Chapter 4: Findings
4.3 Students’ Development of Knowledge
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4.3 Students’ Development of Knowledge
The acquisition of knowledge can not only promote mutual understanding, but also has the potential of changing one's attitude towards different cultures and stimulating critical thinking in intercultural communication. Therefore, analyzing the development of knowledge in TWIYC.tw lectures is very important. This paragraph focuses on analyzing the knowledge content of the TWIYC.tw speech and the growth of two ICC’s knowledge sub-elements: cultural-specific information and sociolinguistic awareness. Both of these sub-elements develop after students’ participation in the lectures. The other three knowledge sub-elements: cultural self-awareness, and deep understanding and knowledge of culture will be discussed together with the ICC element: Critical Cultural Awareness.
4.3.1 Knowledge Content in TWIYC.tw’s Lectures
As being explained in the previous section, TWIYC.tw’s Culture Sharing Activities were designed by the organization in the hope that foreign lecturers could introduce content concerning their countries’ news, tourist sites, festivals, and foods in class. The organization’s perspective will not be repeated here. The following sections will resolve the ways to enhance students' knowledge from the perspectives of school teachers and foreign speakers.
The key people involved in planning and carrying out the lectures were the foreign lecturers. It is important to understand their thoughts to discover why certain knowledge was introduced to students. According to Standards for Foreign Language Learning:
Preparing for the 21st Century (Eric, 1996), there are two subcategories of culture. One
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(Culture with a big “C”). Another is cultural practice, which are mostly invisible. These are subtle patterns in societies that include: religious beliefs, cultural norms, and communication styles (culture with a small “c”). In MF2’s lecture, he introduced what Germany was famous for: cars, brands, foods, particular people, history, festivals and invention (of big “C”). He also used a YouTube video comparing Taiwanese people’s and German people’s daily behavior, and introduced a few German words (of little “c”).Though, similarly, all speakers covered both knowledge of the big “C” and the small “c”, the portion for big “C” was a lot greater. All four interviewed lecturers expressed similar ideas for their designs. Among them, MF2 offered the most detailed explanation in the interview. He illustrated:
“First of all, I thought about what is important about Germany and can make students interested. That's why I chose to introduce food, inventions, and famous people with a lot of pictures...After that, it was also important to tell them a little bit about the history. It is very important for others to understand how Germans are in the lens of history. I put those different things together...and I asked Taiwanese people what they knew about Germany…I just wanted to find some things they can relate to…”(May 24, 2017).
The reasons why knowledge of the big “C” was introduced more in TWIYC.tw lectures were because it was considered more presentable, relatable, and interesting. MF2 also explained his difficulties when deciding the content:
“For the history part, I found it pretty difficult...I tried to refer to some Taiwanese history, but I didn't want to go deep into that because I know some Taiwanese history is very sensitive. So I preferred to stay in Germany or Europe only,
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otherwise the comparison might be a bit strange...I was not sure all these things I can say them directly. Because the students are still quite young, and, of course, they have different backgrounds...so sometimes I have to see if I can really introduce this or not” (May 24, 2017).
That is, when it comes to speaking with audiences from another culture, with different backgrounds and beliefs, controversial topics are likely to be left out. In addition, knowledge sharing can be two-way. That is, if students desired to know certain knowledge, they could also take the initiative to ask the speaker and gained the knowledge.
In fact, four out of five lecturers left about 10 to 20 minutes for a Q&A section giving students the chance of asking questions. However, the same pattern of knowledge types applied. Students mostly asked big “C” Culture contents and about the speakers’ personal experiences. They deliberately avoided discussing controversial topics, as FS10 claimed:
“Asking political questions are too sensitive… it is better not to criticize or people’s feelings might get hurt” (June 8, 2017). FS9 added, “Just keep the atmosphere light and happy, so everyone will be happy. Politics or social issues are too serious for this class”
(June 8, 2017).
According to Byram, Gribkova, & Starkey (2002): “No teacher can have or anticipate all the knowledge which learners might at some point need.” When introducing foreign cultures in class, it is likely that teachers have not had the opportunity to visit those countries or experience those cultures. However, teachers can still assist students in learning cultural knowledge. Four out of five interviewed teachers designed worksheets to strengthen knowledge learning by students in TWIYC.tw lectures. The worksheets they designed were pretty similar, including knowledge activities performed prior to the lecture, during the lecture, and after the lecture. Take teacher MT1’s worksheet for
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example; he asked students to write down their impressions or find information online about Turkey beforehand, noted down knowledge shared by the speaker during the lecture, and wrote what was learned after the experience. Teachers also incorporated group or class discussion for students to share this knowledge. Therefore, the roles of teachers were both facilitators and learners.
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Figure 5. An example of the worksheet provided by teacher to students for the culture lecture
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4.3.2 Cultural Specific Information
As explained previously, many topics were introduced in class. In mini focus groups, students were asked to share the knowledge they acquired from the lectures. Their answers also contained different aspects of culture, ranging in regards to language. For example, FS4 stated: “I found that German words can be very long. Germans will divide a long word into small parts to understand and memorize it. I feel that it is close to English and very different from Chinese” (May 24, 2017).
In regards to religion, MS1 said, “Turks are not all Muslims. Some of them are Jewish, which I didn’t know” (May 22, 2017). In regards to history, FS4 said: “The way he explained Germany’s history was very different from our history textbooks. Textbooks only tell us historical events in chronological order. The speaker explained the story and meaning behind the events. He told us what did people think and feel during the Berlin Wall period. I found it impressive” (May 24, 2017). Students’ feedback showed a success in gaining cultural specific information from the classes.
Among different types of cultural information shared in each lecture, one type of information was frequently mentioned by students in our focus group discussions, which is the knowledge of foreign food culture. In fact, 11 out of 18 interviewed students talked about food. S17- UZ said: “I learned about Uzbek food culture. For example, grinding tea requires 10 hours of non-stop work. They also have different fruits. In Taiwan, it is hard to imagine a life without seafood” (June 14, 2017). “I feel that Germans do not take eating as seriously as Taiwanese. Taiwanese daily meals have a lot of alterations. Germans often eat bread and cold foods,” FS4 stated (May 24, 2017). In fact, a total of nine students rated food culture as their favorite topic in the lectures. Food topics are meaningful for
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students because, as MS6 said, “we learned differences of the world through foods” (June 14, 2017). From teachers’ observations, food topics were also easier for students to relate to.
Learning cultural specific information not only broadens students’ horizons, but also changes their stereotypes and attitudes toward foreign countries. MS3 shared his thoughts:
“About race discrimination in America, I found that it is not as serious as I thought.
It might be the case to few extremists. Their culture is more like a melting pot, where people from different cultures accepting each other. That is why many people go there to work and travel” (June 8, 2017).
MS4 said: “At first, I thought Americans were indifferent towards ethnic groups living in the country, just taking it for granted. But after the class, I learned that some Americans actually care and like this environment of different kinds of people and foods”
(June 8, 2017). Through acquiring cultural specific information, students thus become more capable of appreciating other cultures better.
4.3.3 Sociolinguistic awareness
Sociolinguistic awareness is the knowledge of language forms used, such as grammatical and lexical, in its situational context or relative to people’s social identities.
(van Compernolle & Williams, 2013).
In the context of the TWIYC.tw lectures, English is the main language used in all the lectures the writer observed. Here English is used as an international language, which both native and non-native speakers use to express themselves and communicate. The core value of English as an international language in sociolinguistic is that all foreign
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participants are equal and have the rights to show their regional identities through different accents and forms of English they use, as long as it does not interfere with international intelligibility, (Jenkins, 2002). In students’ answers, they have basic awareness of different accents they heard. MS4 stated: “This time we got to listen to English spoken by a native speaker. Her tones of speaking and word choice were different from what we normally heard” (June 8, 2017). MS2 added: “She spoke authentic English, unlike our teacher’s Taiwanese English…I hope only Americans or Canadians come in the future because their accent is closer to Americans’” (June 8, 2017) MS1 said:
“Listening to the Turkish speaker, sometimes because of her accent or I did not learn the words, I didn’t understand parts of it. However, I still understood most of her speech”
(May 22, 2017). MS5 illustrated the point: “Sometimes I didn’t understand the Uzbek speaker because of her accent. It was not authentic American English” (June 14, 2017).
MS6 added, “The Uzbek speaker sometimes used her own language in the speech.” (June 14, 2017).
Students were not able to identify the speakers’ social group from the English they used, but they were aware of different English accents, and they tried to make sense of them in the lectures. However, their answers implied native English or certain English accents are the “correct” and superior ones. The variations of English, as in international English, are problematic and “incorrect”. They did not realize that encountering unfamiliar regional proper nouns, no matter whether translated to English or not, are common in intercultural communication. Nor did they realize that a time where the number of non-native English speakers outnumbers native ones (Kachru, 1992), one needs to learn to adapt to diversified English usages and patterns.
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4.4 Students’ Development of Skills
Without sufficient communication skills, intercultural communication will not proceed successfully even with good attitude and knowledge. This section focuses on the development of students’ ICC skills of listening, interpreting and relating and real-time application. The two other types of skills: analyzing and evaluating, will be discussed together in the later critical cultural awareness section.
4.4.1 Listening
Listening is a complex process from focusing to analyzing. In TWIYC.tw’s cultural sharing lectures, most of them were conducted in English, due to foreign speakers’
generally having lower Mandarin Chinese proficiency. Therefore, students’ abilities in English listening are important skills for successful participation. From students answers, they all paid special attention to understanding the lecturers better, which was a good start for listening. However, their English listening abilities varied. For the three students from Class G, knowing many of the students have lower English level, the teacher simultaneously interpreted the whole speech into Chinese. Among the other 15 interviewed students, five of them said they understood the lecturer perfectly, five could comprehend most of the content, and the other five captured only half of the content.
Teachers were very aware of the level differences among students. Sometimes they would stand close to those students who might need help and offer assistance for a better result from the activity.
Nevertheless, teacher FT4 expressed that there were about five students in her class who could not understand any content at all:
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“It was true that at first, all students were very attentive to the lecture. Then students with poorer English started having difficulties because they did not understand. They still hung on in there because they did not want to interrupt or misbehave in class” (June 14, 2017).
It is true to conclude that students listening skill cannot have noticeable advancement through the lectures. Pia, the founder of TWIYC.tw, also understood that Students’ English listening skill cannot be improved in one lecture: “We do not hope students’ English can be improved. This is not our goal. We know it is impossible. What we want is that they can have more curiosity about the world. They can have more learning stimuli besides textbooks” (June 22, 2017). Pia thus described the program as being geared more towards developing students’ attitude and knowledge of ICC than language learning. What Pia did not expect was that from the students’ point of view they still thought the lectures were good English practice. FS11 described them as praiseworthy, “This is a more direct way of training our English” (June 14, 2017). FS2 added:
“Taiwanese students use English only during formal lessons, but we don’t have chances to use it in legitimate situations. In addition, Taiwanese students are shy and won’t talk to foreigners on the streets, so inviting foreigners to enter classrooms is a good idea” (May 22, 2017).
Teachers perceived the lectures as a more genuine English practice, where students can practice using English for communication, including listening and other skills. FT4 stated:
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“They have learned English for years. If learning English is just for taking exams, this is of course necessary but it will be a big pity. This is why I hope they can actually use the language through activities like this” (June 14, 2017).
“Students have talents in different subject areas like arts and politics. Instead of asking everyone to memorize and learn the same textbook materials, it is more meaningful to let them know how to communicate with their limited English...even using hand gestures is a good method of communication,” MT1 added (May 22, 2017).
In addition, students were inspired to put more effort into learning English. For example FS1 said: “I have difficulties in English listening during the speech. I hope my English can be better so I can communicate better…the class inspired me to study English harder” (May 22, 2017).
4.4.2 Interpreting and Relating
Students show their abilities in interpreting and relating by observing and comparing the similarities and differences among cultures, and connecting what they heard from the speakers with the information they already know to give meaning. FS5 showed a good relating skill, finding similarities and relate with different culture:
“The speaker shared with us that the unification of Germany was actually quite recent. I feel Taiwanese contemporary history is pretty short too. We are similar in this sense. I think Taiwanese can learn a lot from them, including their national identity and the confidence in their cultural heritage” (May 24, 2017).
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FS4 found the differences, and drew meaning from them: “I feel that Germans do not take eating as seriously as Taiwanese. Taiwanese daily meals have a lot of alterations.
Germans often eat bread and cold foods” (May 24, 2017).
However, Byram’s definition of interpreting also includes’ finding relations from documents and events and relate to one’s own culture. The TWIYC.tw’s lectures were mostly based on the foreign lecturers’ PowerPoint presentations, which were more unified in the forms and had relatively more segmented information. Materials that can be used for establishing students’ interpreting skills include: text books, novels and short stories, discussion of cultural experiences, pictures and posters, videos or documentaries, newspaper and magazines and daily used materials such as menus and tickets. (Aslihan, 2016) Therefore, students’ interpreting skills were not developed sufficiently through the lectures.
4.4.3 A Real-time Interaction
TWIYC.tw activity created a chance for students to interact with foreigners from another culture. Students showed their ability in terms of a real-time interaction, applying newly acquired knowledge, with two different methods. First, they could process the knowledge they heard and asked follow up questions. They asked FF1, the Turkish speaker, why she chose to quit her job and spent all her money on traveling the world for a year. Second, students participated in the learning games. In FF3’s lecture, students needed to use the basic information they heard to predict and choose the correct answers for the new questions shown on the slides. A boy from class J who normally did not work hard nor pay attention in classes, this time, voluntarily previewed the lecturer’s PowerPoint slides, and searched for all the game’s answers. During the game, he tried
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hard to participate and answered all the questions correctly, which impressed both the speaker and the teacher. Concerning him, FT4 said:
“He was often noisy in class and did not pay attention to his studies. But this time, he searched for information in advance. And his performance made the lecturer happy. He truly needs this situation to learn. It fits his style of learning” (June 14, 2017).
Third, three speakers taught them their mother tongue. Students were able to learn some words in Turkish and sang along with a Turkish nursery rhyme. The German lecturer also taught students a few German words and encouraged students to say them out loud.
However, the main part of the activity was the speakers’ speeches, which were generally the most prepared part, and lasted more than 30 minutes in the 50 minutes class.
Adding the fact that students were more shy, as mentioned in the attitude section of this essay, the use of students’ real-time interaction skill was limited. A better environment to train students’ real-time interaction skill may be outside of classroom, where students can conduct fieldwork and independent learning (Byram, 1997).
4.5 Students’ Development of Critical Cultural Awareness
Education activities helping learners in developing critical cultural awareness (CCA) enables them in “observing clear connections between classroom lessons and real-world issues while exercising critical thinking skills throughout the process” (Nugent &
Catalano, 2015, p. 15). According to Byram (2012), the acquisition of skills, attitudes and knowledge do not necessary result in critical cultural awareness, for example in the cases
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of foreign workers’ job training. However, in intercultural education, it is crucial for critical cultural awareness to be developed. Though the other three elements do not promise the development of CCA, CCA can still be established with these three elements.
In this research, it was found that the formation of CCA is highly related to the attitude sub-element, “decenter” and two knowledge sub-elements: cultural self-awareness, and deep understanding and knowledge of culture. It is also related to two skill sub-elements:
analyzing and evaluating students’ answers. The relations between these sub-elements are
analyzing and evaluating students’ answers. The relations between these sub-elements are