations in the world. Asia lives with
some of the most dangerous (because they have nuclear capability) politically
volatile nations of the world. Asia lives with dictators and military regimes,
monarchies, democracies and socialist states. Learning English in Asia is a
key to economic success, political power, cultural status. Learning Thai holds
no such promise. In Asia, there is no political, economic or historical
equality, and this reality is bound to have an effect on intercultural
communication at all levels. In this respect, the Euro-American accounts of
ICC, based as they are on principles of equality and
plurilingualism/pluriculturalism, bear little relation to Asian reality.
I would like to finish this paper by turning full circle and reiterating the point
I made at the beginning of the paper. The generalisations I have made are just
that – generalisations. Although they are commonly recognised as being
significant generalisations, they should not be taken as absolute. Across
cultures, within cultures and among individuals, there are wide variations. As
Confucius said:
People are similar by nature, but through habituation become quite
different from each other.
All generalisations can do is provide a few pointers in the grey area of culture
between people’s essential sameness (as human beings) and essential
differentness (as individuals), and that is all I have tried to do.
143
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