Transcript Culture and identity through ELF in Asia: fact or fiction?

ELF 3 – Vienna
Intercultural awareness:
an approach to teaching
language and culture in
ELF
Will Baker
Language and culture in ELF
 Increased significance of the cultural
dimension of language teaching/use,
especially in ELT (e.g. Kramsch, 1993;
Byram, 1997; Risager, 2007)
 However, many of these models are based
on the notion of a ‘target culture’ for
language (UK/USA)
 Expansion of English in global contexts as a
lingua franca problematises a target culture
 “the goals of traditional language teaching
have been found wanting in this new era of
globalisation. Its main tenets (monolingual
native speakers, homogeneous national
cultures, pure standard national languages,
instrumental goals of education, functional
criteria of success) have all become
problematic in a world that is increasingly
multilingual and multicultural” (Kramsch
2009: 190)
Language and culture
Problematic with global languages such as
English – what is the culture that English
creates or enacts?
 Is culture inevitably linked to a target
culture (e.g. the UK or US)? (e.g. Whorf,
1939; Byram, 1997; Wierzbicka, 1997) ?
 Is English used as a lingua franca culturally
neutral? (Kirkpatrick 2007; House 2002;
2003; Meierkord 2002)?
Language and culture in ELF
 “Languages and intercultural communication are never just neutral” –
Phipps and Guilherme (2004: 1)
 Languages and cultures are not inexorably linked at the level of
‘national’ conceptions.
 While participants bring individual lingua-cultural histories, the
relationship is situated; created in each instance of communication.

Culture in intercultural communication and ELF
– Third places/ Third spaces (Kramsch, 1993; 2009; Meierkord,2002;
Jenkins, 2006)
– Liminality (Rampton, 1995)
– The local and the global (Canagarajah, 2005; Pennycook, 2007)
– Trans-cultural flows (Dewey, 2007; Risager, 2006; Pennycook, 2007)
 There is no one culture of ELF but emergent, hybrid and fluid cultures
(Baker, 2009)
How are such multifarious communicative
practices undertaken?
 “…it may turn out that what is distinctive about ELF lies in
the communicative strategies that its speakers use rather
than in their conformity to any changed set of language
norms.” (Seidlhofer and Widdowson, 2009: 37-38)
 For models of successful communicators in ELF we need to
look at the strategies of multilingual communicators
(Canagarajah, 2005; 2007; Kramsch, 2009)
 This goes beyond knowledge of a single variety of English
and the associated mastery of a fixed grammar, lexis and
phonology
 Instead need to also incorporate skills and knowledge such
as accommodation, code switching, cooperation,
negotiation, cultural and linguistic awareness (see for
example Cogo, 2009; Cogo and Dewey, 2006; Jenkins,
2007; Kirkpatrick, 2007)
Intercultural awareness
 Intercultural awareness is a conscious
understanding of the role culturally based
forms, practices and frames of reference can
have in intercultural communication, and an
ability to put these conceptions into practice in
a flexible and context specific manner in real
time communication.
Intercultural awareness - Level 1
 An awareness of:
1. culture as a set of shared behaviours,
beliefs, and values.
2. the role culture and context play in any
interpretation of meaning.
3. our own culturally induced behaviour,
values and beliefs and the ability to
articulate this.
4. others’ culturally induced behaviour,
values and beliefs and the ability to
compare this with our own culturally
induced behaviour, values and beliefs.
Intercultural awareness – level 2
An awareness of:
5. the relative nature of cultural norms.
6. cultural understanding as provisional and open
to revision.
7. multiple voices or perspectives within any
cultural grouping.
8. individuals as members of many social
groupings including cultural ones.
9. common ground between specific cultures as
well as an awareness of possibilities for
mismatch and miscommunication between
specific cultures.
Intercultural awareness – level 3
An awareness of:
10. culturally based frames of reference, forms and
communicative practices as being related both
to specific cultures and also as emergent and
hybrid in intercultural communication.
11. initial interaction in intercultural communication
as provisionally based on cultural stereotypes or
generalisations but an ability to move beyond
these through:
12. A capacity to negotiate and mediate between
different emergent socioculturally grounded
communication modes and frames of reference
based on the above understanding of culture in
intercultural communication.
Implementing ICA in the ELT
classroom
 Exploring local cultures – different local and national cultural
groupings, cultural groupings that cut across nations
 Exploring language learning materials – images of cultures in text
books both local and others
 Exploring the traditional media and arts through English – film,
TV, radio, newspapers, novels, and magazines
 Exploring IT/electronic media through English – the Internet, email, chatrooms, instant messaging – tandem learning
 Cultural informants – non-local English speaking teachers and
local English teachers with experience in other cultures
 Face to face intercultural communication (often with NES
teachers)
In conclusion
 ELF research highlights the inappropriateness of a
‘language=culture=nation’ correlation for English
 This does not entail that ELF is culturally neutral
 The relationship between language and culture in ELF is
emergent, liminal and fluid moving between the local, national
and global
 Such an understanding of language and culture in globalised
societies is a necessary part of intercultural communication
 The language classroom is an ideal multilingual environment
in which to explore such issues of globalisation,
multilingualism and intercultural communication
 ICA offers a means of conceptualising the knowledge, skills
and attitudes needed for successful intercultural
communication and of incorporating this into the language
classroom
Thank You
E-mail:[email protected]
References
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