DOCUMENT RESUMEED 037 146FL 001 653AUTHORLadu Tora TuveTITLETeaching - PDF document

1 DOCUMENT RESUMEED 037 146FL 001 653AUTHO
DOCUMENT RESUMEED 037 146FL 001 653AUTHORLadu, Tora TuveTITLETeaching for Cross-Cultural Understanding.PUB DATE6 Oct 69NOTE15p.; Address prepared for Secondary Symposium II,and given at pre-conference workshop, IndianaUniversity, Bloomington, Indiana, on October 6, 1969EDRS PRICEDESCRIPTORSABSTRACTEDRS Price MF-$0.25 HC-$0.85* Cross Cultural Studies, Cross Cultural Training,Cultural Awareness, Cultural Context, CulturalEducation, Cultural Traits, Culture, CurriculumDevelopment, *Educational Objectives, Ethnology,Foreign Culture, *Instructional Program Divisions,Intercultural Programs, *Language Instruction,*Relevance (Education), Second Language Learning,Social Values, Sociocultural Patterns, SociologyStating that man's intellectual and spiritualhorizons need to be expanded through educational programs andapproaches in cross-cultural understanding, the author claims that agreater world perspective is attained through the study of socialstudies, foreign language, English, fine arts, and science,particularly in interdisciplinary programs. The Whorfian hypothesisof language and culture is reviewed, citing France as an example, ina discussion of values. Relevance, communication, provincialism,ethnocentricism, world community, sociocultural context,anthropology, and formal and deep culture are concepts discussed inthe address.(RL) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION A WELFAREOFFICE OF EDUCATIONTHIS DOCUMENT HAS 1E1N REPRODUCEDEXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THEPERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT.POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONSSTATED DO NOT NECES

2 SARILY REPRESENT OFFICIALOFFICE OF EDUCA
SARILY REPRESENT OFFICIALOFFICE OF EDUCATION4)POSITION OR POLICY.-416'-"4Teaching for Cross-Cultural UnderstandingPeCDC3an addressLLJby.Tora Tuve LatillforSecondary Symposium IIan Invitational Conferenceat Indiana UniversityOctober 6, 1969Sponsored byThe Indiana Language ProgramThe National Association of Secondary School PrincipalsThe American Council on the Teaching of Foreign LanguagesThe Indiana State Advisory Committee for Foreign LanguagesThe Indiana Foreign Language Teachers' Association TEITHING FOR CROSS - CULTURAL UNDERSTANDINGLast week an interesting new bulletin reached my desk.Itwas published by the Commission on Secondary Schools of the SouthernAssociation of Colleges and Schools.On the cover is a strikingpicture of a blue and white, slightly distorted, sphere, with thetop edge fading into the large black square that is its background.The title of the bulletin is Adventure on a Blue Marble.This bright blue marble called earth is a small planet in oursolar system in a vast galaxy of stars occupied by the solar system.A hundred billion other stars make up this system and there are untoldnumbers of such groupings.On this small bit of galactic dust isfound a species that, as far as we know, is unique -- mankind.On the title page of the first chapter of this bulletin we read:"To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful inthat eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riderson the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in theeternal cold -- brothers who know now they are truly bro

3 thers:"Written by Archibald MacLeish fol
thers:"Written by Archibald MacLeish following the telecast from theApollO 8 spaceship on Christmas Eve, 1968.In the last third of the twentieth century, teachers andadministrators who shape the American curriculum are re-examiningthe place of foreign languages in the schools -- and colleges; andin that connection, they are taking a fresh look at the contributionof the language sequences toward cross-cultural understanding andcommunication.The cultuial dimension of language teaching is a considerationin its acceptance by administrators and teachers of other subjects. because we are led (by the national need) to claim that languageteaching is an effective means not only to communication in a narrowsense, but to mutual understanding between bearers of differingcultures.The role of the study of other cultures has been considered byAmerican educators for a great many years.Bernard Moses, who offeredthe first university course in Latin American history in the UnitedStates--in 1895 at Berkeley--expressed well the basic reason forAmericans to study other cultures in an address in Los Angeles in1898, entitled "The Neglected Half of American History."He urgedthat we study the history of the whole American continent, "to preventus from falling into what we may call a national provincialism..To check the.tendency to narrowness and provincialism is one of themost important tasks developing upon the schools."At a time whenthe Spanish-American War was imminent, Professor Moses urged hislisteners "to devote a portion of their energies to a consid

4 erationof the social and political achie
erationof the social and political achievements of our prospective enemy."*We will readily admit, I'm sure, that-most peoples tend naturallyto emphqsize their own civilization, their own achievements, and thatthey are usually convinced that their own ways of doing things arebest.The influence of cultural nationalism has never been statedmore clearly than by Herodotus, the Father of History.After visiting.the Egyptians, he concluded that they were a puzzling people.Womenwent to market in Egypt while the men remained at home to weave..*Lewis Hanke, "A Window on the World," address delivered at theCalifornia Council of Foreign Language Teachers Association,November, 1967. Just the opposite occurredin Greece.And, most strange, theEgyptians wrote from right to left.He noted, however, thesurpriseof the Egyptians at hisobservations concerning theirwriting habits.It was not they who werestrange, the Egyptiansmaintained, who wrotefrom right to left, but theGreeks, who wrote from left toright.Thus it is that this kind ofethnocentrism has existed for alongtime and one should not be surprisedto find it a powerful forcetoday in every part of the globe.All students, therefore, need tohave "windows on the world"opened up for them to allow them tolearnabout other people, othercultures, and other points ofview,* whichwill lead them to discover thatall cultures are basically wondrousvarieties of ways in which maneverywhere formulates and dealswithproblems that are essentially our own.On a visit to the wonderful new museumof anthropology in MexicoCit

5 y, when leavingthe section on ethnology,
y, when leavingthe section on ethnology, I was particularlyimpressed by the summaries printed onlarge posters just before theexit.One of the statements was (intranslation):"All men resolvethe same needs with different resourcesand in different' ways.Allcultures are equally valid."Today, the rationale for developing aworld consciousness amongs.udents is a pragmatic one:society demands it.The growinginterdependence of the world community is anestablished fact.President Kennedy, in one of his addresses onforeign policy, spokeof the need for a new"Declaration of Interdependence."In the past,so-called grass-fire wars tended to beconfined to a relatively smallgeographic area until they had run their course.Now every sizeable.11111!111*Hanke, ibid. conflagration in any part of theworld is a real orpotential threatto all of the rest ofthe world.*The cliche about the"world getting smaller" is, evenin itsfigurative sense, misleading.In a real sensethe world scene isbecoming vastly enlarged inseveral ways--by the emergenceof newsovereign nations, each demandingits place in the sun; by thegrowing complexity ofinternational po13tical,economic, and culturalrelations; and by the practicallyinstantaneous network of world-widecommunications.There-may be some validityin the concept of a-shrinkingworld to an airlines pilot or anastronaut, but to theeducator, worldaffairs have exploded toincredibly vast and complexdimensions.Thenew globalmobility, instantaneouscommunications and nearly instantdestruction have created a situationof great fluidity andha

6 ve.resulted in the greatestinterchange o
ve.resulted in the greatestinterchange of people, goodsand ideas in thehistory of the earth.How can the high schoolcurriculum cope with the problem ofdeveloping some degree of worldperspective among students?Themajor avenues, it seems, mustbe through the various coursesin socialstudiest foreign languages,English, fine arts, andscience.People and their ways ofliving and thinking give us aclue tothe national character of asociety.To know about apeople's basicnature and beliefs is to getto the heart ofunderstanding thatsociety.Perhaps this is the mostdifficult of all aspects of learningfor atypical secondarystudent to grasp, sinceit is certainly themost abstract, andAmericans do not likeabstractions.Yet the*Wesley and Wronski,Teac_..._.11j5.nSocial Studiesiniiia121911221.Heath,1964. behavior of people acting collectively as a nation cannot be under-stood without some knowledge of their fundamental commitments.An intensive study of a given area, for example, should enablethe student to grasp one very significant concept at least, namely,that there is an infinite variety of ways to organize societies.Weourselves must recognize that our own pattern of organization is notthe only possible way and that it probably will not be a permanentpattern.Prominent among formulations of objectives in foreign languageteaching we usually find some such statement as the following: "Toincrease international understanding by enabling the student to enterinto the life, thought, and literature of people who speak anotherlanguage."The Modern Language Associa

7 tion's policy statement, "ForeignLanguag
tion's policy statement, "ForeignLanguages and International Understanding" issued in September, 1956,listed three contributions which foreign language learning can make tothe achievement of international understanding and cooperation:"Directintercultural communication...Experience of a foreign culture.Information about a foreign culture," and adds:"The third contributionof language learningto international understanding would be inefficient,were it not for the two other contributions which it uniquely makes."Social studies and humanities sequences can contribute large parts ofthe necessary body of concepts and information to the study of foreigncultures.The language teacher, however, is in the ideal positionto give both experience of and knowledge about one foreign people,the only sound basis for social studies generalizations about similaritiesand differences among cultures and societies.In the past, teachers of foreign languages have tried to developan interest in the culture of the countries of the targetlanguage through some study of the history,geography, monuments, customs,music, and art.The value of this study is unquestioned, but itgenerally represents distant times, places, and things, whereas thelanguage itself, which is the vehicle of the foreign culture, isalways immediately available in the classroom.In the everyday useof the language are reflected certain values and socioculturalfeatures that have often been overlooked in teaching.Anthropologistsdefine "culture" as "the sum of attainments and the learned behaviorpatt

8 erns of any specific period, race, or pe
erns of any specific period, race, or people."To be moreexplicit, in the words of Nelson Brooks, "The word 'culture' mustnow be used to signal, on the one hand, social, intellectual, andartistic achievements of the highest order; and on the-other,atotality of beliefs and thoughts and actions, grandiose and minute,fantastic and practical, heroic, shocking, and banal, good, bad arilindifferent-- a total human story of a human community."*Culture in the sense of the achievements of a people is oftenreferred to as "formal" culture.Culture referring to the patternedways of behavior, including the thought processes and beliefs, ofa given people has been given the name "deep culture."It is thislatter definition of culture with which we are especially concernedtoday.Because it is the most abstract and therefore the mostdifficult to undekstand, oppbrtunities for teaching it have oftenbeen overlooked.Language cannot be separated completely from theculture in' which it is deeply embedded.Any authentic use of the1111011..1110.1*Brooks, Nelson, "Culture and Language Instruction, Teacher'sNotebook, Spring 1966.Harcourt, Brace & World. language, anyreading of original texts(as opposed to thosefabricatedfor classroomuse), any listening to theutterances of nativespeakers,will introduce culturalconcomitants into the classroomwhether theteacher is conscious of them ornot.In not makingthem explicitthe teacher permitsmisconceptions to develop in thestudents' minds.Mere fluency in theproduction of foreign languageutterances withoutany awarenessof their

9 implications orof their appropriate use,
implications orof their appropriate use,thereading of texts without arealization of the Underlyingvalues andassumptions -- in short, thedevelopment of so-calledcommunicationskills without theiraccompanying understandings --might well callinto question the claim offoreign language study to aplace in a programof liberal education.AboUt 25 years ago Wha.rf andhis great teacher Sapirmarriedlanguage and culture in theirfamous hypothesis thatlanguage isnot something whichonly expresses thoughtbut which to a very largeextent determines thought.In the intervening yearsthere has beena greatrevolution in language studyled by the structuralists,a revolution thathas been exceedinglybeneficial from the point ofview of describing languageand giving the languageteacher the basictools.But the revolutionhas also tended to takethe teacher andthe researcher .away fromthis marriage of languageand culture intothe grammatical andlexical phases of languagewhich have very littleto do with how peoplethink and act, and whatthey value.Mr. Edmund Glenn,Chief of InterpretingServices for the UnitedStates Department of State,addressed our State ForeignLanguageConference in NorthCarolina two years ago.In connection with hiswork in the supervision of some700 escort interpreters, Mr..Glennwas broughtinto contact with cultural,rather than simplylinguistic, barriers tocommunication anddecided to undertake aseries of researchprojects concerningthis problem.He describedthe process ofsubjectingtranslations, which weredone for the purposeof communication,toadetailed anal

10 ysisto see whatthe languagesuggested in
ysisto see whatthe languagesuggested in thethoughtpatterns of apeople, such asfondness fordeductive reasoningfromthe abstracttoward the concrete, orthe inductive,from the concretetoward theabstract, or evensimply the concrete.He statedthatnot only inlanguage but in areasof culturesuch as the systemofpublic administrationand the system oflaws,the,deductive or theinductive system isprevalent accordingto thepreference expressedin the thoughtand languagepatterns.One canobserve culturaltraitswhich may parallellinguisticdistinctions. Mr. Glennemphasized that"If you want tobe understood,truly understood,by people of adifferent culture,of a differentlanguager'it is notenough to usetheir vocabulary,their grammar,and even theirpronunciation.Youalso have to usetheir logic.Otherwise, theywill not understandyou."Students today aredemanding relevancein the curriculum.Perhaps foreignlanguages havebeen among theworst of theirrelevanciesin the past.We need tomake the foreignlanguage sequence asrichas we canto meet thedemands of studentsfor relevance.Everyforeign languageteacher will needto keep learning moreabout theforeign country-,doing in-depthstudy of the centralaspects of itsculture and tokeep followinginteresting developmentsto show thestudent how theserelate to today,pointing outsimilarities betweenthe foreignculture and our own.Cultures must bestudied as wholes.No custom,belief, orbehavior can beunderstood out ofits socioculturalcontext.Thatis, any item ofbehavior, anytradition or pattern canbe evaluated correctly only in the light of its m

11 eaning to the peoplewho practiceit, its
eaning to the peoplewho practiceit, its relation to other elements of the culture, and the part itplays in the adaptation of the people to their environnent-or to oneanother.No custom is "odd" to the people who practice it."Any people's heritage is to. them what 'The American Way', inis best sense, is to us Americans.For us it is the Pilgrim Fathersand Thanksgiving.Day, the Boston Tea PaL Ly and the Fourth. ,of. J111;1George Washington and a cherry tree, Abraham Lincoln and a log cabinIt is Santa Claus and a manger, Easter lilies and Easterrabbits, theflag, Coney Island, camp meetings, Sunday dinner, fried chicken,ice cream and apple pie.It is 'Yankee Doodle','Tipperary' and MyOld Kentucky Home'.It is a thousand and one things sublime andridiculous, good and bad, mythical and real, that make us a peopleand not merely an aggregate of individuals whose ancestors came fromjust aboutverywhere.Many of these patterns have come to us fromother peoples but we have made them peculiarly our own."It is a common social heritage that makes for cohesion andsolidarity and that thus helps insure the continuity of group life.It isthis heritage that each new generation finds its valuesystem and its assumptions of reality.Every society has a system of values -- a set of interrelatedideas and practices, (conscious or unconscious), which direct howone should act, and to which. strong sentiments areattached.Theant-hropotogi-s-t-sKIWeber and Kiuckhohn state: -"Values areimportant in that they provide foci for patterns of organization for*Brown, Ina Corin

12 ne, Understanding Other Cultures.Prentic
ne, Understanding Other Cultures.Prentice-Hall,1963.P. 14. - 10the material ofcultures.They give significanceto our understandingof cultures.In fact, valuesprovide the only basis forthe fullyintelligible comprehensionof culture, becausethe actual organizationof all culturesis primarily in terms oftheir values.This becomes-apparent as soon as oneattempts to presentthe picture of a culturewithout reference toits values.The account becomes anunstructured,meaningless assemblage ofitems having relation to oneanother onlythrough coexistence inlocality and moment -- anassemblage thatmight as profitably bearranged alphabetically asin another order;a merelaundry list."*Describing the "life-style"of a people iscomplicated by therapid evolution thatall nations are undergoingtoday.It is necessaryto consider the contrastbetween those contemporarieswho remainattached to the norms ofthe past, those who adoptthe new values,and the eclectics who seek toadapt the best of traditionto theexigencies of modern life.In other words, we mustlook at-theconservative face of a nation andalso the other face thatshows theeffect of supranational forceswhich today are modifying thecharacterof every nation.Lest all of this seem too vagueI should like to cite anexample of how a value of asociety is reflected as a themein someof its arts and its socialstructures.In French culture,intellectuality is a dominantquality.This theme has sometimes beencalled "method" or "reason."The French mentality isdistinguished by its consciouspreoccupation*Kroeber, A. L. and Clyde Klu

13 ckhohn,Culture.Vintage Books, 1952,p. 30
ckhohn,Culture.Vintage Books, 1952,p. 309. with intellectual methods:methods for observing closely, reasoninglogically, and expressing exactly one's thoughts and ideas.TheFrench have developed to a high degree the art of observing humannature and of examining it methodically, on an intellectual level.The Frenchman savors the paradox, the witticism, the "jeu d'idees."He has a high regard for the intellectual and for the education thatshapes him.Despite the greater preoccupation today with the practicaland the material life, intellectuality persists in the French mentalityas a national quality justly admired by the foreign observer.This outstanding trait of the French personality-- reason-- isreflected in its literature.The effort to study. man has been themotivation and activity of the French literary mind.Prepared)17Montaigne, formulated by Descartes, rationalism is the leading threadof French thought and French literature, which has fromone. centuryto another given rise to writers, preoccupied above all with tryingto define humanism, wisdom, and the art of living.The traditional music of France,-like her painting, her architecture,her sculpture, and her literature appeals primarily to the rationalelement in man.It prides itself on being intellectual and descriptive.Unlike German music, it ismore imaginative than emotional, with alwaysa careful concern for craftsmanship, for developing the form of acomposition, for "Legance."These qualities may be found. elsewhere-but they are always there in the French arts.Language is the image o

14 f a. mentality and a culture.French isan
f a. mentality and a culture.French isan area y-icax ression of theabstract and of subtle nuances, by virtue of its prepositions andmanysmall versatile 'mots de liaison."It prefers simple, short words, - 12 -bearers of ideas rather than images.The form of the French sentenceobeys a strict: and rational order.Use of the language requires bothfinesse and precision.Education in France has generally been for the moreintellectualtype of student.The curriculum in the secondary schools (other thanthe purely vocational ones) may be characterized asgeneral, abstract,and noncontroversial, rather more divorced fromactual life requirementsthan instruction in other industrial countries.It aims primarilyat shaping sound, analytical, logical minds, atdeveloping a "senscritique."This "sens critique," so basic to French education, meansa sound, objective andwell7grounded judgment which is the result ofthorough analysis followed by a synthesis which graspsthe mainfeatures, the determining factors.This is why, faced with.a.problem,the Frenchman tries to reduce it to firstprinciples, to discover thepattern underlying it.This is also why, for.a Frenchman, theexchange of ideas does not rank as conversation.A fact will be ofinterest only if it can be used as the springboard for anoriginalor witty idea, or if it brings a newlight on a given situation.We could continue to follow the idea of intellectuality, reason,method and logical thinking in other arts and social structures ofFrench culture, but these brief explanations will serve perhaps toillustrate w

15 hat is meant by a study of a value syste
hat is meant by a study of a value system as the basisfor all social behavior, the cultural inner life and thecreativeworks of bearers of that culture.Such study will bring out elementsof our own culture that we are not aware of until we study modelsof behavior.Thus, opening a window on the wora mirror to understandbetter our own culture and subcultures. To make the curriculum relevant for today'syouth we can nolonger depend on fragmented teaching, where eachdiscipline developsin its own traditional manner.There must be a welding of languagesand related disciplines into a new synthesiswhich will make internationalstudies on all levels of education more relevant.These innovativeapproaches may take the form of interdisciplinaryteam-planning(since real team-teaching is not possible because ofthe language),or sequential approaches to languageand international studiesbeginning in the early grades.We can envision the instructional materialsand methods of thefuture as presenting foreign cultures in smallunits in the same wayas the language itself hasbeen reduced to presentable small patterns.Just as now we have pattern drills of language, someday there maybe pattern drills of culture reduced to visualswhich are microcosmsof culture rather than one-dimensional units out of context.Insteadof being an outside observer, the student will be aparticipant ina foreign scene.The language methods of the future will recreatefor each student the complete atmosphere whichenvelops language inits natural habitat.Already technology has produced media ofi

16 nstruction that have gone far beyond any
nstruction that have gone far beyond anyone's dreams of afew yearsago.I happened to be in Colombia, South America,at the time ofthe landing on the moon of Apollo 11.Emotion was at a high pitchas crowds of people gatheredin hotel lobbies, in public parks, outsidestore windows where television sets had beenplaced, and in any otherplaces w'-:ere it was possible to follow thesehistory-making eventson televisioA7--Wherever-Toze-u7n the following weeks, people talked about themoon-4anding, and congratulated us asrepresentatives ofthe country that hadaccomplished this great feat.Newspapers andmagazines of each country haddevoted most of an issue tothe newscoverage andphotographs; children in theschools had made scrap-books about it.It seemed that most ofthe world had stopped for amoment intime to view with intenseinterest, admiration, andexcitementman's conquest of space andvictory over the forces ofthe universe.Perhaps they too werethinking, as did ArchibaldMacLeish, that allare "brotherswho know now they aretruly brothers."This greatscientific and technological progresshas the potential for unitingthe world in a commongoal of peace or for thedestruction of ourcivilization as we know it.It is imperative,therefore, that equalprogress be madein the social sciences andin the humanities inorder to extend man'sintellectual and spiritualhorizons as sciencehas extended physicalhorizons.Surely this is a tremendouschallengefor all of us responsiblefor, curriculum planning --to provide inour Americaneducation the relevance fortoday's youth in oure