Teaching Culture Session 9

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Questions and Answers

What is the primary focus of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICCC)?

Abandoning one's own cultural identity

Understanding of another country's history

Mastery of a specific language

Awareness of one's own cultural imprint and engagement with other cultures (correct)

According to Byram, what is the process of understanding other cultures called?

Assimilation

De-centring (correct)

Cultural Imprinting

Acculturation

What is the key aspect of intercultural learning, as opposed to language learning?

Understanding another language

Understanding another country's politics

Understanding another belief system (correct)

Understanding another culture's customs

According to Roland Posner, which dimension of culture refers to codes such as ideas, values, and conventions?

Mental culture Signup and view all the answers

What was the main focus of Landeskunde/Regional Studies in the late 19th Century?

Studying a foreign culture from the point of 'us' and our culture Signup and view all the answers

What is the ultimate goal of intercultural learning, as opposed to language learning?

Intercultural speaker Signup and view all the answers

What is the main limitation of the 'culture as a trait' approach?

It implies that culture is fixed and unchangeable Signup and view all the answers

What is the term for the knowledge of social groups and their cultures in one's own country, and similar knowledge of the interlocutor's country?

Knowledge dimension Signup and view all the answers

What is the main difference between the old and new understanding of culture?

The old understanding saw culture as fixed, while the new understanding sees it as dynamic Signup and view all the answers

What does the prefix 'inter' in intercultural learning imply?

Between separate cultures Signup and view all the answers

What is the significance of the 'iceberg model' in intercultural didactics?

It represents the different levels of cultural awareness Signup and view all the answers

What is the main goal of teaching culture in the classroom according to the new understanding of culture?

To make cultures accessible to students and highlight their complexity Signup and view all the answers

What aspect of cultural knowledge involves factual information about a culture?

Factual knowledge of facts and figures Signup and view all the answers

Which skill dimension involves establishing relationships between people of different origins and identities?

Discovering and interacting Signup and view all the answers

What is the ability to recognise significant phenomena in a foreign environment and to elicit their meanings and connotations?

The skill of discovery Signup and view all the answers

What is involved in the complex interplay of the attitudinal dimension?

Decentring and suspension of belief Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary focus of the 'relating' skill dimension?

Relating a document from the target culture to a similar document from the source culture Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT an aspect of cultural knowledge?

Linguistic competence Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary aim of using critical incidents in developing ICC?

To dismantle stereotypes and promote cultural sensibility Signup and view all the answers

What is a limitation of focusing on 'self' and 'other' in ICC development?

It leads to stereotyping Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of transcultural identities?

They are influenced by multiple cultural and collective groups Signup and view all the answers

What is a benefit of using simulation games in ICC development?

They create a safe space for experimenting with cultural interactions Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary aim of Global Education?

To enable young people to become responsible global citizens Signup and view all the answers

What is a feature of cultural complexity, as described by transculturality?

Internal differentiation and interconnectedness of cultures Signup and view all the answers

What is a challenge in understanding ICC, as highlighted by the criticism of ICC?

The tension between individual and collective identities Signup and view all the answers

What dimension of the Five-Dimensional Model of ICC is concerned with personal involvement for a better world?

Action Signup and view all the answers

What is the focus of Education for Sustainable Development?

To empower students to contribute to sustainable development Signup and view all the answers

Which principle of Cultural Learning emphasizes the importance of moving from canonical knowledge to exemplary knowledge?

From canonical knowledge to exemplary knowledge Signup and view all the answers

What is the ultimate goal of Global Learning?

To enable students to become responsible global citizens Signup and view all the answers

What is the focus of intercultural learning, as opposed to language learning?

To acquire cultural knowledge and understanding Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Concepts of Culture

Culture can be viewed as an iceberg, with three dimensions: mental culture (codes, ideas, values, conventions), social culture (code users, individuals, society, social groups, institutions), and material culture (texts, artefacts)
Culture was previously seen as:
- A trait (unchangeable)
- A nation (e.g. Germans, Americans)
- 'High culture' (shaped by education, academic positions, taste)
- Something that can be studied (recipes for dealing with people from certain cultures)
Now, culture is seen as:
- A state (open, dynamic, fluid, hybrid)
- Not bound to arbitrary national borders
- 'c' (subcultures, youth culture, pop culture, values, symbol systems, perceptions, social institutions)
- Something that can be observed (people are individuals with collective cultural identity and individual identity)

From Landeskunde to ICC

Landeskunde/Regional Studies (late 19th Century):
- Nationalistic
- Cognitive, knowledge-oriented
- Teaching 'useful facts'
- Studying a foreign culture from the point of 'us' and our culture (separation of us and them)
Shift to Intercultural Learning (1980s):
- Communicative competence must be included (intercultural communicative competence)
- Ability to communicate and interact with people who speak a different language and come from a different cultural background
- Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICCC): intercultural competence and communicative competence
Intercultural Communicative Competence:
- Prefix 'inter': between (separate) cultures
- Sharing information and negotiating meaning across different cultural and social groups
- Awareness of our own cultural imprint and of the foreign cultural imprint (dialectic between 'self' and 'other')
- Ability to interpret and understand other cultures in a process called de-centring (Byram)
- Engaging with 'other cultures' in respectful and empathetic ways

Intercultural Learning

Understanding another culture involves understanding another belief system (not just another language)
Byram's influential five-dimensional model of ICC:
- Knowledge dimension:
  - Knowledge about social groups and their cultures in one's own country and similar knowledge of the interlocutor's country
  - Knowledge of the processes of interaction at individual and societal level
  - Conscious and emblematic knowledge (e.g. overt meanings such as dress or modes of greeting)
  - Factual knowledge of facts and figures (previously Landeskunde)
- Skill dimensions:
  - Interpreting and relating
    - Applied to documents in the widest possible sense
    - Relating a document from the target culture to a similar document from the source culture
  - Discovering and interacting:
    - Concrete social interaction or staying/living in a foreign cultural context
    - Recognising significant phenomena in a foreign environment and eliciting their meanings and connotations
    - Establishing relationships, being a mediator between people of different origins and identities
    - Drawing on existing cultural and linguistic competences to keep a communicative interaction alive
- Attitudinal dimension:
  - Attitudes of curiosity and openness
  - Willingness to suspend belief in one's own meanings and behaviours, and to analyse them from the viewpoint of the others with whom one is engaging

Methods of Teaching and Developing ICC

Cultural readings of literature, film, images, and non-fictional texts as carrier of cultural content or information
Critical incidents:
- A typical situation where representatives of different cultures interact with each other and misunderstandings, confusions or conflicts occur
- Aims: theoretical knowledge about different cultures, dismantling of stereotypes, cultural sensibility
Role plays
Simulation games
Face-to-face or virtual/online encounters

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Description

Explore the concepts of culture, including the iceberg model and three dimensions of culture. Learn about different perspectives on culture, including culture as a trait and culture as a nation.