USEFUL TIPS FOR COMMUNICATING ACROSS CULTURES

The following tips are a starting point for
cross-cultural communication at UTAS. Some
of the many useful websites providing
variations and more detail are listed in the
resources section of this fact sheet. Feel free
to contact a CALD Support Officer if you have
a particular issue.
• Be complete, explicit and pay attention to
the other person’s response.
• Be alert for different meanings.
• Avoid metaphors, colloquialisms and
jargon. Define any jargon that you must
use.
• Attempt to be clear while avoiding the
over-simplification of terms as it may
seem insulting.
• If a word or concept is not understood,
re-word your thoughts. Do not repeat it or
increase your volume as if the listener
has a hearing problem.
• Paraphrase and seek verification of
understanding. Ask the listener to confirm
information or directions in their own
words.
• Acknowledge cultural differences without
bias and be persistent. When you have
difficulty, talk about it together.
• Be sensitive to cultural stands on social
issues like gender roles and drug use.
• Do not ask questions that you would not
or could not answer yourself.
• Research the cultural background of the
person, if possible.
• Withhold judgment and set your
assumptions aside. Study and evaluate
cultural generalisations. Understand that
even valid generalisations must be
carefully considered when applied to
individuals.
• Always provide a why. Cultural patterns
or rules may seem arbitrary if
unexplained. If a student is
uncomfortable with a decision or
situation, explaining why is important,
particularly if the issue is non-negotiable.
• Take the risk! Always remember that you
will make mistakes as you learn.

What is Culture

Culture is the integrated pattern of human
behaviour that includes thoughts,
communication, actions, customs, beliefs,
values and institutions of a racial, ethnic,
religious or social group. It reflects the norms
and values of a given society and
constitutes, to a large extent, the way in
which individuals in that society views the
world.
Some of the elements of culture include:
• language;
• dress and appearance;
• food and eating habits;
• music and dance;
• time and time-consciousness;
• interpersonal relationships; and,
• beliefs and attitudes.
Some other definitions that are useful when
considering cultural difference include:
• Acculturation – the process of
adapting to or adopting a different
culture.
• Ethnic – refers to membership of a
group linked by race, nationality,
language or a common cultural
heritage.
• Race – a socially defined population
that is derived from distinguishable
physical characteristics.
• Stereotype – the notion that all people
from a given group are the same.
Some of the most common cultural
differences relate to the use of names – how
and why people are named and how they
are addressed in certain situations. An
example is placing the family name first
when addressing someone in many
collectivist cultures. Greetings such as
handshakes, interaction between men and
women, family structures, signs of respect,
attitudes to education, and body language,
also play central roles in most cultures, and
are where most common misunderstandings
occur. For example in many African and
Asian cultures, avoidance of eye contact can
indicate respect rather than discomfort or a
lack of interest.
In many cultures, it is not usual to ask
questions of teachers and service providers.
However, when issues are raised, the
expectations of both parties will often differ in
relation to acceptable outcomes and the
level of concern displayed. In fact, many
CALD students tend to rely on members of
their own community for information about
University matters.

THE INABILITY OF THE MATERIAL TO PROVIDE "REALISM"

Textbooks are a cultural disaster in terms of realism. Most of the time, they not
only neglect representation of the culture of the target language, they in fact have
established themselves into a variety of language that is distinctively independent one
which can be regarded as "textbook culture". Some teachers regard textbooks as
breaking rules of natural language use as they lack in both situational and linguistic
realism. When texts lack in real-ism of this nature, they are detached from not only the
culture of the target language but the first language as well.
Situational realism is achieved in materials if two main criteria are fulfilled; age and
interest. This would mean that texts and tasks relate to the age and interests of the target
learners. Most often then not, the culture (from the perspective of the broader sense of
the word) of target learners, while they vary across boundaries will have commonalities,
especially if one looks at the "common behavior related to developmental stages" and
associates that with the "culture of learners and learning". We are well aware of what
has been written about the predictable psychology of young adult learners from research
done extensively in the past, but unfortunately very little of that translates to realism in
materials for ELT. Textbook writers blatantly ignore the "culture" of young adult
learners by constantly falsifying culture. Texts and activities rarely account for such
behavior as teenage restlessness and rebelliousness, the end result of which our
textbooks lack in situational real-ism. Some examples of this found in Malaysian
secondary school textbooks are illustrated below in Dialogues C and D:
Dialogue C
School setting
Aminah and Slew Ling are in the school compound
Aminah : Look Siew Ling, the whole garden is full of fallen leaves. Siew Ling :
Yes. It does not look very nice.
Aminah : Our gardener, En. Ahmad is ill. He cannot come to work today. Siew Ling :
Why don't we get some more friends and do the work for him. Aminah : That's a good
idea. Let's go.
Dialogue D
School setting
Chiew Hong is with her father in the school canteen.
Chiew Hong : Father, this is our school canteen.
Father : Oh, its very nice. I am sure they have delicious food here. Chiew Hong :
Yes father, but my favorite is Penang Laksa. It only costs one ringgit.
Father : That is cheap. Lets have Penang Laksa.
Chiew Hong : Thank you father.
Father : Your school canteen is very good. It is also very clean.Dialogues such as these are common in systems where the agenda for "moral
indoctrination" is so strong that it encompasses the entire school curriculum. The sum
effect of this approach however would be a lack of interest in the dialogues which, from
the onset of the lesson would lead to low motivation levels thus raising resistance to
material. If ever there was terminology created today, the one most apt to describe texts
such as the ones above would be "pedagogical put-offs"! Excess concern with moral
issues, have led material builders to create "mirages" of life. In the two scenes above,
the young adult characters show very little sign that they are typical young adults. In
fact, they look like clones of the so far unattainable "perfect young adult"; what some
circles within society want out of young adults. In typical situations involving young
adults, the. girls in Dialogue C would not have easily volunteered to do the cleaning job,
and the young adult in Dialogue D would not be playing the "dutiful guide" to the
father. Also, striking a conversation on a school canteen is hardly ever done by fathers
and teenaged daughters!
Another way in which realism becomes detached from teaching material is when
the language of dialogues is made to look artificial. It is true that materials which are
deficient in naturalness lack in "linguistic realism". An example of a typical dialogue
lacking in linguistic realism found in school textbooks is provided below, in Dialogue
E:
Dialogue E
Telephone conversation between Ahmad and Chong
Ahmad : Hello is that Chong?
Chong Yes, this is Chong.
Ahmad : Chong, this is Ahmad.
Chong : Hi Ahmad. How are you?
Ahmad : Fine thank you. And how about you?
Chong : I am fine too.
Ahmad : I called to find about our History homework. Are you doing it now?
Chong : Yes, I am doing the homework now. There is a lot of work to do. Ahmad : I am
not sure which exercise to do. Do we have to do Exercise 2? Chong Yes.
We have to do Exercise 2.
Ahmad Do we have to do Exercise 3?
Chong : Yes, we have to do Exercise 3.
Ahmad : Do we write the answers in the textbook?
Chong : Yes, teacher wants us to write the answers in the textbook. Ahmad Do
we write in pencil?
Chong : Yes, we have to write the answers in pencil.
Some teachers and material builders would consider dialogues such as the one above
"necessary" for focused practice as the aim of these exercises would be to provide target
structures with minimum obstruction from peripheral or intruding structures that are
normally associated with authentic or near-authentic dialogues. While practice such as
this with "intensified focus" on target structures may provide practice, they may never
lead to learning as narrow intensified practice only enables these structures to be
retained in short-term memory. The biggest set back to classroom teaching that materials such as these inflict on learners is the "falseness" of language. Speakers of English,both native or non-native speakers do not "interrogate" their friends over the telephone
about homework as the dialogue above suggests. In most cases young adults do not
even bother asking each other about how they are, especially since they meet in class
everyday. While the aim of such a dialogue would be to teach the affirmative, there are
negative consequences that come about from using texts of this nature. Second language
learners are not exposed to "real" languag

THE INABILITY OF LEARNERS TO FULLY ASSIMILATE MEANING WITHIN CONTEXTS OF LANGUAGE USE

Language teaching has in most parts of the history of ELT been nothing but focus
on exercises presenting language for practice in make-belief situations. But not many
people realize the folly of excessive focus on analytic or studial as opposed to
experiential learning. The weaknesses of excessive focus on analytical methods was
exposed as early as in 1904 by Jesperson in his text "How to teach a foreign language",
where he said that "we ought to learn a language through sensible communications"
(p.11). What Jesperson wanted was for teachers to move away from language practice
on random lists of disconnected sentences to discourse which is connected to thoughts
communicated. This 1904 exposure by Jesperson was too far ahead of its time and the
period of Practice, Practice, Practice went full steam ahead, for seventy five years,
until after Widdowson (1978) and Slager (1978) re-emphasized the need for "context"
and "longer, more natural discourse" as a basis for language teaching. What Widdowson
and Slager advocated was teaching which totally put a stop to, or paid minimal
emphasis on monotonous drills and endless repetitions. They revealed that our
textbooks are filled with exercises which have students do drills on disconnected sentences. A negative aspect of these exercises is that they are unnatural and contrived.
None of these utterances are rarely ever heard within the local and the native speaker
situation. A typical example of a short dialogue practicing forms and functions
associated to making polite requests within a textbook would have two people in limited
roles such as this:
Dialogue A
John : I'm going to have a cup of coffee.
Janet : Can you please get me a cup of coffee too. John : How much
sugar do you want in your coffee? Janet : I'll have two spoonfuls of sugar
John : Do you want any milk in your coffee? Janet : Yes
please. Just a little.
The above example is typical of dialogues in school textbooks, which basically
achieve what it sets out to do; which is confine dialogue practice to two person
interactions in an office, have the players roll out utterances without any of the
interferences that come with natural discourse and hope-fully let all these register in the
heads of learners after sessions of practice. Most teachers are unaware that "textbook
language" as in the example above put learners at a distinct disadvantage when they are
faced with interaction with native speakers. In most situations, especially at the
workplace, the language is dynamic. A close match to an office situation where natural
language would be used would be one such as this:
Dialogue B
John : I'm going down for a cup of coffee.
Janet : Please John, one for me.
John : White or Black?
Janet : White and two sugars please
Steven : (interrupting) Aaahem... I heard that. I thought you said you were on a diet.
Janet : But that new coffee downstairs is so bitter without sugar John : OK two
sugars Janet
Steven : Can I have a cup too. Black, and no sugar
John : I have only two hands Steven. Go get your own.
The difference between dialogue A and dialogue B is that B is longer and is closer
to natural conversation with interruptions, and all the other peripheral aspects of natural
discourse which include things like hesitations. Dialogue B is also closer to the type of
discourse that native speakers and near-native speakers engage in. If the objectives of a
language curriculum are geared at getting learners to master the language so that they
achieve at least near native speaker competencies or even close to that, then the language as represented in Dialogue B should be more common in ELT materials. But is
this possible with space constraints in ELT textbooks and course-books? Most probably
not. But there are ways to overcome this problem of space constraints and one way is to
not treat the textbook as the only source of material for teaching. Experts in materials
development now say that the core material for teaching (in most cases the textbook)
should cater for exercises that focus on language forms while peripheral material (like
audio CDs and CD-ROMs and videos) should focus on authentic materials with openended interactive communication. In this way both analytic and experiential aspects of
learning merge. Stern (1990:99) explains that an analytic approach is one in which the
language is the object of the study, and an experiential approach is one in which the
language is learned in communication. Allen et al. (1990:77) feel that these two types
of teaching may be complementary and would "provide essential support for one
another in the L2 classroom". An analytic focus in teaching decontextualizes linguistic
features to allow for isolation of the forms for analysis and practice. The forms under
study however should be recontextualized by means of experiential approaches.
Recontextualization can be achieved if teachers provide activities using language
which not only involves grammar but also the functional, organizational and
sociolinguistic aspects of the target language. One way recontextualization can be areality in classrooms would be by getting students to view scenes in videos and CDROMs where natural communication which incorporates the culture of the target
language is taking place, after they have had analytical exposure to the forms of the
language.

Educational Material for Cross-cultural Understanding

Educational Material for Cross-cultural Understanding
The main goal of this project is to provide basic cultural information to elementary school students,
between the ages of 6 – 12, which will be used by all ex-participants in any volunteer activity developed by
SWYAA around the world. In order to achieve this goal, each SWYAA is invited to provide information of
their country. In this first step, written and visual information (for this time only pictures are allowed), will
be collected. After that, we will design a country fiche with the information and pictures provided by each
SWYAA. Finally, all the information will be integrated in a program, recorded in a DVD and posted in the
SWYAA's web site. We are sure that all of you will select the best of your country and your spirit in order to
show them around the world. As a mandatory requirement, you are committed to work with all your energy
and heart.
Information to be collected by each SWYAA:
1. Greeting: please provide a common word used in your country to say “hello”
2. Food: describe briefly which is the most representative food in your country. (No more than 50 words)
3. National costume: give general information on your national costume (i.e. when is used, if there are male
or female version, etc). (No more than 60 words)
4. Landmark: provide information on a place which could represent an international icon of your country (i.e.
water falls; volcanoes; mountains; forest; beaches; rivers; etc). (No more than 60 words)
5. Games and Toys: select a common game played by children in your country. (No more than 60 words)
Pictures:
In order to complement the written information, please provide pictures related with items numbered from
2 to 5. Additionally, please provide one picture containing children from your country. For technical reasons,
we recommend pictures do not exceed 300 KB.
Deadline:
Deadline is the end of September 2010 (punctuality will be welcomed). A first draft will be send by the
end of October, 2010 in order to check all the information collected and make the corresponding correction.
We expect to have a final version by January 2011. The project’s launch has been programmed on January
18th, 2011, to celebrate SWY day.
Thanks for your cooperation!!!!