Thanks Krishnan - my question was less about learning culture, than about learning from social interactions that are intercultural. Clearly the two are connected, and you introduce another element of cross-cultural communication which is not necessarily the same as intercultural. This area is a minefield!

Hi Fran,

Thanks for starting an interesting conversation topic. I am currently working on my PhD which looks at how young people engage with interculturality in their everyday lives. My understanding is that intercultural communication is mainly dealt with in the fields of applied linguistics and sociolinguistics and intercultural learning is studied in the field of education. So my impression is that scholars of intercultural communication focus on language use whereas it is conspicuously absent from discussions of intercultural learning. With regards to the distinction between intercultural communication and intercultural learning, I am dealing with something similar. I’m working with the term ‘thinking diversity’ to describe critical understandings of self and Other that don’t necessarily involve interpersonal interaction, and ‘living diversity’ to describe interacting successfully with Others that does not involve the kind of critical reflection and understandings generated by ‘thinking diversity’. When the two are enacted simultaneously I think of it as ‘doing interculturality’. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

.

Hi,

According to my point of view, you could have useful reading of the following articles (even some are in french, but, at least, you could have a look on their bibliographies) :

- Aden Joëlle, « De la langue en mouvement à la parole vivante : théâtre et didactique des langues. », Langages 4/2013 (N° 192) , p. 101-110 (DOI : 10.3917/lang.192.0101)

- Belkaïd, M. La diversité culturelle : pour une formation des enseignants en altérité

in, Pourquoi des approches interculturelles en sciences de l'éducation. Brussels : De Boeck Supérieur, 2002. ISBN : 9782804140205 

- Berteaux Patrick, « Influence des modes d'enculturation scolaire sur les styles cognitifs : l'exemple des écoles coranique et laïque à La Réunion et aux Comores. », Carrefours de l'éducation 1/2010 (n° 29) , p. 215-238 (DOI : 10.3917/cdle.029.0215.)

- Berthoud-Aghili., N., Le dialogue interculturel à l'école : rôles de la médiation,

In: Raisons éducatives. - Bruxelles. - 2000, no 3, p. 147-162. 

- Devonshire, C. (1976). Encounter groups : a way toward improved intercultural communication. Intercultural Communication Seminar, Centro Internacional de Psico-Sociologia Aplicada a las Relaciones Humanes, Madrid, Espagne.

- Giles, H., & Ogay, T. (2007). Communication Accommodation Theory. In B. B. Whaley & W. Samter (Eds.), Explaining communication: Contemporary theories and exemplars (pp. 293-310). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

- THIRIOUX B. & BERTHOZ A. (2010), “Phenomenology and physiology of empathy and sympathy : how intersubjectivity is the correlate of objectivity”, in J. Aden, T. Grimshaw & H. Penz (éds), Enseigner les langues-cultures à l’ère de la complexité. Approches interdisciplinaires pour un monde en reliance, Bruxelles : Peter Lang, 45-60.

And, of course, such "classical articles" :

- Kristal-Anderson, B. (1975). Intercultural communication encounter groups. Immigrant Report / Invandrar Rapport, vol. 3, n° 7, Stockholm Immigrant Institute.

- Rogers, C. R. (1973). My philosophy of interpersonal relationships and how it grew. Journal of Humanistic Psychology.

Finally, the work of Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink  from Saarland University in Germany (Homepage http://www.romanistik.uni-saarland.de/ ) and the one of Prof. Dr. Christoph Vatter from the same university  (Homepage http://www.uni-saarland.de/lehrstuhl/vatter/start.html) could help you as they are interested in intercultural communication in intercultural learning situations.

Hope, it can help you,

Christophe

Hi Caroline and Christophe

Thank you both for your replies. The reading list looks very useful Christophe, and I speak intermediate French so it is great to have some suggestions from authors I might not usually come across.

Caroline, in response to your thoughts, it is precisely because a focus on language is so absent from literature on intercultural learning and intercultural education that I am trying to address this in the current project. There are many articles on language when it concerns study abroad experiences for Modern Language majors doing their undergraduate degrees (Byram et al for example), but little else and a complete dearth in the context of global / citizenship education (my field). I am interested in the ideas of 'thinking diversity' and 'doing interculturality' and think these connect well with some thoughts I have put down in a paper available in my profile called 'Thinking difference about difference'. This paper (a think piece for practitioners in global education) focuses on different epistemological and ontological paradigms and how, in the West, we tend to over value and use object-based or oriented thinking. In more recent work that is in progress I am working on the 'inter' as a space between where people meet and learning about self and other in dialogue (hence the focus on language) - it is trying to extend the notion of Third Space. I'd be interested to hear more about your work.

Thanks

Fran

In order to communicate a given topic one has to know that topic. 

People communicate interculturally all the time....but that doesn't mean that they learn anything from each other. There has been so much written about this concept, but it remains obstinately Eurocentric: Geertz Hofdsteede, for all that he tried to break down barriers, and I believe his approach was genuine.....he still wrote from a Northern European point of view. An Argentine colleague of mine pointed out , very correctly, that the vast majority of intercultural manuals are written from the vantage point of the USA-American or the Northern European. If the book were written from the standpoint of a Central American, the conclusions would be much different, and far less optimistic. As a matter of fact, if the manuals were written by a lower-middle class USA-American, they would also be less rosy and optimistic. Culture is a major factor in relations, but class looms large. And the majority of supposed cross-cultural specialists overlook that point.

I am not a Marxist, nor a capitalist, so my analysis is not going to end up in one of those tired, obsolete, 19th century categories. But we can't look at culture or class as two independent items. They interact with each other all the time. Some self-proclaimed experts attempted to explain the reactions of struggling Japanese farmers in Fukushima according to Japanese cultural responses....but the responses of businessmen in Tokyo to the sufferings of their fellow-countrymen in Fukushima were the same as a Wall Street tycoon to the sufferings of both Black and White Americans after Hurricane Katrina. In other words....zero.

The upper crust? A lot of crumbs stuck together with dough.

Creo que se puede tener en cuenta ,lo que se dice,enseña,informa, etc. y lo que se escucha,aprende ,etc. y aqui los términos emic (lo que se relata, enseña,etc). y etic (lo que se analiza ,a partir de lo relatado ,enseñado,etc).Pueden ser conceptos a tener en cuenta.También hay que considerar alguna formulas, para evaluar los niveles de comunicación y de aprendizaje ,pues si no hay una minima sincronización ,esto crea perturbaciones y una mala calidad en la transmisión de valores.

Thank you Arif, Sharonah and Jose for your thoughts. I do use intra-cultural as well, although this depends on how one defines culture - and I do not subscribe to the view that culture can be defined by nation, ethnicity or race (although these are dimensions). So in this way, I use a working definition that also includes dimensions of class, community, religion and so on. I also work with the cultures of groups and organisations. Thanks for reminding me about etc and epic - I will go back to the reading on these.

The task of teachers is made more complex when mediating the access to subjects for learners in vulnerable groups, particularly those of immigrant background. The burden of learning in a language which is not their dominant language – particularly for learners already of school age at immigration – is made heavier by another dimension of teaching and learning. Modes of teaching and conceptualizations of subjects and subject communities may differ in their new school to that which they experienced in their country of origin.

Thank you Kiran - I totally agree with your comments.

Intercultural communication is an interaction between people from different cultural areas having different worldviews, values, traditions and religions and so on… Of course, the intercultural communication stands on interpersonal relations materialized in all realms and levels of life, including companies, institutions and countries...Intercultural learning implies experiential learning. It is not sufficient to read books about culture, to listen to lectures about other cultures, or to deal with the subject on a purely cognitive and intellectual level. It is necessary for an individual to experience being confronted with new and unknown situations, to experience insecurity, fear, rejection as well as security, trust, sympathy and empathy. It is also necessary to learn from and with people from other culture.