There is clearly a distinction being made between learning/teaching culture (a broad, rather amorphous thing) and developing ICC which is something predetermined and defined in terms of specific skills and knowledge (Locke, 2010). As Locke (2010) points out, there are gradations in culture learning....at the lowest point, there is the random imparting of certain facts that are contingent on the selected content in a textbook or lesson....further up the scale there is a more systematic introduction to students of certain knowledge about aspects of a target culture or cultures...and further up the scale there is the development of some version of ICC which has clearly been systematically thought through as a mix of skills, knowledge and attitudes that are primarily relational and transferable and NOT tied to a particular target culture...rather a set of tools to equip a student to negotiate critically their behaviour (including language behaviour) with someone from another cultural group (Locke, 2010). This study attempted to do practitioner research by undertaking the last of these, applying related theories of culture and ICC teaching and learning and learning motivation in curriculum/classroom practice.
In recent traditional EFL in mainland China, the major approach to equipping learners with ICC has been to provide them with some information about English-speaking countries such as Britain, America, Australia and New Zealand, information about the institutions of a society and their history, geography, customs and so on. However, as Byram (1994) notes, the mere acquisition of information about a foreign country is inadequate as a basis for
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education through foreign language teaching. Foreign language teaching should not concentrate on providing representations of other cultures, but on equipping students with tools of accessing and analysing any cultural practices and meanings they might encounter. Over the past fifty years, culture and ICC learning and teaching have been attracting the interest of foreign language teachers and much has been written about the role of culture in foreign language teaching. People involved in language teaching have come to understand the intertwined relation between culture and language teaching and the importance of ICC learning and teaching. Some scholars such as Jorstad (1981), Seelye (1981, 1994), Crawford- Lange and Lange (1984), Bredella (1992), Kramsch (1993), Risager (1993), Street (1993), Deardorf (2009), Paige (2000), Corbett (2003) and Byram (1988, 1997, 2008, 2009) have proposed models for integrating culture and language, and ICC learning, teaching and assessment. This study has largely drawn on usable aspects of Paige, Corbett and Byram in ICC learning and teaching.
According to Paige (1997), culture learning would include: (1) learning about the self as a cultural being; (2) learning about culture and its impact on human communication, behaviour, and identity; (3) culture-general learning, that is, learning about universal, cross-cultural phenomena such as cultural adjustment; (4) culture-specific learning, that is, learning about a particular culture, including its language, and learning how to learn, that is, becoming an effective language and culture learner.
The table below presents a more detailed model of culture learning, which is actually based on Byram‘s conceptual work on ICC. It formed the basis for the intervention implemented in an actual EFL classroom for culture and ICC knowledge learning and teaching in this study. Table 2.2: A Conceptual Model of Culture Learning (Paige, 2000, p. 7)
26 A. Knowledge
1. Culture-General: Intercultural Phenomena a. cultural adjustment stages
b. culture shock c. intercultural development d. culture learning e. cultural identity f. cultural marginality 2. Culture Specific
a. ―little c‖ target culture knowledge b. ―Big C‖ target culture knowledge c. pragmatics
d. sociolinguistic competence B. Behaviour
1. Culture General: Intercultural Skills a. culture learning strategies
b. coping and stress management strategies c. intercultural communicative competence c. intercultural perspective-taking skills d. cultural adaptability
e. transcultural competence
2. Culture Specific: Target Culture Skills
a. little ―c‖ culture—appropriate everyday behaviour b. Big ―C‖ culture—appropriate contextual behaviour C. Attitudes
1. Culture General
a. positive attitude toward different cultures b. positive attitude toward culture learning
c. ethnorelative attitude regarding cultural differences 2. Culture Specific
a. positive attitude toward target culture
b. positive attitude toward target culture persons
According to Paige et al (1999, 2003), the big ―C‖ domain represents a set of facts and statistics relating to the arts, history, geography, business, education, festivals and customs of a target speech society. It is easily seen and readily apparent to anyone. The little ―c‖ refers to the invisible and deeper sense of a target culture, that is, the mainstream socio-cultural variables such as age, gender and social status. The big ―C‖ is usually memorized by learners, while the small ―c‖ helps learners to understand how members of a particular group and community within a target language society use their language.
This model is complementary with that of Byram in some ways. Byram‘s ICC model (see Figure 2.2) describes the main characteristics of intercultural competence and proposes a
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prescriptive model for the guidance of teaching and assessment. However, it is more general and does not present a more detailed model of learning as Paige‘s model in table 2.2 does. On the other hand, Byram‘s model includes consideration of the locations where ICC is acquired and there are three categories: classroom, fieldwork and independent learning, each of which is differently linked to the objectives of the model. Paige‘s model doesn‘t do this, so for the intervention I referred to I applied usable aspects of both models. Also, I did a more detailed plan, relating aspects and objectives of both models to the implementation of the intervention including teaching content, teaching resources, teaching methods, class activities and teaching media, and then putting it into practice and integrating it into the curriculum and classroom. In addition, these were all done also on the basis of learning motivation theories (see Section 2.4) of Akram (2007), Dörnyei (1994, 1990), Gardner (2005), Noels, Pelletier & Vallerand (2000), Winke (2005), Oxford & Sharin (1994), Deci & Ryan (1985), Bandura & Schunk (1981), Clement & Kruidenier (1985), Clement & Dornyei (2001), Tavani & Losh (2003). Up till now, it seems, there has been little theory focusing on guiding teachers in detail to systematically plan and integrate the teaching of ICC into the EFL Curriculum/Classroom to promote students‘ learning motivation and confidence in ICC. According to Byram (1997), it is dangerous to present a culture as if it were unchanging over time or as if there were only one set of beliefs, meanings and behaviours in any given country. In terms of culture learning, Street (1993) also emphasizes the dynamic nature of the relationship between culture and language learning. He notes that culture and language learning involve a dynamic relationship between the situation and the actors in which cultural context, prior experience, and other factors come into play. Since culture is dynamic and variable, culture and ICC learning/teaching is inevitably dynamic and developmental. As Paige (2000) states, it is an ongoing process in which the learner is engaged cognitively, behaviourally, and affectively. So culture and ICC learning and teaching should be treated as dynamic and variable while being taught in language classrooms.
In addition, context is one of the central theoretical concepts for language and culture learning. It should be emphasized. Paige (2000) stresses: ―For language and culture learning, context is an overarching concept which subsumes many other variables including: the setting; the teacher; the learner; instructional methods; instructional materials; and assessment approaches‖ (p. 12).
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Culture learning is the process of acquiring the culture-specific and culture-general knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for effective communication and interaction with individuals from other cultures. It can be said that the learning goals of culture shift from the memorization of cultural facts (including sociolinguistic conventions for language use) to higher order learning outcomes including: the acquisition of interactional competence (Paige, 2000, p. 4).
This is in accord with Byram‘s theory of ICC learning and implies that integrating culture into language learning means preparing students to be effective culture learners. To achieve this, language teachers must offer students learning strategies ranging from reflective observation to active experimentation with ICC in the context of the classroom. Most important of all, language teachers must let students know how to learn from the context while immersed in it. That is to say, learn how to learn.
Although Paige notes that the learning goals of ICC are to acquire interactional competence, which is true and applicable to my study, his model, in my opinion, is limited compared to that of Byram which covers more profound and broader aspects and puts emphasis on the acquisition of skills and attitudes as well as knowledge, and on critical cultural awareness which ensures that language teaching has a broader critical function. In addition, Byram‘s model proposes an attainable ideal, the intercultural speaker, and includes educational objectives. It has an educational dimension, including specifications of locations of learning and of the roles of the teacher and it can be a model for the acquisition of ICC in an educational context, since the specified objectives can be used in planning teaching and assessment. This study referred to Byram‘s model and the specified objectives (see next section) when the teaching and assessment intervention was planned.
Similarly, according to Corbett (2003), culture learning and teaching should be moved from the margin to the centre He points out:
The intercultural approach differs from earlier approaches to teaching culture by moving intercultural knowledge and skills centre-stage, and making them an integral part of the curriculum. This means adopting strategies from ethnography as well as linguistics, and defining, teaching and testing intercultural knowledge and skills, as well as language skills. (p. 30)
This statement is actually redefining the aims of language education to acknowledge ICC as the ultimate goal. It has implications for the design of this study‘s intervention, in which the teaching and learning all centred on the development of students‘ ICC, including curriculum
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design, teaching content, selection of teaching materials, teaching methods, class activities and so on. The learning and teaching design focused on the systematic development of some ICC, skills, knowledge and attitudes that are primarily relational and transferable and not necessarily tied to a particular target culture. It attempted to equip students with a set of tools to negotiate critically their behaviour (including language behaviour) with people from another cultural group.