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Workshop Intercultural Awareness

M. Strasser

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● Culture is ...

● Two theories of culture

● Intercultural communication and differences "Rich points" in intercultural communication

● Stereotypes

● Culture shock – cultural sensitivity

Culture is …

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● … ??

● 'Culture' vs. 'culture'

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(1) Iceberg theory of culture (Hall 1976)

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What makes me unique? – Disadvantages of the iceberg theory

● At the beginning of the 21st century […] the comparison of differences between one native and one foreign culture, seen as stable spaces o the map and permanent in time seems too reductionist. Such a view of intercultural communication research dosen’t reflect the complexities of a post-colonial, global age in which people live in multiple, shifting spaces and partake of multiple identities often in conflict with one another […] In a few years the traditional binary tradition of Us vs Them in intercultural communication will be replaced by the notion that in a networked, interdependent world the Other is in Us and We are in the Other. Claire Kramsch (2001: 2005): Intercultural communication

(2) The „rucksack“ model of culture

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● Culture as one‘s personal luggage

Intercultural communication

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● "Communication is culture and culture is communication." Edward Hall: The Silent Language (1959; 169)

"Hotspots"/"Rich points" in intercultural communication

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● […] some things that come up strike you with their difficulty, their complexity, their inability to fit into the resources you use to make sense out of the world. These things—from lexical items through speech act up to extensive stretches of discourse—are called rich points (Agar, 1991). Rich points are rich because of the intricate web of associations and connotations that they carry with them, webs that have no corresponding echoes in your own language. Rich points […] are the linguistic tip of the cultural iceberg, the locations in discourse where major cultural differences are signalled. Agar: The intercultural frame (1994, 231f.)

Hotspots (Heringer, 2012) Example: invitations

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● Invitation?

● Accepting/rejecting invitations

● Gift?

● Which kind of gift?

● Which kind of invitation?

● When is it OK to come? When to leave?

● …

Think of other hotspots. What do you have to consider?

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A few hotspots

Cultural differences likely to cause miscommunication

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● Pronunciation, vocabulary / lexical semantics, …

● Paraverbal (intonation, rhythm, speech volume, pauses)

● Discourse conventions (e.g. small talk)

● Topics/taboos

● Register (formal/informal): situation, age, gender, …

● Nonverbal (gestures, facial expression, eye contact)

● Communicative stile (direct – indirect, verbal – nonverbal; turn-taking)

● Culture-specific attitudes: space, time, individualism – collectivism, religion

● Culture-specific acts: rituals (e.g. handshake)

Juliane House (1999: 82): Sensitivity training

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● Be alert to signals of misunderstanding.

● Ask whether you have understood something correctly. Try to clarify problems immediately.

● Try to "repair" misunderstandings without causing your dialogue partner to lose face.

● Be flexible! Be prepared to re-interpret utterances/situations that may have been misunderstood.

● Switch to another language.

● Don't assume that you are being understood.

A questionnaire

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● Peter: ● envious – stubborn – sceptical – impulsive – hard-working –

intelligent ● Mike: ● intelligent – hard-working – impulsive – sceptical – stubborn –

envious ● Would you like to have him as a friend? ● Would you like to work with him in a team? ● Would you like to be in the same sports team? ● In your opinion, is Peter rather likeable or unlikeable? ● Please rate on a scale: Peter is … ● 1 = very well-liked … 5 = very unpopular Adapted from Losche/Püttker (2009: 181f.)

Sterotypes

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● Walter Lippmann: Public opinion (1922) "pictures in our heads"

● "A natural function of the human and cultural mind" (Nachbar and Lause, 1992)

● "A set of shared convictions / beliefs about members of a particular group" (Leyens et al., 1994; Smith and Bond, 1994)

Stereotypes - prejudices

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● Two examples:

● http://www.intomobile.com/2010/11/04/how-iphone-android-and-blackberry-users-see-each-other/

● http://www.libartslondon.co.uk/10048/stereotypes/

Stereotypes – prejudice – discrimination

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● Katz/Braly (1933): stereotypes: cognitive; prejudices: affective aspect of human attitudes to groups of people.

● Allport: The nature of prejudice (1979): "premature judgment without sufficient warrant"

● Doyé: The intercultural dimension (1999, 49): discrimination: "prejudice in action"; "any conduct based on a distinction made on grounds of natural or social categories, which have no relation either to indivudual capacities or merits, or to the concrete behaviour of the individual person" (UN Publications 1949)

Culture shock

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Integration Denial

Defense

Minimization Acceptance

Adaptation

Developmental model of intercultural sensitivity (M. J. Bennett):

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References

● Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.

● Bennett, Milton J: The developmental model of intercultural sensitivity . http://www.afsusa.org/schools/global-classroom/spring-2011/intercultural-sensitivity/ .

● Berardo, Kate/Deardorff, Darla K. (2012): Buildung cultural competence. Innovative activities and models. Sterling: Stylus Publishing.

● Doyé, Peter (1999): The intercultural dimension. Foreign languge education in the primary school. Berlin: Cornelsen.

● Hall, Edward T. (1959): The silent language. New York et al.: Anchor Books.

● Heringer, Hans Jürgen (2012): Interkulturelle Kompetenz. Tübingen: Narr,

● House, Juliane (1999): Kontrastive Pragmatik und interkulturelle Kompetenz im Fremdsprachenunterricht. In: Börner/Vogel (eds.): Kontrast und Äquivalenz. Beiträge zu Sprachvergleich und Übersetzung. Tübingen: Narr, 62-88.

● Kramsch, Claire (2010): CERCLL 2010 conference. Video. Available at: https://itunes.apple.com/at/podcast/symbolic-dimension-intercultural/id413137084?i=90184842&mt=2.

● Kramsch, Claire (1998): Language and culture. Oxford: OUP.

● Kramsch, Claire (2001): Intercultural communication. In: Carter/Nunan (eds.): Teaching English to speakers of other languages. Cambridge: CUP, 201-206.

● Kramsch, Claire (2006): From communicative competence to symbolic competence. In: The Modern Language Journal, 90(2), 249-252.

● Lippmann, Walter (1992): Public opinion. Available at: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6456.

● Losche, Helga/Püttker, Stephanie (2009): Interkulturelle Kommunikation. Theoretische Einführung und Sammlung praktischer Interaktionsübungen. Augsburg: Ziel.

● Stangor, Charles (ed.) (2000): Stereotypes and prejudice. Essential readings. Philadelphia: Psychology Press.