Praktikum - Grundvig Lernpartnerschaft
Helena Buss
Helena Buss - Input on 4th October 2011
My definition/understanding of values
(values) principles or standards of behaviour; one’s judgement of what is
important in life: they internalize their parents' rules and values
Source: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/value [accessed 29.09.2011]
Important and enduring beliefs or ideals shared by the members of a culture
about what is good or desirable and what is not. Values exert major influence on
the behavior of an individual and serve as broad guidelines in all situations.
Source: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/values.html [accessed
29.09.2011]
Yes, values does influence the teaching and learning of another language.
Values …. determine which questions will be asked, which topics will be selected
for discussion, and which methods will be employed to teach
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trainer values:
o classroom rules, e.g. length of break, etc.
o trainer expectations,
o cross-cultural issues, e.g. 1st names
o values reflected in material,
o testing/assessment
o diversity in the classroom, trainer’s values will influence how she/he
work with it.
participant values
Native vs. non-native
Linguistic Awareness of Cultures - LAC-grid
“Linguistic awareness of cultures means the following: all cultural
differences are ‘hidden’ in linguistic manifestations. These expressions of
cultural difference are found in all languages and they can be classified in
different grammatical and lexical categories or even be expressed nonverbally. They are presented in culture-specific explicit or implicit forms by
both speakers and listeners. This further means that there is a source of
mutual misunderstanding, when these linguistic indicators or
manifestations are not perceived by the interactors.” (Müller, in prep.)
o Social meanings / Lexicon
“From a cognitive-psychological point of view ‘social meaning’ and
‘lexicon’ are taken to indicate that co-participants use words to
express social representations and to evoke these in others. Such
patterns of mental imagery, here also termed concepts, are
distinctly culture specific.”
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Helena Buss
o Speech act and speech act sequences
“Speaking is an activity by which we can perform activities and
manifest certain behaviour intentions. Frequently, we cannot
unambiguously distinguish between a behaviour intention and its
realization through verbal and non-verbal expressions even in our
mother tongue. In intercultural situations this becomes a very
complex problem” (Knapp/Knapp-Potthoff 1990).
o Organization of Conversation: Conventions of Discourse
“The communicative structure of everyday situations and work
interactions is language and culture-specific. Discourse parameters e.g. the structural organization of a meeting or the establishment of
individual phases of discussions (such as the introduction of a
situation specific conversation pattern, the length of concluding
remarks, and the use of argument/counter-argument) - are all
subject to culture-bound conventions. At a micro level, this is clearly
reflected in the routines of turn-taking.”
o Choice of Topic
“Different cultures have specific rules for the choice of topics. These
have to do with which topics are considered taboo topics (Schröder
1997, 96ff) and at which point others can be chosen in certain
situations.”
o Directness/indirectness
“Comparative studies, e.g. between German and Swedish, may
reveal that German speakers are direct and Swedish speakers are
indirect in expressing their communicative intentions. However,
most comparative approaches fail to mention that such statements
must be seen in relative terms, because a number of e.g. Asian
speakers would describe the Swedes as being very direct. To be
more precise, the above statement should be: Compared to many
Germans, many Swedish speakers are less direct in expressing their
communicative intentions. This does not mean that their intentions
are not expressed clearly enough, but simply that they make use of
certain conventionalized contextualizers (Gumperz 1992), which
speakers from the same culture can as a rule easily interpret as
indicators of these intentions. Communication is severely impeded
if, as a German, one is used to receiving more explicit contextual
clues, or if, as any non-native speaker of Swedish, one is not able to
fully and correctly interpret these contextualizers.
Example:
Many foreign businessmen find the German way of expressing
rejection/disagreement explicitly very unusual. French businessmen,
for example, criticize Germans for not making enough of an effort to
phrase disagreements in a form more acceptable to the French, e.g.
by making use of modals or subjunctive phrases and particles.”
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Helena Buss
o Register
“Register is probably the most complicated category of interaction in
intercultural situations. ‘Register’ denotes ‘functional varieties of
speech’ (Scherfer 1977), i.e. alternative formulations that
interactors use depending on
the situation (from very ritualized to informal);
the status of the person being addressed;
the age of those present;
their rank;
their gender; and finally,
the level of speech (formal - informal) chosen by the coparticipants.”
o Para verbal factors
“Languages are clearly distinctive in the rhythm their speakers use,
the volume, word and sentence stress, speech rate, intonation or
division (number and length of pauses).”
o Nonverbal means of expression
“Possibly even more important than messages conveyed by words
are non-verbal messages imparted by facial expressions, gestures,
degree of proximity, or eye-contact. A general rule of
communication seems to be that non-verbal forms of expression are
taken more seriously than verbal ones. However, since the actual
form of expression of non-verbal messages differs from one culture
to another, we should point out the danger of misinterpretations.”
o Culture-specific values / attitudes
“The concept of ‘culture standards’ developed by A. Thomas over
the past few years (1991, 1996). Such standards serve to explain
culture-bound behaviour. In a new definition of the term, Thomas
includes the fact that in concrete behavioural contexts such value
orientations are adjusted interactively. Accordingly, their function is
restricted as follows:
„In such [intercultural] contact situations the participants do not
only perform and confront each other with actions bound to culture
standards; rather - in an interactive process - they create, test and
agree on the definition of new forms of culture (cultural events of
meeting, problem solving, cooperation).“ (Thomas/Schenk 1996,
25)“
o Culture-specific behaviour (including rituals) and behaviour
sequences
One form of understanding that which is foreign in every-day life is
based upon isolating individual perceived actions or situations and
evaluating them in a context-neutral way. Surveys and interviews
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Praktikum - Grundvig Lernpartnerschaft
Helena Buss
have revealed a number of repeatedly mentioned types of behaviour
that are used as situational evidence for fundamental value
orientations / culture standards. Germans are regularly confronted
with such individual observations in intercultural situations, which is
why these should be included in training programs.
Trainees should be warned, however, against drawing any causal
conclusions from such a selection of ‘typically German’ (from a
foreigner’s point of view) behaviour or behaviour omissions. Too
many people tend to employ a strategy of processing foreign
experiences by reducing them to single aspects or isolated actions
and then making a causal connection between them and generalized
value orientations that are sometimes garnished with historical
flavouring.
For example:
It is obvious that the Germans bow to authority, because - even as
pedestrians - they stop when the light is red. Just like the Prussian
‘Strammstehen’ (Attention!).
Source: Linguistic Awareness of Cultures (Grundlagen eines Trainingsmoduls)
Bernd Müller-Jacquier, aus: Bolten, Jürgen (ed.) (2000).
The benefit:
“Culture in language learning is not an expendable fifth skill, tacked on, so to
speak, to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. It is always in
the background, right from day one, ready to unsettle the good language
learners when they expect it least, making evident the limitations of their hardwon communicative competence, challenging their ability to make sense of the
world around them.”
Source: C. Kramsch, Context and culture in language teaching
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