THE CULTURAL SYLLABUS AND ITS EFFECT ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING PROFESSION IN THE TOWN OF SHOUMEN Syllabus for Teaching Cross Cultural Communication THE CULTURAL SYLLABUS AND ITS EFFECT ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING PROFESSION IN THE TOWN OF SHOUMEN by Violeta Mondashka, ELMS, Shoumen and Stanislava Ivanova, Naval Academy, Varna Quite recently, while still writing this paper, the Bulgarian government started the official negotiations for the country’s integration in the European Communi.
Syllabus for Teaching Cross-Cultural Communication THE CULTURAL SYLLABUS AND ITS EFFECT ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING PROFESSION IN THE TOWN OF SHOUMEN by Violeta Mondashka, ELMS, Shoumen and Stanislava Ivanova, Naval Academy, Varna Quite recently, while still writing this paper, the Bulgarian government started the official negotiations for the country’s integration in the European Community This lays the foundations of a long and difficult process of radical changes in all spheres of our political, economic and social life aimed at successful integration In the context of these changes and in view of the new opportunities they will provide, foreign language teaching acquires even greater significance with its aim of enabling successful communication in a foreign language setting Linguistic performance alone, however, without cultural awareness does not warrant this success – an aspect that has long been neglected by our educational system The Cultural Studies Syllabus has been created to fill in this gap and to propose a way of integrating the teaching of language and culture It proceeds from our belief that language is part of a culture and to participate meaningfully in an inter-cultural context, one needs to possess knowledge as well as skills for inter-cultural communication The Syllabus promotes a new understanding about culture teaching in terms of WHAT and HOW to teach “What” is concerned not merely with provision of information but with developing inter-cultural awareness Such awareness as stated in the Syllabus, grows out of a combination of knowledge and skills The skill-based approach is crucial in helping the students to develop not only knowledge but also willingness to understand the complex aspects, which constitute culture Thus the CS provides not only the aims of cultural education but it also proposes a new methodology for achieving these aims (How) Since its publication in September 1998, a series of seminars have been run throughout the country “to enable a wider circle of practising teachers of English and other foreign languages to use the Syllabus creatively and through changing their own views on the teaching of culture and improving their classroom behaviour to contribute to a large-scale process of change in language education” (Leah Davcheva, Head of Cultural Studies, the British Council, Sofia) The present paper is an attempt to assess the innovative effect of the Cultural Studies Syllabus on the English language teaching and learning practice in the town of Shoumen It is mostly based on the reports of the teachers who participated in the double seminar on the Implementation of the CS and carried out their small action research projects in their classrooms between November 1998 and December 1999 It also includes our impressions from conducting the seminar, observing our colleagues teaching with the syllabus and discussing related issues in both formal and informal situations And last but not least, it is an account of our personal experience of teaching cultural issues Profile of the teachers The teachers who responded to the idea of integrating culture in language teaching came from different schools Schools Number Class of Age of students teachers Foreign languages Medium Preps 13-14 Eight 14-15 Ninth 15-16 Tenth 16-17 Eleventh 17-18 school The School of Humanities Tenth 16-17 Maths and Science School Preparatory 13-14 Sixth 11-12 Pre- 12-13 Secondary Comprehensive School Private Language School intermediate Level Muslem Religious School Tenth 16-17 The variety of the schools, as well as the different age groups of the students included in the research, provided the opportunity for exploring the effect of the syllabus in a number of different teaching contexts Since the Syllabus aims at innovation and change, further on in this paper we shall deal with the different aspects of the teaching-learning process and how these were affected by the Syllabus We will be looking at changes in the conventional teaching practice, what the students gained from it and how it affected the teachers themselves We will also deal with the innovative principles of the Syllabus that have been verified through our experience An important feature of the CS Syllabus is that it is skills-oriented (critical reading, comparing and contrasting, ethnographic and research skills) This gives the teacher the freedom to use different topics to practice the skills while at the same time avoids repetition The topics suggested by the Syllabus proved to be both interesting and provocative and found remarkable emotional response among the students These include: Christmas, Teenage Problems, “Fur Game? Fur-Get It!”, “I thought my teacher fancied me”, “Cross-cultural comparison of tourist materials, Reading photographs, Third Age, “Are we racist and xenophobic?”, etc Many of the topics were chosen by the students themselves By comparing and contrasting different Christmas practices, the problems of Bulgarian and British teenagers, different British/Scottish advertsing strategies in in tourist materials they became aware of different patterns of behaviour under similar circumstances, arising from different cultural background (“I thought my teacher fancied me”) In “Teenage work” they compared their predictions about finding work and the reactions of others (what employers, teachers, parents, peers think) and the reality of their findings Part of the learning process was taken out of the classroom and the students were encouraged to take a greater responsibility for their learning In many cases the comparison was based on research that the students carried out in their own culture (by developing ethnographic skills) on different occasions: Christmas, teenage working, third age problems, etc The students were provoked to find more about their own culture and acquire understanding of their own culture, a prerequisite of dealing with culture per se, before they could successfully develop awareness and tolerance of foreign cultural practices Ethnographic research helped students realize that learning can happen outside the classroom, that by objectively observing they can learn more about themselves and gain increased awareness of changes in their own culture The students in the 11th class admitted they could not attach the same emotional response to Christmas that they used to experience on New Year’s day In the 11th class the syllabus prompted the idea of self-designing a lesson on Christmas food and eating habits The students were asked to research specific social practices like fasting and celebration of the night before Christmas; the symbolic meaning of the vegetarian and the number of dishes laid on the table They provided typical Christmas recipes from the Bulgarian national cuisine In the process of research, however, the students came up with unexpected results They explored how the Bulgarian cuisine has been influenced by the Greek, Turkish and Italian cuisine and how in turn it affected our neighbouring countries A special presentation was devoted to the Shoumen region, which added the local colour to their intra-cultural awareness As a whole, Bulgarian cuisine was identified as a source of national pride Information was also collected from the Internet and, along with the British tradition, the students learned a lot about Mexican and Chinese ones The comparison was followed by a discussion on the changing nature of habits and traditions, English breakfast was discussed as well as different strategies for fasting and dieting Thus, the students were exposed to a variety of cultural diversities The CS was found extremely helpful by our American Peace Corp teacher As a foreigner she found it natural to share parts of her own culture with the classes she taught The Syllabus, however, provided a more structured approach to cultural comparisons She tried the Christmas lessons in the prep, th and 9th classes and found both the procedure and the materials equally relevant to these three age groups She particularly liked the cross-cultural approach, which turned the lesson into a comparison between Bulgarian and American Christmas traditions and not just a provision of knowledge about the target culture Another aspect that was highly appreciated was the emphasis on intra-cultural awareness As a follow-up to the lesson, she assigned a homework asking the students to describe the Bulgarian Christmas traditions This is what she shared: “Reading these was probably the most rewarding part of the lesson Our discussions had helped them to delve deeper, to think more precisely about their own traditions and what they mean to them, as well as to recognize those things which are unique about their own culture.” The emphasis on intra-cultural awareness was highly appreciated by the American Peace Corps teacher “The first step toward understanding another language is to recognize that our opinions are in part shaped by a specific culture (our ‘box’), and that other people in other places might approach a similar problem in entirely different ways The new cultural studies syllabus encourages students to take the first steps in this process by introducing interesting and relevant topics that elicit debate and response, and then by asking students to compare this response with how people in another culture would respond.” While comparing facts and social practices from their own culture and the culture of the target language they seemed to acquire a broader perspective of the role of both native and foreign culture for the development of their personalities By exposing the students to a variety of cultural contexts we equip them with the tools they need to process information and form an opinion of their own Versatility An important feature of the syllabus is that it is extremely versatile which allows the same topic to be used at various levels in a number of different ways The topic of Christmas proved be the most enjoyable one round Christmas and it was explored in the widest possible range of age groups (from 12-18) In each of the classes however the lessons on Christmas were focussed on different aspects of the holiday depending on the language level and background experience of the students The CS crept into a quite unexpected teaching setting like the Muslim Religious secondary school The topic of Christmas provoked the idea of comparing and contrasting different religious holidays and the social practices that accompany them Residing in Bulgaria the students knew about Christmas but they have always felt it to be an exotic holiday, alien to their strong Muslim religious self-awareness However, they were well familiar with the story of Ramazan Bayram from the Quran The lesson encouraged the students to look deeper into the significance of their holiday as a symbol of purity and sincerity in human relations and respect for the elderly people in the family A comparison between the two holidays and the messages they carry for the members of the two different religious communities raised their awareness of the existing common values along with the cultural and religious diversities They realised what an important significance Christmas had for the Christian community The lesson, while respecting their ethnic and religious identity, made it possible for them to identify with a different perspective, thus engendering tolerance Flexibilty & Appropriateness to young learners When writing the syllabus the target audience we aimed at were the English teachers at the Language, Maths and Humanities Medium schools However, a belief was expressed that it could be of help to any language teacher Being among its authors, we were curious to see how it works with very young learners Violeta tried the second Christmas lesson from the Syllabus with her young students at a private language school Those are 12-year old children whose level of English can be defined as preintermediate or lower intermediate The aim was to practice comparing and contrasting and research skills Before the Christmas holiday break, The students were asked to carry out a small research in their own family and relatives’ circle, answering very simple questions like: Why we celebrate Christmas? Who you celebrate with? Where you usually celebrate? What you / your parents / your relatives before Christmas/ on Christmas day / on the next day? The students responded sincerely and brought an account of traditional practices many of which we were not quite familiar with They talked about “Budni vecher”, the vegetarian dishes, and the traditional Christmas symbols It was difficult for them to express themselves fluently while describing specific practices but the emphasis being the cultural context, they were not corrected, just provided with the words they needed When they had agreed on the list of typical Bulgarian Christmas activities, they were handed the photo from the Syllabus and made a similar list of the British common activities Additional information was also provided from “Discovering Britain” with a glossary of the anticipated unfamiliar words Then they were asked to find the difference between the two lists The comparison between the two lists of activities brought awareness mostly at affective level Some responded emotionally and quickly jumped to conclusions like “Our holiday is better!” In the discussion that followed there was a lot of comparing and contrasting It turned out that Bulgarian children enjoyed the way they celebrated Christmas They liked the presents, disliked the turkey and the Christmas pudding and wanted the Bulgarian “banitsa” with the lucky charms in it However, they were attracted by particular items in the other culture as well – mostly by the firecrackers and the Christmas stocking, though doubts were expressed as to its practicality in terms of the size of the presents that can fit in it They learned about Boxing Day and compared it with our tradition of “Koleduvane” They were also made aware of the mobility of cultural traditions One of the families had celebrated the holiday abroad and another boy reported about a family that chose to have turkey for their Christmas meal Another enjoyable Christmas lesson with young learners (in the fifth grade) was based on comparing and contrasting Christmas cards Since those children study Russian along with English, the teacher chose to compare Bulgarian, Russian and British Christmas postcards Again the children showed great enthusiasm, learned a lot about Christmas symbols and made interesting observations They responded not only to the images but also to the quality of the design They recognized the uniqueness of the Bulgarian images: the traditional “buklitsa” and “surovaknitsa”, the apples and nuts on the folkstyle tablecloth – things they could not find in the other cards They admired the images of the animals and the fairy-tale characters with “Snegurachka” (Snow White) in the Russian cards They wondered why a view of Kremlin or of the Houses of Parliament should be sent as a Christmas greeting They liked the Christmas stocking and disliked the religious texts of the Christmas carols Both lessons proved to be successful in providing young learners with insight into a foreign culture and traditions on a par with their own Given the students age (12) it was unrealistic to expect them to speculate about or account for the reasons of the cultural diversities and similarities they noticed Yet, a lot of comparing and contrasting was practiced, which enhanced their observation skills and provoked them to think about diversity, to say nothing of the new words they learned in the most enjoyable way Thus with a slight adaptation in the procedure and the materials the Syllabus proved to be helpful for practicing the three cultural skills with younger learners Emotional Response The opportunity to participate in the selection of topics not only enhanced the students’ motivation but also stimulated a surprising ingenuity in providing additional topic-related materials from most varied sources: questionnaires and interviews carried out in their own culture, Christmas cards from different cultures, newspaper articles and photographs, tourist materials, Internet, etc The students were eager to discuss, competed to be presenters, to shift the focus to topics they thought were relevant While discussing animal rights and xenophobia, such diverse topics as stray dogs, animals in Bulgarian zoos, dancing bears, the war in Kosovo, etc., were touched upon Various teaching techniques were employed All the students got involved in taking interviews and making posters in Jana’s project on teenage working As some of them shared, they felt like journalists and enjoyed it very much What the students gained 10 After the survey and group discussion of questions, a reading on the topic is passed out that describes differences between Japanese and American culture and the underlying reasons for these differences To briefly elaborate on the above example on raising children, the reading points out that Japanese children tend to sleep with their parents for several years (Reischauer, 1988, p 144) while Americans tend to give their children a separate room soon after birth (Levine and Adelman, 1993, p 172-4) It is then argued that the reason for this difference runs deeper than simple lack of space in Japanese homes Rather, the closeness between Japanese infants reflects a strong penchant for encouraging dependence and group orientation On the other hand, Americans prefer to inculcate independence and this is reflected by the new born baby being given its own room Finally, after reading the passage, students write down answers to the same questions that they had asked in their groups, only this time for American culture In this way, students are able to contribute answers for their own culture while reading answers about the target (American) culture By the end of the class, students have had an opportunity to speak and read in English while learning about the deeper cultural values that exist in their own culture as well as one of the countries whose language they are studying In this way, the course provides both language practice in addition to cultural content that reaches to a level beyond that normally discussed Assessment In light of the realities of university education in Japan, that is, one teacher is often responsible for the course design, teaching and marking of at least half a dozen courses per semester, student assessment must be kept very 21 efficient The one term course outlined below includes assessment in three components The first component is attendance Because students are meant to be active participants in group discussions that take place each week, attendance is an important part of the final grade Secondly, a report (minimum 500 words) which discusses one or both of the class's themes in regard to a topic of the student's choice is required at the end of the term Reports are expected to include proper referencing and footnotes, which is also taught in the course Finally, a take home exam is conducted which asks students to creatively apply what they have learned over the previous 15 weeks Course Content Week 1: Fundamentals of Culture: Many factors affect the way culture develops, for example, the physical environment, the way of getting food, the great people in a culture's history, religion, and political will These factors have given Japan a vertical structure of society which is group oriented In America, these same factors have led to a horizontal, individually-oriented culture As an example of one element, great people, the influence of Confucius is contrasted with thought from ancient Greece Week 2: Raising Children: The way that people raise their children reflects the culture of a given society For example, Japanese raise their children to live in a group culture while Americans raise their children to live in an individual culture By examining why couples have children as well as how parents treat their children with regard to sleeping arrangements, bathing, baby sitting, and disciplining, a better understanding of both the differences and similarities of the two cultures may result 22 Week 3: Family: A cultural study of the family constitutes several elements including: how couples first meet, the reasons people marry and divorce, whether they live with their children, who controls the money, etc Japan and America can be contrasted in all of these facets and often deeper cultural values are reflected in the differences For example, the continued practice of arranged marriages in Japan reflects the need of families to have some control over the acceptance of new members before they enter the group In America, couples are mostly free of this type of practice (Nanda, 1994, p 235) Week 4: Communication Styles: Certain elements of language such as compliments, greetings, vocabulary, and expressions of modesty reveal that Japanese language tends to pay more attention to a social hierarchy and the wishes of the group, while English language is more oriented toward the individual with less concern for the status of one's listener (Adler and Rodman, 1994, pp 328-9) Examples such as the Japanese frequent use of words like senpai, which is translated with difficulty into English, serve to illustrate this point Week 5: University Education: Japanese and American university education show many different nuances Elements such as the age of students, the style of teaching and evaluation, the method of entrance into university point to deeper cultural values These elements are examined in light of Confucian roots in the case of Japan while American education is considered in light of educational beliefs dating back to the ancient Greeks Week 6: Food and Health: By describing the diets of Japanese and Americans, it is possible to make some broad conclusions about how these diets developed While the physical environment has played a large role, methods used by our ancestors to preserve food have also been an important contributor (Omae and Tachibana, 1988, p 99) The importance 23 that Japanese place on the visual appearance of food may also have deeper cultural roots Week 7: Women: Throughout history, in both Japan and America, women have experienced discrimination This discrimination is still evident today in facets of everyday life including language, the workplace, schools, etc This discrimination however, has a different nuance in both countries as the roles that women play in each society Week 8: Working Life: Recruitment, holidays, the rate of changing jobs, meetings and decision making are all aspects of working life that show differences between Japan and America For example, Americans change their jobs more often than Japanese which points to a stronger feeling of group loyalty in Japan compared to individually-oriented America (Stewart and Bennett, 1991, p 134) Job discrimination is another facet of working life that exists in both Japan and America, but has a different nuance Week 9: Law: The crime rate in Japan is much lower than that of the United States which is a reflection of the social structure, the laws, and the criminal justice systems of the two cultures These three factors in turn reflect deeper cultural values For example, living in a group society, Japanese know that if they commit a crime, it not only reflects badly on themselves but on their family members (Van Wolferen, 1989, p 249) Thus, social pressure plays a bigger role in deterring crime than in America Week 10: Economy: Although economy may seem like an odd topic for a course on culture, the way a society manages its money is greatly influenced by its culture For example, Japan is known for its high prices while most goods and services in the United States are cheaper One of the reasons for high prices in Japan are its myriad regulations that govern 24 the whole distribution process These regulations help the government keep tight control of the economy while keeping unemployment low (Tenhover, 1994, p 40) This tends to reflect a group-oriented, hierarchical culture In America, most industries are relatively free of regulations, which helps to lower prices but increases unemployment This reflects a more horizontal society where open competition is encouraged Week 11: Television Commercials: Television commercials can reveal much about the culture of a society In Japan, commercials tend to be image-oriented and supply the viewer with very little information In America, commercials tend to be full of information with less attention being paid to a product's image This difference reflects, among many things, a fundamental contrast in the way Japanese and Americans communicate (Stapleton, 1997) As group members, Japanese use high context communication in which the listener must derive meaning from the context as well as the words American communication style is low context, and meaning is derived mostly from words alone (Hall, 1987, p 158) Week 12: Space: The way people view space is different in every culture, for example, the way people arrange their furniture, offices, and gardens reflects the way they understand space In general, Americans tend to view unfilled space and silence as being empty (Levine and Adelman, 1993, p 71; Hall, 1983, p 99) Japanese, however, tend to find more meaning in empty spaces and silences (Matsumoto, 1988, p 50) These differing views of space are, in part, connected to our relationships with others Japanese, as group members, tend to regard private space differently from individually-oriented Americans Week 13: Health Care: Although both Japanese and Americans enjoy the benefits of modern medical technology, there are many smaller nuances in the way health care is practiced and these differences can be related to 25 deeper cultural values For example, the national health insurance system covers almost every member of Japanese society, but in America, there is a significant portion of the population which has no coverage It is said that America's strong sense of individualism has prevented a national health insurance system from being developed (Brislin, 1993, p 370) Week 14: Sports: People in both Japan and America are active partipants in sports However, although they often play similar sports using similar rules, the way they play these sports shows a different nuance which, in turn, reflects their country's culture For example, Japanese play golf in a very disciplined way wearing special golfing clothes and shoes, using a full set of clubs and following the rules of etiquette just like a professional would In addition, hours of time are spent perfecting their game at a golf range On the other hand, Americans are less concerned about their appearance and the perfect swing Instead, the main concern is their score and winning the round This difference shows the Japanese penchant for fitting into a group and showing their effort and perseverence In contrast, through sport Americans reveal their desire to compete and win which is very important in individualistic societies Week 15: Exam References Adler, R B., & Rodman, G (1994) Understanding human communication Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Brinton, D.M., Snow M.A., & Wesche, M.B (1989) Content-based second language instruction New York: Newbury Brislin, R W (1981) Cross-cultural encounters New York: Pergamon Press Hall, E T (1983) The dance of life New York: Anchor Books 26 Hall, E T., & Hall, M R (1987) Hidden differences New York: Anchor Books Levine, D R., & Adelman, M B (1993) Beyond language Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Regents Nanda, S (1994) Cultural anthropology Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Omae, K., & Tachibana, Y (1988) The book of sushi Tokyo: Kodansha Reischauer, E.O (1988) The Japanese today Tokyo: Tuttle Rosen, S L (1997) A syllabus for teaching cross cultural communication The Language Teacher, 21(1), pp 25-26, 36 Stapleton, P (in press) Japanese and American television commercials: A cultural study with TEFL applications JALT Journal, 19(1) Stewart, E C & Bennett, M J (1991) American cultural patterns Yarmouth, Maine: Intercultural Press Tenhover, G R (1994) Unlocking the Japanese business mind Washington, DC: Transemantics Van Wolferen, K (1989) The enigma of Japanese power New York: Macmillan Creative Course Design: A Syllabus for Teaching Cross-Cultural Communication 27 by Steven L Rosen Hiroshima Women's University Interacting with people from other cultures can be stressful, as well as rewarding, for all of us To inaugurate this column, Steven L Rosen describes a course designed to reduce the stress and increase the rewards for Japanese college students in a Study Abroad program in the UK He advocates a flexible, yet strong, sense of self and sensitivity toward the cultures of others His syllabus employs an anthropological approach to achieve these objectives In the spring of 1995 I was invited to go to England as a research fellow in order to design and teach courses in cross-cultural communication at Gyosei International College, a Japanese college in the UK The president of the college had decided that since many of the freshmen were experiencing severe adjustment problems, so-called "culture shock," the best solution would be to have a required course in cross-cultural communication (CCC) Following Ministry of Education guidelines, other Japanese colleges and graduate schools, in and outside Japan, are also beginning to offer courses in cross-cultural communication and crosscultural studies A report on this pilot course, which in the end proved to be a success, should be of interest to other pioneers in this relatively new field The syllabus included below, and the accompanying selected bibliography should be useful for anyone intending to design or teach CCC in the future The Course Generally speaking, research in the field of crosscultural communication seems to have taken one of three approaches: 1)linguistic, 2) anthropological, and 3) psychological A linguistic approach naturally looks at communication as a rule governed process of signification An anthropological approach would focus less on language structures and 28 more on cultural meanings; viewing communication as the expression of cultural ideologies, cosmologies, or world views The psychological perspective, which usually adopts a cognitivist orientation, is concerned with showing how perceptual schemata frame our experience of the world and our transactions with it, and how this relates to particular emotional needs and personality orientations While the syllabus used in our course tried to present all three perspectives, the anthropological approach was most heavily favored It was assumed from the start that the best way to help students deal with culture shock and overcome cross-cultural communication problems was not so much by providing them with a fixed set of rules or strategies for communication (the linguistic perspective), nor by examining supposedly fixed mental templates for understanding reality (the psychological perspective); rather we tried to sensitize students as to how humans continually invent and reinvent both themselves and culture through certain core symbols, which articulate such things as cosmologies (world views), epistemologies (ways of thinking and understanding), and ideologies (moral values, political orientations) This first term required course (enrollment 80) was taught by a team of three instructors: 1) a British instructor who was also a hall warden and the liaison between the college and Reading University, 2) the Japanese president of the college, and 3) myself, an American trained as a cultural anthropologist with eight years teaching experience in Japan British, Japanese and American culture were the three main culture areas examined for comparative purposes; other EC countries were also touched upon because of the interesting intercultural communication problems being posed by the EC unification process 29 The student body was extremely diverse, with a wide range of motivations and English language abilities (which proved to be our biggest challenge) Whereas some students had chosen the school because they couldn't get into a Japanese school of sufficiently high level, others were attaining 500 or higher on the TOEFL and were intending to graduate work in the U.K.! The particular emphasis on helping the students overcome culture shock proved to keep interest high regardless of level; students eagerly looked forward to the class because they found that, unlike most of their other classes, the course specifically addressed the emotional and intellectual issues which they were facing This is not to say that the course became a kind of mass group therapy, but rather that theory was introduced in such a way that it could be seen to be directly relevant to their own personal life experience; the experience of confronting another culture and trying to communicate within it The introductory lecture attempted to set the tone by discussing the concrete aims of the course, which were two-fold: first, to familiarize the student with the practical problems of intercultural communication, and secondly, to think about these practical problems as rooted in deeper cultural concerns The instructors felt that class participation was vital to such a course and worried from the beginning that the large size of the class would preclude this participation We partly overcame this problem by requiring students to bring in written questions for the instructors, either in English or Japanese Weekly hand-outs to supplement the syllabus plus overhead projector visuals proved to be an invaluable way to give the students a sense of the organization and direction of the course The material on American culture was part of the syllabus for a variety of reasons One was that the main lecturer, this writer, was and still is 30 American Another was that most students had had more exposure to American culture than British, and this made it easier to show connections between behavior and culture A third reason, and one which the other two (non-American) instructors felt to be salient, was that America is an important country economically and geopolitically, and many students, especially in the business course, expected to be dealing with that country across the Atlantic The material on British culture was acutely focused on actual communication problems which Japanese students, living in British resident halls, were facing The British instructor was in charge of the residence halls and knew first hand of the intercultural communication problems which the students were facing with British students The ongoing intercultural tensions in the residence halls between the Japanese and the British students were often the result of breakdowns in communication; the instructor tried to show how cultural misunderstandings (on both sides) were responsible The Japanese professor provided support, including translation help throughout most of the course When it came time to lecture on Japanese culture, he graciously deferred to me, since the students were eager to hear about their culture from a non-Japanese who had lived in Japan long enough to become partly Japanized Students said they found these lectures on their own culture the most interesting because it enabled them to think about many things they had taken for granted in a totally new light The 10 week first term course was, by all accounts, a success Many students reported to me or to their tutors that the course helped them deal with culture shock It did this by giving them concrete, factual information which helped them deal with cultural adjustment, and also by showing them new ways of looking at intercultural interaction so as to make it less 31 problematic The aim of the syllabus was to open up the students' minds; to put their own cultural ways of knowing in broad perspective to show that, rather than being fixed models of reality, one's culture is simply one of many possible ways of being in the world Conclusion What does a person need to know in order to engage in communication with those from different cultures? Any course in CCC should be required to address this question This syllabus attempted to address the question in the particular context of helping Japanese students overcome adjustment problems living in Britain Whether or not this syllabus would be just as effective in other educational contexts is hard to predict, yet, since it was reportedly the most popular first year course offered, one might assume that much of its content and overall orientation would be of use for other instructors of CCC As for the mastering of pragmatic rules of intercultural conversation (e.g., things like turn taking, apologies, requests, and so on), the regular English language course seemed to be handling that end of things quite well It seemed quite obvious to the instructors that the success of the CCC course was primarily due to the fact that we were concerned with showing how communication reiterates culture, and how culture totally relies on communication in order to perpetuate itself 32 Syllabus for First Year Required Course in Cross-cultural Communication Instructors: Professors Rosen, Barrow, Moro'oka Course Description The world is inhabited by people with different cultures, which means different values, ways of thinking, patterns of behavior, and so forth Rather than trying to teach specific rules or strategies for intercultural communication, the aim of this course is to enable students to better understand both their own cultural patterns of behavior as well as those of people from different cultures It differs from a course in cultural anthropology in so far as we will lay special emphasis on how these differing cultural meanings lead to culture conflict and cross-cultural communication problems It is hoped that this will help students understand their own communication problems so that they will be in a better position to find solutions to these problems This is a ten week one term course required of all first year students There are three instructors, one American, one British, and one Japanese The instructors will present perspectives on communication from their own cultures as well as their experiences in intercultural communication Method of instruction The three lecturers from Britain, Japan and the United States will teach as a team All three will be available for private consultation after class for those students with questions or comments Flip charts and the OHP will be used to help students understand lecturers in English; the Japanese instructor will provide simultaneous translations on the flip chart of difficult terms Students will be asked to bring in written questions or comments 33 each week, which are based on the previous week's lecture There is no set text for this course; printed materials handed out to the students each week which will include an outline of the day's lecture Course Content (by week) Week 1: Introduction Statement of the aim of the course: to sensitize students to how culture and communication are integrally related Introduction of the topics to be covered: British, American, Japanese and other country's patterns of culture; culture shock, and communication problems which arise primarily because of cultural differences Week 2: Introduction to American culture; a look at how social issues facing the United States (racism, divorce, education) reflect underlying cultural meanings Week 3: Introduction to British culture with special focus on education British university student life British perceptions of foreigners, especially the Japanese Week 4: Culture shock Typical symptoms and why they generally occur Responses such as disgust with the alien culture, or disgust with one's own culture; "going native." How one may begin to deal with this problem through understanding Week 5: Comparison of Japanese and American cultures Three main areas of focus: 1) language and communication, 2) school life, 3) conflict resolution Week 6: Non-verbal or paralinguistic features of communication with special attention to British and Japanese face-to-face interactions Week 7: The European Economic Community and cross-cultural communication problems which relate to the unification process Week 8: Ethnocentrism vs cultural relativism How to understand other cultures and communication without imperialistic bias How living in a 34 foreign country and being open to a another way of life and thinking is liable to affect one's personality, hopefully in the direction of greater growth, sensitivity, holism and awareness Week 9: General review of main topics covered Questions and answers Personal experiences/ anecdotes of cross-cultural communication problems For those students not happy with foreign life (who are homesick), suggestions for how to reach some rapprochement with the alien culture Homesickness as a kind of idealization in response to new stresses Week 10: Examination Assessment Short regular quizzes to evaluate the student's level of understanding One short essay One final exam worth about 80% of the course grade Students who regularly contribute will be given extra credit 35 ... our colleagues teaching with the syllabus and discussing related issues in both formal and informal situations And last but not least, it is an account of our personal experience of teaching cultural... British Council THE CULTURAL SYLLABUS AND ITS EFFECT ON TEACHING IN SHOUMEN 16 The Cultural Studies Syllabus has been created to provide means for integrating the teaching of language and culture... Design: A Syllabus for Teaching Cross-Cultural Communication 27 by Steven L Rosen Hiroshima Women's University Interacting with people from other cultures can be stressful, as well as rewarding, for