26.5502, Review: Applied Ling; Cog Sci; Lang Acq; Socioling: Witte, Harden (2015)

[The LINGUIST List via LINGUIST]

LINGUIST List: Vol-26-5502. Thu Dec 10 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.5502, Review: Applied Ling; Cog Sci; Lang Acq; Socioling: Witte, Harden (2015)

Moderators: linguist at linguistlist.org (Damir Cavar, Malgorzata E. Cavar)
Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org (Anthony Aristar, Helen Aristar-Dry, Sara Couture)
Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

*****************    LINGUIST List Support    *****************
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
              http://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Sara  Couture <sara at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2015 11:28:01
From: Tünde Bajzát [tunde.bajzat at gmail.com]
Subject: Foreign Language Learning as Intercultural Experience

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36073517


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/26/26-2143.html

EDITOR: Arnd  Witte
EDITOR: Theo  Harden
TITLE: Foreign Language Learning as Intercultural Experience
SUBTITLE: The Subjective Dimension
SERIES TITLE: Intercultural Studies and Foreign Language Learning - Volume 16
PUBLISHER: Peter Lang AG
YEAR: 2015

REVIEWER: Tünde Bajzát, University of Miskolc

Reviews Editor: Sara Couture

SUMMARY

The volume entitled “Foreign Language Learning as Intercultural Experience”
and subtitled “The Subjective Dimension” edited by Arnd Witte and Theo Harden
is the 16th volume in the series of Intercultural Studies and Foreign Language
Learning. The book is based on the topics discussed at the conference
organized by the editors at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth in
August 2013. It is comprised of two sections the first one contains
discussions about the theoretical issues of the topic of foreign language
learning, and the second part shows the empirical studies carried out in the
field. The  ‘Introduction’ explains the book’s focus and organization, and
briefly describes each paper.

The first part of the book is entitled ‘Theoretical considerations’ and
contains four articles presenting different issues in the field of foreign
language learning. 

‘The Subjective Blending of Spaces in Intercultural Foreign Language Learning:
Theoretical Considerations and Issues of Assessment’ written by Arnd Witte
deals with the issues of first language acquisition, socialization and
enculturation of the mind, blended space theory (see Fauconnier 1997) and the
problems of assessing the intercultural blended place. During the acquisition
of the first language (L1), the child learns the language by participating in
social activities, and the L1 transforms the child into a social being. The
child acquires not only the language, but internalizes certain normative
categories that structure social reality and subjective cognition. The foreign
language classroom provides a new space for the subjective reconstruction of
L1-mediated values and beliefs. When we try to understand and construct new
information, we blend this new information with existing knowledge, which will
result in novel knowledge. In intercultural foreign language learning, the
processes of blending refer to the changes of aspects in one’s behavior,
attitudes, emotions and identities. In the foreign language classroom it is
important to occasionally step back and reflect on the learning process,
because intercultural competence must be consciously, deliberately and
intentionally addressed and developed. The author concluded that due to the
high degree of subjectivity in intercultural blending spaces it is difficult
to assess the progress of intercultural learning and the degrees of
intercultural competence required by educational institutions, in an
instructed learning context only cognitive knowledge can be evaluated. 

In his paper ‘Communicative Competence for a Sitcom Audience,’ Virgílio
Pereira de Almeida investigated which competences an English as a foreign
language (EFL) learner must possess in order to be able to understand the
humor of sitcoms. His research is based on Celce-Murcia’s model of
communicative competence (2007), which contains the following competences:
discourse, socio-cultural, interactional, formulaic, linguistic and strategic.
According to the model, only by the means of integrated and cohesive use of
the six competences can a person fully function in a speech community. The
study analyzed the releases (i.e. when the audience laughs) in seven episodes
of the sitcom ‘The Big Bang Theory’. The results showed that linguistic
competence (70%) is the most required of the six competences, followed by
interactional, socio-cultural and formulaic competences. The author came to
the conclusion that an EFL learner with the proficiency of only the linguistic
competence would not be able to understand 30% of the jokes, and at the same
time the data proved that many other aspects of communicative competence is
required for an EFL learner. 

Werner Müller-Pelzer, in the study entitled ‘The Role of Corporeal
Communication in Foreign Language Learning as Intercultural Experience,’ 
first discussed the theoretical approaches of subjective experience,
intercultural social practice, language learning and acquisition, and
corporeal communication. Then the author described the role of corporeal
communication in foreign language teaching. In case of adult foreign language
learners, the contact with the target culture is mostly indirect, the
corporeal and atmospheric resources are limited, corporeal cultural contact
are rare, the home country and its language is the predominant social and
cultural reference. Therefore, Werner Müller-Pelzer suggested several
activities that can be employed to help learners adopt to new situations and
to integrate themselves into another culture. They offer several opportunities
to acquire a foreign language as a subjective, corporeal grounded experience
in different culturally determined situations. He concluded that foreign
language teaching in universities reached a turning point and classroom
teaching will be more of a coaching activity. 

Theo Harden’s article, ‘The Most Frustrating Experience in Foreign Language
Learning: Listening Intently and Still Not Understanding,’ investigated the
issue of one of the four skills in second and foreign language learning,
namely listening. Harden argued that although listening comprehension is the
skill where foreign language learners experience the lack of success  most, it
is still paid the least amount of attention in foreign and second language
research and in the classroom. He compared the differences of listening in
one’s first language and in a foreign language, described the problems that
non-native listeners encounter at all levels of speech processing, and
mentioned a number of factors and compensatory strategies that help to process
the information. Since listening is a potential source of stress and anxiety
for language learners, he concluded the article by suggesting that more
emphasis should be put on listening skills in the classroom and at the same
time more structured research should be carried out in the area of listening
comprehension. 

The second part of the volume is entitled ‘Empirical studies’ and contains
eight papers describing empirical research studies carried out in Europe, the
Republic of South Africa and Brazil.

In her article, ‘Social Identity and Language Acquisition: A Case Study,’ Elke
Hentschel studied the role that identity plays in foreign language learning
through an early state of language attrition. The person who the author
researched was a young university graduate whose native language is Serbian.
He moved to Germany to continue his university education and later settled
down in the German speaking part of Switzerland, where he had been living for
four years at the time of the interview. At first, he used German only at work
and spoke Serbian with his German-Serbian bilingual wife and his family and
friends. However, without any conceivable reasons, he started to use standard
German in his private life and underwent the first symptoms of language
attrition, i.e. he developed an accent in his mother tongue, he started to
experience increasing difficulties with word retrieval and, he sometimes found
it difficult to judge the grammatical correctness of a sentence. Hentschel
investigated the reasons why the language shift took place in a situation
where the new language was not even the language of the surrounding majority.
In Switzerland, standard German is only used by those people whose native
language is French or Italian and there are negative stereotypes and
prejudices against ex-Yugoslavs. She argued that in such a situation it would
be a reasonable option for the researched person to aim for integration or
assimilation and adopt the local language. She came to the conclusion that the
most likely reason for the language change was attributable to the subjective
discrimination the researched person perceived. In other words, he did not
want to be recognized as a member of a group that has been discriminated
against and he felt that becoming integrated into the surrounding culture
would imply adopting negative evaluation of his own background. Essentially,
language change is not a reaction to the influence of an outside language, but
mirrors a change of linguistic identity of the speaker. 

‘Writing Academic English across the Disciplines: Intercultural Experiences of
Different Kinds’ showed the partial results of the research project entitled
‘Publish in English or Perish in German?’ (PEPG), which was about academic
writing and publishing in English as a foreign language. The authors, Claus
Gnutzmann, Jenny Jakisch and Frank Rabe, aimed to present how non-native
researchers and publishers view and respond to the increasing influence of
English. Despite the widespread use of English as the international language
of research and the increase in English-medium instruction in tertiary
education all over the world, the authors argued that in the academic context
of Germany – with almost 100 million people speaking German as their mother
tongue – German is predominantly used in higher education in Germany and
publications in German play a significant role in this context. The focus of
the PEPG project was on research publications in international journals and
four disciplines were chosen for analysis: biology, mechanical engineering,
German linguistics and history. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were
conducted with 24 researchers from the 4 disciplines from German universities
and 16 journal editors or publishing staff (4 people from each discipline)
from international publishing companies. The selected results proved that
language demands made on researchers and the language of education vary across
disciplines, because in the fields of biology and mechanical engineering
English is required for publication and teaching is mainly conducted in
English. However, for German linguists and historians, writing a research
paper in German is more common and almost all university teaching is done in
German. Since English and German as scientific languages vary across the
disciplines, the demands on non-native researchers’ language skills differ, as
well. 

Kristin Brogan, Helen Kelly and Muiris Ó Laoire in their paper entitled
‘Foreign Language Learning as Intercultural Experience: The Subjective
Dimension’ described research on the relationship of cultural sensitivity and
the development of language proficiency carried out among 50 Middle Eastern
students attending a stay abroad preparatory program in Ireland. The findings
pointed out that the participating students were highly motivated to learn
English, took an active role in the process of language learning, and, in the
classroom, they mostly enjoyed discussions, watching movies, language
laboratory work, group work and music. They had a lack of time and
opportunities to socialize and speak with the native-speakers and they had a
strong cohesive group identity with a fear of losing face. In spite of these
obstacles, their knowledge of Irish culture increased and their English
language competence developed as a result of studying in Ireland. The authors
concluded that the students’ cultural learning took place through
self-discovery, development of relationships, increased familiarity with the
host and own culture and the development of empathy. 

In her article ‘Cognitive Dissonance and the Subjective Mind in Foreign
Language Learning: The Use of Structured Academic Controversy in the German
Language Classroom,’ Jennifer Bruen proved that ‘Structured Academic
Controversy’ (SAC) is an effective tool in the language learning classroom.
SAC is a pedagogical technique, which is designed to generate informed and
constructive debate by learners on controversial issues with the aim of
developing the learners’ critical thinking skills. She conducted her case
study at Dublin City University among second year BA students studying German
as a core subject. The objective of the German language module was to develop
the students’ language proficiency and intercultural competency by using the
SAC technique. The researcher selected a C-test as the measurement tool. A
C-test is a complex language test, which was designed to measure a language
learner’s overall language competence. It consists of several short texts
written in the target language and from which the second half of every second
word has been deleted, and the language learner is required to reconstruct the
text. The results of the case study showed that the participating students’
language competence increased, which was measured by the pre and post C-tests
and SAC was proved to be a useful technique in the language classroom. 

Rachel Lindner in her study, ‘English Learner – English Speaker –
Intercultural Speaker – Digital Native: Student Construction of Communicative
Competence Gained through Reflection on Computer-Mediated Exchange,’
investigated the issue of telecollaborative projects. Such projects are
effective tools for developing students’ linguistic proficiency, intercultural
and computer-mediated communicative competences and critical thinking skills.
She reported the findings of CMIC project, set up in 2001 initiated by
Manchester University within the framework of a BA course in Language,
Literacy, and Communication. In the English-medium online exchange, e-partners
from Manchester, Munich and Ljubljana Universities took part in the study.
After two months the students had to write a reflective assignment about the
experience of their online interactions and project journals. All
participating students were considered to be digital natives, i.e. they were
born between 1980 and 2000 and are familiar with using digital and electronic
technologies. The outcome of the study showed that the online environment
concealed both cultural and language differences and shifted the students’
focus from communication on the large culture level and the differences
between those cultures to the competences involved in collaborating in a small
and culturally unique group. 

Undine S. Weber’s paper ‘Can Studying a Foreign Language Build or Improve
(Inter-)Cultural Competence? A Preliminary Case Study of Students’ Subjective
Impressions’  was set in the South African environment. The Republic of South
Africa with its eleven official languages and cultures is proud to be a
multicultural country, where students need to engage with the many cultures,
but it is also important to be interculturally competent. The aim of Weber’s
case study was to find out whether South African students felt the need for
intercultural competence in South Africa, and whether they are genuinely
interested in other cultures. The participants who completed her questionnaire
were 18 South African university students learning German as a foreign
language. The results  showed that most of the students felt that studying
about the literature and culture of the German-speaking countries increased
their intercultural competence and their ability to understand, appreciate and
interact with people from other cultures and their increasing competence in
language and culture was experienced as a positive development.

In her article ‘Measuring the Unmeasurable: On the Objective Assessment of
Subjective Learning,’ Rebecca S. C. Domingo suggested the medium of
translation as a method to assess intercultural communicative competence
(ICC). She described three ways that can be set up for this purpose. Firstly,
students would translate a text, which has been carefully selected to convey
intercultural information and after finishing the translation students may
write a reflective piece to compare the source culture with their own.
Secondly,  students would analyze the source text and highlight the potential
areas of intercultural interest; a good example might be a well-known piece of
literature. Thirdly, students would carry out a cultural translation of the
source text. She explained that the purpose of assessing the levels of
subjective ICC learning is to show students how to engage with and express
their own learning processes, and to help teachers assess the students’ own
perception of their level of ICC and what the teachers can or need to do to
promote their learning. Therefore she suggested guided writing exercises in
the mother tongue as an assessment tool. She concluded by adding that the
nature of ICC development is a lifelong learning and requires students to
regularly reflect in regard to their own development.

Edna Gisela Pizarro and Juan Pedro Rojas’ paper ‘Developing Self-Learning and
Intercultural Skills in a Spanish Course for Volunteers in the World Cup
Brazil 2014’ investigated self-learning in distance education in a Spanish
language course for speakers of Brazilian Portuguese developed for the
Brazilian Ministry of Education and Culture’s volunteer program for the FIFA
Confederations Cup in Brazil in 2013 and for the Football World Cup Brazil in
2014. The aim of the program was to train volunteers to assist the foreign
visitors of the sports events in Brazil. The objective of the authors’ project
was to develop self-learning and intercultural competences. The article
illustrated with examples how each of the skills of intercultural competence
was integrated in their project. After the course the volunteers had to fill
out a questionnaire, the questions of which were included in the paper. The
results pointed out that the course was useful for the participants,
sufficient in terms of self-learning, and an enriching experience to look at
their own language and culture through the eyes of a foreigner.  

EVALUATION

The edited volume offers twelve studies on foreign language education and
intercultural competence development from the subjective dimension. Each paper
discusses the topic from a different aspect providing theoretical background,
core issues and key findings, research approaches, implications for foreign
language education and further reading on the topic.

One of the major strengths of the volume is that it contributes to the field
of foreign language education by providing different perspectives of foreign
language teaching and intercultural competence development. It is an
outstanding book, because it discusses foreign language learning from a new
dimension, i.e. the subjective dimension. The fact that the authors are from
different countries and cultural backgrounds and carried out their research
studies in different linguistic and cultural environments of several countries
and continents makes the book even more interesting and enjoyable to read. The
volume is unique, because it examined studying not only English as a foreign
language, but also German and Spanish.

Although each paper is written by a different author(s), the writing style is
uniform, the partition of the volume provides for sufficient coherence and the
relationship among contributions is maintained. Also, the bibliographies at
the end of each paper offer the reader ample opportunities to further explore
the topic, which is another merit of the book.

Besides the above-mentioned advantages, the volume is useful for foreign
language teachers, practitioners and course designers because they can find
several examples that they can employ in their everyday teaching and by
adopting these techniques they can raise their students’ motivation, make
their classes more interesting and help their students’ to further develop
their linguistic and intercultural competences.

The book is an essential volume for scholars and researchers of linguistics
interested in the issues of foreign language learning and intercultural
competence development, because it describes several research studies and
provides several examples of scientific literature, which will inspire
thinking, theorizing and action. 

In short, the volume edited by Arnd Witte and Theo Harden is a worthwhile read
and welcome addition to our body of knowledge on foreign language learning and
intercultural competence. At the same time it is an important contribution to
the fast-evolving field of Intercultural Communication Studies. The book is of
manageable size and scope, clearly worded, interesting, useful and opens new
avenues for future research and study.

REFERENCES

Fauconnier, G. (1997), Mappings in Thought and Language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Tünde Bajzát is an Associate Professor of EFL in the Language Teaching Center at the University of Miskolc and she holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics. Her research interests include foreign language teaching, intercultural communication, business communication and English for Specific Purposes. She has published widely in these fields.




----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-26-5502	
----------------------------------------------------------