Developing Cross-Cultural Understanding through Dialogue

PAC3atJALT
2001
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International
ConferenceCentreKitakyushu
JAPAN
November
22-25, 2001

Kazuyoshi Sato
Nagoya University of Foreign Studies
Brian Cullen
Nagoya Institute of Technology
As we enter the 21st century, the significance ofunderstanding cultural diversity increases. Cross-cultural
understanding develops in situations which requirenegotiation of meaning and identity in the context ofanother culture. In our presentation, we showed how
students can achieve negotiation and develop cross-cultural
understanding through dialogue in culture-based courses.
We also demonstrated effective techniques for facilitating
dialogue in class and illustrated this dialogue with students’voices from action logs. We conclude that developing crosscultural understanding entails redefining both the native andtarget cultures in each learner’s mind through interactions ina collaborative classroom environment.
21世紀を迎え、異文化理解の重要性はますます高まっている。異文化理解の能力は、新たな文化に触れ、自分自身の価値観を問い直すことによって発達する。本稿では、特に、我々の学生が授業の中でどのように異文化理解を深めていくのかに焦点をあてる。さらに、具体的な例として、授業で使った教室活動及び学生のコメントを紹介する。結論として、異文化理解の発達には、協力的な学習環境の中で、学生がお互いに学び合い、自国と他国の文化を見つめ直すことが不可欠であると主張する。

SATO & CULLEN: DEVELOPING CROSS-CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING THROUGH DIALOGUE

E

ver increasingly, as people from different cultures
come into contact, tensions can arise in theform of misunderstandings, discrimination, andpolitical conflicts. At the root of most of these tensions
lies a lack of understanding of one’s own culture and thatof others. In this paper, we will report how our JALT
2001 presentation and our classroom research has caused
us to focus on dialogue as the best means of developingcross-cultural understanding.

others and internal dialogues with ourselves. The best
expression of this idea was in the work of the Russian
psychologist, Vygotsky. In the words of Radzikhovskii(cited in Cheyne and Tarulli):
For Vygotsky, dialogue was the concrete,
psychological equivalent of the social nature of
the mind, i.e., the totality of all social relations
constituting the human essence. Thus, dialogue
characterizes the human mind and consciousness.

The Importance of Dialogue

Dialogue and Cultural Understanding

Many readers are probably familiar with the SapirWhorf hypothesis which suggested that thought isconstrained by language. In other words, people ofdifferent cultures think in different ways because ofdifferent languages. Although this strong form of
the hypothesis has been criticized, the Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis is still relevant for models of culturalunderstanding. However, today it is usually stressedthat a person’s language does not set limits to “whatpeople can think or perceive”, but influences “whatthey routinely do think” (Kramsch, 1998, p. 14, italics
original).
The thoughts that we have and our identity are
created through the use of language in our socialrelationships with others; i.e. through dialogue. Indeed,
we are constantly renegotiating our own identity
through our use of language in external dialogues withIf people are suddenly exposed to an unknown culture,especially through the medium of a foreign language, theunfamiliar dialogue can lead to tensions as the familiar
structures of identity and thought are threatened too
quickly to adjust. In a culture-based classroom, we canprepare our students for this adjustment process byproviding opportunities to engage in dialogue basedaround unfamiliar cultures and allowing them to slowly
come to terms with the need for renegotiating identity.
It is not possible to prepare students to deal with every
possible culture. Instead, our goal must be to offer
tools to help students to understand any culture andto promote understanding of all cultures including thestudents’ own one. We believe that the most effective
way to develop these tools is through dialogue.
To use a metaphor, a fish does not know that it
is living in water until it is taken out of the water.

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Similarly, we can only know ourselves by looking atothers, and only understand others by comparing themwith ourselves. Other cultures provide a model withwhich to compare ourselves. By engaging in dialogue
about another culture, students can ensure that they givethe fish a greater awareness of both the water and the air.
Much has been written on how to teach culture, butlittle is known about how students actually develop theircross-cultural understanding in a classroom situation.
As Lantolf (1999) notes, further research needs todocument students’ learning processes by focusing on
students’ perspectives. To illustrate these perspectives inour presentation, we introduced students’ voices fromaction logs and extracts from videos of students engaged
in dialogue in the classroom.

Cullen’s Presentation
In this presentation, participants took the roles ofstudents and I led them through a series of dialogues
based around the topic of moral and sexual issues inmodern Ireland. I started off with a summary of theconcept of cultural texture (for a full explanation,
see Cullen & Sato, 2001) as a useful framework forteaching culture. Cultural texture is an attempt to lookat a culture in many different ways in order to build up
better understanding. By building up cultural texture
through different information sources and activities, arange of dialogue types can be facilitated. Conversely,
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dialogue is an important way of developing culturaltexture.

Reading and reformulation
First, participants were divided into pairs and eachpartner was given a different short reading on issues suchas divorce and contraception in Ireland. After reading
quickly, each tried to recall and explain the information
to their partner in their own words--hopefully without
referring back to the original reading. Similarly, students
may be asked to do a reading for homework and to takenotes on it. Notes can include pictures, keywords, ormind-maps. In the next class, students use their notes toreformulate the reading to their partner. Reformulation
is a very simple idea, but it is one of the most powerful
techniques available to teachers. Through the dialogue
of reformulation, students not only improve language
and knowledge of content, but also need to process theinformation in their own words which leads to a deeper
understanding of the culture.

Survey of young Irish people
Next, participants were given some results from asurvey conducted among young Irish people. These
included statements about lifestyle such as “Religionis less important than work” and statements about
relationships such as “The average 30 year old has had
2.6 sexual partners.” I used another of my favourite
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techniques, prediction, asking participants to predict
which statements reflected the actual views of young
Irish people and which were false. Using the informationfrom the earlier readings, participants carried this out inpairs.
It is always important to personalize the contentof culture courses. By talking about issues that areimportant to themselves, students are much more likely
to be able to enter into dialogue and to question theirown values. I personalised the content of these readings
by asking the participants to discuss their own feelings
and ideas about each of the statements and by providing
simple discussion questions for pairs. This provides
good opportunities for dialogue based on comparison ofcultures.
Most students will not be able to go straight into
discussion of cultural issues in a foreign language. You
should sequence your activities. In the presentation, I
moved from a simple true/false quiz about moral values
to open-ended questions asking students to examine
their own assumptions. The chosen topic, moral andsexual issues, definitely produced a lot of dialogue in thispresentation.

SongFinally, I taught the participants a short Irish song
called “Wild Mountain Thyme.” This is a beautiful
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song, seemingly innocent on first hearing, but actually
full of sexual innuendo. Songs are very memorable andcontribute greatly to internal student dialogue as thesong keeps replaying inside the student’s head. Songs canalso contain different levels of meaning which add to thecultural texture.
In my culture courses, I do a lot of different activities
to try to develop cultural texture in a few specific areas.
Trying to cover everything will result in a superficial
course that may not lead to useful dialogue. Also,teachers should remember to join the dialogue. Learn
your students’ language and culture and understandyour own cultural baggage. Be a good role model forencouraging intercultural dialogue. As much as students,
teachers must be willing to enter into dialogue andredefine their identity. Here is one student comment toillustrate the power of dialogue.
Compared with before, I know the Ireland wellnow. It means that I have to abandon my own
image towards Ireland and know the truth!! Wegave an explanation by turns. When I read thematerial in my house, there is a section that I
couldn’t understand well. However, my partner
Kazue gave me a good explanation. So thanks toKazue, I can understand well! So, to talk and teachwith my friend is very valuable, I think.

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Sato’s Presentation4. Action logs/ Newsletters

In my presentation, I described a one-semester course
entitled “Australian English and Culture”. Different
kinds of activities were incorporated and recycled tocreate a collaborative learning environment and to
facilitate dialogue in class. Some of these are explained
below.

Students wrote action logs after each class (see Cullenand Sato, 2001.) These were collected each other weekand returned with the instructor’s comments. Students
sometimes exchanged their action logs and read theirclassmates’ comments and information about Australia.
Newsletters were also made from the comments in theiraction logs.

1. Teacher’s personal stories

5. Reading assignments

I told four stories during the course including “How Ilearned English” and “My experience in Sydney.” Thesestories encouraged students to share their experiences
and ideas in class.

2. Pair-Work
Students participated in pair-work with a different
partner every week. After small-talk, (ex. How was yourweekend?), they reflected on what they had learned
about Australia in the previous lesson and shared new
information about Australia. Finally, each pair checked
the answers of the reading assignment and sharedcomments with each other.

3. Group-Work
Group-work was usually the main activity in class. This
included quizzes about Australia, understanding TV
commercials, news, movies, and information exchangeover the Internet.
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Students had a reading assignment every week (anewspaper article) and were expected to prepare for the
discussion in English in the next class. Topics included
racism, the referendum about becoming a republic,
the Sydney Olympics, bullying, Aborigines, andmulticulturalism.

6. Group project
Each group of 4 to 5 students chose one topic anddid research in a group. The group presentation wasscheduled for the last two classes. Each member of thegroup was expected to contribute to the project andthe presentation. Sample topics students chose wereAustralian English, food, the Sydney Olympics, andAborigines. Each group presentation lasted about 15
minutes including Q & A.
Students learned many things about Australia not
only from the instructor but also from other classmates.

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these phrases used in America or Britain? Is it used
only in Australia?

As a result, they developed their cross-cultural
understanding. Due to lack of space, I will focus mainly
on how students developed their understanding about
Australian language.

I was surprised that Aussie English’s pronunciation
and abbreviation.. I think “Beauty” is cooler than“Good.” I felt Aussie English is unique!

From Stereotypes to Understanding
Quite a few students who are interested in studying
abroad ask me a question such as, “Can I understandtheir English if I go to Australia, because they speak abad English?” They have a stereotype that American
English (or British English) is good and that AustralianEnglish is bad.
I explained the characteristics of Australian English
using a handout, including accents, slang, and othercharacteristics (calling first names, shorter forms,reduction of postvocalic /r/). After that, I showed ashortened version of the movie--“Crocodile Dundee.”I gave the class a quiz based on the movie, so that thestudents had a chance to actually listen to some slang
words in a context. Students wrote their comments intheir action logs.
Today’s class was enjoyable for me. Especially, I
enjoyed the quiz from the movie. I could learn
about conversational phrases. For example,“Bloody…” and “No worries” and “Gooday.” Also
I learned the pronunciation, /ai/ instead of /ei/. I
was very surprised! I think that these phrases arevery useful and easy to say. I have a question! Are
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Students became more interested in AustralianEnglish. At the same time, they wondered if they could
communicate with Australians. Interestingly, there was
one scene where Mick (the main actor) used standard
English; “How are you doing?” instead of “Gidday.”In the next class, I explained that most Australians use
standard English, which is similar to British English, in aformal situation.

Sharing comments
As students became accustomed to pair-work,
they enjoyed sharing their comments and personalexperiences. I also occasionally delivered newsletter madefrom students’ action logs. Some of their comments are:I went to Australian school as an exchange student.
My Australian teacher taught me about AustralianEnglish such as “Good day, mate,” and I saw
postcards that is written “Gooday, mate” there.
When my host mother said “today,” I thought she
said “to die.” So, I was confused. And I thought,“Did someone die?” It’s my funny story when I
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think about it now.

Cultural awareness

When I was in England, I heard people saying “Ta”
when I bought something. So this was the same as
you taught us today and it’s true that word was usedin U.K. as well.

Students came to be aware of cultural differences
and similarities between Australia and Japan, among
different countries, and even within Australia. Excerpts
from students comments show:
I have learned that Cockney is the origin ofAustralian English and some British people still use
it. So, Australian English is a dialect in Britain, justlike Kansaiben in Japan!

Today, I found out Aussie accent. I know thatpeople call a dog “doggy” and I’ve heard it inCanada.
I know Boston has a unique accent… the “r” at
the end of words aren’t pronounced… it sounds
like pahk, cah, so Boston accent is similar toAustralian accent. I have a family in U.S.A. (I didhomestay this summer), so I’ll try to send e-mailusing Australian English in sentences. I’m looking
forward to whether they understand or not.
As these comments show, students’ personal
experiences are valuable information. They are cultural
informants (see Oxford, 1994). In the following class,
I explained about the origin of Australian English, byintroducing these students’ comments. It is said that
Australian English was influenced by Cockney, whichis spoken in the East End of London. Also, postvocalic/r/ was lost in the 17 century in London area, but it wasstill used in the middle of England. Many immigrants
to America were from that area and postvocalic /r/ waspreserved in America.
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Furthermore, some students talked to exchange
students from Australia outside the classroom and foundout that young Australians rarely use those slang words
now.
I asked Australian friends about the differencesof pronunciation. I asked if they say “Good day,mate.” They answered to me, “No,” and said that
only old people say in that way. It’s really interesting
to find about languages and cultural differences
between countries.
In summary, students developed their understanding
about Australian English by sharing comments andnegotiating the meaning through dialogue. Somestudents had a stereotype that Australians speak
English with heavy accent and it is not a good place
for studying English. However, as students learned thatAustralians vary their accent according to the situation

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and Australian English was originally from England,
they became interested in similarities and differences oflanguages. One student thought Australian English islike Kansaiben. Moreover, students noticed that there isa difference within Australia. For example, young people
don’t use some slang words.

Conclusion
The voices from the classroom clearly showed thatfacilitating dialogue in a collaborative classroom led
to developing students’ cross-cultural understanding.
In particular, “tools of recursion” including pair-work,group-work, and action logs are very effective in creatinga collaborative classroom environment (see Murphey,2001). Students redefined their idea of the target culture
as they developed their understanding through various
communicative activities. Moreover, they compared thetarget culture with their native culture and redefined
the native one. In this way, they could further develop
their understanding of the target culture. These findings
support Kramsch’s (1993) claim that “understanding
a foreign culture requires putting that culture in
relation with one’s own” (p. 205). In conclusion, thedevelopment of cross-cultural understanding entails
redefining both the native and target cultures in eachlearner’s mind through interactions in a collaborativeclassroom environment.

References
Cheyne, J. and Tarulli, T. Dialogue, Difference, and the “Third Voice” in the Zone of Proximal Development.
[Electronic Version] <www.geocities.com/nate_schmolze/Vygotsky/bakhtin.html>
Cullen, B., & Sato, K. (2001). Techniques in the culture-based classroom. 2001 JALT Proceedings.
Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lantolf, J.P. (1999). Second culture acquisition: Cognitive considerations. In E. Hinkel (ed.), Culture in second
language teaching and learning (pp. 28-46). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Murphey, T. (2001). Tools of recursion, intermental zpds & critical collaborative autonomy. JALT Journal, 23 (1).
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