Culture, Communication And Customs Of Learning
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Dr Nicola Woods of the University of Wales, Newport, presentation on the PGCert Developing Professional Practice in Higher Education in the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) on 20th January 2010.
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Culture, Communication And Customs Of Learning
- 1. Nicola J. Woods Culture, Communication & Customs of Learning
- 3. Appreciate how cultural differences can impact on students’ approaches to learning.
- 4. Use this knowledge to develop culturally appropriate learning & teaching practices.
- 5. Communication in Context At the next SoE SQAEC and SET it will be necessary to consider ret. and prog. Relevant information can be found from QUERCUS and TEd Central. What are the communicative expectations of the presenter/participants? What can we speak about? Who is allowed to speak and when? Which forms of language are prohibited in this context? How do routines of politeness apply in this situation? Is silence appropriate during the course of this workshop?
- 6. Dell Hymes & John Gumperz: On Communicative Competence Conventions we learn from the time we grow up and that we practise with our friends and our families…they are subconscious and thus very hard to change...We tend to keep these conventions even when we learn and use other languages
- 7. Opening, maintaining and closing conversations How are you? Where are you going? Have you eaten? How old are you? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BWd9KNtTYc&feature=SeriesPlayList&p=24CEFB84C1EE4096 Three rules (simply put): Current speaker selects next speaker Next speaker self selects Current speaker continues speaking turn
- 9. Silence in American Indian Culture When is silence appropriate in L&T contexts? Can silence play a role in supporting learning (if so, how)? What is the dominant perception of the silent student (and why)? Meeting strangers Courting couples Being with people who are sad Basso (1997): Wisdom Sits in Places
- 10. Communication & Customs of Learning Topic of conversation Giving and receiving compliments Questions and invitations Terms of address
- 11. Topic of conversation Which topics of conversation are appropriate for the family dinner table? Are some topics safe while others taboo? Are taboo topics also prohibited in other contexts?
- 12. What is not said…. A: Mm, but you need to tell me, is there anything I need to know? B: Well, I haven’t lived as a hermit……
- 13. Taboo topics In the Islamic culture, it is not acceptable to talk openly about sex or any other topic related to the subject I will never use words like condom, kissing, homosexual, heterosexual because I do not feel easy when I use words as such I can’t even look at my teacher’s face if he reads words like these written by myself…I feel shy because I was raised by my parents who used to tell me that such words aren’t good to be used or said by girls Khuwaileh (2000)
- 14. Compliments What are the communicative routines for giving and receiving compliments.? How does the giving and receiving of compliments reflect social/cultural roles and relationships? Consider the following compliments: This is an excellent piece of work I like your dress/suit That meal was delicious You’ve got beautiful eyes.
- 15. You’ve got beautiful eyes! Male ITAs She likes the student’s eyes, that’s all. She thinks the student has beautiful eyes. What’s the problem? (Spanish Speaker) In my country, if a teacher says this to me, I will thank her about this feeling (Arabic Speaker) Male (American) UGs A little too personal. Sounds like a bad bar pick-up line . Very inappropriate. The TA seems sexually interested. I would thank her and explain that I have a girl friend. This depends on what type of class the TA teaches. If it is an English or Philosophy class, I wouldn’t be taken aback. If it was a science or math class, I would feel the comments were an obvious pick up line….. Tyler and Boxer (1996)
- 16. Questions and Invitations What are the communicative routines for asking and responding to questions and invitations? For example: How old are you? Would you like to come to my party? Would you like some more dessert?
- 17. Khuwaileh (2000): Jordanian students dislike using strong expressions of certainty MoboGao (1998): Chinese students find it impolite to go directly to an answer but rather prefer to set the background with contextual information.
- 18. Terms of address Dad Darling Which communicative routines are used for addressing others? How do these terms reflect role relations? For example: Honorary/professional names Kinship terms Title plus surname First name Nickname Terms of endearment Professor Ms Pete
- 19. Psaltou-Joycey (2008) : In learning contexts: “students from different countries utilize different strategies and prioritise common strategies differently”
- 20. Honey & Mumford 1982 Activitists (Do) Open minded, enthusiastic, flexible Act first, consider consequences later Reflectors (Review) Stand back and observe Collect and analyze data about experience and events, slow to reach conclusions Theorists (Conclude) Think through problems in a logical manner, value rationality and objectivity Disciplined, aiming to fit things into rational order Pragmatists (Plan) Keen to put ideas, theories and techniques into practice Act quickly and confidently on ideas, gets straight to the point
- 23. By cancelling all but the dominant literacy from the university curriculum, a student’s capacity to contribute to the class from their own cultural experience is greatly diminished, as are their learning opportunities MacKinnon et al 2003
- 24. Green 2007: In China…we start at one point and we spread out wide… we look at one point, but from many, all kinds of different aspects…social moral and all of the aspects that you can think of…In Europe and Australia this doesn’t make sense. Here it’s just really direct…you go straight forward…If I write the Chinese way, my lecturer would be confused.
- 25. Communicating and Learning through Writing What structure/style is most valued in student writing? Are students allowed to voice their own opinions? What type of ‘evidence’ is considered most appropriate? What scope is there for students to draw on their own experience? Should the use of 1st person be prohibited/allowed/encouraged?
- 27. You find that you spend hours looking for the quote… common sense would tell you it was this… but then because you are so worried, you have to spend the next five hours looking for the quote that says that to back you up
- 29. Conclusion History, worldview, beliefs, values, religions, and social organization may all be reflected through different languages and linguistic varieties in a culture (Scollon and Scollon2 2001).
- 30. Selected References Gao, Mobo C F (1998) Influence of Native Culture and Language on Intercultureal Communication: the Case of PRC Student Immigrants in Australia Symposium of Intercultural Communication, The Department of Linguisitics, Gothenburg Hymes, D.H. (1971). On communicative competence. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press Kennedy, P. (2002) Learning Cultures and learning styles: myth-understandings about adult (Hong Kong) Chinese Learners. International Journal of Lifelong Learning, 21(5): 430-45. MacKinnon, D. and Manathunga, C. (2003) Going global with assessment: what to do when the dominant culture's literacy drives assessment. Higher Education Research and Development, 22 (2): 131-144. Nazarea, V. (2006) Local knowledge and memory in biodiversity conservation. Annual Review of Anthropology 35:317-335. Tyler, Andrea and Diana Boxer (1996) Sexual Harrassment? Cross-cultural/cross-linguistic Perspectives. Discourse and Society 7: 107-133.
Notas do Editor
- Title: Culture, Communication & Customs of Learning Specifically, look at the relationship between culture and communication and the impact on approaches to learning.Focus on culture relating to ethnicity and nationality, but also consider a broader scope: culture as socially constructed identity relating to gender, social class, religion, profession and so forth. In this respect, note that our own university is extremely multicultural and diverse.
- Introduction.Culture, communication and customs of learning are interrelated and interdependent aspect. By examining the relationship and specifically by raising awareness of our own cultural and social conventions for using language, we will achieve: see slide
- When I came to Newport – just 100 miles or so from one HEI to another. What then of our students who come from us from far afield, be the distance they travel geographical, cultural or social. including those who come from overseas? And particular forms of language are not just characteristic of institutions, of course. Different contexts require different communicative routines and conventions.Take the situation we’re in here. What are the expectations of the routines of communication that will take place over the next couple of hours or so? Me:Speak; On topic; At an appropriate level;Be entertaining;Engage you, the audience What couldn’t I do? What would be inappropriate? What is the expectation of you?Listen. Participate, engage;Do ask questions etc. What shouldn’t you do?Swear,interruptSo we have expectations about language and communication (a type of social etiquette of communication) but these are specific to cultures and situations.Participants from other cultures may have had different expectations and I wouldn’t speak like this in a different social situation!
- Hymes and Gumperz refer to this knowledge as communicative competence. Gumperz notes that :You can be a fluent speaker of Japanese (grammar, vocab even pronunciation) but a hopeless communicator. Need to know cultural rules of politeness and honorifics.In a radio interview he says that such competence comes from the “conventions we learn from the time we grow up and that we practise with our friends and our families, and that stand us in good stead when we’re talking to people who know us, people in our own group. They are subconscious and thus very hard to change, much more difficult to change than one’s grammar and one’s lexicon. We tend to keep these conventions even when we learn and use other languages. Because ‘unconsious’, also go uncorrected.This can have serious consequences: result in cross cultural miscommunication.One of Gumperz’s most famous studies involved gravy. As part of an ESRC funded project on culture and communication in the workplace (back in the 1980s) Gumperz studied the communication in a canteen of a major British airport where relationships between the canteen staff (who were mainly female native speakers of Punjabi) and English native speaking men were identified as hostile.Using ethnographic methods for which he later became fairly famous, Gumperz studied the interactions that took place as male workers stood in line to receive their lunches from the female staff. Meat, potatoes, and, at the end of the line, a woman pouring gravy.If you were standing for hours asking ‘would you like gravy?’ what would you do to the sentence?Punjabi has falling intonation on questions………..So cross cultural miscommunication, causing perceptions of the female staff as rude, surly and brusque…..Between now and the break, I’d like us to think moreabout our own cultural conventions for using language, and specifically communicating through conversation. This will give us the best insights into patterns of cross cultural communication and miscommunication. After the break, we’ll apply this to our understanding of customs of learning. LET’S TAKE THE EXAMPLE OF COMMUNICATION WITH WHICH WE ARE ALL FAMILIAR - CONVERSATION
- Conversational openings:I’m walking across the campus and we catch each others’ eye: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? greeting, Cross-cultural examples.Also individual and idiosyncratic ways of greeting: winking example.What follows? Turn-taking within conversations: how do we do it? Current speaker selects next speaker (e.g. direct address, non-verbal signals etc.) Next speaker self selects HOW. How do we select ourselves: breathe in loudly, straighten back or verbal, finish others sentence etc. If (a) or (b) do not occur, the current speaker may continue. It has been said that conversation has few gaps and overlaps – speakers tend to dovetail.
- High Intensity style Also individual differences: how do you cope with the talkative student? The student who appears to be determined to take the theme off topic? Students who appear lost in the context of classroom communication?Finally, how do we close conversations? Examples: Apologise – sorry, I’ve got to goExcuse 1: - I’ve got to collect the kidsExcuse 2: I won’t keep you, I know you’ve got a classArrangements for next meeting: even if it’s only ‘laters’. Summary Okay, we see then that, without being aware of it, we use follow particular, culturally defined, rules and routines. Some cultures have different rules altogether. While for us the emphasis is on talk, in others it is on silence.
- Not same in all cultures: In Denmark, for example, if you invite friends for a drink or dinner, it is quite usual to sit for hours without speech or conversation. Indeed, to be silent for much of the time is the expected behaviour. Compare Western Apache. People who are sad in western societies: “I don’t know what to say” In general, we find silence unfomfortable. What about silence in the context of learning and teaching?Cultural assumption that learning and teaching is talking and silence perceived as negative (“quiet in class”). Alternate learning styles where silence is considered respectful, and part of the thinking process are pushed aside infavour of the “talk-(but not necessarily content)-is-good” principle. Understanding the diverse uses and cultural meanings of silence is a vital intercommunication skillfor all students and academics to learn (Silin, 1999).Interestingly, also vital aspect of successful dialogic approaches in which a period of silence or ‘suspension’ in encouraged to allow reflection.So much then for the role of silence in supporting learning. Like it or not, Communication is seen as at the heart of learning in our culture and so after the break, we’ll explore in more detail communication culture and customs of learning.
- In modern HE classrooms, our diverse students will bring with them different expectations of the ways in which interaction should be organised (both between tutors and students and students and students: e.g. relating to being respectful, attentive, polite, engaged and so forth. If these interpretations clash, they are likely to cause cross-cultural misinterpretations and miscommunication.Let’s look at four different areas of communication and how they may impact on customs of learning. Let’s have 10 minutes for this… Look at four themes……
- Group 1.. What topics are appropriate at a family dinner table. Are some topics safe while others are taboo? GeneralExample: talking about sex or related matters – e.g. sexual diseases Sex not only taboo a the dinner table… Pliskin: 1997. Unwillingness to speak about sexually transmitted diseases. People are more likely to take part in sexual intercourse than enter into discourse about STDs…. Implications for sex education.
- Implications for students of different cultures in the HE classroom.Shown in Khuwaileh’s analysis of female Jordanian students.Looking at the cultural barriers of learning and teaching, Khuwaileh reports that: SEE SLIDERegardless of this, Khuwaileh found that tutors believed that words could be used by both male and female students in a L&T context when used as examples without embarrassment. Furthermore, not all examples are quite this obvious, Wendy Brady points to how Aboriginal students have been placed in situations in which the material used and taught is inappropriate because it is sacred knowledge or gender-defined knowledge.Sacred knowledge I had thought about before – there are some similar examples in other contexts where I have taught and research: e.g. in NZ, there are aspects of Maori culture that are not open to outsiders to know. But the idea of gender-defined knowledge made me stop to think. Brady herself says that “I do not wish to know men’s business”.What do you think about this?Is there any knowledge that cannot be raised in classroom contexts?Is there ever a case for considering gender-defined knowledge?No tutor can be aware of all cultural values and sensitivities, but by exploring the relationship between culture and communication and by engaging in mutual interaction (as we are doing here) students themselves can lead and, in so doing, enhance their own ICC.
- What are the typical communicative routines for giving and receiving compliments? How does the giving and receiving of relationships tell us about social/cultural roles and relationships. Think particularly about the following compliments. This piece of work is excellentI do like your dress/suit That meal was deliciousYou’ve got beautiful eyes General: Note how compliments reflect social roles and relationships e.g. first example is asymmetrical. Only those with high status to lower status.What is a typical response. Thanks. What about the second? Think about male-female relationships. Brown and Levinson: for politeness, we tend to downplay or downgrade compliments Across cultures, different social etiquette of giving and receiving compliments.
- A study by Andrea Tyler and Diana Boxer looked at International Students employed as teaching assistants in the United States. They were particularly concerned to look at communicative patterns in the light of increased accusations of sexual harassment. Analysed judgements of the compliment ‘you’ve got beautiful eyes’ in both groups and found interesting differences: Male ITAs She likes the student’s eyes, that’s all. She thinks the student has beautiful eyes. What’s the problem? (Spanish Speaker) In my country, if a teacher says this to me, I will thank her about this feeling (Arabic Speaker) Male UGs A little too personal. Sounds like a bad bar pick-up line . Very inappropriate. The TA seems sexually interested. I would thank her and explain that I have a girl friend.AND AGAIN, SHOWING IMPORTANCE OF CONTEXT: This depends on what type of class the TA teaches. If it is an English or Philosophy class, I wouldn’t be taken aback. If it was a science or math class, I would feel the comments were an obvious pick up line…..
- What are the communicative routines for asking/responding to questions and invitations? Think particularly about the following questions/ invitations. How old are you?Would you like to come to my party?Would you like some more desert? General:Questions are powerful communicative devices since they demand an answer on particular topic. They define who speaks and what they speak about. Even if we are careful to ask open questions, this is still true.WHO ASKS QUESTIONS IN CLASS? NOT THOSE WHO NEED TO LEARN!PSEUDO QUESTIONS AND GENUINE QUESTIONS.HOW CAN YOU ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO ASK QUESTIONS?
- Across cultures:Since Heath’s groundbreaking study of cultural communicates in America, we have known that different cultures use ‘questioning’ in different ways. Khuwaileh’s study of Jordanian students also found that they disliked strong expressions of certainty and preferred to answer MoboGao:When asked a question, it is not considered polite to go directly to one’s answer but rather to but to background with contextual information. Invitations: in China it is considered rude to say ‘no’ straight away. Chinese students in Australia were found to continue asking Australian students even when they declined.Few doubt the importance of self esteem and confidence in learning and the concept of ‘face’ (Goffman) is particularly important here: Asian students are said to be particularly concerned about maintaining their own face, they are also reported to dislike making disparaging comments about others (approaches to critiquing work or taking a critical perspective may therefore be approached differently). This is not to say that Asian students are not capable of being critical (culture doesn’t straightjacket learning through language) but rather that students may prefer to use ‘indirect language’ to make critical comments. We’ll see examples when we come to think about writing.NOT JUST CULTURE IN RELATION TO ETHNICITY AND NATIONALITY, ALSO SOCIAL ISSUES SUCH AS GENDER: e.g. MEN AND WOMEN’S QUESTIONS.
- Finally,Terms of address See slide List names called in last 7 days. Can they identify the relationship:Dr. Woods, Nicola, Miss, Madam, Mum, Nick, Dear, Love This reflects different expectations of teachers and students. Especially, Role relations: students from different cultural backgrounds are likely to use different repertoires for engaging in discussion with tutors and other figures of authority figures. Ho (1991): Chinese teachers place a higher priority on building relationships with their students inside and outside the classroom than their western counterparts” (334). What’s the western take on this? How close can you be to your students?AND YET: What do your students call you? It’s important to recognise that informality is not comfortable for some students (Korean student).Different preferences for working with peers: some of our Euro students don’t see the point in peer learning (they want teachers!). While we may be committed to collaborative learning and I need to consider that Chinese believe that teacher “has the wisdom” and so they think it a waste of time to listen to another student speak in a tutorial class.While I think my students benefit greatly from group work, I need to remember that Arabic-speaking students may find it difficult to work in groups with strangers (especially in the case of young women)
- We need to recognise, then, that as Psaltou-Joycey comments…. The question remains though as to whether we can say that students have different learning styles. In one sense, the concept of learning style appears fairly straightforward and its implications positive - that, as tutors and course designers, we should pay close attention to the way students learn.However, As Coffield (2004) and his colleagues have shown in research for the Learning and Skills Research Centre, this apparently positive ambition may hide a host of conceptual and empirical problems. Not least, Coffield et al found 71 different models of learning styles! Many now used commercially.Do you know any?Most famous, Kolb. Potentially most relevant for HE, Honey and Mumford.Many models – e.g. Honey and Mumford
- What sorts of problems do you perceive with this?In fact, the concept of ‘learning style’ has been widely criticised in relation to diverse students. Of specific criticism is the idea that LS are fixed, those from cultures, or socially disadvantaged groups have particular stylesIn fact,Kennedy (2002) found that adult adult Hong Kong Chinese students varied their styles according to situation and task. Learning is context and task specificPerceptions not realities – Link to Asian Students!
- Please write down what you see.We can easily be shown another view/another way to learn.However, as while we need to avoid stereotypes and resist making assumptions about homogeneity of cultures, most agree that the idea of cultural personality reflected in approaches to learning is not a myth. Individuals learn to learn through to socialisation processes characteristic of their cultural communities. But these are flexible and dynamic, not static or stagnant.
- Does this happen for our students? Not just those of different ethnic cultures, but those of different social classes, family backgrounds levels of ability/disability, ages?We’re thinking about communication so let’s finish today by considering writing.
- When we look specifically at ethnicity-related cultural diversity, we find different norms for norms for writing. There’s a massive literature in this area: relating to writing, for example:Taking just the example of ChineseLiddicoat (1997): English academic writing is more direct of ‘linear’ while Chinese conventions for writing are ‘circular’Chinese students are taught to use ‘rhetoric and sequence of thoughts that violate the expectations of the native English speaker, so an English speaker may find Chinese compositions incoherent (Ginsburg)Quote from Wendy Green’s Chinese student studying in Australia. Also reading:Western: reading is considered an individualized action in which students are encouraged ‘to analyse, problematize and synthesize a critical response to a specificproblem’.By contrast, Confucian tradition of scholarship encourages reading for the conservation and reproduction of knowledge rather than critical challenge or individualinterpretation: ‘the aim of [such] reading was not to excavate a private significance in the text but to recite and compare the interpretation of acknowledged authorities’ (1999: 150).We are not talking here about static learning styles but approaches and customs of learning that are highly influenced by culture… IN FACT STUDENTS HAVE MULTIPLE LITERACIES.THESE ARE NOT CONFINED TO CULTURE IN IT’S NARROW SENSE BUT TO A WIDER VIEW OF CULTURE AS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT AFFECTING INDIVIDUALITY AS GENDER, SOCIAL CLASS, FAMILY BACKGROUND AND SO ON. OUR OWN STUDENTS – DO WE GIVE THEM THE CHANCE TO BUILD ON THEIR OWN LITERACIES?
- No place for students’ own voice
- Everything is the sameImposed academic writing practices may act as a straitjacket which inhibits creativity and ways of learning.
- Culture is not homogeneous, it is not fixed and it is not a straight jacket. We are not carriers of culture but rather, through learning, we can function as cultural transformers (rather than merely transmitters).At least if we are given the chance.Our best chance is through open communication in learning contexts: we can learn not merely to respect cultural diversity but to raise cultural awareness and use diversity as a method to enhance the learning experience of all or our students (and to facilitate ICC).Allows students to build confidence to face new situations, lies at the heart of ICC.