Transcript Prospects & challenges - The Ohio University Language Resource

Language
Culture
Medium
?
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Inter-cultural communication – is our aim
Inter-active –communication is the way
Inter-nalization – by the students is the goal
Inter-net – is the medium
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A General Motors auto ad with "Body by Fisher" became "Corpse by Fisher" in
Flemish.
A Colgate-Palmolive toothpaste named "Cue" was advertised in France before anyone
realized that Cue also happened to be the name of a widely circulated pornographic
book about oral sex.
Pepsi Cola's "Come Alive With Pepsi" campaign, when it was translated for the
Taiwanese market, conveyed the unsettling news that, "Pepsi brings your ancestors
back from the grave."
Parker Pen could not advertise its famous "Jotter" ballpoint pen in some languages
because the translation sounded like "jockstrap" pen.
One American airline operating in Brazil advertised that it had plush "rendezvous
lounges" on its jets, unaware that in Portuguese (the language of Brazil) "rendezvous"
implies a special room for having sex.
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On Prime Minister Sato's 1969 trip to Washington, President Nixon
insisted that Japan exercise export restrain. Mr. Sato's classic reply,
delivered with a heavenward glance, was, 'Zensho shimasu'.
Literally translated as, 'I will do my best,' the expression really means, 'No
way.' Nixon naturally understood it to mean that he had his guest's
agreement. When there was no practical follow-up he denounced Sato as
a liar.
But unlike Americans, who expect yes or no answers, Japanese are quite
happy with the gray areas. 'They hate no, and they hate 'yes'.
Raymond Cohen ( 1997 ). Negotiating Across Cultures. Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 113.
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 Imbibing (culture)
 Educating (students)
 Immersion (by students via internet or stay)
 Interactive contact
All this is possible in the virtual world of the internet
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 Avoiding stereotypes is essential.
 Materials and books are topical and typical
in their treatment of cultural issues.
 Creating awareness of the “other”
culture is the key.
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Ooh se aaha tak (in Hindi)
• One of the leading multinational pharmaceutical company
Glaxo-Smith-Kline (GSK) has its presence in over 100
countries. In 2004 launched an Advertisement for IODEX
"Pain should not come in the way of your life" in Hindi
"Ooh se aaha tak” for quick relief from pains and sprains.




Ooh in Hindi signifies the expression of pain.
Aaha in Hindi signifies the expression of joy.
The literal translation in English is from pain to joy.
A perfect blend within the Indian culture.
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Ooh se aaha tak (in Hindi)
“Pain should not come in the way of your life” (in English)
Language
therapy
Cultural
nuances
True
Cultural
Code
Right
Language
&
Expression
Increase in
market
volume and
Brand
popularity
Lingua
franca
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Healing
touch
Accept
ability
The National Standards for Foreign Language Education (1996). Five Cs:
Communication: communicate in languages other than English
Cultures: gain knowledge and understanding of other cultures
Connections: connect with other disciplines and acquire information
Comparisons: develop insight into the nature of language and culture
Communities: participate in multilingual communities at home
and around the world.
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E.mails
Chat room
Audio and video conferencing,
MOO (Multiple-User, Object Oriented Domain)
Audio-graphics and lately
Mobile learning applications like cell phones and
Instant messaging.
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Synchronous: real-time and on-line interaction like
chat, video conferencing etc.
Asynchronous: e.mail, MOO
(Multiple-User, Object Oriented Domain) spaces, etc.
Both
can
be
structured
or
unstructured
discourse
and
communication as per requirement of the class or the students.
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 Asynchronous and synchronous CMC have different
discourse features which may be exploited for different
pedagogical purposes’ Sotillo (2000:82)
 “… few of the programs on the market are intellectually
challenging and many give simplistic views of foreign
cultures…” (Clark: 2001)
The solution is for instructors to devise their own multimedia lessons that
today’s communication technology makes possible
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“… email and asynchronous chats build
community (teacher-students, student-student,
student-native speakers) and … students from
different cultures open up in and out of class
when email become available”
(Chickering, Ehrmann: 2002)
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WebCT
Blackboard
Hot Potatoes
Testmaker
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Hot Potatoes by the University of Victoria
(http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/index.htm?hotpot/licence.htm).
WebSpeak is another authoring system with funds from The Consortium for
Language Teaching and Learning and the Harvard University’s Provost Fund for
Infrastructural Technology.
Instructors can also take advantage of commercial systems like Wimba and
Divace for providing listening practice and testing opportunities for their
students.
Learning management systems (LMS), such as WebCT and Blackboard, feature
an intuitive interface. An LMS provides a great deal of built-in functionality useful
to language learning, such as group/individual communication tools, drill and
practice, and assignment submission/management (Goodwin-Jones and
Murphy-Judy, 2006:61).
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Free download of Pueblo (for Windows) client and MUDDweller (for Mac)
for a dual welcome and activity screen http://moo.hawaii.edu/Clients.html
EnCore has a tripartite screen and provides ease of navigation and
manipulation of particular items.
EnCore supported MOOs are:
ATHEMOO: http://moo.hawaii.edu:7000/
Dreistadt: http://cmc.uib.no:7001/
Lingua MOO: http://lingua.utdallas.edu:7000/
MOOlin Rouge: http://cmc.uib.no:9000/
MOOssiggang MOO: http://moo.vassar.edu:7000/
SchMOOze University: http://schmooze.hunter.cuny.edu:9000/
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College Town: http://www.bvu.edu/ctwon/
Diversity University: http://moo.dumain.du.org:8000/
GrassRoots MOO: http://www.enabling.org/grassroots/
MOO Francais: http://www.umsl.edu/~moosproj/moofrancais.html
enCore: http://lingua.utdallas.edu/encore
MundoHispano: http://umsl.edu/~moosproj/mundo.html
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Can easily be used by teachers to provide extracts of authentic
audio-visual material.
Stanley has produced for study of English as a Foreign Language:
http://themetourism.blogspot.com
Steve Evans, teaching at British Council in Madrid created this:
http://mylcpodcasts.blogspot.com
where
students
listened
to
dialogues ‘about what other people thought about what they thought
was the truth about the Spanish diet, tapas and siestas’. This had a
strong motivating effect on the students who then decided to
produce a podcast of their own on aspects of Spanish lifestyle.
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
On-line courses like Spanish Without Walls launched by
Robert Blake in UC-Davis has proven additional
advantages for cultural and grammatical achievement
for students

The sampling of material using multi-media Tesoros and
the on-line courseware has resulted in the finding that
students “negotiated through meanings with the
native speakers” (Blake and Delforge, 2006: 138-9)
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Launched by MIT, USA in association with Ecole
Supérieure d´Aéronatique de Tolouse, Institut National
des Télécommunications and Université de Paris II –
Panthéon-Assas.
The cross-cultural awareness of the American and
French students is being explored and enhanced.
“Our own culture is opaque... so we are faced with
double invisibility”.
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The John Hopkins University in unique partnership with
the Blue Shoes Technologies, has developed a series of
easily adaptable, integrated multimedia templates within
an effective and powerful multimedia courseware
package for use in language programs nationwide.
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Müller-Hartmann (2000), Furstenburg et. al. (2001), Liaw
and Johnson (2001) have found that “cultural differences
sometimes hindered effective communication” and …
participants strove to bridge ‘cultural gaps’ through
different discourse strategies…
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“In the hands of professors who know what they
are doing, online instruction is superior to face to
face instruction. It appears that synchronous
electronic discourse is more efficient in terms of
time on task than ordinary classroom discourse.”
(Sotillo, 2000:83)
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Donnell King suggests some general guidelines for bridging the gap
between different cultures:
Seek information about the culture. Knowledge is power. Prejudice
stems
from
ignorance…do
your
homework,
don't
make
assumptions.
Be other-oriented. As Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz, we're not in
Kansas anymore. You can no longer rely on the assumptions of
your own cultural heritage. This is not to tear down the value of your
own culture; it is to make you aware of the richness that is available
to you in other viewpoints. This also does not mean to try to be
something you are not. It does mean allowing the other to be
whomever s/he is rather than who you think that person should be.
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Ask questions. Be prepared to share information about yourself, and
be sensitive in the way you ask (you don't want to be perceived as
prying). But open communication helps in reducing the uncertainty that
is present in any relationship.
Develop mindfulness. This is another way of saying "be aware."
Acknowledge that there is a connection between thoughts and deeds,
and become aware of your own thinking and assumptions. Be
conscious. Be active, not reactive. Be aware of your own self-talk.
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Develop flexibility.
Tolerate ambiguity. Communicating with someone from another
culture produces uncertainty, which can be uncomfortable. Learn to
tolerate the discomfort until you come out on the other side.
Avoid negative judgments. Resist thinking that your culture has all
the answers. It has its strengths; so do other cultures.
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All the tools and modalities discussed herein can easily
be utilized by the instructors for structured or unstructured activities beyond the class for promoting
Inter-active Inter-action and Inter-cultural communication
between students and Native Speakers
This will result in our aim of Technology Enabled Cultural
Communication (TECC)
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I do not want my house to be walled in on all
sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the
cultures of all the lands to be blown about my
house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be
blown off my feet by any.
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Rajiv Saxena
Assistant Professor
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi, India