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1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
The use of first language in the EFL classroom:
A facilitating or debilitating device?
Mehdi Solhi
Department of English Language and Literature
Istanbul University, Turkey
solhi.mehdi@gmail.com
Münevver Büyükyazı
Department of English Language and Literature
Celal Bayar University, Turkey
munevverbuyukyazi@gmail.com
Abstract: Despite widespread use of only English in teaching EFL classes, the use of
first language in EFL class has been a perennial topic of discussion in the field of
language education. Most established L2 teaching methods discourage the use of L1 in
class. However, some scholars oppose ―English Only‖ trend in language classes
(Auerbach, 1993; and Kumaravadivelu, 2003). In a setting where the students share a
common L1, first language can create a less threatening atmosphere. In this article, the
non native speaker teachers‘ attitudes toward the use of the first language of the learners
in the classroom were asked through a questionnaire. Further, an attempt was made to
investigate whether non native speaker English teachers notice the use of the first
language as a facilitating or a debilitating factor. This article argues that first language is
one of the useful resources that students bring to the L2 classroom and can be used in a
judicious fashion.
Key words: First language, English only trend, facilitating device and judicious fashion
Introduction
It has always been a controversial issue to use the first language (L1) of the students in the foreign language
(FL) classroom. The L1 is perhaps the most useful and the least-used resource students bring to the FL classroom.
This is partly due to some factors. The theory and practice of established methods discourage the use of L1 in the FL
classroom. The monolingual approach suggests that the target language ought to be the sole medium of
communication, implying the prohibition of the native language would maximize the effectiveness of learning the
target language. In situations where students have little opportunity to meet the FL outside the classroom,
maximizing the use of the FL in the classroom is very important. One way to do is to carry out classroom
management in the FL. If it is done in a planned, consistent way, it can supply a very effective meaningful focused
input. However, in classrooms where all the learners share the same L1, there is a tendency for tasks which should
be done in the L1, and there are sound arguments that support the use of L1 in the FL classroom. Activities such as
conversation, discussion of intensive reading, preparation for writing etc. are done in the L1 because using the L1 is
more natural with others who have the same L1; it is easier and more communicatively effective, and using the FL
can be embarrassing for those who feel themselves not proficient enough in it.
Some researchers have investigated the use of the L1 in the FL classrooms thoroughly. According to one
view, the use of L1 may provide learners with additional cognitive support that allows them to analyze language and
work at a higher level than the situations where they are restricted to sole use of their FL (Anton and DiCamilla,
1998; Brooks and Donato, 1994; Swain and Lapkin, 2000). Wood et al. suggest that the L1 assists learners in the
process and completion of the tasks. In their study, Brooks and Donato (1994) showed that the L1 was used for three
functions: to comment on their FL use; to establish a joint understanding of the task and to formulate the learners‘
goals. Swain and Lapkin (2000) argue that the L1 may facilitate L2 classroom activities, particularly for lowproficiency students and on complex tasks. In addition, some researchers think that prohibition of mother tongue use
with monolingual students at lower levels of English proficiency is practically impossible (Nunan and Lamb, 1996).
According to Dôrnyei and Kormos (1998) the L1 is used by L2 learners as a communication strategy to compensate
for deficiencies in the target language. Auerbuch (1993) confirms the positive role of the mother tongue in the
classroom; she also identifies the following uses for it: classroom management, language analysis, presenting rules
that govern grammar, discussing cross-cultural issues, giving instructions or prompts, explaining errors, and
checking for comprehension. The results of the study conducted by Schweers (1999) on the attitudes toward using
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L1 in the L2 classroom indicate that the majority of students and teachers agreed that Spanish should be used in the
EFL classroom.
Using the L1 was found to have profound effects on some language skills. In a study, Knight (1996)
reported that the learners who did the preparatory L1 discussion in groups did much better on the L2 written task
than other learners who did preparatory L2 discussion even though that discussion was in the same language as the
subsequent written task. Similarly Storch and Wigglesworth (2003) determined the positive attitudes towards the use
of the L1 in completing tasks in L2 settings. Thus, it is possible to say that L1 has a useful role in helping learners
gain the knowledge needed to reach a higher level of L2 performance.
Another important effect of the L1 use has been reported on vocabulary learning. There are numerous ways
of conveying the meaning of an unknown word. Studies comparing the effectiveness of various methods for learning
always come up with the result that an L1 translation is the most effective (Laufer and Shmueli 1997). This is
probably because L1 translations are usually clear, short and familiar –qualities which are very important in effective
definitions (McKeown, 1993). When the L1 translation is combined with the word cards, learners have a very
effective strategy to speed up their vocabulary growth (Nation, 2001). This finding also receives some support from
studies of dictionary use. To effectively use a monolingual dictionary, learners need to have a large enough
vocabulary storage (at least 2000 words) and need to be able to interpret definitions, which are much more difficult
than L1 synonyms. That is why surveys of dictionary preference (Laufer and Kimmel, 1997; Atkins and Varantola,
1997) and learner use (Baxter, 1980) show that learners strongly prefer bilingual or bilingualized dictionaries.
Despite the amount of studies carried out all over the world on the L1 use in the second language and FL
classrooms, to our best knowledge, the number of studies investigating this issue in Turkey is very limited. Çelik
(2006) indicates that especially the English teachers who work for the state high schools of the Ministry of National
Education are not expected to use the foreign language efficiently enough; therefore, their use of the L1 in their
courses is inevitable. The teachers‘ inefficiency in the FL results from the ineffective use of the FL during their
education processes in the Teacher Training Institutions. Candidate teachers may prefer not to speak or to speak in
Turkish during their education (Bekleyen, 2004). ġad (2009) reported that there are four reasons for the candidate
teachers not to use FL in their lessons. These are: (1) course content or the practice of teaching; (2) not having a
collaborative or an encouraging classroom atmosphere (anxiety level of the teachers increased in such atmospheres);
(3) not being proficient enough in vocabulary and pronunciation, and (4) not having some standard norms on the use
of the FL in the lessons. According to a recent research by ġevik (2007), most of the teachers and students are not
against mother tongue, and mother tongue contributes to language learning towards various aims and at different
levels.
Inspired by the studies on the use of L1 use in FL classrooms, we decided to carry out a study on the use of
the native language in the Turkish context, where English is taught as a foreign language and where the learners and
most of the teachers share one common L1. We aimed to analyze the L1 use of the Turkish teachers in their FL
classrooms and their rationales for this.
Method of the Study
A questionnaire was devised to gain insight into how teachers evaluated their perception of the use of the
first language of the EFL learners in the classroom, from the vantage point of their daily practice. In the first four
questions, we tried to get some demographic information about the teachers. The questions inquired their age, year
of experience in teaching, their educational background, and their affiliation. The fifth question aimed at getting
some information about whether the teachers allow the learners to use their L1 in the classroom. It was an openended question so that they could explain their reasons. The purpose of the sixth question was to get some
information on the teachers‘ L1 use in the classroom. It was also an open-ended question which enabled them to
explain their rationale for that. This questionnaire was sent out to nearly 110 teachers throughout Turkey, and
exactly 72 were returned. However, only 57 of them were taken to final evaluation since some of them lacked the
information required. Data was analyzed using SPSS package program (Version 15.0). Descriptive statistics was
used to analyze the demographic information of the participants. The responses given for the last two questions were
classified under various subheadings and were given as frequencies and percentages.
Findings and Discussion
Demographic information about the participants
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Demographic information gathered via a questionnaire revealed that 17 of the teachers were males; 44 of
them were females. They have been teaching for a mean of 10.80±6.5 years. The information about their age,
education levels and affiliation is given in Table 1.
Age
Education
Affiliation
Table 1: Demographic information of the participants
n= 57
f
%
21-25 years
5
8.8
26-30 years
19
33.3
31-35 years
12
21.1
over the age of 36
21
36.8
Bachelor‘s degree
Master‘s degree
PhD
Primary school (State)
Primary School (Private)
University (State)
University (Private)
22
20
15
2
2
35
18
38.6
35.1
26.3
3.5
3.5
61.4
31.6
Attitudes of teachers towards L1 use of the learners in the class
Among the six questions asked there were two which are of particular relevance here. One elicited whether
respondents allowed the learners to use the first language in the classroom or they preferred to prevent the learners
from using it. Nearly half (f= 48; 84.2%) went for the first option, i.e. that the main emphasis had been on allowing
the L1 use in the classroom, while 15.2% said they do not allow L1 use during the lessons.
The other question elicited whether respondents, as teachers, use the first language in the classroom or they
prefer to follow the English only in the class. According to the results, 79% (f= 45) believed that using the first
language of the learners would be beneficial, while 21.1% (f= 12) said that the reverse was true.
Why do teachers allow their learners to use L1 in the class?
The first research question inquired the reasons of the teachers for allowing or forbidding the use of the L1
in English classrooms. The answers given to this question were analyzed descriptively and given as frequencies and
percentages. The reasons of the teachers who allowed the learners‘ L1 use were categorized under 16 headings
(Table 2).
1.
2.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
Table 2: Reasons of the teachers to allow learners to use the L1
Items
f
%
Level and interest of the learners
30
23.07
To explain something difficult and unclear and to ask questions
25
19.23
about some parts/points they haven‘t understood
To ease the burden of the learners and to lower anxiety
10
7.70
It depends on the type of the lesson
9
6.92
For vocabulary learning
9
6.92
It saves time
8
6.15
To avoid misunderstanding
6
4.61
To prevent misunderstandings
5
3.84
To ensure comprehensible input
5
3.84
Only at the beginning of the school
4
3.07
Forcing to use FL all the time can lead to negative attitude
4
3.07
To have them provide connections between L1 and FL
3
2.30
They are not confident enough to use FL
3
2.30
To give feedback on the activities
3
2.30
They lack motivation to use FL in and outside the classroom
3
2.30
While preparing for the tasks
3
2.30
TOTAL
130
100
The vast majority of teachers of English in Turkey are non-native speakers. It might be eminently useful to
have a closer look at those who allow the first language of the learners to be used in the classroom. Here are some
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comments from teachers who believe that sharing their students‘ L1 makes the learners feel relaxed and more
confident. ―Using L1 in the classroom lowers the anxiety level of the learners and the learners feel more relaxed‖
(7.70%; f= 10); ―They can explain something unclear and difficult, and they can also easily ask questions about
some parts/points they haven‘t understood‖ (19.23%; f= 25); ― Some respondents describe the shared L1 as strength:
―Using L1 helps the learners avoid misunderstandings‖ (3.84%; f= 5); ―It is very useful especially for vocabulary
learning‖ (6.92%; f= 9); ―It just saves time; the learners easily express themselves‖ (6.15%; f= 8). And several make
reference to the level and interest of the learners: ―It depends on the learners‘ level; I usually allow the low level or
beginners to use their L1, but as their level improves I restrict its use‖ (23.07%; f= 30); others state that they allow
the learners to use L1 because they lack motivation and confidence to use FL in and outside the classroom: ―Most
learners believe that they can‘t speak English, and they also believe that they will never have an opportunity or a
necessity to use the FL outside the classroom. They either use L1 or keep quiet‖ (2.30%; f= 3). Quite many teachers
believe that allowing the use of L1 is dependent on the type of the lesson: ―I don‘t allow them to use their L1 during
skill based activities, especially during speaking activities; however, they can use L1 during grammar and
vocabulary teaching sessions‖ (6.92%; f= 9). Some also find it useful while the learners prepare for some tasks
(2.30%; f= 3).
Why do not the teachers allow the learners to use L1 in the classroom?
Analysis of our data revealed that the majority of the teachers believed that using the first language of the
learners would be beneficial; however, 15.2% said that they would not allow L1 usage in their classes. The teachers
who indicated that they did not allow their learners to use the L1 in the classes justified themselves under six main
points. They are given in Table 3.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Table 3: Reasons of the teachers not to allow learners to use the L1
Items
f
To have them practice FL
7
To increase FL development
5
To prevent L1 use from being a bad habit.
4
They are learning English so they have to use it.
4
To master all skills
4
To prevent misbehavior in the classroom
5
TOTAL
29
%
24.13
17.25
13.79
13.79
13.79
17.25
100
Of the 12 teachers, 7 believed that the learners do not have any other opportunities for practicing the FL
than the classroom; therefore those teachers wanted to provide their learners with opportunities so that they can use
the FL as much as possible (24.13). 17.25% of the teachers believed that using FL in the classroom can increase FL
development; if they let the learners use their L1, they would never improve themselves in the target language. Some
teachers also stated that allowing L1 use in the classroom leads to misbehavior (17.25%; f= 5). They also justified
themselves stating that encouraging the FL use may prevent the learners from having a bad habit of using the L1 use
whenever they find themselves in a difficult situation; in order to master all skills FL use is required; they are there
to learn English; therefore they have to use it (13.79%; f= 4 for each)
Why do teachers use L1 in the classroom?
In Turkey, most teachers of English are non-native speakers. Teachers and learners share the same
language, so there are homogenous classrooms in terms of languages shared. Some teachers make use of this
situation and state clearly that they find using the L1 in the classroom beneficial. The analysis of our data enabled us
to classify the reasons of the teachers to use the L1 in the classroom under 13 items (Table 4).
1.
2.
3.
4.
5..
6.
7.
8.
Table 4: Reasons of the teachers to use the L1
Items
f
To explain new or difficult grammar structures
26
Depending on the learners‘ language levels
16
To teach complicated or abstract vocabulary
12
To make them relaxed and confident
10
To explain how to write something (in writing courses)
7
Depending on the needs of the learners
7
To save time
6
To establish a good learning atmosphere
6
%
23.21
14.28
10.71
8.92
6.25
6.25
5.35
5.35
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9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
To check comprehension
To explain long and complicated instructions
To give feedback
To teach some sub-skills or strategies
To express some culture-based terms
TOTAL
6
5
4
4
3
112
5.35
4.46
3.57
3.57
2.67
100
Many teachers indicated that they use the L1 to explain new or difficult grammatical patterns (23.21%; f=
26). The other important thing they stated was the level of the students (14.28%; f= 16). They said that especially
with the low level students they needed to make explanations in the L1. However, as the level of the learners gets
better, they prefer to use L2 in most of the contexts. Vocabulary teaching, especially teaching abstract words also
necessitated the use of the L1 (10.71%; f= 12). Some teachers believed that using students‘ mother tongue makes
them relaxed and confident as they understand much better (8.92%; f= 10). In addition, using the L1 creates a good
learning atmosphere. Some teachers used L1 to tell some jokes or just to have an informal chat with the learners
(5.35%; f= 6). The other reasons were found related to the skills to be taught (e.g. writing), needs of the learners,
comprehension check to avoid ambiguity and confusion, and saving time.
Why do not teachers use L1 in the classroom?
Despite being in the minority, some teachers stated that they never use the L1 in their classes (21.1%; Table
5)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Table 5: Reasons of the teachers not to use the L1
Items
f
To make learners hear correct pronunciation
10
To provide massive amount of meaningful input
8
To enhance learners‘ thinking skills and communicative competence 4
In speaking classes
4
TOTAL
26
%
38.46
30.76
15.39
15.39
100
Majority of those teachers believed that they are the main sources of correct pronunciation (38.46; f= 8) and
comprehensible input (30.76%; f= 8) in the classroom. They also stated that using FL in the classroom would
enhance the learners‘ thinking skills and communicative competence (15.39; f= 4). For them, especially in skill
classrooms, the medium of instruction should be English (15.39%; f= 4).
Conclusions and Recommendations
The results of the present study on the use of the mother tongue in Turkish EFL contexts revealed many
similarities to the previous research. Similar to the previous research findings (Anton and DiCamilla, 1998; Brooks
and Donato, 1994; Schweers, 1999; Storch and Wigglesworth, 2003; Swain and Lapkin, 2000; Tang, 2002), majority
of the Turkish teachers of English participated in this study stated that they found the use of the L1 beneficial. Some
discrepancies exist and they can be explained with the level of the learners those teachers deal with and the goals of
the institutions they work in. In Turkey, there are two types of universities: state and private. In most of the private
universities the medium of instruction is English. Therefore, the learners should reach at a certain level before their
sophomore years. Teachers working in these institutions should keep the L2 use at a maximum level. Similarly, in
private primary and high schools, one of the most important objectives is to get the learner at a desired level in the
L2. However, in most of the state universities and nearly all the state primary and high schools this is not the case.
As Çelik (2006) indicated, the FL level of the English teachers working for the Ministry of National Education is not
efficient enough to enable them to use the FL as the medium of instruction. As they cannot use the FL effectively,
they have to allow the learners to use their L1 during the courses. According to Bekleyen (2004), even the candidate
teachers prefer to use their L1 during their education and in his study, ġad (2009) tried to clarify the reasons for L1
preferences of these teachers-to-be. Considering the previous research findings, we may conclude that our study
revealed similar results with the previous research either conducted in different countries or in Turkey.
Our results also draw some parallels with the previous research in terms of the reasons why teachers find
the L1 use in the classroom beneficial. According to the studies conducted before, one of the most effective ways of
teaching vocabulary is the translation of the words since they provide clear, direct and more concrete information
about the meaning (Laufer and Shmueli 1997; McKeown 1993). A great number of teachers in our study indicated
that they use and allow the use of L1 especially during vocabulary teaching and learning.
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This study also revealed that the L1 in the Turkish schools plays a supportive role rather than be the
medium of instruction because a large number of teachers stated that they allowed its use and they used it only with
the low level students (i.e. with beginners or elementary level learners). As the learners improve in the process,
teachers stated that they reduced the amount used or they restricted it to a minimum. They also stated that they use
the L1 depending on the type of the lesson and the activity. Even if the medium of instruction of the majority of the
learners will not be in English in the future, the efforts of the English teachers should be appreciated.
Our results also confirm the findings of Auerbuch (1993). Although her study was conducted in an ESL
setting, it is quite pleasing to see quite similar reasons of the Turkish teachers in their L1 using and allowing their
learners‘ L1 use. Like her identification of the L1 use, the teachers participated in this study stated that they use the
L1 to explain complicated grammar rules, difficult and abstract words; long and complicated instructions of the
activities and games, to give feedback, and to check comprehension.
Unlike the participants in Tang‘s study (2002), majority of the Turkish students are not motivated enough to
learn and to become proficient in English. According to the comments given by the teachers participating in this
study, a vast amount of learners believe that they will not use English in their future careers; they will not find
opportunities to use English outside the classroom; and most of them lack motivation and confidence to
communicate with a foreigner in English. Therefore, most of the learners consider English as a curricular requisite
and their main purpose is to get an average grade that will enable them to pass the course.
A close look at the research in the field of the L1 use in EFL and ESL classrooms show that limited and
judicious use of the mother tongue in the English classrooms can facilitate the teaching and learning processes. Thus,
the role of the L1 should not be over emphasized. We agree that English should be the main instrument in the
classroom communication. However, we suggest that second language learning can be facilitated by raising
awareness to the similarities and differences between the L1 and FL. Another suggestion can be extended to the
teachers who would like to overcome the obstacles of the learners while using the FL. If they choose manageable
tasks within the learners‘ proficiency level, use staged and graded tasks, inform learners of the learning goals of each
task, discuss the value of using the FL in class, and use non-threatening tasks, L1 use may be kept to a minimum; FL
use might be increased.
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References
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yônelik kısa bir araĢtırma. Kastamonu Eğitim Dergisi, 14, 371-376.
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perspective. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 20, 349–385.
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17-31.
Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Storch, N., & Wigglesworth, G. (2003). Is there a role for the use of the L1 in an L2 setting? TESOL Quarterly, 37,
760-770.
Nunan, D., & Lamb, C. (1996). The self-directed teacher. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schweers, W. Jr. (1999). Using L1 in the L2 classroom. English Teaching Forum, 37, 6–9.
Swain, M., & Lapkin, S. (2000). Task-based second language learning: The uses of the first language. Language
Teaching Research, 4, 251-274.
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ÇalıĢma, XVIII. Ulusal Eğitim Bilimleri Kurultayı, 1-3 Ekim 2009, Ege Üniversitesi, Ġzmir.
ġevik, M. (2007). The place of mother tongue in foreign language classes. Ankara University, Journal of Faculty of
Educational Sciences, 40, 99-119.
Tang, J. (2002). Using L1 in the EFL classroom. English Teaching Forum, 40, 36-43.
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Psychiatry, 17, 89-100.
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The use of first language in the EFL classroom: A facilitating or debilitating device?
Author
Author
Solhi, Mehdi
Büyükyazı, Münevver
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Despite widespread use of only English in teaching EFL classes, the use of first language in EFL class has been a perennial topic of discussion in the field of language education. Most established L2 teaching methods discourage the use of L1 in class. However, some scholars oppose ―English Only‖ trend in language classes (Auerbach, 1993; and Kumaravadivelu, 2003). In a setting where the students share a common L1, first language can create a less threatening atmosphere. In this article, the non native speaker teachers‘ attitudes toward the use of the first language of the learners in the classroom were asked through a questionnaire. Further, an attempt was made to investigate whether non native speaker English teachers notice the use of the first language as a facilitating or a debilitating factor. This article argues that first language is one of the useful resources that students bring to the L2 classroom and can be used in a judicious fashion.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
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PDF Text
Text
1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Self-perception of Non-native Speaker Teacher of English in the Expanding
Circle
Mehdi Solhi
English Language Department
Istanbul University, Istanbul
solhi.mehdi@gmail.com
Abstract: In norm-dependent countries, where English is being taught as a foreign
language, the main attention is mostly being paid to the native speaker teacher of English
language as the ultimate teaching resource. In such countries, native speaker‘s norm is
being considered as the standard by which the language should be taught to non-native
speakers. However, in recent years, more emphasis has been given to the significance of
non native teachers of English and to the advantages such teachers could have in the
process of language teaching (e.g. Ellis, 2005; Llurda; 2005; and Seidlhofer, 1999). In
this study, attitudes of the non native teachers of English toward their own status were
explored, drawing on an empirical study of the self-perception of Iranian teachers. At the
same time, advantages of nonnative speaker teachers as significant resources in the
expanding circle are discussed.
Key words: Native speaker teacher, non native speaker teacher and expanding circle
Introduction
Kachru (1996) classifies the various types of Englishes using a circles analogy. The first, known as the Inner
Circle, includes countries where English is used as a native language, among them Australia, Canada, New Zealand,
the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The second, the Outer Circle, includes countries where
English is an institutionalized variety, that is, is used as an official language. Former British colonies, such as India,
Nigeria, and Zambia, to list a few, belong in this category. The third, the Expanding Circle, consists of countries
where English is traditionally used or learned as a foreign language and in which English played little or no
administrative or institutional role. Some such countries include Japan, China, Turkey, and Iran. In a nutshell, the
Inner Circle varieties are considered as ‗norm-providing‘, the Outer Circle as ‗norm-developing‘, whereas English in
the Expanding Circle is seen as ‗norm-dependent‘.
Phillipson (1992) believes that the native speaker tenet reinforces the linguistic norms of the Center, Inner
Circle, creating an ideological dependence. This idea is echoed in Seidlhofer (1999) as she puts emphasis on how
non-Inner-Circle English teachers are likely to find themselves in the context of pedagogical theories, methods and
institutions in which the main attention is being paid to the native speaker as the ultimate teaching resource.
Similarly, Thornbury (2006) points out that the educated native speaker‘s norm has long been considered as the
standard by which the language should be taught to non-native speakers. In addition, in many teaching contexts,
native speaker teachers has been regarded to have priority over the non natives and native speaker teachers are
preferred to non native speaker teachers, irrespective of the training or experience. He clearly states that such
assumption is questionable. Llurda (2005, as cited in Vivian, 2007) also states that native speaker teachers were
formerly those who spoke with authority because of their ownership of the language; now non-native teachers are
the authentic sources of knowledge about what it is like to be an L2 user. Descriptions of native speaker English are
a temporary measure until proper descriptions of L2 users are made. Ammon (2000) criticizes the marginalization of
non-native speakers in the scientific community. He takes the view that while science and other domains demand
that there should indeed be one lingua franca; this raises a problem of justice because native speakers of English are
at an advantage.
Using a native or nonnative speaker of language in the classroom has always been a controversial issue in
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. For instance, Phillipson (1992) questions ‗why should the native
speaker be intrinsically better qualified than the non-native?‘ He says that teachers are made rather than born. Many
of them doubtless self-made whether they are natives or non natives. In fact, the untrained or unqualified native
speaker is potentially a menace.
Phillipson (1992) criticizes that fact that the ideal teacher is a native speaker, somebody with native speaker
proficiency in English who can serve as a model for the students. The native speaker fallacy dates from a time when
language teaching was indistinguishable form culture teaching, and when all learners of English were assumed to be
familiarizing themselves with the culture that English originates form and for contact with that culture. At the onset,
it was the native speaker who was considered as the automatic best teacher, and all other teachers admired the native
speaker. Now that is no longer the case.
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According to the report made by Unesco (1953), a teacher is not adequately qualified to teach a language
merely because it is his/her mother tongue. This statement indicates that native speaker teacher should not be
considered as the best embodiment of the target and norm for learners. It is arguable, as a general principle, that nonnative speakers may in fact be better qualified than native speakers, if they have gone through the arduous process of
acquiring English as a second language and if they have perceived the linguistic and cultural needs of their learners.
Similarly, Widdowson (1994) strongly objected to the assumption that a native speaker is always better as a teacher
of English than a teacher whose mother tongue is not English.
Who is the best teacher; native speaker of a language or non-native speaker?
Phillipson (1992) emphasizes that language teachers should have a detailed acquaintance with the language
and culture of the learners they are responsible for. The very idea of claiming that the ideal teacher of English is a
native speaker is ludicrous as soon as one starts identifying the good qualities of a teacher of English. The tenet has
no scientific validity.
Agular (2007) believes that, in fact, the best teacher is neither the native nor the non-native speaker, ‗but the
person who can make students see the connections between their own and other cultures, as well as awaken their
curiosity about difference and otherness‘ (p. 69). That is to say, the task of the ideal teacher is not to provide
comprehensive information or bring the foreign society into the classroom for learners to observe and experience but
his/her duty is to develop in students the competence that will make them able to connect their own cultural values,
beliefs and behaviors (Byram et al. 2002, as cited in Agular, 2007).
Medgyes (1996, as cited in Arnold and Rixon, 2008) believes that whether language teachers are native or
non-native speakers may also affect the skills, attitudes to learners and willingness to take risks that they bring to the
classroom, with not all of the advantage necessarily being with the native speakers.
Advantages of Non-native Speaker (NNS) EFL Teachers
Seidlhofer (1999) takes the various ‗double‘ aspects of non-native EFL teachers‘ professional lives as opening
the possibility for constructive contributions that they can make. Terms with negative connotations are re-considered
to indicate their positive meanings for ELT professionals: double agent, double talk, double think, and double life.
According to Kachru and Nelson (2006), such doubling comes to exist as a result of the ‗double standards‘
under which non-native EFL teachers work. They work in a context in which ―monoculturalism seems to have been
replaced by multiculturalism, monolingualism with multilingualism, and targets seem to be criterion referenced
rather than (native-speaker) norm-referenced‖ (p. 234).
Seidlhofer (1999) believes that non-native EFL teachers should be regarded as ‗double agents‘. They are
members of their own communities, hence; they share similar languages or cultures with their students and they are
familiar with 'terrain inhabited by the target language‘. The non-native EFL teachers have themselves been nonnative EFL learners. They have passed through the process of learning the same language and they know the
dilemmas involved it. Hence, they have ‗thorough knowledge of English as it is used in various domains in their
societies‘ (p. 235). Seidlhofer (1999) declares it in the following words:
―One could say that native speakers know the destination, but not the terrain that has to be crossed to
get there: they themselves have not traveled the same route. Non-native teachers, on the other hand,
know the target language as a foreign language‖ (p. 238).
At the same time, non-native EFL teachers are involved in ‗double talk‘. Double talk can be carefully
examined by teachers in ‗double think‘, i.e. in which non-Inner-Circle teachers are supposed to consider the two
directions about what kind of English to teach for the reason that English as a foreign language is different form
English as a first language (Seidlhofer, 1999).
Seidlhofer (1999) concludes that the double capacity of the non-native EFL teachers enables them to be
simultaneously familiar with the target language and distanced from it, and it makes it possible for the non-native
teachers to lead double lives with positive connotations ‗of value and strength, … something that is twice the size,
quantity, value, or strength of something else‘ (p. 243). As Kachru and Nelson (2006) apparently clarify, ―Nonnative EFL teachers are well prepared and inherently equipped to put themselves into the place of their students, as
contrasted with the pressure to put themselves into the place of native speakers‖ (p. 106).
Seidlhofer (2000, as cited in Jessner, 2008) argues for a redefinition of the ideal nonnative teacher of English.
This need is as a result of the significant increase of English as lingua franca in recent years. She argues that
although English nowadays mainly serves as a medium of communication between speakers with different primary
languages, the norms of the language is still being controlled by the monolingual minority of its speakers, that is
what Phillipson (1992) calls Linguistic Imperialism.
According to Medgyes (1983), through his own experience as a persistent learner of English on the one hand,
and through the experience gained over the years as a foreign language teacher on the other, NS EFL teacher should
know best where the two cultures and, consequently, the two languages converge and diverge. More than any native
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speaker, he is aware of the difficulties his students are likely to encounter and the possible errors they are likely to
make. Therefore, non-native teacher has easier access to the measures and techniques which may facilitate the
students‘ learning.
Ellis (2005, as cited in Jessner, 2008) points out that the non-native teacher is able to find linguistic problems
and offer metacognitive learning strategies that the native teacher without foreign language experience is unable to
notice. Such ability of the non native teachers refers to what Seidlhofer (1999) calls it ‗the double capacity of the
non-native EFL teachers‘ because, as it was said before, non-native teachers have moved through the process of
learning the language and they are familiar with the difficulties that the learners are mostly likely to encounter.
In nutshell, the non native teachers are both members of their own communities and are familiar with the
target group. This ability of the non native speakers refers to the ‗double life‘ suggested by seidlhofer (1999).
Consequently, in this context, non-native teachers become particularly valued for their ability to move between the
home and target cultures (Corbett 2003, as cited in Agular, 2007), although, a curious and, open-minded native
teacher, especially if widely-traveled, can be equally or better valued.
Tang (1997) states NNS teachers ‗not only play a pedagogical role in their classrooms, but they also serve as
empathetic listeners for beginning and weak students, needs analysts, agents of change, and coaches for public
examinations in the local context‘ (p. 579).
Some people would argue that a qualified native-speaker EFL teacher will always be in a better position than
his/her nonnative-speaker colleague of equal qualification—simply because the language and culture that s/he
teaches to his/her students will always be, or at least ―look‖, more ―authentically native‖. Tarnopolsky (2008)
classifies some advantages that nonnative teachers of EFL might have over their native speaker colleagues; firstly, it
is possible for NNS EFL teachers to apply their students‘ mother tongue whenever and wherever it can facilitate and
accelerate the process of learning English. Secondly, they can pave the way for developing their students‘
interlingual awareness by making comparisons and making them aware of the similarities and differences that exist
between the structures of their L1 and target language. Thirdly, they are better prepared for developing their
students‘ intercultural awareness by comparing similarities and differences between the L1 and target culture, which
is considered to be the only way of developing the learners‘ target culture sociolinguistic behaviors in the conditions
where students have no or very little direct contact with target culture communities. Of course, this advantage of
NNS EFL teacher is apparent when he/she is well aware of the target speech communities‘ cultural characteristics.
‗Understanding cultural and sociolinguistic differences should be among the teachers‘ professional requirements—
just as understanding the linguistic characteristics of the language that they teach‘. (p. 313)
There are two other advantages that the NNS EFL teachers might have in the process of language teaching.
The first of them, as Tarnopolsky (2008) indicates, refers to the fact that NNS EFL teachers, who share the mother
tongue of their students and who may have worked through similar problems in learning English, are better prepared
to deal appropriately with those specific learners‘ problems. Hence, they are most likely to better understand the
essence of students‘ difficulties while a NS EFL teacher might be unable to observe these problems. Tarnopolsky is,
in part, echoing Seidlhofer‘s (1999) views toward NNS EFL teachers. As it was cited before, passing through the
process of learning the same language, teachers are familiar with the difficulties that learners might encounter.
Similarly, Tang (1997) believes that being familiar with the source language and non-native speaker teachers‘ status
as L2 learners could be seen as two significant advantages of the NNS EFL teachers. Their previous L2 learning
experience offers them a privileged understanding of the problems and weaknesses of their students. Medgyes
(1983) points out that more than any native speaker, NNS teacher is aware of the difficulties his/her students are
likely to encounter and the possible errors they are likely to make. The second advantage refers to purely
psychological advantage. Students may prefer the fallible nonnative-speaker teacher who presents a more achievable
model because students may feel overwhelmed by native-speaker teachers who have achieved a perfection that is out
of students‘ reach (Cook, 1999).
However, all the advantages listed above should not lead use to overlook the importance attached the native
speaker EFL teachers. In addition, as Tarnopolsky (2008), declares we should not adopt ‗a view opposite to the long
established perspective that NS EFL teachers should have no say in EFL teaching situations and that only their NNS
colleagues can be the absolute authorities on all related issues.‘ (p. 314)
Challenges for Non-native Speaker (NNS) EFL Teachers
Tarnopolsky (2008) lists a number of challenges that NNS EFL teachers face. They are summarized as five
principal points:
1. Majority of the NNS EFL teachers have a foreign accent and the best of them often cannot overcome it
during their career even if their visits to English-speaking countries are lengthy. The reason is that if a
foreign language is learnt after the puberty, native-like pronunciation is rarely achieved, despite years of
practice.
2. For NNS EFL teachers, however competent they are, it is very difficult to be aware of the most recent
developments in the English language because as every other living language, it is constantly changing. As
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a rule, NNS EFL teachers do not frequently visit English-speaking countries and they do not stay lengthy
enough to keep track of all such changes.
3. The NNS EFL teachers might not be aware of the most recent developments in the English-speaking
nations‘ cultures, including the developments in patterns of sociolinguistic behaviors. So they might lack
such cultural awareness. There are a significant number of the NNS EFL teachers, who have never been to
English-speaking countries, and may not even be aware of essential differences in such patterns as
compared to their home cultures.
4. Another challenge is the limited availability of the latest and most advanced teaching materials and methods
developed in English speaking countries—that is, those that are better known to their NS EFL colleagues
and are much more accessible to them.
5. The last and perhaps most serious challenge is the fact that in many parts of the world both students and
school and university authorities believe that a native speaker is always the best teacher of English and thus
prefer to be taught or to employ NS EFL instructors to the detriment of their NNS colleagues. This is one of
the visible manifestations of linguistic imperialism (Phillipson, 1992).
To put in a nutshell, NNS EFL teachers have many strengths but may encounter some considerable challenges
as well.
To sum up, according to Tarnopolsky (2008), advantages of NS EFL teachers could be summarized as
follows: ‗authentic native English, full awareness of its most recent linguistic and cultural developments, and better
awareness of the most advanced and recent developments in the ways of teaching the language‘ (p. 315). However,
the challenges that NS EFL teachers might face are: ‗no or little command of their students‘ L1 and home culture,
lack of ability to develop their interlingual and intercultural awareness, lack of understanding the learners‘ L1 related
language problems, and presenting a model that learners may believe unachievable‘.
Inspired by the studies on the self-perception of the non-native speaker teachers, I decided to carry out a study
on the use of the native language in Iran context, where English is taught as a foreign language and where majority
of the language teachers are non-native speaker teachers.
Method of the Study
A questionnaire was devised to investigate the self-perception of non-native speaker teachers of English, and
their feelings of confidence and/or insecurity in EFL context. In the first three questions, I tried to get some
demographic information about the teachers. The questions inquired their age, year of experience in teaching, and
their educational background. In the last three questions, attempt was made to investigate the self-perception of the
non-native speaker teachers of English. They were analyzed in detail.
Sampling and Data Analysis Processes
The vast majority of teachers of English in Iran are non-native speakers. This questionnaire was sent out to 87
teachers throughout Iran, and exactly 61 were returned. However, only 44 of them were taken to final evaluation
since some of them lacked the information required. Data was analyzed using SPSS package program (Version
11.5). Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the demographic information of the participants.
Findings and Discussion
Demographic information gathered via a questionnaire revealed that half of the respondents (N = 22) were
aging from 26 to 30. The mean of scores obtained for the age of the participants is 3.18 and the standard deviation is
0.87 with the variance of 0.75. They have been teaching for a mean of 29 ± 1 years. As it is evident in Table 2, the
educational background of the participants were ranging from a high school diploma (N = 1) to Ph.D. (N = 2). The
participants with bachelor‘s degree constitute more than 77 % of the respondents. The mean of scores obtained for
the educational background of the participants is 5.18 and the standard deviation is 5.74 with the variance of 32.94.
The information about their age and educational background is given in Table 1 and Table 2.
Table 1: Demographic information about the age of the participants
___________________________________________
N
Percent
___________________________________________
21-25
9
20.5
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26-30
22
50
31-35
9
20.5
Over 36
4
9.1
___________________________________________
Total
44
100
___________________________________________
Table 2: Demographic information about the educational background of the participants
________________________________________________
N
Percent
________________________________________________
A high school diploma
1
2.3
Bachelor‘s Degree
34
77.3
Master‘s Degree
7
15.9
PhD
2
4.5
________________________________________________
Total
44
100
________________________________________________
Among the six questions asked the last three are of particular relevance here. The fourth question aimed at
getting some information about whether native speaker teacher or non-native teacher of English could be an
effective teacher of English in EFL context. It was to get some information on their self-perception and their
attitudes toward their native or non-native colleagues. It was a multiple choice question but the respondents were
encouraged to briefly explain the reason for their choice. It enabled them to explain their rationale for that. Only just
over 10 (22.7%) went for the second option, i.e. that the main emphasis had been on non-native teacher of English
language, while 34 (77.3%) said the native teacher of English language had been in the foreground.
The purpose of the fifth question was to get some information on whether the non-native teacher should be as
near-native as possible or he/she should strive to become an effective foreign language teacher. It was also an openended question. More than half of the participants (68.2%) indicated that being as near-native as possible is the most
prominent factor, and only 31.8% said the reverse was true.
Finally, the sixth question was asked to study whether being a non native teacher of English in the classroom
makes them feel insecure or confident. According to the results, 54.5% believed that being a non-native speaker
teacher makes them insecure or stress out, while 45.5% said that the reverse was true and being a non native makes
them feel confident. Descriptive Statistics of the last three questions are represented in Table 3. Some respondents
did not tick either option in the last three questions, but gave a verbal response such as ‗neither-nor‘, ‗neither and
both‘ or ‗it depends‘, offering various reasons and explanations.
Table 3: Descriptive Statistics of the three questions
________________________________________
M
SD
________________________________________
Question 4
1.22
0.42
Question 5
1.32
0.47
Question 6
1.45
0.50
________________________________________
Conclusions and Recommendations
The results of the present study on the self-perception of the non-native speaker teacher of English in Iran as
an EFL context revealed some differences in contrast to the previous research studies. Different from the previous
research findings (Seidlhofer, 1999), 77.3% of teachers of English participating in this study stated that native
speaker teacher of English could be more effective teacher of English than the non-natives in EFL context.
In a study carried out by Seidlhofer (1999), the participants (60%) felt that becoming an effective foreign
language teacher is more important than being as near-native as possible (37%). However, according to the findings
of my study, 68.2% of the respondents indicated that being as near-native as possible is the more important than
being an effectible teacher (31.8%). Similar to the findings in Seidlhofer‘s (1999) study, more than half of the
participants (54.5%) indicated the being a non-native speaker teacher of English made them feel insecure rather than
confident.
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A research study was conducted by Tang (1997) to investigate non-native English second language teachers‘
perceptions of the proficiency and competency of native- and nonnative-speaking teachers of English, and the
advantages and disadvantages for English language learners of having a non-native English second language teacher
and a native English second language teacher, a comparison of the English proficiency of the two types of teachers,
and their different roles in the classroom. According to the results, a very high percentage of respondents believed
that native English second language teachers were superior to non-native English second language teachers in
speaking (100%), pronunciation (92%), listening (87%), vocabulary (79%), and reading (72%). In contrast, nonnative English second language teachers were felt to be associated with accuracy rather than fluency. This finding
indicates the fact that native English second language teachers are more often respected as models in English
language learning. Results of my study also draw some parallels with the previous research in terms of considering
native speaker teachers of English as models in English language learning.
The greatest disadvantage that NS EFL teachers have is not knowing (or having very little knowledge) of their
students‘ L1 and culture. These difficulties could disappear if they learned both thoroughly. A recent study by Ellis
(2006, as cited in Tang, 1997) convincingly proves the greatest professional advantages that NS English teachers can
get if they undertake learning an L2. It allows them to understand and deal much better with the dilemmas of their
students learning English. However, majority of the NS EFL teachers who have stayed in one and the same country
for a long time know very little about its language and culture. Therefore, the difficulties of NS EFL teachers that
result from not knowing the local language and culture are probably here to stay in the majority of cases (Tang,
1997).
As results revealed, more attention should be paid to the significant role played by the non-native speaker
teachers in EFL contexts to make them aware of the advantages that they have in such contexts. According to the
results obtained in this study, the participants were not aware of the advantages of being a non-native speaker teacher
in their particular local conditions. As Seidlhofer (1999) clarifies, teacher education plays a crucial role in making
teacher aware of their non-native assets and in preparing them explicitly to use these assets in the development of an
appropriate pedagogy.
References
Agular, C. (2007). Dealing with Intercultural Communicative Competence in the Foreign Language Classroom. In
Soler, E, A. and Jordà, M. (Ed.), Intercultural language use and language learning (pp. 59-78). Springer.
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Ammon, U. (2000). Towards more fairness in international English: Linguistic rights of non-native speakers? In
Phillipson, R. (Ed.), Rights to language. Equity, power, and education (pp. 102-110). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum.
Arnold, W. and Rixon, Sh. (2008). Materials for Teaching English to Young Learners. In Brian Tomlinson (Ed.),
English Language Learning Materials (pp. 38-58). London: Continuum.
Cook, V. (1999). Going beyond the native speaker in language teaching, TESOL Quarterly 33, 185–209.
Jessner, U. (2008). Multicompetence approaches to language proficiency development in multilingual education. In
Hornberger, H, N. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language and Education (pp. 91-103). Springer.
Kachru, B., B. (1996) Models for nonnative Englishes. In The Other Tongue: English across Cultures. 2nd edition.
Edited by Braj B. Kachru. Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 48–74.
Kachru, Y. and L. Nelson, C. (2006). World Englishes in Asian context. Hong Kong University Press: Hong Kong.
Medgyes, P. (1983). The schizophrenic teacher. ELT Journal, 37(1), 2–6.
Phillipson R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford University Press.
Seidlhofer, B. (1999). Double standards: Teacher education in the Expanding Circle. World Englishes, 18(2), 233–
45.
Tang, C. (1997). On the power and status of nonnative ESL teacher, TESOL Quarterly 31, 577–580.
Tarnopolsky, O. (2008). Nonnative speaking teachers of English as a Foreign Language. In Hornberger, N., H. (Ed.),
Encyclopedia of language and education (pp. 309-321). Springer.
Thornbury, S. (2006). An A-Z of ELT. Macmillan Books for Teachers.
Vivian, C. (2007). The goals of ELT: reproducing native-speakers or promoting multicompetence among second
language users? In Cummins, J. and Davison, C. (Ed.), Intercultural handbook of English language teaching (pp.
237-248). Springer.
Widdowson, H.G. (1994). The ownership of English, TESOL Quarterly 28, 377–389.
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Self-perception of Non-native Speaker Teacher of English in the Expanding Circle
Author
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Solhi, Mehdi
Abstract
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In norm-dependent countries, where English is being taught as a foreign language, the main attention is mostly being paid to the native speaker teacher of English language as the ultimate teaching resource. In such countries, native speaker‘s norm is being considered as the standard by which the language should be taught to non-native speakers. However, in recent years, more emphasis has been given to the significance of non native teachers of English and to the advantages such teachers could have in the process of language teaching (e.g. Ellis, 2005; Llurda; 2005; and Seidlhofer, 1999). In this study, attitudes of the non native teachers of English toward their own status were explored, drawing on an empirical study of the self-perception of Iranian teachers. At the same time, advantages of nonnative speaker teachers as significant resources in the expanding circle are discussed.
Date
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2011-05
Keywords
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PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
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1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Cultural diversity as a key factor in planning foreign language teaching policy
in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mejra SoftiĤ
Islamic Pedagogical Faculty
University in Zenica
mejra1967@gmail.com
Abstract:Bosnia and Herzegovina is a multiethnic and multicultural community which has
traditionally displayed deep sensitivity to the need for appreciation, promotion, learning,
connecting, and preservation of the different cultures. The aim of the paper is to indicate the
multilayered nature of the cultural identity of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the fact that
cultural, traditional, and religious diversity, as well as the civilisation imbuement with the
elements of the European and Oriental-Islamic culture have strongly affected the planning of
foreign language teaching policy in this country for centuries. Having been subjected to strong
political and cultural influences both from the East and the West, Bosnia and Herzegovina
opens up possibilities for combining European and Oriental languages by applying modern
curricula at primary schools. The primary goal is for the students to encounter cultures of
entirely different regions and to be taught tolerance, understanding, and appreciation for what
is foreign and different by establishing a correlation among those cultures themselves and a
correlation between those and their native culture. The paper also addresses a close
relationship between a foreign language and culture of the people using that language and
indicates the necessity to teach a foreign language by teaching elements of foreign culture.
Such a method introduces a student to the process of intercultural learning of a foreign
language and produces a positive effect on the development of the student's cultural
communication competences. BiH has shown strong tendencies towards harmonising the
foreign language curricula with modern European concepts of foreign language teaching and
learning.
Key words: cultural diversity, foreign language policy, curricula, interaction, tolerance,
appreciation and coexistence
Introduction
Cultural diversity is one of the most significant attributes of the human population in general. It is
mankind's centuries-long fact conditioned by numerous differences. It is primarily related to the use of different
verbal and non-verbal communication codes within social communities and their relationship to other social
communities. Additionally, it is related to different norms of behaviour, different beliefs, religions, opinions and
values. Identification of individuals with a group that has a common system of symbols, meanings and norms of
behaviour represents their cultural identity, and ―(...) knowing another's cultural identity (...) does help you to
understand the opportunities and challenges that each individual in that culture had to deal with‖ (Jandt, 2010:15).
The familiarity with cultural diversity has become a part of our daily lives, having in mind that meeting
others has been alleviated by globalisation processes worldwide and a resulting wider opening-up of some societies
towards others. A consequence of the globalisation processes is the strengthening of migration processes, which
leads to an increased number of various multicultural contacts and formation of multicultural communities. On the
other hand, we must bear in mind the fact that the diversity of cultures, i.e. multiculturalism, may be historically
rooted in a social community thus constituting its distinguishable constant feature, not a product of migration
processes.
Education policies have always had profound influence both in terms of developing and the weakening of
cultural diversity. Therefore, the task of contemporary educational process, viewed through the prism of the transfer
of knowledge and acquisition of competences, is to facilitate the acquisition of intercultural competences which
enable coexistence with others, together with their cultural diversity (Byram, 1997). Within the framework of
UNESCO report on Education for Twenty-first Century, under the leadership of Jacques Delors, another report was
presented entitled Learning – The Treasure Within, which emphasises that education relies on four principles:
―learning to be‖, ―learning to know‖ ―learning to work‖ and ―learning to live together‖. The Commission has singled
out the ―learning to live together‖ principle as the most important one as it entails ―(...) the development of people's
understanding for other people, their histories, traditions, and spiritual values (...)‖ (Report, 1996:20-21), thus
implying the conclusion that these principles can be applied successfully only if they are established on appreciation
of cultural diversity.
Language is most frequently referred to as one of the basic criteria of cultural diversity and its fundamental
element. Language is considered a product of spiritual culture of a people and its transmitter at the same time. This
is why, from the point of view of cultural diversity, languages are not considered only a means of communication. In
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fact, being the media of our experiences, our systems of value, our encounters with other people and our sense of
belonging, languages are also a combination of our cultural expressions, the strongholds of our identity, our values,
and our views of the world (Risager, 2006). Hence, in growing political and economic integration of European
countries, whose level of future unity will depend on the level of mutual familiarity, understanding, and tolerance
towards others and the different, the Council of Europe has defined the foreign language learning, promotion of
significance of language and cultural diversity, and the need for their preservation as the priority tasks of education
in the 21st century.
In view of the above, this paper is focused on three main areas. First, it analyses the elements of cultural
diversity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, its understanding in both broad and narrow terms, the effect these elements
have on the planning of foreign language teaching policy in BiH, and their status and position in our contemporary
education concept. Secondly, the paper attempts briefly to show that there is a close correlation between foreign
language learning and its culture and that it is paramount to teach elements of the culture as it leads to developing
intercultural communication. The final section of the paper points out the elements of harmonisation of the curricula
in our schools with the European concept of curricula, which bring to the fore the development of students' cultural
communicative competence.
Cultural identity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its influence on planning foreign language
teaching
Historical background
A culture of a people is inseparable from its history. The territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina has witnessed
centuries-long interactions and blending of several civilizations. Nowadays, three religions coexist there with an
enviable degree of tolerance and respect, without assimilation pretexts for integration and creation of a unique
cultural pattern which would annul the diversity and the specific quality of each cultural individuality. BiH has thus
―widely opened a door to another and different, so becoming a home to what is domiciliary and foreign, (...), to what
is here and what is there, to what is altogether an ideal to which Europe itself is steered― (Strategy for Cultural
Policy in BiH, 2008:7).
Due to its rather sensitive geopolitical position between the East and the West and its incorporation into the
transitional zone of European culture, the cultural and historic heritage in BiH is heterogeneous, formed in a broad
time span from the pre-historic and antic to the mediaeval, Ottoman, and modern times. Owing to such a geographic
position, its culture has been shaped under the influence of four cultural and civilisation heritages: Mediterranean,
Central European, Byzantine, and Oriental-Islamic, which is one of the decisive facts that has affected the course
and content of the education and cultural development of BiH, as well as the abundance of forms of its culturalhistoric legacy. In the world that is becoming increasingly globalised, imposing its own system of values, which
does not show too much understanding for traditional culture, which is, nevertheless, increasingly becoming aware
of the need to preserve cultural values created for centuries, this abundance of cultural-historic heritage can become
one of the comparative advantages of our country, ―(...) and our culture an important product with which BiH of
today can in fact be competitive in Europe and the world‖ (Strategy for Cultural Policy in BiH, 2008:12).
In addition to the three constitutive peoples – Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks - BiH is a home to representatives of
17 ethnic minorities: the Romani, Slovenians, Ukrainians, Czechs, Albanians, Poles, Macedonians, Bulgarians,
Austrians, Germans, Turks, Arabs, Italians, Hungarians, Russians, Slovaks and others, who present through their
activities the most significant proof of the affirmation of cultures of diversity at a time of globalisation, which is
invaluable for the development of intercultural dialogue and the strengthening of social cohesion. From the point of
view of language diversity, Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian are the three official languages of BiH, which show a
high degree of mutual appreciation, clearly manifested towards the languages of minorities which are extensively
used. Therefore, historically established multiculturalism, diversity of religions and traditions, and the language
diversity lie at the heart of cultural identity of BiH. Hence, in defining priorities, the Strategy for Cultural Policy in
BiH states as one of the fundamental goals and tasks: ―(...) further affirmation of multiculturalism and cultural unity,
constantly bearing in mind the cultural wealth and specific cultural feature of BiH which incorporates numerous
influences from the East, West and the Mediterranean, which represents its peculiar advantage, the factor of unifying
and not of separation and a step more on the road to European integrations and, particularly, the nurturing of the
cultural specificities of each of its peoples and ethnic minorities, with a full support to the activities of the (...)
national, cultural, and educational associations and their contribution to the promotion of culture, protection of
cultural-artistic heritage and language‖ (ibid., 34).
Having experienced encounters with powerful European and Oriental cultures and civilisations, from which
it inherited the spirit of cultural, traditional, and religious distinctiveness, long existing as an integral part of the
globally known multicultural community – former Yugoslavia, having been taught painful experiences carried from
the recent wartime events, Bosnia and Herzegovina understands the term and meaning of multiculturalism in its
broadest terms, not only within its own borders. This is a result of the fact that multiculturalism in BiH, viewed in
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the historical and geographic context, has always had its cultural forms which had its common institutions, which, by
nurturing cultural diversity, did not advocate intolerance, isolation, and self-containment but openness,
communication, and unity. Even nowadays, being a member of the Council of Europe, Bosnia and Herzegovina
actively participates in the work of the Council of Europe Committees dealing with the issues in the field of culture.
Its capitol was the organiser of the first pilot project entitled the First Intercultural City of the Council of Europe
2003/04, and the first forum on intercultural and interreligious dialogue organised in cooperation with the Council of
Europe and the Japanese foundation.
Innovating the foreign language learning programmes
Although in the transitional process and divided into two entities, and the entity of the Federation of BiH
itself into ten cantons, although still in a state of an institutional and political chaos, in the past ten years BiH has
invested a great deal into the education system reform. In the Federation of BiH and the Republic of Srpska the New
Concept of Nine-year Education and Upbringing has been produced. Harmonisation with modern primary school
concepts and compatibility of education standards with those of the European Union is referred to as one of the
fundamental principles the Concept rest on. Following the recommendations of the Council of Europe, the BiH
education system has implemented the projects of early foreign language learning, Common European Framework
of Reference for Languages has been adopted, new upgraded foreign language curricula have been implemented,
particularly at the primary school level as the key factor in developing students' capacities for successfully mastering
the elements of a foreign language and culture (Prebeg-Vilke, 1991), the goals and objectives of the foreign language
teaching have been redefined, and the foreign language teachers' role has been reviewed and corrected.
In order for the students to master at least two foreign languages by the end of their schooling, under the
innovated Framework Primary School Curriculum in both entities, the first compulsory foreign language, English, is
being taught in the third grade. The second compulsory foreign language is now taught in the sixth grade; however,
the students choose one among several optional foreign languages. The number of languages and the language
selection itself differs in the Federation of BiH and the Republic of Srpska, and among the cantons themselves. They
are mostly dictated by the interests of the majority population in a canton. In addition to the English language, the
languages offered in the Republic of Srpska are: German, French, Russian, Italian, and in some schools, Spanish.
Apart from English, the Federation Ministry of Science and Education has proposed German, French and Arabic,
however, the cantonal ministries have been granted the autonomy to amend the list of languages offered based on the
interest of students and their parents. The continuity of learning these languages has been ensured throughout the
secondary schools and universities. Numerous private educational institutions, religious ones too, actively promote
the learning of Turkish and Persian in addition to some of the above-mentioned languages.
Our education system selected those European foreign languages under the influence of several key factors.
The first factor, the leading one in planning foreign language policy worldwide, is the overall political and economic
power of the country where the language is spoken and its global influence. Based on this criterion, English has
stood out among other languages, becoming a global language of today and achieving the status of a lingua franca of
the contemporary multilingual Europe and the first foreign language taught at all schools. An analysis and forecast
of the labour market needs, current foreign language hierarchy in the world, and overall socio-political
circumstances in a country, the political, economic, and cultural in particular, relations with the countries whose
languages are taught are also rather important factors that have affected the selection of the dominant European, and
non-European – Oriental languages, too.
Oriental languages are an inseparable part of the cultural-historic heritage in BiH. As a result, they have
been present in our education system for centuries. During the Ottoman Empire rule in these areas, literacy,
education, and literature was developed in Arabic as the language of science, law, theology, Turkish, as the language
of administration and fine literature, and Persian as the language of poetry (ŃabanoviĤ, 1973). In addition to having
been studied at religious schools in continuity, in the mid 19th century they began to be taught at classical grammar
schools in all the major centres of BiH (RamiĤ, 1999). With certain discontinuance and amendments, they remained
an integral part of the secondary and university level curricula in our country, and the literary heritage created in
these languages holds an exceptional cultural value of BiH.
At the time when the issues under discussion are conflict of civilisations, conflict between the East and the
West, the need for a closer cooperation and intercultural understanding, Oriental languages have increasingly been
taught in the modern world. The growing strategic, economic, political, cultural and military potentials of the
countries where these languages are spoken also represent significant causes of interest in these languages. By
implementing the projects of early foreign language learning, whose goal is to promote the importance of
multilingualism and cultural diversity at the earliest school age, the BiH education system has intentionally and
purposely opened a possibility to combine the European and Oriental languages at primary schools. Bearing in mind
the fact that ―(...) teaching a foreign language can in no way be separate from teaching a culture (...)‖ (Serrano,
2002:124), the combinations such as these are aimed at exposing the students to cultures of entirely different regions
– European and Oriental - from a very early age and teaching them tolerance, understanding, and appreciation for
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what is foreign and different by establishing a correlation among those cultures themselves and a correlation
between those and the native culture.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has practically lived the cultural diversity for centuries and is aware of the need for
its further preservation within its own borders and its promotion and understanding in a broader European context.
Therefore, planning foreign language teaching as the most important medium of foreign culture has traditionally
been addressed with full responsibility and willingness to implement modern teaching methods which nowadays
emphasise the acquisition of (inter)cultural communicative competence.
The dependence of foreign language and culture and development of intercultural learning
The objective of the foreign language learning is to achieve successful communication in all the language
domains. Starting from the etymology of the term communication, Fred E. Jandt (2010:37) points out that
communication and culture are inseparable. A derivative of the Latin word communicare, it means:―(...) to share
with or make common, as in giving to another a part or share of your thoughts, hopes and knowledge‖. On the other
hand, he believes that culture, being a product of human social activity, is a code we learn and share, and learning
and sharing requires communication. Therefore, in order for us to understand each other, communication and culture
must be learned together.
Taking the fundamental communicative function of language as a starting point, we can reach the
conclusion that learning a foreign language means learning about a foreign culture. Therefore, in order to
successfully participate in communication in a foreign language, we must, at least to a certain degree, learn and
understand the cultural background of the language, know the customs and habits, and how to behave and act in a
variety of situations in life, as close as possible to how speakers of a foreign language would (TanoviĤ, 1978). This
implies that foreign language should be acquired within its cultural context. Namely, in the process of its learning
and teaching it may not be separated from its natural environment and general cultural heritage it originates from.
Contemporary linguistic theories of foreign language learning and teaching are based on such principles bearing in
mind that they bring us closer to the community that uses it and that they change our preconceptions, notions and
prejudices with regard to that community. The principles emphasise that foreign language teaching without the
elements of foreign culture is incomplete, imprecise, and nonsensical even if learners know nothing about the native
speakers or the native country. (Genc & Bada, 2005).
These theories have also indicated the incompleteness of a widely accepted communicative approach whose
goal is to develop the learners' communicative competences focusing on the functional and structural aspect of a
language and their mutual combination in fuller communicative sense. With an approach like this, a learner masters
the ability to choose the most suitable linguistic form for the execution of certain language functions and to use the
language in accordance with the situation environment or social context, which means that, depending on when,
where, why, who with and what they talk about, learners know which lexicon and models of expression to use
(Littlewood, 1981). The fundamental disadvantage of this approach is that, in essence, it does not encourage the
development of cultural awareness in learners, which is embedded in one of the chief goals of the modern language
learning, and that is ―the development in learners of sensitivity to the culture (in the widest sense) of the
communities whose languages are being studied‖ (Byram, 1993:26). In building communication competence, the
language and cultural component are complementary as communication attains its full meaning only in relation to
the fundamental socio-cultural signs. Communication cannot be reduced to transfering solely linguistic message as
its essential features are composed of extra-linguistic and paralinguistic aspects of communication – mimicking,
gesture, body movements, special intonation and rhythm used in specific situations. Not knowing those can lead to
misunderstanding the message.
Foreign language acquisition by teaching elements of foreign culture should primarily serve to developing
cross-cultural communication, which introduces the learner to the process of intercultural language learning defined
as ―(...) a process where the learner's picture of culture grows wider, with the help of new information about foreign
culture and language, increasing in the same time the consciousness of the special features of one's own culture and
language‖ (Kaikkonen, 1997:47). Therefore, for so oriented foreign language learning to be successful, it is
necessary to develop in learners a positive attitude towards the foreign phenomena. After that, learners are focused
on observing the elements of foreign culture and their comparison with their own culture, which further leads them
to learning and acquiring the standards and norms of the foreign culture. Acquisition of new codes and meanings
helps develop students' linguistic and cultural skills in communication.
Curricula and developing cultural communicative competence
Contemporary curricula in BiH are focused on developing learners' communicative competence from their
very first encounter with a foreign language, indicating at the same time, the necessity of acquiring a language in a
broader social context based on the culture of the people speaking it. Therefore, the primary goals of foreign
language teaching referred to in the literature are to teach learners how to communicate in a foreign language, in
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writing and orally, about various aspects of every-day life, to develop the learners' general culture by teaching them
about the life and tradition of the countries where the language is spoken, and to attempt to develop in learners
through the foreign language teaching an awareness of the importance of multilingualism, the spirit of tolerance,
cosmopolitanism, humanism and internationalism. Further, one of the fundamental goals of the foreign language
instruction referred to in the literature is to develop intercultural skills that help learners learn about the culture of the
foreign language speaking countries, compare it with their own culture and tradition, and develop a positive, tolerant
attitude towards diversities, all of which serves the purpose of enhancing their cultural communicative competence.
Contemporary foreign language teaching methodologies in our schools support and promote European
inter-cultural approach to foreign language teaching. By displaying how cultures are intertwined, this approach
contributes to shaping learners' personality in terms of tolerance and respect for what is different, setting aside the
ethnic differences, and explaining the importance of preserving social diversities and cultural pluralism within a
nation (Vrhovec, 1999). The techniques applied in developing learners' (inter)cultural awareness in class and beyond
are varied and mainly start with the strategies of observation, reflection, and conclusion about the cultural signs from
every-day lives related to food, refreshments, sports, celebrities, and items used daily. Role-plays and simulation of
daily situations in communication, comparisons, and contrasting with the elements of one's own culture, use of
different audio-visual aids and authentic materials, trips to and living in the country where the foreign language is
spoken etc. develop at the same time learners' communication skills and change their attitudes and relationship
towards members of other cultures and nations in a positive way. Naturally, the selection of the technique and
strategy depends on the learners' age and success and their efficiency primarily on the knowledge, skills, creativity,
and motivation of the teachers themselves.
Although education institutions in BiH are in a rather poor financial situation, and although primary and
secondary schools are to a great extent divided based on the ethnicity of the students, as a result of which we have a
unique phenomenon of two schools under one roof, the entity ministries of science and education keep abreast with
contemporary trends in the foreign language teaching in Europe and make efforts in implementing them in their own
curricula. Approaches that develop in learners sensitivity to cultures of others and different are not entirely new in
our traditionally culturally aware society. However, in this rather sensitive post-war period it is essential to
emphasise their importance in order to raise new generations which will be aware in the overall globalisation process
of the significance of preserving their own cultural identity and which will have a developed sense of general unity
and collectiveness in the cultural diversity of the united Europe.
Conclusion
Cultural diversity is considered the most valuable legacy of human civilization, though simultaneously a cause for
frequent conflicts, lack of mutual understanding and intolerance. Rapid globalisation processes in the world lead to
more common multicultural encounters which, as a result, call for development of positive attitudes and tolerance to
others and those different from us. Viewed through the prism of the transfer of knowledge and acquisition of
competences, modern education systems, particularly the processes of foreign language teaching and learning, have
a task to help the acquisition of intercultural competences that enable coexistence with others and their cultural
diversity. This is why one of the fundamental objectives of the foreign language classes is teaching elements of
foreign culture, primarily serving the purpose of developing intercultural understanding and communication.
Shaped under the influence of the Mediterranean, Mediaeval, Byzantine, and Oriental-Islamic culture, BiH
has existed for centuries as a multicultural community with a developed sense of respect, appreciation, and
understanding of the cultural diversity in its broadest terms. BiH is a place where the cultures of the East and West
come together. Therefore, the possibility for combining the European and Oriental languages at the earliest school
age is a proof of its attempts to build a bridge of understanding and tolerance between these two different cultures
and support and promote them equally in a student's consciousness applying modern foreign language learning
programmes.
Contemporary approaches to the foreign language teaching suggest that foreign language learning has to
take place in its broader socio-cultural context and in a direction opposite from the usual one. In fact, instead of the
traditional practice of having the most important elements of a culture of the people speaking a language adopted
through that foreign language, these approaches endeavour to put at the forefront learning about cultural and
civilisation contents intended to stimulate and strengthen a student's personal motivation to further master the foreign
language itself. An approach like this simultaneously develops students' communication and cultural competences,
which guarantee accuracy and precision in communicating in a foreign language only in correlation.
References:
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Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and Assesing Intercultural Communicative Competence, Clevedon: Multilingual
Matters Ltd.
Counsil of Ministres in B&H, (2008). Strategy of Cultural Politics in B&H, Sarajevo: Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Delors, J. (1996). Learnin The Treasure Within, Report to UNESCO of the International Commision on Education
for the Twenty- firs century. UNESCO Publishing.
Genc, B. & Bada, E. (2005). Culture in language learning and teaching. The Reading Matrix, No. 1, 73- 84.
Jandt, F. E. (2010). An introduction to intercultural communication: Identities in a global community,
London:SAGE Publications, Ltd.
Kaikkonen, P. (1997). Learning a culture and a foreign language at school – aspects of intercultural learning.
Language Learning Journal, No. 15, 47-51.
Littlewood, W. (1981). Communicative Language teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Prebeg – Vilke, M. (1991). Vańe dijete i jezik, Zagreb: Ńkolska knjiga.
RamiĤ, J. (1999). Obzorja arapsko-islamske knjiņevnosti, Sarajevo: El-Kalem.
Risager, K. (2006). Language and Culture, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Serrano, N. (2002). Teaching culture in foreign language programmes at third level education. CAUCE, Revista de
Filologia y su Didactica, No. 25, 121-145.
ŃabanoviĤ, H. (1978). Knjiņevnost Muslimana BiH na orijentalnim jezicima, Sarajevo: Svjetlost.
Ńkiljan, D. (1988). JeziĦna politika, Zagreb: ITRO „Naprijed―.
TanoviĤ, M. (1978). Savremena nastava stranih jezika u teoriji i praksi II, Sarajevo: IGKRO „Svjetlost―.
Vrhovec, I. & suradnici (1999). Strani jezik u osnovnoj ńkoli. PoduĦavanje elemenata strane kulture, Zagreb:
Ńkolska knjiga, 235-241.
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Cultural diversity as a key factor in planning foreign language teaching policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Author
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Softić, Mejra
Abstract
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Bosnia and Herzegovina is a multiethnic and multicultural community which has traditionally displayed deep sensitivity to the need for appreciation, promotion, learning, connecting, and preservation of the different cultures. The aim of the paper is to indicate the multilayered nature of the cultural identity of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the fact that cultural, traditional, and religious diversity, as well as the civilisation imbuement with the elements of the European and Oriental-Islamic culture have strongly affected the planning of foreign language teaching policy in this country for centuries. Having been subjected to strong political and cultural influences both from the East and the West, Bosnia and Herzegovina opens up possibilities for combining European and Oriental languages by applying modern curricula at primary schools. The primary goal is for the students to encounter cultures of entirely different regions and to be taught tolerance, understanding, and appreciation for what is foreign and different by establishing a correlation among those cultures themselves and a correlation between those and their native culture. The paper also addresses a close relationship between a foreign language and culture of the people using that language and indicates the necessity to teach a foreign language by teaching elements of foreign culture. Such a method introduces a student to the process of intercultural learning of a foreign language and produces a positive effect on the development of the student's cultural communication competences. BiH has shown strong tendencies towards harmonising the foreign language curricula with modern European concepts of foreign language teaching and learning.
Date
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2011-05
Keywords
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Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
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1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Women Soldiers and Male Nurses – Adjustment of Gender Identity
Marijana Sivric
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
University of Mostar
marijana.sivric@tel.net.ba
Abstract: It is said that gender identity can be seen as either unidimensional or
multidimensional depending on its realization within society. The question is how gender
identity is connected to social groups.
Membership in a social group profoundly influences human behavior, with both positive
and negative implications. On the one hand, positive social identity is promoted by the
feeling of belonging to a group, which enhances individuals‘ self-esteem and a sense of
connectedness to others.
On the other hand, membership in a social group can promote negative bias toward outgroup members, in-group members who violate group norms can be derogated, and the
whole group can be negatively stereotyped in certain areas (for example, women in the
military).
In our research we will try to prove that such positioning within social groups, in a way,
enforces the adjustment of gender identities, breaking the stereotyped frames of gender,
which is especially evident in ‗male‘ or ‗female‘ occupations.
We will also show how continuous construction of a range of masculine and feminine
identities is reflected in discourse.
The examples will be taken from ‗male‘ or ‗female‘ occupations, e.g. military opposed to
nursing, to illustrate that specific shift from typical construction of identity into a new
sphere of genderness.
Key words: gender, identity, social group, stereotypes, adjustment.
Introduction
A rather broad and open-ended definition of identity would be that identity is the social positioning of
self and other (Buholtz, Hall, 2005).
Buholtz and Hall also suggest that ―identity may be in part intentional, in part habitual and less than fully
conscious, in part an outcome of interactional negotiation, in part a construct of others‘ perceptions and
representations, and in part an outcome of larger ideological processes and structures.‖ (Buholtz, Hall, 2005:2)
Even a superficial view of this definition shows that identity, especially gender identity research, is
multidimensional and interdisciplinary.
One of the dimensions important for understanding identity construction is a sociological dimension, to
the point in which we speak about a person‘s positioning within a social group and how a social group
influences someone‘s self-gendering.
Another dimension is a psychological one, ―where the divergence in perspectives can be characterized in terms
whether sex typing is considered adaptive or maladaptive, described as an individual or normative difference,
and whether gender identity is regarded as a unidimensional or multidimensional construct.‖ (Ruble, Lurye,
Zosuls, 2008)
The third dimension, which is of particular interest to us, is a discursive dimension of gender identity, i.e. how
gender identity is constructed through the construction of discourse or particular discursive events.
Naturally, none of these can be taken separately. They are rather intertwined, helping create an overall picture of
identity construction.
In their social life, people are positioned within varied structures of institutions and society, and they
are assigned specific social roles; they all take on different gender identities in different communities or cultures.
Also, they are actively involved in the construction and performance of their own gender identities.
Belonging to a social group profoundly influences human behavior, the implications of which can be
both positive and negative. Membership in a social group can promote a positive social identity from which
individuals enhance their self-esteem and a sense of belongingness or connectedness to others. On the other
hand, membership in a social group can promote ―negative bias toward out-group members, derogation of ingroup members who violate group norms, and disengagement from certain areas in which one group has been
negatively stereotyped.‖ (Ruble, Lurye, Zosuls, 2008:2)
Being multidimensional, gender identity is reflected through the relationship between social identity, which
shows the awareness of group membership, and personal adjustment.
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Gender identity may be conceptualized as categorical knowledge - you confirm that you are a member of a
certain group; a feeling of importance - being a part of that group is really important to you; and evaluation - you
like to be a part of that group.
The degree of your masculinity or femininity was earlier considered by developmental psychologists as
a direct and optimal result of sex typing – you are either a man or a woman.
On the other hand, cross-sex typing was seen as deviant and potentially harmful. Bem (1981) argues that the
extent to which people were sex typed was indicative of the extent to which they were gender schematic or had
internalized culturally prescribed gender norms.
This could result in negative adjustment, which means that people will not be able to react appropriately in
different situations, especially when gender norms are violated.
Higgins (2000) suggests that people can be either prevention focused, being concerned with avoiding negative
outcomes, or promotion focused, in obtaining positive outcomes. 274
In feminist theory a metaphor which is frequently used is ‗creation of different faces‘ for constructing
one‘s own identity. This refers to particular situations through which we, while performing gender, create
different gender identities.
As Eckert and McConnell (2003) emphasize ―in a world where simply being can count as being bad, identities
are often constructed in opposition to dominant cultural ideologies. Identity construction is not an exclusively
individual act, social selves are produced in interaction, through processes of contestation and collaboration.‖
In the1990s a diversity of research on people‘s identities emerged, investigating how identity was
constructed, displayed and performed in the language used by particular gender groups (e.g. McElhinny (1993)
on women police officers in Pittsburgh or Bergvall (1996) on women engineering students).
That was the period when a shift occurred in feminist theory and gender studies in thinking about gender.
Gender identity is no longer conceptualized as something people just have but also as involving what they do,
how they react in particular situations. Gender is undergoing a constant process of production, reproduction and
change through people‘s performance of gendered acts in which they project their own gendered identities.
2. Construction of Identity
Identity construction, as we have suggested, is multifold. It may occur as the creation of individual
identity, the simultaneous creation and challenging of other people‘s identity, their relationships within group
identity, etc. In the reality we experience around us, a specific group identity rarely exists or operates in isolation
from other identities.
People‘s own identities are largely determined by the identity of the social groups they belong to. People often
identify with, and are influenced by, group memberships, which does not mean that this identification is directly
relevant to their present circumstances. This would mean that the social identity network of an individual has
significant implications for the person‘s perceptions, emotions, and behaviors. As an individual you have created
a network of different identities which is not connected only to one group or to the last group you are a member
of.
The two key concepts that offer complementary perspectives on identity are whether you are ‗the same‘
as your group or ‗differ‘ from it. If you are ‗the same‘, you are allowed to see yourself as belonging to a group,
while if you are ‗different‘ it produces social distance between those who perceive themselves as unlike.
Apart from the individual and in-group identities, there are also differences between in-group members
and those outside the group. This is a well known concept of in-group and out-group relationships, which are, in
most cases, ideologically conditioned.
Buholtz and Hall (2003) suggest that such ideological ranking enables the most powerful group to constitute
itself as a norm from which all others diverge. However, that norm is not usually recognizable as a separate
identity.
Within this complex relational network of different identities, it is possible that some in-group members
are identified as closer to the members of the out-group. This is especially significant in social groups in which
complex gendered identities are at work.
Getting closer to the members of the other group leads to identity change, which is also challenging because
individuals start categorizing themselves as members of any new group that they have joined.
The process of taking on a new group membership involves an adjustment of one‘s own identity or, to be more
precise, the present identity, in order to accommodate the identity of the new group. It may take some time
before people get accustomed to the new group membership, or before they start perceiving that group‘s identity
as a part of their self-identity.
274
Higgins gives an example of a woman wearing a feminine outfit to avoid being criticized for being unfeminine or looking
unattractive or, as a contrast, wearing a feminine outfit because of a desire to be admired for being feminine and perceived as
attractive.
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In contrast, this integration to the new group is not always successful. People may experience rejection
and hostility from the members of the group, which is a very difficult position, especially if you really want to
prove that you are worthy of being a member of that group and you highly identify with it (Jetten et al, 2004).
Iyer, Jetten and Tsavrikos (2006) suggest that old and new group memberships may be reconciled. One
possibility is that both identities independently co-exist without any impact on each other. That is, the idea of
network of identities that we all create does not, in fact, depend on the group we belong to but on the situation in
which we find ourselves.
Another question that we earlier tackled is the one of power relations within the group or between the
groups.
Previous research on identity was mostly based on the assumption that identities were attributes of individuals or
groups rather than of situations. The power of a group is dynamically constructed and exercised in different
aspects of a specific interaction; group members manifest power in a variety of ways as they construct their own
identities and roles in response to the behavior of others.
When we speak of gendered power, especially in mix-gender groups with a majority of men, it is
significant how women try to construct their identity. Women who attempt to adjust to more masculine styles of
behavior are considered more credible but less feminine, the situation which is typical for the military, police
forces etc.
Howes and Stevenson (1993) emphasize that ―women in groups are less prone to self-assertion and
more prone to compromise…If women follow the trend shown by the sociological data and become a large
minority of military personnel, their presence can be expected to change the organizational structure in which
they participate.―
If we speak of the military as a traditionally male group, with specific and rather rigid identity, it is true that
allowing the access of a larger number of women into the group will require a new strategic vision and
leadership and challenge the existing one.
Nevertheless, being a minority, women rarely achieve high-level positions and if they do, the reason
they are selected is for their rather counter-stereotypical characteristics, i.e. less feminine and more masculine.
Similarly, Howes and Stevenson (2000) describe this situation as women's attempt to protect themselves by
adopting the attitudes of their male colleagues. They 'go native in order to survive'.
Most research on women in contemporary male-dominated organizations suggests that women develop
two major patterns of adaptation: cooption and segregation. The first applies to those structures and occupations
where women accept male definitions of the situation and try to blend into the male organizational culture. The
second pattern manifests itself in groups of women who become effectively isolated from the organizational
mainstream and cultivate female friendship, support, and cooperation in order to cope with the rejection or
obstacles put before them by the opposite gender.
The situation with the military can become more complex. An article in Minerva: Quarterly Report on
Women and the Military (1996:12) regarding the captivity of Rhonda Cornum during the Gulf War states:
―Women in wartime and in military culture provide a ready test for male dominance and a ready target of anger:
women become the object of male violence just for being there. They violate the male terrain of war and
fraternity of power. Tailhook is an excellent example of male terrain, where the women ―had‖ to have it happen.
Similarly, the female captivity can‘t be over until there is a rape.‖
Victoria Bergvall (1996) gives a similar example of female engineering students: on the one hand there is a
social need to behave in stereotypically ‗feminine‘ ways, if they wish to take part in heterosexual social and
sexual relationships. On the other hand, if they are going to succeed in their studies, they must assert themselves
and their views, which is liable to put them in competition with fellow students. This involves assertive,
competitive behavior perceived as ‗masculine‘.
What is important is the way women try to adjust their identities if they want to become members of a
male-dominated group. Obviously, it is a very hard job; they have to give up a great deal of their femininity in
order to become a part of the male group. Women who find themselves in new groups, like the military, can
partly segregate to cope with other girls and preserve their identity, but consequently, they can become ‗targets
of male anger‘. Their positions and their identities are challenged both ways.
There is also an opposite example of the identity adjustment that we want to discuss here - the men who
want to become members of a female-dominated group. Do the ‗male nurses‘ have to co-opt or segregate, is
their male identity challenged? These are some of the questions we will try to answer in the following chapters.
3. Gender Identity in Language and Discourse
The third dimension of identity research that we noted earlier is its discursive dimension. The question
of identity construction is primarily expressed through language and it is extremely significant to define how
gender identities are reflected in discourse.
Buholtz and Hall (2005:585) argue that ―identity is best viewed as the emergent product rather than the preexisting source of linguistic and other semiotic practices and therefore as fundamentally a social and cultural
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phenomenon.‖ As such, identity is an intersection between culturally imposed and personal meanings which
may be chosen and imposed through language use.
In particular discursive situations identity is formed and constructed through different language forms.
When constructed in ongoing discourse, identity is not a final product or creation; it is constantly challenged,
reproduced, adjusted and changed. Their dynamic perspective is in contrast with the traditional view of identities
as unitary and constant psychological states or social categories. As each community has its identity, the
linguistic reflection of that identity is the language specific for that particular community. Therefore, we say that
language is an authentic expression of group identity.
Some sociolinguistic approaches to language and identity associate rates of use of particular linguistic
forms with particular kinds of speakers. Of course, speakers are not always aware of all the language features
they are using in particular situations and the nuances of linguistic behaviors which signify their identity. But
they are definitely sure of certain aspects of language which they use in certain situations to confirm their
identity, e.g. radicals who use some linguistic expressions pejoratively, ascribing completely new meanings to
them, or, the language expressions used pejoratively by male soldiers to identify themselves as a group opposed
to female soldiers.
Due to gender subordination, according to Eckert (1989), women in many cultures do not have the
same access to possible accomplishments as men, which they tend to compensate through more symbolic
resources, primarily language, personality and physical appearance in order to present themselves as acceptable
or equal members of society.
We claim that the relationship between speakers‘ gender and their use of linguistic forms is a direct one.
However, some linguists (Ochs and Taylor, 1995) claim that this relationship is indirect; ―linguistic features are
associated with gender via their association with something else that itself can be associated with gender, e.g. a
professional woman who uses a direct, forceful style of speaking and is described by her colleagues as 'talking
like a man'‖
Does it mean that this woman is using language to signal that she is aware of her masculine behavior and wants
others to accept her as such or is she using it for professional reasons to index her self-confidence and authority,
which is also connected to masculinity?
It is especially important how we perceive this situation in male-dominated groups or female-dominated
groups in regard to the power she wants to exert. What she regards as appropriate to her professional status can
be interpreted by others as inappropriate for her behavior as a woman, which does not mean that it is
inappropriate for her new identity.
As we can see, the same way of speaking can signify both professional identity and gendered identity, which is
in practice difficult to separate and the usage of language for one or the other identity is to be negotiated for each
particular situation or context. For a female soldier, it is not always necessary to index her masculine nature or
behavior; it depends on the situational context and discursive practice.
Another important feature in constructing gender identity in male-dominated groups is hegemonic masculinity
which is frequently connected to violence. M. Talbot (1998:191) suggests that ―masculinity is not an individual
property or attribute; it is formed within institutions and is historically constituted.‖
When women perform ‗masculine‘ job, they have to perform it through the power of the institution. That is
expressed symbolically, through the way they are dressed, i.e. special uniforms, to the language they use, the
way they behave – physical ability and exertion of power.
On the other hand, the presence of women in typically masculine jobs can lead to a certain shift of identity of a
whole group, sometimes through the language forms they use, sometimes through cool and emotionless efficacy,
which is something we will try to argue in the following chapter.
4. Adjustment of Identity in Discourse – Discussion
In her paper on women police officers in Pittsburgh (1995), Bonnie McElhinny claims that
investigations on gender should not focus exclusively on differences between men and women but also on how
hegemonic femininities and masculinities produce subordinate and subversive femininities and masculinities.
That way the existence of competition between male and female identities is also investigated in different
contexts.
Similarly, we tried to investigate the positioning of female identity in the male-dominated jobs, but also
the positioning of male identity in typically female occupations. For that purpose we investigated gender
performances of female soldiers and male nurses based on interviews with groups of female and male soldiers
(30 of them); as well as female and male nurses (10 of them), and on the analysis of their blogs and forums, i .e.
their cyber-communication.
What we claim is that both examined groups, female soldiers and male nurses, must adjust, at least to a certain
extent, their feminine or masculine identities by positioning in one-gender dominated groups.
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Just like the female police officers, whose job is considered masculine, and who can be perceived as women,
men or simply as police officers, women soldiers are also in the same position. Their female identity is
challenged by the identity of the group whose members they want to be, which is predominantly a masculine
identity.
The initial perception and stereotype of women as mothers, housewives, secretaries etc. is transformed
into an image of rational and efficient professionals. However, that is not the image of a male soldier embodying
his strength, aggressiveness and excessive use of force.
For example, the stereotypical attitudes of male soldiers, like ―this is not for women; what is a woman doing
here?‖; ―women should cook and take care of children‖ are gradually changed into the attitudes of more
recognition of women‘s efforts, such as ―women find the solutions to problems that no man can even think of‖
or ―women contribute to the humaneness of the modern military‖.
What we have is the situation that both identities are challenged: the female one is getting closer to the
male identity form, whereas the typically male is slightly changed into a more rational and professional
direction. Some of the examined male soldiers agreed that ―the character of the military is changing due to the
fact that there are more and more women soldiers‖. They also readily confirm that ―women are better at
administrative work, they are more efficient and organized and also better at writing reports‖275, although it is
not quite clear if they perceive certain tasks within the military as male only or female only.
What is more acceptable to the male soldiers than we assumed is the idea of women‘s participation in direct
combat. Most of them agree that ―a soldier is a soldier, and should therefore perform all the duties equally‖.
However, some of them think that ―it should be voluntary for women‖.
Generally, the stereotypes that those from the outside world seem to have about women in the military are being
changed from the very heart of that typically male organization – male soldiers think that ―the significance of
women in the military should be promoted‖.
On the other hand, female soldiers themselves, especially the younger ones, show their more
‗masculine‘ nature, e.g. ―we have passed all the training and should take part in combat, if necessary‖; ―we want
to be more equal to men‖; ―we are used to military order and discipline‖; ―there should be more women in
commander positions.‖ Some of them even perceive themselves as ―future generals‖.
None of the informants, neither men nor women, mentioned the physical appearance of tough and
strong soldiers as a prerequisite, which we, again, look at stereotypically. Obviously it is not the appearance of
female soldiers that define them as masculine but their actions and attitudes expressed in different situations.
However, they can be labeled as more masculine if they use too much profanity, which is again something that
their male colleagues as insiders do not perceive as such. Some female soldiers report increased usage of profane
language (―holy shit‖ and similar expressions) than they used before joining the military, with the tendency to
use it in their outside environment, i.e. when surrounded by their families or friends. Usage of profanity can be
conscious, getting women closer to the male world, or unconscious, because of the majority‘s influence.
Regardless of the reason, the use of profane language is the result of feminine identity adjustment to the identity
of the other group, the masculine group.
It is also significant that they are aware of certain changes in their language use, at least on the lexical
level. However, they are not completely aware of their style when answering the questions. Some of them are
rather ‗gruff‘, their sentences are short and cut, they just give precise answers to the questions, in other words
their style is more masculine than feminine. We would expect of a woman to give answers with lots of detailed
descriptions, which we did not get. For example, to the question on how they joined the army, they just offered
the answers like ―it is secure job‖; ―the pay is regular‖; ―the job is competitive and dynamic‖; ―the job is
challenging‖.
To the question on female soldiers participating in direct combat, we received answers such as ―we had
the same training as men and we should take part in direct combat‖; ―we accepted this job and we should take
part in direct combat‖. Interestingly, we got similar answers from the men, in sentences of similar style. The fact
is that women are getting closer to the masculine way of speaking in the military, without descriptive details or
more elaborate sentences, which are typical for women. 276
The question is whether women see this kind of language use as the influence of masculine identity in the
military or the identity of the institution itself, which, in this case, is not clear cut.
Despite the fact that a military job is associated with masculinity, female soldiers do not perceive
themselves as such. In other words, the reasons for their joining the army are not their tough personality or
behavior, or their masculine appearance. In most of their answers the reasons were ―job security in these
insecure times when many people are jobless or unwaged‖, and ―regular pay‖. The older ones, however followed
275
This was also reported for women police officers in McElhinny's paper (1995)
This trait of their new identity can be shortly described with a sentence from McElhinny's paper (1995), when a woman
police officer said ―I don't smile as much....‖ They describe it as a sense of reserve or emotional distance as the only way to
survive on the job.
276
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the ―sequence of events‖, namely, they stayed in the military after the 1992 War, when they first joined. Several
younger female soldiers mention their ―childhood dreams to become soldiers‖ or ―I had father or brother in the
same job and it was natural for me to follow the family tradition‖ or ―because of competitiveness and physical
action‖.
What we perceive as adjustment of identity from feminine to more masculine identity of the institution
might be explained by what McElhinny (1995) sees as a change in the normative pattern of masculinity – from
physical aggressiveness to technical rationality and calculation. ―In their interactions, female police officers
construct a kind of masculinity that is simultaneously hegemonic, subordinate and subversive.‖(McElhinny
1995:238)
However, in any situation men may align against women, some men against some women, some
women against other women, or some men and some women against others, because, as Cornwall and
Lindisfarne (1994) state, the processes of gendering can produce difference and inequality.
This is clear from some of the answers of both men and women. Female soldiers are aware that this is a ―male
world‖, that sometimes they are perceived as ―hookers or whores‖ on the one hand or ―fags or dykes‖ on the
other. They occasionally experience treatment such as ―you are a woman, you should wash the coffee cups‖ or
―women should be at home and raise children‖. However, according to women‘s reports, such remarks are
addressed to them only occasionally and by few male soldiers whose ―advances they rejected‖. Such comments
are more common for their outside environment.
Sometimes, there are negative comments from their female colleagues, such as ―you are a whore‖ (if they are
too close to male soldiers) or ―you are overly ambitious‖, if they are envious of someone who achieves better
results. Gossip and envy are considered more frequent from female colleagues than negative comments are from
men.
Finally, a few words about the language forms the institution itself uses for gender marking. Although
the forms of address used in the military were not a focal point of this research, it is worth mentioning that all of
the address forms are marked for the masculine gender. Unlike English, Croatian and other local languages show
the distinction for feminine and masculine ranking forms. However, the military in Bosnia and Herzegovina
does not accept these forms which show feminine marking except in informal language. On the other hand, these
forms are accepted in the Croatian military, so we have examples such as bojnica, narednica, brigadirka etc.
(major, sergeant, colonel etc.). Most of the female soldiers included in our research do not see the use of
masculine gender forms as a problem; it seems that they have taken them for granted, and what is more
significant, they see them as a part of the institutional identity. They do not have a problem with being ranked as
soldiers (not female soldiers) and for them this distinction is unnecessary, which means that they accept these
forms as institutionally neutral.277 This formal mode of address is obviously still most rigid and resistant to
changes or adjustment.
The second part of our research refers to a group of male nurses. This is not a quantitative research; it is
based on several interviews with male and female nurses, for the purpose of comparing the data with those on
female soldiers. However, some findings could be significant as a general overview of the different perceptions
about male nurses, and this could be a good start for more detailed research on the topic.
We have stated that female soldiers prefer to be called soldiers. The same situation is with male nurses, they just
do not like to be called ‗male nurses‘, as one of them suggests ―I am no more or less a nurse because of my sex
than my female colleagues are because of theirs.‖ Does insisting on neutral terminology show their efforts to
construct their own identity or to adjust it to the identity of the majority of nurses who are women?
First of all, hospitals and other health institutions are not as ‗closed‘ and typically feminine institution
as the military is masculine. The terminology such as ‗male nurse‘ is notable in English, whereas in Croatian
there are two gender-marked forms (bolnicar/bolnicarka or medicinska sestra/medicinski tehnicar)278.
We will use here the term ‗male nurse‘ for the purpose of better distinction between the genders. Most of the
‗male nurses‘ we talked to think that the perception of nursing as a traditionally female occupation is a
stereotype. They even think that ―it is bad that so many men stay out of this profession at a time when more and
more nurses are needed.‖ Their reasons for joining this profession are mostly ―job security‖; ―love and altruism
for the people in need‖; ―the reward of helping others‖.
There are a few nursing specialties that are off limits for men, e.g. labor and delivery 279, but they can
find their position in all other fields. This could be compared to women in the military, where all military fields
277
Some female soldiers insist on the use of masculine forms when being addressed, which enhances their sense of
belonging to the institution. See the response of a female soldier to Lt.Col. E. Disler (2005): ―…Today I am proud to say that
I am an American Airman, I am a leader, warrior, and wingman as a combat-focused Wing Commander. I am proud to be in
the US Air Force, part of something bigger than myself. I just happen to be a woman.‖
278
Some people like to say 'medicinski brat' although it is more informal and not widely accepted.
279
In the USA, male nurses, in some hospitals, entered these wards as well.
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and branches are accessible, except direct combat, as we earlier mentioned. Searching for their position in
nursing and establishing their status as a nurse are equally open to both men and women.
Male nurses in fact believe that they are ideally suited to both the pressures and excitement of nursing. They are
trying to find their position as men, not through adjusting to the female identity of the job, but doing the jobs that
are harder for women, e.g. carrying the patients. ―We do the jobs that women can‘t do‖ is what they often say.
Both male and female nurses consider that the stereotypical image of nursing as a job not suitable for
men comes from the outside. One of these stereotypes is that most male nurses are gay. A few of the male nurses
we interviewed reported sentences like ―you must be gay, otherwise you wouldn‘t do this job‖, or ―only gays
work as male nurses‖. However, this is something they get from the male patients mostly. They rarely report
such qualifications from their female colleagues, just one of them reported his female colleague‘s comment on a
new male nurse being employed: ―is the new one gay too?‖ 280 Harding (2008) states that in most cases such
comments make male nurses ‗hide‘ their sexuality. Comments about their sexuality can be compared to the
comments female soldiers get on their sexuality (e.g. whores).
Men who enter 'female' occupations do not conform to the idea of hegemonic masculinity, according to
traditional, conservative beliefs. Nordberg (2002) argues that ―their choice of workplace can be comprehended
in society as unmasculine and associated with effeminateness and homosexuality.‖
As Butler (1990) suggests masculinity is a process which depends on performance and repetitions in social
settings. Their positions as male nurses are under constant change and transformation, one time it is more
important to be a man, the other time, it is more important to be a nurse.
The construction of their identity is directly connected to the discourses in which they participate, i.e. their
identities are created through discourses. However, men sometimes become aware of their nursing position as
more feminine using the style which is more typical for women, e.g. ―sweet-talking‖ when talking to patients or
female colleagues, or using too many adjectives when describing things. One of them, for example, mentioned
using so many color nuances he had never even heard of, such as ―dusty brown, icy blue‖ etc., or discourse
topics which are more typical for women, e.g. ―exchanging cooking recipes‖.
On the other hand, to preserve their ‗masculinity‘, they take part in male jargon with their male
colleagues, both nurses and doctors. They consider male jargon to be ―talking about women and sports‖.
We can say that men who work in female-dominated occupations are also exposed to reproduction and
negotiation of gender relations, in other words, they try to adjust their identities, but to a lesser extent than
women in male-dominated occupations.
We can definitely speak here about new masculinities which emphasize the similarities between men and
women.
5. Conclusion
As we previously mentioned, this paper is not a quantitative study, it is based on a very limited corpus
of interview samples, with small groups of informants. However, the results can be very indicative and can be
used for more detailed future research on the topic.
Our initial assumption, which we tried to prove, was that both women in male-dominated occupations
and men in female-dominated occupations have to adjust their identity to the identity of the groups they have
joined. The findings of the analysis of interviews with women in the military have proved that they try to adjust
their identity to the masculine identity of the military. They start doing it through the obvious signs of wearing
uniforms, and usage of masculine gender forms of address, which is taken as a part of the institution‘s identity.
However, they adjust to it even more, adapting their identity to the typically ‗masculine language‘, such as
profanity, short and cut sentences lacking detailed descriptions. On the other hand, they show their feminine side
in the jobs within the military organization which need more organization and efficiency. Consequently, they are
sometimes perceived as ‗real soldiers‘ (readiness to take part in direct combat), and sometimes as ‗real women‘
(in the organizational tasks). Furthermore, mostly negative attitudes to women in the military are stereotypical
ones and come from their surrounding, rarely from their male colleagues. Their male colleagues admit the
necessity of an increase in the female population in the military, which, however, they do not see as
‗feminization‘ of the institution.
As for ‗male nurses‘, their position is more one of searching for the right place within the traditionally feminine
organization. The search for their positioning is in performing the tasks which are difficult for women (needing
physical effort), which is already a part of their masculine identity. What can be viewed as a change in the
identity is a somewhat unconscious adaptation to female talk, when they are with their female colleagues, such
as ‗sweet talk‘, detailed descriptions etc.
280
Harding (2008) mentions similar comments.
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On the other hand, the perception of their environment is that they are more ‗feminine‘ than they really are and
they are somehow in the constant negotiation of identity with the outside world. However, the perception of their
female colleagues is not a stereotypical one.
What both examples (female soldiers and male nurses) have in common are the stereotyped views of the
environment, especially expressed through negative attitudes, such as - all female soldiers are whores or all male
nurses are gay.
If we go back to the initial assumption of identity adjustment, we could say that it is an ongoing process.
Based on the results of our research, female soldiers are adjusting their identity to male soldiers more than male
nurses are doing so to their female colleagues. The reason is most probably in the fact that the military is a more
closed and more masculine institution than hospitals and health institutions are feminine.
Compared to some earlier investigations on the subject, we have to say that we are witnessing a gradual
change in the masculine identity of the military. If the change in attitudes is taking over the institution as a
whole, the adjustment of its masculine identity is inevitable.
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820
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Women Soldiers and Male Nurses – Adjustment of Gender Identity
Author
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Sivric, Marijana
Abstract
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It is said that gender identity can be seen as either unidimensional or multidimensional depending on its realization within society. The question is how gender identity is connected to social groups. Membership in a social group profoundly influences human behavior, with both positive and negative implications. On the one hand, positive social identity is promoted by the feeling of belonging to a group, which enhances individuals‘ self-esteem and a sense of connectedness to others. On the other hand, membership in a social group can promote negative bias toward outgroup members, in-group members who violate group norms can be derogated, and the whole group can be negatively stereotyped in certain areas (for example, women in the military). In our research we will try to prove that such positioning within social groups, in a way, enforces the adjustment of gender identities, breaking the stereotyped frames of gender, which is especially evident in ‗male‘ or ‗female‘ occupations. We will also show how continuous construction of a range of masculine and feminine identities is reflected in discourse. The examples will be taken from ‗male‘ or ‗female‘ occupations, e.g. military opposed to nursing, to illustrate that specific shift from typical construction of identity into a new sphere of genderness.
Date
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2011-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
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https://eprints.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/0b4ca9a13dfc4124b02eb2079ac8c780.pdf
685988471f2b107ec8fc5c98fa074d49
PDF Text
Text
1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
The position of a woman in modern culture - that of a subject or of an
object?
Danka SinadinoviĤ
The Institute for Foreign Languages
Belgrade, Serbia
dankas78@gmail.com
Abstract: Is gender clearly defined and merely biological or is it a much greater
phenomenon? Can a modern woman, within her (clearly) defined role, be a subject in
some important aspects of the culture she belongs to or is she still an object, following a
long tradition of a (slightly changed) masculine principle?
In order to find an answer to these crucial questions, this paper first deals with the history
of masculine and feminine principle, their relations and the issue of dominance. Some
gender differences are presented as well, in order to provide a frame for what we wish to
examine.
As only a synthesis of different cultural aspects can provide us with the real picture, this
paper looks at three different spheres in the life of a modern woman – her private life, her
professional life, as well as media and popular culture and the way modern woman is
presented in them. Our aim is to examine certain views we can find in literature
concerning these spheres, in order to approve of these views, deny them or provide some
new examples from this region and the world.
Key words: masculine principle, feminine principle, modern woman, culture, esthetic
stereotype, commercials, media representation.
Introduction
The position of woman in modern culture is an intriguing question that almost equally appeals to
professionals and ordinary people, so we can read about it both in scientific publications and women magazines.
Different authors deal with this issue in different ways, but the most conspicuous characteristic of their
research is an interdisciplinary approach. Apart from culturologists, who do intensive research in this field, there
are others who can contribute – sociolinguists, psichologists, anthropologists and even neurolinguists and
bilologists. The first question they are trying to answer is whether gender is something that can be clearly
defined and is biological in its nature or if it is a more complex phenomenon that should be carefully defined.
Can a modern woman be a subject in important aspects of the culture she belongs to or is she still merely an
object, following a long tradition of a masculine principle?
In order to answer this crucial question, the paper deals with three different cultural aspects that can
provide us with a complete picture of a modern woman – her professional life, her private life and the way she is
represented in media and popular culture. As our aim is to examine various views from the abundant literature
and provide some new examples, we shall first briefly look at the history of masculine and feminine principle,
the issue of dominance and some obvious gender differences presented in literature.
Men‘s world versus women‘s world
It seems that gender dominance has always been extremely important for building the social hierarchy.
Mother Earth and the cult of fertility, as symbols of matriarchate in the New Stone Age, were replaced by their
masculine counterparts (worriors, the cult of arms and a conquerring concept) in the Bronze Age (TomiĤ, 2007:
47-48). This is when men started ruling both the family and the society and when the idea of the natural
dominance of masculine principle over feminine principle was developed. The great Aristotle found female
children degrading to a perfect masculine principle, as women were regarded as mere meterial, totally deprived
of any spirituality (TomiĤ, 2007: 48). For Lévi-Strauss, a woman was an object of exchange, whereas a man was
a subject of communication in the process of the exchange, being the only one who can choose the object of
exchange and attach a certain value to it (TomiĤ, 2007: 49). His opinion remind us of an ancient comparison of
woman (and her impure body) with nature and of man with culture (VińnjiĤ and MirosavljaviĤ, 2007: 230).
From the perspective of politics and economy, this relation can be seen as the agonism/hedonism
duality. Agonism, being characteristic of underdeveloped society models from the time prior to capitalism, can
see a woman only inside the family, whereas a man is always on the social scene and is given the power of
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communication. Hedonism, which originated in capitalism, socialises women by giving them an oportunity to
find a job and start earning their living, but it does not truly change their position, as they can be found doing
only particular, ‘female‘, jobs - those that include serving others (TomiĤ, 2007: 51 – 54). Similarly, the concept
of andocentrism is an authoritative construct of norms which praises masculine qualities and at the same time
demeans anything that can be described as "feminine" (MesiĤ, 2006: 340). In other words, even if woman is
allowed to leave a gheto-like family frame, she is still evaluated much differently than man in public life. In the
past, a working woman was even identified with a prostitute and presented with the red colour symbolizing a
bloody mass of secretion, being, thus, filthy, vulgar and threatening. In other words, such a woman is available
to anyone, like a public toilet, as she is not protected from other men‘s eyes and desires (TomiĤ, 2007: 56 – 61).
Despite this masculine idea of woman‘s position, things slightly changed after the World War II
concerning woman‘s position in the public life. Woman‘s representation in this sphere got more sex-appeal than
before (for example, warm-blooded Merylin Monroe replaced Greta Garbo‘s cold beauty) and soon after this the
famous sexual revolution took place (TomiĤ, 2007: 64). However, something that changed the image of woman
and her position in the world forever was the feminist movement (ZaharijeviĤ, 2007: 14). Being a movement
which primarily asks for respecting five crucial rights in every woman‘s life (to vote, to work, to be educated, to
have an abortion and to get divorced) it has several, more or less radical, forms which are influenced by different
doctrines. For example, the so-called liberal feminism simply asks for all the people to be equal concerning
education and the right to vote, whereas the so-called radical feminism goes much further, denying the entire
patriarchal system of values and asking for a total separation of feminine and masculine world (TomiĤ, 2007: 66
– 67).
It is obvious that there is a constant need for separating and oposing these two worlds. Are they really
so different and how can it influence the position of a woman in modern culture?
Gender differences and their real importance
An opinion that men and women speak different languages and that they even come from different
planets (Mars and Venus) is now so overspread that we can read about it even in women magazines and
bestseller literature (Cameron, 2007: 1).
Biologically speaking, certain hormonal differences are held responsible for various realistic differences
between the two sexes, especially when it comes to emotions. Owing to a higher level of testosteron, men are far
greater risk-takers and much more agressive, whereas women are more capable of expressing (positive)
emotions, are more talkative, more cooperative and better-organized, but their spatial and mathematical skills are
less developed than those of men (Barker, 2002: 119 – 120).
It is also thought that the gender/language relation can reveal many gender differences and many
linguists have been working on this field since 1970‘s. Lakoff (1973, quoted in Eckert and McConnell-Ginet,
2003: 1) first described women speech as totally different from that of men, claiming that this difference shows a
degrading role women have in society. She noticed that women very often used mitigators and unnecessary
intensifiers and she, thus, defined women speech as trivial, tentative and powerless and concluded that such a
speech gave absolute power to men. Linguists also think that women often use diminutives and euphemisms
(Gumperz, 1982: 197), that they are listened to less carefully, are more often addressed by first name and are
more often and more easily interrupted while speaking (VińnjiĤ and MirosavljaviĤ, 2007: 238). Moreover, some
studies showed that men use sexually explicit and profane words more often and more easily than women, which
means they possess courage, self-confidence and social power (DeKlerk, 1992: 286), whereas girls are always
taught to speak and behave like ladies (Gumperz, 1982: 199). Of course, modern culture often denies certain
stereotypes according to which women are absolute language puritans, but women certainly find it much more
difficult than men to decide on using informal and abusive languge and even when they do use it, they usually do
it inside an intimate group and less productively than men.
On the other hand, culture regards gender and sex as social constructs that are not influenced much by
biology and there are, thus, innumerous combinations inside gender (Barker, 2002: 117). The term psychological
gender, which is now often used, means that there are typically masculine and typically feminine characteristics
inside one person, regardles of the real biological sex (Myers and Cortese, 1995: 5) and this casts doubt on all
the previously mentioned clear-cut differences between the two genders. In other words, it is rather possible that
there are various forms of femininity (and masculinity) which are used by one and the same woman in different
situations, which means that the universal cultural category of "woman", that all the women in the world share,
must be questioned, although it is something the feminists insist on (Barker, 2002: 111).
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So, we should discover what position women really have in modern culture and if it is identical with its
traditional image and the perceived gender differences or whether women have left the boundries of patriarchal
society.
The position of a woman in modern culture – has anything changed?
1.1.
The profesional life of a modern woman
As we have previously mentioned, capitalism and hedonism brought certain changes to the lives of
women by allowing them to work and earn their living if they wanted to, but in a strictly controlled way and
under different conditions than those men had. It was then that certain "feminine professions" were created those professions that demanded having particular feminine qualities. In other words, some qualities are much
more characteristic of women than of men, such as empathy, kindness or care, so women are thought to be much
better at doing particular jobs (e.g. being a nurse). At the beginning, women used to be offered only badly-paid
part-time jobs (McDowell, 2003: 347), but even that was a step forward, as there had previously been only three
locations a woman could be good for – bed, kitchen and street (TomiĤ, 2007: 150).
Although this opinion is present in modern culture as well, it must be said that women have a much
better position on the labour market than they used to. McDowell (2003: 347) claims that women have even
managed to beat men on the labour market owing to better results in school and a stronger will for achieving
high education. So, a woman boss in a company or a highly qualified woman are no longer difficult to find.
However, even though women and men are now equal concerning education and competence, women still earn
up to 20% less than their male colleagues on same positions (McDowell, 2003: 348).
Another serious problem is a specific boycott that men impose on their female colleagues on the same
or higher position. They do their best to prove that women are too fragile for fighting the cruel world of business,
trying to illustrate this by harsh and often discriminatory behaviour – yelling when talking on the phone,
demeaning their female colleagues and women in general, showing disrespect, telling rude jokes and showing off
and generally behaving in an overemphasized chauvinistic way (McDowell, 2003: 149 – 150). Gender
discrimination is particularly obvious in certain tipically male professions, and in the case of British police, for
example, it can be noticed in almost bizarre ceremony of initiation that is designed only for women. There are
many such examples, especially in a more conservative millieu where a woman doing a "male" job is considered
to be "mannish, unfeminine, wierd, unattractive, cold".45
Despite all the above mentioned obstacles, women are about to start dominating the labour market.
McRobbie (2003: 358) even claims that highly educated young women have become a metaphore for a social
change and been given a task to establish a new meritocracy, and in order to illustrate the importance of this fact,
she mentions a huge interest Tony Blair‘s government showed for this target group and their behaviour. Owing
to media influence, ambitious young women start to believe that an award for hard work and sacrifice will be a
good material status or at least financial independence, as well as the ability to afford good looks and glamour.
McRobbie calls these women "TV blondes" and media present them as a model for what a young woman should
become and which is opposite to the image of poor, untidy young mothers holding crying grimy children in their
arms (2003: 359 – 366). She warns, though, of a new and dangerous phenomenon – ruthless female
individualism –and of a fact that more and more successful women consciously give up motherhood, claiming
that children and family would deindividualise them and disable them of following their brilliant careers
(McRobbie, 2003: 360 – 365).
Together with the ideal picture of a business woman we can see in media, there comes a certain youth
imperative. Usually, a desirable (female) candidate should not be more than 35 years old and she should also
have at least "agreeable" looks. However, women themselves often use their looks to get quick and easy money
and seem to have no problem with this. For example, a very popular "profession" in this region is the job of a
promoter, which is almost exclusively done by female students who wish to earn some pocketmoney. The job is
usually well-paid and includes promoting a particular product or brand and selling it to potential customers.
Promoters usually wear special uniforms and are provocatively dressed in order to attract the attention of
potential (male) customers. Although the mere existence of such jobs is a great step forward in comparison with
patriarchal and traditional culture, we need to wonder how different this is from some "traditionally" female
professions – an entertainer, a dancer or a starlet – that were identified with women in hedonistic concept, in
order to perceive women as consuming goods (VińnjiĤ and MirosavljeviĤ, 2007: 231; TomiĤ, 2007: 54).
45
These answers were given by a certain number of men in Serbia when they were asked what they thought of women who did a traditionally
male job (e.g. a police officer, an engineer, a manager, a taxi driver, a bus driver...).
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1.2 The private life of a woman
Unlike the professional sphere in which the position of women has gone through certain changes over
time, it seems that not much has changed in the private sphere and that women are still, more or less, determined
by tradition and patriarchal practice. In other words, the image of a heroic mother (TomiĤ, 2007: 58) is still an
ideal and is superior to any other manifestation of a modern woman.
According to the traditional form, a woman is supposed to stay at home and she plays the role of a
perfect housewife, wife and mother (NeniĤ, 2007: 245). From the aspect of politics and economy, the diference
between male and female world is actually the difference between productive (paid) and reproductive (unpaid)
work (MesiĤ, 2006: 340) and women are in ‘charge of‘ the latter. So, owing to (patriarchal) gender role
distribution in the society, woman‘s basic role is reproductive, that is – sexual. Paradoxical, thus, is the fact that
patriarchal society at the same time anathematizes woman‘s sexuality, trying to repress it (TomiĤ, 2007: 57).
This aspect of patriarchal society is very important for the image of woman herself in modern culture, as it
means a deeply set contrast between an innocent and pure nature of a perfect woman (a wife, mother and
housewife) and a warm-blooded eroticized woman who is public and thus filthy.
Despite being far from perfect, the private sphere has undergone some changes as well, owing to the
fact that a huge number of women nowadays are employed. While a woman living in an underdeveloped
conservative social environment still has to accept the role created for her by the traditional system of values, a
woman living in a modern millieu tries to unite two different forms. In other words, a modern woman is usually
employed, she has the same working hours and duties like her partner, but at the same time she often tries to be a
good housewife, as well as to meet the reproductive demands. The trend of giving up motherhood that McRobbie
(2003: 359 – 369) warns about when illustrating what is going on in modern British society, seems not to be that
serious in this region yet, as women here are still trying to find a balance between the traditional and the modern.
Moreover, a woman who does not get a child in a millieu like this is implicitely considered to be unsuccessful
(Butler, 1994, quoted in McRobbie, 2005: 74). In other words, woman is supposed to find a recipe for
reconciling career and family (VińnjiĤ and MirosavljeviĤ, 2007: 230).
Another thing that shows a modern woman is trying to reconcile two different models is her frequent
decision to take her husband‘s surname upon getting married. In some traditional, mostly rural, places, this also
means accepting her husband‘s parents as her new parents and feminists think that by doing this the woman also
gives up her identity and accepts a new one. How important the choice of a surname is to men themselves can be
seen during the wedding ceremony when "the groom‘s guests" aplaud and cheer the bride‘s decision to take her
husband‘s surname. It is thought that by doing this a woman puts herself to a particular position, shows that it is
possible to "tame" her and women usually accept this because it is "common, they will have the same surname as
their children when they have them, it goes without saying, it is less complicated, it is the most natural thing in
the world."46
1.3 The representation of a woman in media and popular culture
Apart from putting her professional and private life into ballance, a modern woman finds it important to
be present in media and popular culture as well. The way women are represented in newspapers, on television
and especially in marketing and advertising, has become very important in their lives and can give us the
complete picture of women‘s position in modern culture.
Nowadays, it can be easily said that if you are not in media, you do not exist at all, so it is essential for
both genders to be equally present in this field. Many people (mostly feminists) claim that media is still
dominated by men, but there are also those who maintain that things have changed (VińnjiĤ and MirosavljeviĤ,
2007: 227 – 228).
First of all, it cannot be said any more that women do not have their place in media, both as employees
and as "the news". For example, the number of female journalists and TV announcers is constantly growing and
on the global level there are 58% of women who do these jobs. In Serbia, 48% of all the employees in electronic
media are women and there are even some editors among them. However, it should be mentioned that a huge
46
These answers were given by young married women in Serbia when asked why they have accepted their husband's
surname. They all have their careers and are financially independent.
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number of these women are under the age of 35 and that they all have "agreeable looks" (VińnjiĤ and
MirosavljeviĤ, 2007: 237), which brings us back to two most important criteria for getting a job if you are a
woman and in the case of media this is even more conspicuous than in any other field.
On the other hand, representation of women in media seems to be far from modern principles and
equality ideals. The image of a woman in media is thought to be mostly in accordance with tradition and it
should revitalize patriarchal gender role distribution in modern society (VińnjiĤ and MirosavljeviĤ, 2007: 239).
In other words, media in a more conservative millieu still tries to project particular male/female stereotypes and
it is often successful in doing this, owing to a traditional lifestyle in that social environment and people‘s
mentality. So, media still gives women roles of mothers, wives and good housewives or, perhaps, the role of a
man‘s companion. If we look beyond documentaries and informative programmes, there is another manifestation
of women in media – that of entertainers; so, most of the women we can find in media are singers, fashionmodels and TV-hostesses, who are all beautiful and young and wear expensive and modern clothes. This is
obviously paradoxical. On the one hand, women can be satisfied with the way they are represented in media and
their beautiful image, far from home and kitchen. On the other hand, feminists claim that such an image is meant
for feeding a typical male fantasy (VińnjiĤ and MirosavljeviĤ, 2007: 231), which is no different from the time
before the 1950s.
The field of commercials and advertisements can most clearly show that women are represented in
media mostly through their body and sexy image and that they thus still play their sexual role. Billboards and
other forms of advertising show women as eroticized objects (NeniĤ, 2007: 252). What has changed in this field?
What almost all the comercials from 1960s and 1970s have in common is depriving women from their
right to be smart, successful and equal to superior men in any way. The woman of this time is a two-dimensional
creature who is totally incapable of existing anywhere but in the house, but who is at the same time beautiful and
sexually attractive. For example, an advertiement for Mini Morris from that period shows a young woman sitting
at the driver‘s seat, squeezing the wheel with both hands, her eyes wide open with fear like she has never driven
before, but having very nice make-up, a beautiful hairdo and a lot of shiny yewellery. The slogan in the
advertisement emphasizes the fact that even a not very bright person can drive this car ("The Mini Automatic.
For Simple Driving."). There are also many advertisements from that period which place woman in the house
and one of them, which advertises American vacuum-cleaner brand Hoover, shows a woman in an ellegant dress
sitting on the floor by the Christmas tree and reading the manual for the new vacuum-cleaner she had just
unpacked, with an expression of admiration on her face. The slogan is important again - "Christmas Morning –
she‘ll be happier with a Hoover". So, the best possible present for a woman is a vacuum-cleaner; she will have a
great time tyding her house (as there is nothing else she can do, anyway).
Later, comercials became a bit more subtle and they mostly used puns, but they also started showing
woman‘s body much more explicitely. A famous advertisement for an American underwear brand Wonderbra,
from 1990s made a top-model Eva Hercigova planetary popular. A stunning girl with a substantial cleavage in a
black bra is smiling from the billboard and saying she can‘t cook, but she doesn‘t care! Advertisements that
appeared after this one exploited (nude) female body even more and some of them were so scandalous that they
finally provoked negative comments in public. One of these is certainly the commercial for tires Kumho which
shows an almost naked ballet dancer doing the splits, followed by the slogan "(she is) adjustable to any
material". The public was shocked and protested for some time, but there were no real results and the trend of
such commercials continued.
Apart from these commercials that undoubtedly show woman‘s sexual role, there are many
commercials that remind women of their position in family life and at home. For example, commercials for
various types of washing powder all show woman as someone who cannot think of anything else but of her
laundry that must be clean and perfectly white (and better than her neighbour‘s!). In a rather new commercial for
a brand of hair shampoo one man asks the other: "Is that the bride?", and he replies: "No, but she will be",
emphasizing that the only good and profitable thing a woman can do is get married as soon as possible.
It seems that feminists and culturologists are most attracted by commercials for beer, as a typically male
drink, where a woman is put on the same level with beer or peanuts, that go perfectly with watching football
with friends (TomiĤ, 2009: 150). In these commercials, a woman is never treated as a person who can drink beer
herself, but as a nusance who is distracting the poor man from drinking beer and cheering his favorite team with
friends (DjordjeviĤ, 2008) or as someone who should contribute to the holiday of foodball with her perfect looks.
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However, it seems that something has changed in the field of sexist advertising after all. A commercial
for beer in Croatia has recently provoked many negative comments in public, although it is not different from
other beer commercials. Similarly, a commerical in Bulgaria, which used an idea similar to "blonde jokes" was
banned soon after release due to a public feminist campaign, whereas the Craotian prime minister urged for the
entire tourist campaign of her country to be changed because of a nude female body that was intended for
attracting male visitors.
Conclusion
What can be concluded about the position of a woman in modern culture? By looking at the history of
male/female duality, it can be said that the positions of men and women in this eternal struggle have not changed
since the ancient times, but that they have certainly taken on different forms. Supported by some biological
differences of the two sexes, men in modern culture try to maintain their superior position by emphasizing their
manly characteristics. On the other hand, it seems that women are gradually taking over even those positions that
used to be traditionally male, owing to hard work, persistance and a strong will for being well educated.
Does this mean that the question we asked at the beginning of this paper is affirmative – that a woman
in modern culture can have a position of a subject? In their professional life women have certainly made a huge
step forward, as they have grabbed a chance to work and earn their living and thus become financially
independent and able to decide on their own lives. However, when looking at other aspects of woman‘s life, we
must say the answer to the question is much more complex. Looking at women‘s private life, we can easily find
examples that remind us of old times, but they are at the same time integrated well into modern culture, giving us
an illusion of progress. Even though it seems that woman is no longer expected to be only in the house and at her
family‘s disposal, she is still expected to reconcile her various roles and never give up the role of a mother and a
wife. Most vivid examples of a subtle objectification of woman‘s position in modern culture can perhaps be
found in media, as they offer an illusion of glamour and at the same time show a sexist image of woman inside
the popular culture.
Puting all the examples together, we could say that the answer to the question we asked is somewhere in
the middle. It is hard to claim that woman has entirely won the role of a subject in modern culture, as it would
mean being equal to man in all important aspects of modern life, as well as not being treated in a sexist way.
Owing to media in the first place, it seems that women are still only instruments rather than subjects in creating
the social reality. However, we cannot say that woman is necessarily an object, as she is gradually moving
forward, showing that she is ready to break the housewife-mother-wife mould. As it is a long and slow process,
it will probably take much time before we are able to say that the position of woman has drastically changed.
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NeniĤ, I. (2007). Matrica koja obeĤava? Predstavljanje i uĦeńĤe ņena u popularnoj kulturi, in ZaharijeviĤ (ed.)
Neko je rekao feminizam, Beograd: Centar za ņenske studije i istraņivanje roda (pp. 244 – 257).
TomiĤ, Z. (2007) Muńki svet, Beograd: ĥigoja.
TomiĤ, Z. (2009) News Age, Beograd: Sluņbeni glasnik i ĥigoja.
VińnjiĤ J. i MirosavljeviĤ M. (2007) Problem reprezentacije roda u medijima, in ZaharijeviĤ (ed.) Neko je rekao
feminizam, Beograd: Centar za ņenske studije i istraņivanje roda (pp. 227 – 243).
328
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The position of a woman in modern culture - that of a subject or of an object?
Author
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Sinadinović, Danka
Abstract
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Is gender clearly defined and merely biological or is it a much greater phenomenon? Can a modern woman, within her (clearly) defined role, be a subject in some important aspects of the culture she belongs to or is she still an object, following a long tradition of a (slightly changed) masculine principle? In order to find an answer to these crucial questions, this paper first deals with the history of masculine and feminine principle, their relations and the issue of dominance. Some gender differences are presented as well, in order to provide a frame for what we wish to examine. As only a synthesis of different cultural aspects can provide us with the real picture, this paper looks at three different spheres in the life of a modern woman – her private life, her professional life, as well as media and popular culture and the way modern woman is presented in them. Our aim is to examine certain views we can find in literature concerning these spheres, in order to approve of these views, deny them or provide some new examples from this region and the world.
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2011-05
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P Philology. Linguistics
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1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Enhancing critical thinking in foreign language learners
Servat Shirkhani
Islamic Azad University, Khorram Abad Branch
shirkhani10@yahoo.com
Mansour Fahim
Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch
Dr.mfahim@yahoo.com
Abstract: Critical thinking refers to the individuals‘ ability to think and make
correct decisions independently. Critical thinking has been used in first language
acquisition for a long time and has been recently introduced into foreign language
teaching contexts. Nowadays enhancing critical thinking in learners is considered
one of the foreign language teachers‘ tasks due to its high position in foreign
language classrooms. There are various factors affecting language learners‘ critical
thinking skills. Two of these factors are materials used and types of activities
introduced and worked on in the classroom. Therefore, through managing classroom
materials and activities, language teachers can help learners develop critical thinking
skills. This presentations aims at introducing some ways in which language teachers
can enhance critical thinking in foreign language learners through using materials
and activities which require critical thinking on the part of learners. The teacher can
prepare, choose, and/or adapt already existing materials so that they enhance
learners‘ critical thinking ability. Also the teacher can choose activities which
demand learners to develop critical thinking skills since not all activities lend
themselves to critical thinking on the part of learners. In this presentation, some
suggestions for language teachers to make sound choice of such materials and
activities will be presented.
Key words: critical thinking, language teaching, materials, activities.
Introduction
Critical thinking has been recently introduced and gained a high position in foreign language teaching
(FLT) settings so that nowadays enhancing critical thinking in learners is considered one of the foreign language
teachers‘ tasks. Many different factors can affect learners‘ critical thinking skills. Materials used and types of
activities introduced and worked on in the classroom are two of these factors. This presentation argues that
through managing classroom materials and activities, language teachers can help learners develop critical
thinking skills.
Critical thinking
Many different definitions have been proposed for critical thinking by various educators such as
Lipman (1991); Norris and Ennis (1989); and Siegel (1988). However, there is not much difference among these
definitions. As Elder and Paul (1994) state, critical thinking refers to the ability of individuals to take charge of
their own thinking and develop appropriate criteria and standards for analyzing their own thinking. Moreover, as
Maiorana (1992) maintains, critical thinking aims at achieving understanding, evaluating different perspectives,
and solving problems.
Critical thinking in language teaching
The promotion of critical thinking into the FLT classrooms is of high significance for several reasons.
Firstly, if language learners can take charge of their own thinking, they can monitor and evaluate their own ways
of learning more successfully. Second, critical thinking expands the learning experience of the learners and
makes the language more meaningful for them. Thirdly, critical thinking has a high degree of correlation with
the learners‘ achievements (Rafi, n.d.). Different studies have confirmed the role of critical thinking in
improving ESL writing ability (Rafi, n.d.); language proficiency (Liaw, 2007); and oral communication ability
(Kusaka & Robertson, n.d.).The learners may become proficient language users if they have motivation and are
taught the ways of displaying critical thinking in foreign language usage, which signifies that the learners must
have reflection on their production of ideas, and they may critically support those ideas with logical details
(Rafi, n.d.). Language development and thinking are closely related and the teaching of higher-order thinking
skills should be an integral part of an L2 curriculum. Educators have emphasized the importance of developing
higher-order thinking skills in foreign language classrooms (Chamot, 1995; Tarvin & Al-Arishi, 1991) and
empirical evidence supports the effectiveness of teaching critical thinking skills along with the foreign language
(Chapple & Curtis, 2000; Davidson, 1994, 1995).
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In fact, language learners who have developed critical thinking skills are capable of doing activities of
which other students may not be capable. Implied in the study by Mahyuddin et al (2004) is that language
learners with critical thinking ability are capable of thinking critically and creatively in order to achieve the
goals of the curriculum; capable of making decisions and solving problems; capable of using their thinking
skills, and of understanding language or its contents; capable of treating thinking skills as lifelong learning; and
finally intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually well-balanced.
However, in spite of the fact that there is little argument among theorists and educators about the
importance of thinking skills in language development, in typical school settings, language learning and
thinking skills are often treated as independent processes (Miraman & Tishman, 1988; Suhor, 1984). In other
words as Pica (2000) states, in the tradition of English language teaching methodology, the integration of
language and thinking skills has been peripheral. It is argued (e.g. Kabilan, 2000) that even communicative
language teaching, which emphasizes the use of language as a communication tool, does not really help students
to become proficient in the target language. He suggests that for learners to be proficient in a language, they
need to be able to think creatively and critically when using the target language. So, it is implied that even
communicative approaches to language teaching do not develop critical thinking among learners.
Due to the advantages mentioned for enhancing critical thinking in language learners and also little
practice in this regards in FLT settings, as Brown (2004) asserts, in an ideal academic language program, the
objectives of the curriculum should go beyond linguistic factors to develop critical thinking among learners. In
fact, the effectiveness of language teaching will depend upon what is being taught, in addition to language,
which learners can consider as a purposeful and relevant extension of their horizons (Widdowson, 1990).
Language teachers are among practitioners who can greatly influence the type of learning by language
learners. Therefore, one of their responsibilities is to help learners develop critical thinking abilities. Maybe
even more than L1 teachers, L2 teachers have reasons to introduce their students to aspects of critical thinking
because if they do not (Davidson, 1998). As Lipman (2003) says, teachers are responsible for promoting critical
thinking in the learners other than helping them to go from one educational level to the next. The responsibility
of foreign language teachers is to help their learners acquire critical thinking skills while learning the language.
As Mahyuddin et al (2004) assert, there is plenty of room for improvement in incorporating the thinking skills
into our curricula.
Enhancing critical thinking through materials
Obviously the type of materials used in the foreign language classroom has a significant effect on the
way of learning and trying to learn. Some materials are not appropriate in classes in which the promotion of
critical thinking is a major goal; that is, they do not lend themselves to the type of learning promoting critical
thinking. On the other hand, there are materials which require the learner to think critically if they want to
develop critical thinking skills. For example, materials which can be analyzed, synthesized, discussed, argued
about, classified in different ways, etc. are suitable for enhancing critical thinking among language learners. So
as Scanlan (2006) suggests, critical thinking skills should be embedded in the subject matter and integrated with
language teaching.
Authenticity of the materials is a key factor in making the material appropriate for the purpose of
promoting critical thinking in language classes. The reason is that the learners can see some meaningfulness in
the materials which gives them encouragement and motivation to talk about it. The type of materials must also
give the learners a degree of understanding of the relationship between taught material and the real world. When
learners gain a deeper understanding of content matter and its relationship with self and society, their effort for
controlling their own learning increases (Kusaka & Robertson, n.d.).
Some authors argue for the appropriateness of content-based material for the development of critical
thinking (e.g. Kusaka & Robertson, n.d.). They believe that a content-based approach reawakens the language
learners‘ desire to study English, increases language acquisition, prepares learners for the role English will play
in their future life, engages students‘ interest, helps them to become independent learners, and fosters their
development as English speakers better than curricula which are built around textbooks that frequently change
topics and show little real concern for content.
Enhancing critical thinking through activities
The second factor introduced here as having the capability of improving critical thinking skills among
language learners is the type of activities used in the FLT context. In the previous section, the importance of
materials used in the classroom was emphasized; however, the best type of material for this purpose can be
useful only when they are introduced and worked on appropriately. In other words, the type of activities used in
order to introduce and teach the materials must have the potential to promote critical thinking in the learners.
The empirical findings indicate that the teachers subconsciously provide the answers to the learners
(Kabilan 2000). In this way, the teachers get from the learners the opportunities and the rights to question, and
the learners are not encouraged to reason and show higher order thoughts (Bruss & Macedo, 1985; Freire 1973).
So we need to use activities which require learners to become more active and questioning. Activities such as
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group work, project-based work, and presentation skills which reflect the overall instructional goal (Kusaka &
Robertson, n.d.) can be considered appropriate for this purpose.
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (2001-2002), a non-departmental organization sponsored
by the Department of Education and Skills in the U.K., asserts that modern foreign language teaching must
incorporate activities to help children reflect on their own thinking processes and language-learning strategies. It
then outlines activities to include: (1) identifying and understanding the relations between the foreign language
and first language in terms of lexis, syntax, and grammar; (2) drawing inferences from unfamiliar language and
unexpected responses; (3) using their grammatical knowledge to guess the meaning of new words and
structures; (4) using language creatively to express ideas, attitudes and opinions; (5) adapting and revising
language for their own purposes; (6) identifying and using language patterns; and (7) managing their own use of
language-learning strategies. These are fully in line with the type of activities needed to promote critical
thinking among language learners. So classrooms aiming at developing learners‘ critical thinking ability must
use such activities.
Different authors have suggested different ways of increasing thinking skills among language learners.
For example, Kabilan (2000) suggested the use of the pedagogy of questioning based on Freire‘s constructs
(1970, 1973); Zainuddin and Moore (2003) in their experiment proposed a structured controversial dialogue
technique for developing critical thinking among language learners; Kasper (2000) based on his experiment
suggested engaging language learners in sustained content study within collaborative learning communities as
well as using information technology resources to improve learners‘ linguistic and thinking skills. Of the
suggested methods and techniques, content-based teaching (suggested by Brinton et al, 1989; Kusaka &
Robertson, n.d.; Liaw, 2007; and Stoller, 1997) is an approach considered by many as an effective way to teach
language skills while supporting the development of critical thinking.
Among the skills that teachers should focus on for this purpose are forming relationships; comparing
and contrasting; classifying; evaluating; ranking; identifying right from wrong, facts from opinion, cause and
effect; summarizing; generalizing; interpreting; identifying main, supporting and detailed ideas as well as
making decisions and solving problems (Mahyuddin et al, 2004). Classroom activities need to provide learners
with different opportunities to share their ideas, reflect on their learning, and engage in extended communication
with peers, teachers, and others both inside and outside of the classroom (Kusaka & Robertson, n.d.).
Conclusion
Critical thinking is what needs to be enhanced among language learners due to its significance in
developing effective language learning. So promoting critical thinking skills is considered one of the tasks‘ of
language teachers. They can do this task through various ways, including choosing appropriate materials and
activities.
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References:
Brinton, D. M., Snow, M. A., & Wesche, M. B. (1989). Content-based second language instruction. Boston,
Massachusetts: Heinle & Heinle.
Brown, H.D. (2004) Some practical thoughts about students- sensitive critical pedagogy. The Language
Teacher, 28/ 7, 23-27.
Bruss, N. and Macedo, D. P. (1985) Toward pedagogy of the question: Conversations with Paulo Freire. Journal
of Education, 167/2, 7-21.
Chamot, A. (1995). Creating a community of thinkers in the ESL/EFL classroom. TESOL Matters, 5(5), 1-16.
Chapple, L., & Curtis, A. (2000). Content-based instruction in Hong Kong: Student responses to film. System,
28, 419-433.
Davidson, B. (1994). Critical thinking: A perspective and prescriptions for language teachers. The Language
Teacher, 18(4), 20-26.
Davidson, B. (1995). Critical thinking education faces the challenge of Japan. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across
the Disciplines, 14(3), 41-53.
Davidson, B. (1998). A case for critical thinking in the English language classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 32, 119123.
Elder, L. & Paul, R. (1994) Critical thinking: Why we must transform our teaching. Journal of Developmental
Education, 18(1), 34-35.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: The Seabury Press.
Freire, P. 1973. Education for critical consciousness. New York: The Seabury Press.
Kabilan, K.M. (2000) Creative and critical thinking in language classroom. Internet TESL Journal, 6/6.
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kabilan-CriticalThinking.html
Kasper, L. F. (2000). New technologies, new literacies: Focus discipline research and ESL learning
communities. Language Learning & Technology, 4(2), 105-128.
Kusaka, L. L., & Robertson, M. ().Beyond Language: Creating Opportunities for Authentic Communication and
Critical Thinking. 14, 21-38.
Liaw, M. (2007). Content-Based Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking Skills in an EFL Context. English
Teaching & Learning, 31(2), 45-87
Lipman, M. (1991). Thinking in education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lipman, M. (2003) Thinking in education. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Mahyuddin, R., Lope Pihie, Z. A., Elias, H., & Konting, M. M. (2004). The incorporation of thinking skills in
the school curriculum. Kajian Malaysia, Jld, 22(2), 23-33.
Maiorana, V. P. (1992). Critical thinking across the curriculum: Building the analytical classroom. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 347511).
Mirman, J. and Tishman, S. (1988) Infusing thinking through connections. Educational Leadership, 45/7, 64-65.
Norris, S. P., & Ennis, R. (1989). Evaluating critical thinking. Pacific Grove, California: Critical Thinking Press
and Software.
Pica, T. (2000). Tradition and transition in English language teaching methodology. System, 29, 1-18.
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Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (2001-2002). Using thinking skills. Retrieved December 10, 2004,
from http://www.ncluk.net/gt/languages/teaching_thinkingskills.htm
Rafi, M. S. (). Promoting Critical Pedagogy in Language Education. International Research Journal of Arts &
Humanities (IRJAH), 37, 63-73.
Scanlan, J.S. (2006) The effect of Richard Paul‘s universal elements and standards of reasoning on twelfth
grade composition. Unpublished M.A thesis, School of Education, Alliant International University, US.
Siegel, H. (1988). Educating reason: Rationality, critical thinking, and education. New York: Routledge.
Stoller, F. L. (1997). Project work: A means to promote language content. Forum, 35(4), Retrieved December
10, 2004, from http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol35/no4/p2.htm
Suhor, C. (1984). Thinking skills in English—And across the curriculum. (ERIC Document Reproduction
Service No. ED 250693).
Tarvin, W., & Al-Arishi, A. (1991). Rethinking communicative language teaching: Reflection and the EFL
classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 25(1), 9-27.
Widdowson, H. (1990). Aspects of language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Zainuddin, H., & Moore, R. A. (2003). Enhancing critical thinking with structured controversial dialogues. The
Internet TESL Journal, 9(6). Retrieved July 10, 2007, from http://iteslj.org/Technique/ZainuddinControversial.html
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Enhancing critical thinking in foreign language learners
Author
Author
Shirkhani, Servat
Fahim, Mansour
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Critical thinking refers to the individuals‘ ability to think and make correct decisions independently. Critical thinking has been used in first language acquisition for a long time and has been recently introduced into foreign language teaching contexts. Nowadays enhancing critical thinking in learners is considered one of the foreign language teachers‘ tasks due to its high position in foreign language classrooms. There are various factors affecting language learners‘ critical thinking skills. Two of these factors are materials used and types of activities introduced and worked on in the classroom. Therefore, through managing classroom materials and activities, language teachers can help learners develop critical thinking skills. This presentations aims at introducing some ways in which language teachers can enhance critical thinking in foreign language learners through using materials and activities which require critical thinking on the part of learners. The teacher can prepare, choose, and/or adapt already existing materials so that they enhance learners‘ critical thinking ability. Also the teacher can choose activities which demand learners to develop critical thinking skills since not all activities lend themselves to critical thinking on the part of learners. In this presentation, some suggestions for language teachers to make sound choice of such materials and activities will be presented.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
-
https://eprints.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/2b94ea91e963e9d6ea1760a004eadb31.pdf
b40410093305f5a43615bffb2abeb729
PDF Text
Text
1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Screen Literature: gain or loss?
Haya Shaukat
Department of Social Sciences and Humanities
FAST-NU, Pakistan
hayashaukat@hotmail.com
Abstract: With the advancement in science and technology everything has taken a
different shape. Reading literature that was once considered to be a major source of
entertainment and knowledge has now been transformed into screen literature by
television, video games and movies. As a result of this critics have started debating
the effectiveness of this shift. There are endless examples in this regard and many
blockbusters are in fact based on some written books. Not only classics but also
contemporary literature is now a part of the new genre called screen literature.
Although it cannot be denied that these great stories and characters will live forever
not only on paper but also on screen forever. Yet screen literature is not without its
disadvantages. The aim of this study which is qualitative in nature is to assess the
extent to which the literariness of the original text is affected with particular reference
to the novel – Gone with the Wind by Margret Mitchell which was turned into movie
in 1939 and appreciated as a blockbuster becoming a legendary classic of the
American cinema. It was not only the first movie to bag ten Oscars for the very first
time but maintained that record until Ben-Hur (1959).
Key Words: Screen Literature, genre, novel, movie, theatrical translation,
transformation
Introduction
For centuries literature remained the most popular form of entertainment encompassing poetry, drama
and novel. Reciting poetry in royal courts and in groups etc. was a norm and performance of plays in public goes
more than two thousand years back but with the passage of time a major shift came in. Poetry from the long
epics and romances turned into sonnets and short poems and even though once it was the most famous genre, it
started losing its popularity. It we look at the time line it can be seen that the long verse started getting replaced
by the short one around the same as science made progress. Of course literature did not die altogether but a trend
that started with the advent of cinema was that of movies based on pieces of literature. ‗Although adaptation has
been practiced since the days of silent movies, its pervasiveness does not mean that it has been universally
accepted. Some theorists have even rejected the strategy per se. numerous commentaries have given absolute
preference to fiction over film or to film over drama‘ (Zatlin, 2005: 150). Certainly this phenomenon is by no
means new but the trend is growing. Referring from a 1998 article that was published in Variety, Naremore
pointed toward the fact that 20% of movies made the previous year, and this is only in America, were adapted
from books whereas another 20% ‗were derived from plays, sequels, remakes, television shows, and magazine or
newspaper articles. This means that only about half of the pictures seen by the public that year originated from
scripts‘ (Naremore, 2000, 10).
Performance of plays continued and theatre thrived in spite of growing popularity of the cinema. Today
Broadway is still very popular even though most of the plays are easily available on DVD in the form of movies.
Many movie adaptations of Shakespeare‘s plays are available including the famous ‗The Taming of the Shrew‘
and ‗A Midsummer Night‘s Dream‘. Transformations of Shakespeare‘s works have been given more attention as
compared to all other aspects of film adaptation. According to Russell Jackson one of the reasons is probably
that the Elizabethan text provides with more room for maneuver. The text can be cut to fit the ideal time of a
movie that is under two hours, hence, using only 25-30% of the source text. This practice of condensing is
accomplished by ‗cutting within speeches and scenes, making the dialogue leaner but (mostly) preserving the
scene‘s original shape‘ (Jackson, 2000: 17).
This phenomenon can be observed in Michael Hoffman‘s 1999 film adaptation of Shakespeare‘s A
Midsummer Night‘s Dream. ‗Hoffman retains Shakespeare‘s language, albeit with cuts, but he moves and
modernizes the setting. Although Hoffman‘s movie shifts the fiction forward, because it does not depart from the
original story, it does not classify as an analogy in Wagner‘s terms‘ (Zatlin, 2005: 180).
The reason for cutting these plays short has been best stated by British playwright Alan Bennett, ‗Film is drama
at its most impatient‘ (quoted in Erskine & Welsh, 2000: xvi).
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Tennessee Williams‘ plays have also been transformed into movies that bear little resemblance to the theatrical
version. Another great playwright Arthur Miller‘s plays have been turned into movies. Famous plays of Harold
Pinter and Eugene O'Neill have been transformed into movies and no one can forget George Cukor‘s
famous musical ‗My Fair Lady‘ sometimes referred to as an improved version of Bernard Shaw‘s ‗Pygmalion‘.
Although a lot of criticism has been seen as far as screen literature is concerned there are those who have tried to
justify and defend the practice. ‗The servitude of fidelity is undesirable for all concerned: even if it were
possible, it would yield unstageworthy results. Collaboration with living authors is not always easy: the give and
take of any interpersonal relationship may be complicated by an author‘s unwillingness to accept modification to
a beloved text. But if the author respects the translator‘s judgment and open dialogue is possible, collaboration is
ideal‘ (Zatlin, 2005: 5-6). Since theatre is essentially commercial it always aims ‗to connect with the sensibilities
of today‘s spectator‘ (Cuadernos de Teatro Clasico 16, 2002:21).
However, drama is not the only genre that has fallen victim to this practice. Novel has probably suffered
more because novels are written for leisurely reading not performance. In his introduction to Film Adaptation
(2000), James Naremore has cited a ‗cartoon that Alfred Hitchcock once described to Francois Truffaut: two
goats are eating a pile of film cans, and one goat says to the other, ―Personally, I liked the book better.‖ ‘
(Naremore, 2000: 2).
Although the trend of transforming novels into movies started quite early it kept growing with the
passage of time and now it seems as if the trend is that as soon as a book is published and gains a certain level of
fame and recognition, copyrights are bought and book is turned into a movie. Human beings are born with the
gift of imagination and while reading we tend to create mental pictures and have a desire to see them in a vivid
visual form. ‗We read a novel through our introjected desires, hopes, and utopias, and as we read we fashion our
own imaginary mise-en-scene of the novel on the private stages of our minds‘ (Stam, 2000: 54).
This imaginary mise-en-scene is inevitable but transforming a written text into a movie is not without
its disadvantages and some of the problems faced are very similar to those faced in translation. ‗In 1992, when I
first taught a graduate seminar, ―Literature into Film‖, I was struck by the similarities between translation and
adaptation/transformation theory. The strategies and conventions of film are often described as a language. At
the fidelity end of the scale, the goal in translating a play to a second natural language or transforming it for the
screen is to carry the source text over into that other language with dynamic equivalence‘ (Zatlin, 2005: x).
But how can these problems be overcome? In defining the relationship between film adaption and source text
Dudley Andrew gave three modes that are now considered classic definitions: ‗borrowing, intersection, and
fidelity of transformation‘ (Andrew, 1984: 98).
Geoffrey Wagner has suggested using the original dialogue in the new genre exactly as it was in the
source text. ‗Transposition‘, is the term used by Wagner and it involves ‗the minimum of apparent interference‘
(Wagner, 1975: 222). The trouble with this approach is, ‗How can one simultaneously be true to the author and
yet reach the target audience?‘ (Zatlin, 2005: 5). Zatlin goes on to say, ‗Making a movie of a ―sacred text‖ can be
risky‘ (Zatlin, 2005: 173). He admits, ‗In theatrical translation, however, some betrayal is a necessity‘ (Zatlin,
2005: 1). But at the same time he argues, ‗Fidelity is in the eyes of the beholder‘ (Zatlin, 2005: 171). Zatlin is
one of the proponents of this practice. ‗Theatrical translators and authors of film adaptations should be aware
that once a text is removed in time or space from its original context, it has the potential for transmitting new
meanings, intentional or not, to some if not all spectators‘ (Zatlin, 2005: 188).
Zatlin is not the only proponent in this regard. There are others who have favoured and defended the
practice.
‗Much of the discussion of film adaptation quietly reinscribes the axiomatic superiority of literary art to film, an
assumption derived from a number of superimposed prejudices‘ (Stam, 2000:58).
‗The language of criticism dealing with the film adaptation of novels has often been profoundly moralistic,
awash in terms such as infidelity, betrayal, deformation, violation, vulgarization, and desecration, each carrying
its specific charge of outraged negativity‘ (Stam, 2000: 54).
And according to Robert B. Ray it would be more productive to analyze ‗how stories travel from medium to
medium‘ (Ray, 2000: 41).
Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Victor Hugo, Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens,
William Makepeace Thackeray, Alexandre Dumas, Leo Tolstoy, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, James M. Barrie,
Gabriel Garcìa Márquez, Harper Lee, Truman Capote, H.G. Wells, Thomas Hardy, J. R. R. Tolkein, James
Fenimore Cooper, William Wharton, Mario Puzo, John Steinbeck, Lew Wallace, Stephen King, Winston Groom,
Hanif Kureishi, Bapsi Sidhwa, Ken Kesey, Thomas Harris, J. K. Rowling, Erich Segal, Stephenie Meyer,
and Margaret Mitchell are among the few in the endlessly exhausting list of writers whose works have been
transformed into movies.
Aim of Study
Greatest actors of all times have performed in these movies yet screen literature is not without its
problems. The problems faced in film adaptation of drama are not as complicated and complex as when novels
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May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
are transformed into movies. Drama relies on dialogue whereas novel essentially relies on narrative and that is
where the real problem comes in. The aim of the study is to ascertain as to what extent the essence of the original
text is lost when it is transformed into a movie comprising of few hours with reference to Gone with the Wind.
Method of the Study
The study is purely qualitative in nature. The researcher herself is the subject and opinions have been
given in the light of experiences both as a teacher as well as a student. An in depth analysis of the novel Gone
with the Wind as well as the movie is there considering the differences between the two, using comparison and
contrast to see how affected the novel appears to be when the novel and the movie are placed side by side.
Findings and Discussion
One of the major problems faced while transforming a movie into novel is that novel as a genre is
essentially dependent on narrative and once words are not written and nothing is explained but only visual aspect
can be used along with dialogue too many details are left out, leaving the story rather incomplete.
Time is a major constraint in screen literature. Movie, as a genre, is essentially commercial. Since so
much money is at stake it has to target the widest range of audience possible. The running time of the movie
Gone with the Wind is 3:42 (excluding intermission), which according to the standards of an English movie is
rather long. Although a classic and a great hit most of the young generation today finds it too lengthy to be
tolerable and skips parts of it. Yet for a person who has read the novel with complete devotion the movie does
not do justice to the novel.
Transforming novels that belong to a different era can be extremely troublesome. Even language
becomes a problem. However, that is not the case here because the movie was made not long after Mitchell
wrote the novel. It was Mitchell who was criticized for the use of racist language when all she did was capture
past in all its entirety. So basically the movie had to recapture what the author had already done. There are some
errors pointed out in the movie which are more of bloopers. ―Factual error: Scarlett is seen walking on the main
street on the way to the hospital. You can clearly see a light bulb in one of the street lights.‖
A critical aspect that cannot be neglected in the success of this novel as well as the movie is that one of
the major themes is war. The novel was published in 1936 whereas the movie was released in 1939. World War I
was not a distant memory and 1939 was the year when World War II started. The whole idea and experience of
the war was very close to the sensibilities of the readers of the novel and the viewers of the movie. It would not
be wrong to state that timing did contribute to the success of both the novel and the movie. This is not to demean
the grandeur of either or suggest they would be not quite as amazing but movie being a highly commercial form
of art is essentially dependent on these external factors for success.
This novel is described as, ―Romance novel; historical fiction; bildungsroman (novel that charts the
maturation of the main character)‖. Once we place the word bildungsroman in the description of the genre things
become even more complicated. When the novel begins Scarlett O‘Hara is only a 16 year old country belle but
by the end of the novel she is about 28. Same is the case in the movie. The problem arises that the movie only
shows major events that seem to be transforming Scarlett as a person rather too suddenly, the most significant
being her coming back home where one of the most dramatic scenes in the movie occurs and she vows she will
never be hungry again. That seems to be the moment spanning over a few seconds in the movie that brings about
a sudden change and based on that vow her future actions are determined.
That is not the case in the novel. These dramatized dialogues, in contrast, appear to have been
mentioned as if only in passing especially to someone who would have watched the movie first and read the
novel later. It doesn‘t mean that the impact of these lines is not strong in the novel but they are by no means
dramatized the way they are in the movie. It is not that the protagonist comes back to Tara and the changed
circumstances bring about a sudden revolution. Whatever happens everyday, every night, every second, brings
about evolution and a permanent fear of hunger. ―The narrator follows Scarlett almost exclusively, occasionally
pulling back to give broad historical descriptions and analysis‖.
Movies and even many novels tend to dramatize a few significant events and based on them characters go
through major transformations. This is not how things work in real life. No doubt we are the sum of our
experiences but to make things clear we can take life as a rock and events as water. One sudden gush might
throw the rock from one place to another but it is never enough to break it. Those little drops of water constantly
falling on the rock over a long period of time are the ones that finally crack it open. Same is the case with human
beings. Major events might shake us but it is the continuity of certain circumstances and conditions that shape
us. Simply put we can say the difference is whereas the movie is shaking Scarlett, the novel is shaping her.
Mitchell has presented the picture of the Old South as a whole depicting it not only through narration of
events but the society as a whole can only be shown through the interaction of different characters. This aspect is
missing in the movie and what South once was and what it becomes is impossible to depict in the movie because
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as mentioned earlier along with the loss of narrative quality time constraint is a major hindrance in making a
movie.
Each and every character in the novel has its own place and not a single character is out of place or
brought in as a filler. Their place in the society as well as relationship with other characters is of vital
importance. Some of the most important characters in the novel are not even mentioned in the movie. It is as if
they never even existed. The character of Will Benteen, ―A one-legged Confederate soldier who becomes a
fixture at Tara after the war despite his lack of family or wealth. Will makes Tara a marginally profitable farm.
His competence allows Scarlett to move to Atlanta and leave him in charge‖. It is with Will that Scarlett shares
most of her feelings and that brings out the softer and vulnerable side of Scarlett which is never to be seen in the
movie where she is a woman with the will of iron doing everything all by herself without anyone‘s help or
support. Whereas in the novel Will serves as a friend and confidant with the help and support of whom Scarlett
makes it through the toughest of times.
Another character that is missing is that of Archie. Archie is significant because it is not simply the
incident of Scarlett being attacked in the Shantytown after Archie refuses to work for her since she has hired
prison convicts to work in the mill. This is the event that leads to the involvement of men with the Klu Klux
Klan and death of Frank Kennedy. Archie‘s refusal to work for her is not just about the cause and effect
relationship but the rules and principles these people stood by even in the state of poverty. Refusing to give up
what they believed to be true even after the apparent victory of the North is by all means something that becomes
a major reason for conflict between Scarlett and the rest of the characters thus making her a rebel that stands out.
Scarlett has two children from her marriages before getting married to Rhett Butler and those children
are never mentioned either. Going through a terrible time in Tara when she meets Grandma Fontaine and has a
conversation with her, the significant part of the conversation is where fear being pivotal to a woman is
mentioned.
―Ah, well, that‘s been fifty years ago, as I said, and since that time I‘ve never been afraid of anything or anybody
because I‘d known the worst that could happen to me. And that lack of fear has gotten me into a lot of trouble
and cost me a lot of happiness. God intended women to be timid frightened creatures and there‘s something
unnatural about a woman who isn‘t afraid…Scarlett, always save something to fear-even as you save something
to love…‖
Although Scarlett is obviously ruthless yet it seems it is the fear of hunger driving her when in fact at the same
time there is a strong element of lack of fear about her personality that leads her to be as ruthless as she is. This
conflict leads to irony and lends amazing complexity to her character that cannot be explained or put into words.
Mitchell has given a complete picture of the Old South falling apart and when so many characters go missing the
picture of the society as whole is lost.
Of course due to time limitation dialogues and thought process of the characters in the novel cannot be
covered. With these aspects missing not only the complexity of characters but relationships is also lost. Ashley
Wilkes and Rhett Butler are not the over simplified, obvious on the outside kind of characters as they appear to
be in the movie. Watching the movie one gets an impression that Ashley Wilkes is a perfect Southern gentleman
and Scarlett is blind to all his flaws. On several occasions in the novel Scarlett does see the obvious flaws in
Ashley‘s personality but turns a blind eye to them.
The sensitive side of Rhett‘s character never comes out in the movie except for toward the end and there
too we get a glimpse of it for Melanie alone. His love for Scarlett beyond physical attraction is nowhere to be
seen. The intimate moments full of love and care are missing. Scarlett‘s long thought process toward the end of
the novel, the day Melanie dies serves as an overall commentary and in depth analysis of her relationship with
Melanie, Ashley and Rhett. Looking back, even for the reader, this is the time to ponder and realize that Melanie
all along has been stronger than the reader thought her to be.
This is one of the amazing qualities of the novel that the reader and the protagonist recall many events
that took place and understand them at length together. Melanie‘s death for Scarlett is like losing her mother all
over again. That she was the strongest person who stood by Scarlett‘s side quietly through the years even though
her strength is taken for granted not only by Scarlett but often underestimated by the reader as well.
The fact that even though Scarlett was married to Frank Kennedy at the time, Rhett often accompanied
her on her way to the mill whenever he was in town was not just for the sake of her company but to protect her
as she passed through the dangerous Shantytown where an unfortunate incident does take place eventually when
she is alone.
Although many everyday events are left out altogether when it comes to the movie, however, certain
events have been modified to fit the movie as they were too important to be left out altogether such as Gerald
O‘Hara‘s death. In the novel Scarlett returns to Tara to attend his father‘s funeral and Will tells her that since
men who swore loyalty to the Union will receive compensation for any property lost during the war, Suellen tries
to make him sign papers and riding away in rage, trying to jump a fence he falls off and dies. It is after his death
that the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. O‘Hara is analyzed at length.
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It is not just the complexity of relationships that is lost when these incidents are left out and
occasionally a modified version is presented in the movie but the characters lose the layers of complex human
nature that Mitchell placed originally.
Conclusion
Gone with the Wind is only one novel among many that have been transformed into movies.
Transforming a novel into a movie is not altogether evil in itself and perhaps in this time and age is inevitable
but there is more to be lost than gained when this transformation takes place. In today‘s fast paced world a
growing trend of replacing the original text with the movie among students as well as general readers is to be
seen. Problem arises when one tries to substitute movie for a novel. Students giving book presentations have
often been observed to base their analysis on the movie and are unable to comprehend details present in the book
since they think the basic summary is all that is required to analyze a book.
This without a doubt also comes from the weak education system of Pakistan where English courses are
studied on the basis of summaries given in helping material. Students take the story of a novel as a whole instead
of realizing that each and every line present in the book is significant in analyzing and understanding the text in
all its complexity.
Movie and novel are poles apart and thinking one can analyze a novel after watching a movie is a gross
mistake. Movies are a mere adaptation of the novel not a replacement. Of course literature is no longer the sole
major source of entertainment available but in these adaptations more is lost than thought to have been
preserved.
References
(n.d.). Retrieved February 15, 2011, from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gonewith/facts.html
(n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2011, from http://www.moviemistakes.com/film553
Andrew, D. Concepts in Film Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Cuadernos de Teatro Clasico 16. La Compania Nacional de Teatro Clasico 1986-2002. Madrid: Compania de
Teatro Clasico, 2002.
Erskine, T. L. and Welsh, J. M. Video Versions. Film Adaptations of Plays on Video. With John C. Tibbettes and
Tony Williams. Westport, C and London: Greenwood Press, 2000.
Jackson, R., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,
2000.
Naremore, J., ed. Film Adaptation. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutger University Press, 2000.
Ray, R. B. The field of ‗literature and film.‘ In J. Naremore, ed., Film Adaptation, 2000, 38-53.
Stam, R. Beyond fidelity: The dialogics of adaptation. In J. Naremore, ed., Film Adaptation, 2000, 54-76.
Wagner, G. The Novel and the Cinema. Cranford, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc; London: The Tantivy
Press, 1975.
Zatlin, P. Theatrical Translation and Film adaptation. A Practitioner‘s View. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters,
2005.
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88
Title
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Screen Literature: gain or loss?
Author
Author
Shaukat, Haya
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
With the advancement in science and technology everything has taken a different shape. Reading literature that was once considered to be a major source of entertainment and knowledge has now been transformed into screen literature by television, video games and movies. As a result of this critics have started debating the effectiveness of this shift. There are endless examples in this regard and many blockbusters are in fact based on some written books. Not only classics but also contemporary literature is now a part of the new genre called screen literature. Although it cannot be denied that these great stories and characters will live forever not only on paper but also on screen forever. Yet screen literature is not without its disadvantages. The aim of this study which is qualitative in nature is to assess the extent to which the literariness of the original text is affected with particular reference to the novel – Gone with the Wind by Margret Mitchell which was turned into movie in 1939 and appreciated as a blockbuster becoming a legendary classic of the American cinema. It was not only the first movie to bag ten Oscars for the very first time but maintained that record until Ben-Hur (1959).
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
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https://eprints.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/8f2cc6181e7b9af146d9a90536c2c29f.pdf
920f144c65ac8dc84a68b1f0c697130b
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Text
1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Some Unresolved Issues in an ELT New Media Age:
Towards building an interlanguage semantics
Larry Selinker
NYU & Research Production Associates
larry.selinker@nyu.edu
INTRODUCTION
ELT teachers, like all of us, are in the situation that is correctly called ―DATA DELUGE‖ (Gleick,
2011; Nunberg, 2011). We are in a data-deluged digital world, a world of increasingly large data sets, and we
need to learn to manage them. Our students? It is worse for them; they are buried in these new SMART handheld mobile devices and who knows where that will lead237? I would like the reader to ponder this phrase:
VAST AMOUNTS OF DATA IN A DATA-DELUGED DIGITAL WORLD
Now, add consideration of interlanguage your learners are producing in bulk, and you come to my
initial premise for this paper, simple in principle but one that can lead to great tension in practice:
In order for ELT teachers to make intelligent pedagogical decisions, IE, more
targeted
teaching
practices, teachers MUST understand and manage the vast amount of interlanguage data (written and oral) that
pour out of the learners in front of them. I would now like the reader to ponder this phrase:
VAST AMOUNTS OF INTERLANGUAGE DATA IN A DATA-DELUGED DIGITAL WORLD
If we think of interlanguage data as information, we can‘t help wondering:
How will we cope with vast amounts of this type of interlanguage information, amongst a vast number of other
information, in a new media age? In a context where media and technology develop daily? If we take the
―Fundamental Difference Hypothesis‖ (Bley-Vroman, 1983) seriously, then NO NL NOR TL CATEGORIES
CAN BE ASSUMED. We are thus into category proliferation, as well. This becomes exponentially true if we
conceive of interlanguages as types of ―intersystems‖ that are basic to all types of learning. Where do we begin?
First, here are the main themes I wish to put forward in this paper:
- - a. There are a series of unresolved sets of issues in ELT & SLA with many if not most of these issues
perspicaciously previewed in the earliest literature.
- - b. None of these issues can be resolved without a serious interlanguage semantics, which we do not see at all.
- - c. Maybe, just maybe, new media and new predictive technologies can help resolve some of the difficulties
we have getting at interlanguage semantics and interlanguage intention.
Though they are often more short-term product oriented, if we can, we should seriously consider
joining forces with the many computational entrepreneurial efforts that often have resources which we lack,
especially those trying to make sense of semantic problems in private computational endeavors 238.
In trying to figure out what classical issues are still unresolved for today‘s world, my method is to start
historically, attempting to dialogue with MY ―FOUNDING TEXTS‖ (Selinker, 1992)239. This is not history per
237
There are some student behaviours that are beginning to drive teachers I know, a bit mad. On the day I was writing this,
the NYT had a poignant lead article discussing ―adjacent, but essentially alone‖ texting behaviour: ―Keep Your Thumbs Still
When I‘m Talking to You‖, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/fashion/17TEXT.html?_r=1
Also, ―Cyberbullying and ―Facebook anxiety‖ are both apparently very real:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cyberbullying&aq=f&aqi=g-e6g1g-c1g1g-c1&aql=&oq=
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=facebook+anxiety&aq=0&aqi=g5g-v5&aql=t&oq=FACEBOOK+ANX
238
This joining of forces with the entrepreneurial world makes even more sense in an age when governments insist on cutting
funding across the board, even at times, demonizing teachers (think, Wisconsin), and, importantly. when some of the best
researchers are in such private endeavors. I am gathering a list of private sponsorship of recent computational conferences,
primarily where semantics is involved.
239
In Selinker (1992) I have presented this method of dialoguing with founding texts in detail, and provide a much more
complete listing and discussion.
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se but an attempt to understand foundation issues in a current context. I say ―my‖ founding texts, since I believe
that each person will have DIFFERENT FOUNDING TEXTS. My suggestion is that each person discover
which texts are founding texts for him or her, and what there is in the essence of each that speaks to current
concerns, as these concerns evolve. So, my point here is that it is a worthwhile exercise to try to figure out what
YOUR personal founding texts are and what issues in them speak to you, those that are international and those
that are particularly important here in Sarajevo.
In using such founding texts efficiently and wisely, especially if you are new to ELT and SLA, it is
important that you approach this subject with a sense of where we have come from, since ‖reinventing the
wheel‖ is a continual hazard of all academic life240. We next turn, therefore, to an interlanguage précis, from the
point of view, of some of my own founding texts.
I.
AN INTERLANGUAGE PRÉCIS:
Starting from the beginning, let us consider what interlanguage is and where the concepts underlying
―The Interlanguage Hypothesis‖ have come from. Remember, we are looking to dialogue with ―founding texts‖,
heading toward trying to delineate sets of unresolved issues.
Though there are very different views of interlanguage in various literatures (see the discussion on
machine translation below), one useful way to look at interlanguage is that:
Interlanguages are non-native languages which are created whenever people attempt to create meaning
in a second language and are spoken wherever there is language contact.
It has long been my view (Selinker, 1972) that people create these highly-structured interlanguages
when trying to express meaning in ―meaningful-performance situations‖ in a second language.
DICTIONARY DEFINITION OF ‗INTERLANGUAGE
..(in second-language acquisition) the linguistic system characterizing the output of a non-native speaker at any
stage prior to full acquisition of the target language. (Unabridged Random House Dictionary of the English
Language, 1987, p.995)
These interlanguages historically derive from attempts to continually understand and up-date two central
processes in SLA:
1) transfer from the native language (―language transfer‖), AND
2) learners ―getting stuck‖ in interlanguage patterns, often far from target
language norms (―fossilization‖).
Though transfer was known in Biblical times (the ―Shibboleth‖ story, Judges 12:4-6), the earliest
modern reference is Whitney (1881), with discussion and assumptions by many linguists since that time until
Harris in 1954 produced a full treatment, ―TRANSFER GRAMMAR‖, including the open methodological use of
translation, a method we have abandoned to our detriment241. Weinreich(1953) interpreted transfer in a unique
and important way, in terms of ―interlingual identifications‖: speakers in attempting to learn to speak a second
language ―make the same what cannot be the same‖. This is cognitively profound.
An INTERLINGUAL IDENTIFICATION EXAMPLE (Weinreich, 1953): if a Russian, as often
happens, regularly says [tyaip] for English [thaip], ―type‖, he has made FOR HIM a palatalized /t/ the same as an
aspirated /t/, even though to any observer, they are NOT the same. This fact puzzled Weinreich since it violates
classical Saussurean principles of ―valeur‖ and ―system‖, and this paradox has never been resolved, remaining a
profound mystery, except to note that there are many examples in the literature of such interlingual
identifications, some very bizarre.
It was recognized early that such processes occur on all levels of language, but it was not until Lado
(1957) that we had the first clear language transfer hypothesis, spurring much research:
… individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of
240
In my experience, it turns out that ―reinventing the wheel‖ is less a problem in the online entrepreneurial world than the
academic world, since the bottom line is never far away, which can be a tough master for a small concern.
241
Translation is a neglected part of SLA methodology, but clearly it is used regularly by learners. It has long been my view
(Selinker, 1992) that we would have a different SLA if translation were a prime ontological and methodological factor – an
area waiting still to be explored, with translation taking on a concomitant role to transfer
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forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign
language and culture.‖
That view, basically has now been corrected to where transfer occurs NOT directly to any foreign
language/culture - impossible in principle - but to the individuals‘ developing and more permanent
interlanguage (by extension, to interdialect/ interculture, see below). Out of Harris, Weinreich, and Lado one of
first detailed attempts to empirically present thousands of exemplars of word order language transfer appears in
Selinker (1966 revised as Selinker, 1969)242. Corder (1967), amongst many other seminal concepts, flushed out
the fledging language transfer concept, showing us that ―errors‖, one type of interlanguage form, are a ―window
to the learner‖.
By contrast, the attempt to understand the phenomenon that apparently every learner experiences of
(permanently) ―getting stuck‖, is more recent with scholars struggling for several decades to grasp it since it was
named ―fossilization‖ in the ―Interlanguage‖ paper that codifies this and other interlanguage processes,
developing a research agenda (Selinker, 1972, reframed as Selinker, 1992). Examples occur in Weinreich(1953)
and Nemser(1971) but these scholars do not focus on the phenomenon of the cessation of interlanguage
development, which occurs in spite of extensive exposure to target language input and massive opportunities for
interactive production with such speakers. Without the concept of fossilization, I have long maintained
(discussed in Long, 2003) that, there would be NO second language acquisition, that there would only be
―language acquisition‖ with only one underlying cognitive architecture, not potentially two latent psychological
mechanisms, as discussed in Selinker (1972)243. It is Han & Odlin (2006) and Han & Cadierno (2010) who
bring fossilization up-to-date, showing that fossilization is differential or selective by context.
There is a long debate in second language acquisition about the place of universal grammar (Cf. eg.
White, 2000), as to whether interlanguages are formed in terms of these principles, fully?, partially?, or not at
all? But this tale is beyond our scope.
Related to this universal issue, is it indeed EVER the case that interlanguage equals the language of
NSs? This was much discussed early on and still is not settled. There is an interesting number much discussed
in the literature, sometimes called ―the magical 5%‖ (passim), a suggestion presented in Selinker (1972)
involving an estimate of the number of people whose interlanguage MIGHT equal that of native speakers (NSs)
of the target language. Where this number comes from is a story, but one thing is clear and presented there:
The vast majority‖ of second-language learners do NOT have an interlanguage that equals that of NSs
of the target language.
The theoretical point is that, if such a subset as the 5% exists, they are on a different track than interlanguage
learners and may be safely ignored when establishing the constructs underlying the ―psychologically-relevant‖
data which control the formation and structure of the vast majority of interlanguages. Is this concept really true?
A most important characteristic of interlanguages, maybe their prime characteristic, is that they become
independent of both native and target language. The empirical fact supporting this view, forcing us to recognize
the existence of interlanguage, is that speakers attempting to produce a second language produce NEW FORMS
that are neither in native nor target language. The [t yaip] example above is a phonetic example of such a new
form. A syntactic/phonological example involving primary stress is the situation of a Spaniard in London not
being understood. He was overheard at a kiosk asking:
―How much cñst banana?‖
NS: ―Pardon?‖
When he was not understood, the interlanguage Spanish-English speaker, appearing frustrated, uses his
interlanguage resources and rephrases and says:
―How much dñes cost banana?‖
This is a particularly interesting example as the Spanish speaker has taken two English grammatical
rules - - do-support and do-emphasis - - that NSs use all the time but he uses them in different idiosyncratic ways
than NSs would and has thus created a new construction in his interlanguage English, ―How much dñes cost
banana?‖. Such examples have appeared a thousandfold in the literature. Everyone finds in their production
data new forms, not in the native nor in the target language.
242
I was Robert Lado‘s student at Georgetown in the early 1960‘s and this empirical work was produced under his
supervision. I owe him much for his generosity and encouragement.
243
A complication is how fossilization and transfer might be linked. There has been at least one attempt to link these together
as causative variables in terms of the ―multiple effects‖ principle (cf. Selinker & Lakshmanan, 1992), but there is little
empirical validation to date.
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Interlanguage is not a monolith. There are various types of interlanguage though a complete typology
is lacking, e.g. ―learner languages‖ which usually occur in classrooms, often with rapid development are the type
most language teachers are concerned with. There are so-called ―fossilized interlanguages‖ where the vast
majority of linguistic forms in the interlanguage continue for years with little or no change. All sorts of
individual sets of variations exist in interlanguage and a needed research project is to produce an empirical
typology. Note that various overlapping terms cover different members of the set 244.
It gets more complicated when one considers ―interdialect‖ with another of my founding texts: Trudgill
(1988). Trudgill argues cogently for the existence of ―interdialect‖ by citing ―new forms‖ in second-dialect
acquisition with many solid examples from Norwegian. I have seen this phenomenon with Americans in London
who uniformly when first arriving, say ―tube stop‖, a form apparently not in American nor in British English (cf.
―tube station‖). The same cognitive phenomenon seems to happen when a person approaches a new culture,
creating an ―interculture‖ (Kramsch (1998) calls this a ―C3‖). This seems particularly apt for NYC (cf. Garcia &
Fishman, 2001). Thus, it seems reasonable that in many types of learning, we can hypothesize that there exists
cognitively the creation by learners of an intersystem. The creation of a new intersystem seems true – even for
native speakers, apparently. Cummins (NYU, 2001 lecture) stated that academic language is ―different and more
complex‖ than conversational language and that there are ―moving targets‖ for young students; the research
literature shows that it takes ―at least 5 years‖ to gain academic proficiency
(cf. academic life as ―a secondary culture‖; Widdowson, 1983). One can compare the various case study
linguistic examples of ―Latino students in American schools‖ in Valdes (2000)245.
Above we looked briefly at what interlanguage is and where the concepts underlying the interlanguage
hypothesis have come from. Remember, we are looking to dialogue with ―founding texts‖, heading toward
trying to delineate sets of unresolved issues. Next we delineate such issues.
II. SOME UNRESOLVED ISSUES:
Following from the above, for me, here are 10 pressing, unresolved (and overlapping) sets of issues in ELT
and SLA from an interlanguage perspective, issues which have been with us from our earliest days, reframed if
possible for current concerns246:
AREA 1: How much, and what sort of data is required for ―effective SLA‖ in terms of the learner‘s ―internal
syllabus‖? (Corder, 1967)
WHICH LEADS TO:
- - How should we conceive of the dimensions and pathways of a learner‘s internal syllabus?
- - How should we relate these to the various syllabi of teachers and school
systems?
AREA 2: Since input ≠ intake (Corder, 1967), how exactly does a learner edit input?
WHICH LEADS TO:
- - How do we, in a principled way, understand and treat learner output when it
is ―comprehensible‖ and when not? (Swain & Lapkin, 1995).
- - What exactly are the effects of input and interaction as learners attempt to convert input into intake
(Gass & Madden. 1985; Mackey & Polio, 2010)?
- - What happens to output, when it develops towards some desired ―target‖ V.
when it remains partially or completely unaffected by language exposure
(Han, 2003)?
244
The best known are ―transitional competence‖ (Corder 1967) where development is emphasized V. ―approximative
system‖ (Nemser 1971) where fossilization (unnamed) appears to be more dominant.
245
My favourite example is from a task where a student named Elisa has ―to write about her school or her family‖ and
Valdes reports that the particular text the student writes: ―... reflects Elisa‘s spoken language and her confusion between
spoken and written English. The use of a for I, for example in: a learn a lot of English AND a do (esperimin). The text
presented ―revealed that she produced a schwa-like sound for the pronoun I in speaking. She then transcribed this sound both
as a and I (Valdes, 2000, 97). Note variable use here: we get a do (esperimin) and I like math. Valdes also shows expected
―transfer of native language syntax‖.
246
I would really like feedback at the above email on this point of reframing for current concerns.
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AREA 3:
- - What happens initially in a second language (Corder, 1967)?
WHICH LEADS TO:
- - Is Weinreich‘s (1953) concept of ―interlingual identifications‖, the
fascinating and attested behaviour on the part of learners of ―making the same what cannot be the
same‖?
- - Or, is Corder‘s idea of (to put it in more current terms) ―matching‖ correct?
ie. that one looks for what one already has in the input correct?
- - Do universals of some sort kick in? (Adjemian, 1976 and all that UG SLA literature) OR is prior
linguistic knowledge and information just too powerful, at least in some cases?
AREA 4:
- - When we do have attested influence from prior linguistic information, called ―language transfer‖, how is it
governed ? (Lado, 1957)
WHICH LEADS TO:
- - Does the activation or blocking of transfer relate in any way to universal grammar principles of any
kind? (Adjemian, 1976)
- - Where there are at least two interlanguages involved in a multilingual
context (Cenoz, et al, 2010) , what principles block transfer from NL and
permit transfer to go through from Interlanguage1 to Interlanguage2 in the
various and common multilingual settings247?
AREA 5: Is it true that variation is a main characteristic of SLA (Tarone, 1983; 2004) and how is that to be
integrated into any SLA theory?
WHICH LEADS TO:
- - Do we in fact see more and different types of variation in SLA, if like NS
variation, every level of language shows interlanguage variation?
- - In the acquisition of sociolinguistic variation by L2 learners, is there indeed
―considerable acquisitional difficulty‖ in one type of variation as opposed to
another (Howard 2004)?
- - If it is possible to successfully teach teachers how to do ―language learner
analysis‖ (Tarone & Swierzbin, 2009), how exactly do we relate that
endeavor to the outcomes of learners?
AREA 6: In general, how should we understand getting stuck in an L2 (fossilization/ stabilization) often far
from target norms and often with variable results amongst learners, even in the same context? (Selinker, 1972,
1992).
WHICH LEADS TO:
- - Why is it that such a large percentage of learners seem to get stuck in an L2, often far from target
norms? Are factors like identity and social factors
involved?
- - How should we understand the relationship between development and getting stuck in an L2?
- - Are there separate cognitive structures, some latent (Lenneberg 1967), perhaps that would account
for differential and fossilized results in SLA?
(Lenneberg, Selinker, 1972)
- - Is this process of fossilization and its various relationships like other forms of learning or is there
something ―special‖ about SLA?
AREA 7:
- - Where does a more recent focus on ―multilingualism‖ (Cenoz, et al, 2010), ―English as a Lingua Franca‖
(Seidlhofer, 2004; Jenkins, 2007) and ―translanguaging‖ in immigrant communities (Garcia, 2008) fit in?
WHICH LEADS TO:
- - Does the newer emphasis on more than two languages change everything in
terms of governing SLA metaphors, as Jenkins argues?
247
Setting forth the principles as to when NL transfer is blocked allowing interlanguage transfer to occur remains an
unanswered challenge in colleagues who put forth a multilingual perspective. One principle might be ―similarity of phonetic
form‖ from interlanguage to desired target, though that will have to wait until another occasion.
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AREA 8:
- - Thus, how can anyone have all that attested knowledge of any language, say English, in his or her head?
(Culcover, 2004, 135)248.
WHICH LEADS TO:
- - Is that a reasonable way to think of storage in long term memory?
- - If we multiply that for a multilingual how do people keep it all sorted?
- - If they don‘t ... , well, apparently, they mostly don‘t.
AREA 9:
- - What would a clearly specified ―theory of learning‖ for language learning look like?
How would we handle the SLA uniqueness (?) of practice NEVER making perfect?
WHICH LEADS TO, what is the place of:
- - A behavioral theory of learning based on ST-R relations? (Fries, 1945)
- - A more cognitive theory of learning based on rule learning? (White, 1985)
- - A more socially-situated one based on stored and edited experiences? (eg,
Gee & Hayes, 2011)
If a mixed model is desired, with even behavioral theory having a place covering the learning of some
interlanguage structures, would the opposition ―context-dependent‖ V. ―context-independent‖ make more sense
in the learning of complex systems 249?
AREA 10:
- - How does one treat in a pedagogically-relevant way SLA results and still unanswered questions (Corder,
1973 and passim in the literature), here particularly reframed as understanding and using learner data as
information in pedagogical contexts?.
WHICH LEADS TO:
- - What are the principled criteria that allow one to use SLA research results in a language classroom?
- - How does one make sense to teachers of the shared space between research and teaching given the
lack of time and energy teachers have given the difficult daily task of lg teaching: teaching 18+ hours a week,
heterogeneous classrooms, pressures of hassled administrators, of angry parents ...?
Other issues abound of course, which we have no space to discuss250. In Section II., we have focussed
on sets of unresolved issues, issues where over the decades we have made some profound, but piecemeal,
progress on the above issues for sure, but resolved? Not a one! If we had, we would have the equivalent of a
periodic table and we don‘t. It is my assumption that we are blocked from making progress in every area above
by our lack of understanding of the making of meaning in interlanguage. Consider, VARIATION: How can we
know that two forms that are variants in NL or TL categories are variants in interlanguage categorization? And,
the reverse is certainly true, where you have interlanguage synonymy and TL variation. To alleviate that in each
area, we need to move more seriously to: THE INTERLANGUAGE MAKING OF MEANING WITHIN
COMPLEX SYSTEMS.
If we want to take the basic premise of ELT teaching sketched above seriously - viz. that teachers, in
order to make intelligent pedagogical decisions, that is, more targeted teaching practices that will relate closer to
the learner‘s ―built-in syllabus‖ (Corder, 1967), teachers must understand the vast amount of interlanguage data
(written and oral) that pours out of the learners in front of them. Interlanguage intention and meaning must
become a central part of that, since meaning is a central element of most, if not all linguistic activity.
III. TOWARDS AN INTERLANGUAGE SEMANTICS
248
There is ample evidence that writing down the attested knowledge of any native language takes thousands of pages (e.g.
Huddleston & Pullum, 2002).
249
I am very sympathetic to the attempts to treat SLA as a ―complex system‖, rather a series of complex systems, and like
this quote: ―The processes for language acquisition, use, and change are not independent from one another but form aspects
of the same complex adaptive system‖ (Ellis, 2008), though I am not sure of where ―adaptive‖ fits in. The major problem
dealing with complex systems - one that drives systems people and neurologists nuts - is the coordination of all this
information, especially in a reasonable model of the brain.
250
Early on there were some attempts at dealing with age effects in the creation of interlanguage (Hakuta, 1975 and Selinker,
Swain & Dumas, 1977) and this strand of research has proven robust. Also, there are all sorts of methodological issues we
will have to also leave aside here.
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We next move to the making of interlanguage meaning, trying to capture the notion of an ―interlanguage
semantics‖, to draw upon learner intention being compatible, if we can, to intelligent automatic coding251.
To date, what we have in SLA in the area of semantics is mostly lexically-oriented252, but we must dig deeper.
We must attempt, no matter how hard it is, to go into its most deep representations to find out what is going on
with our learners as they try to express intention in meaningful performance situations. In order to understand
the mechanisms that create knowledge of interlanguage and drive its restructuring (when it occurs), we must
code and analyze ―interlanguage in its own right‖, here in the semantic domain as well. ―Fundamental
Differences‖ between the acquisition and structure of interlanguage V. native language needs a principled
approach to such coding and analyzing! You get out of this comparative fallacy in principle, by NEVER
assuming the correctness of target-language (or even native-language) categories to analyze interlanguage in its
own terms? If we can move semantics of interlanguage into a sort of propositional logic, we find interesting
work on machine translation. I am thinking now of the work by GOOGLE on machine translation which turns
on their view of interlanguage and interlanguage semantics in a very different context:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Interlanguage_Semantics.svg
where, though detail is hard to access, what Google seems to do is turn text, especially English text, into
PROPOSITIONS, and when a text is needed to be translated, then one does not go from language to language,
but from text to propositional storage to next language, something to ponder as we move to tr ying to get at
interlanguage semantics, to see if there are indeed more and less universal interlanguage propositions,
independent of the various NSs.
The obvious problem with gaining access to an interlanguage semantics begins with the same difficulty
as with any semantics: meanings, unlike sounds, are not physically manifest in sentences, either as manifested in
sound or in graphic representation. One needs MENTAL DATA and cannot get away from that, requiring
procedures to get at this mental data.
We start with the premises that:
- - ―meaning‖ is a central element of most, if not all linguistic activity.
- - the ―making of meaning‖ always occurs in a situation or in a context.
- - a learner who wants to convert intentions into language uses his (often limited &
idiosyncratic) linguistic resources in what is essentially a potential matching task.
- - in order to be understood, he needs to turn those intentions into semantics and
language to match the semantics he has with the semantics of the listeners of
that speech or writing.
How are we going to restrict interlanguage semantics to some reasonable entity, to the meaning
descriptions that learners create? In particular, we must include concepts of PRESUPPOSITION,
ENTAILMENT, AND IMPLICATURES, as well as concepts of POLYSEMY, SYNONYMY AND
CONTEXTUAL PARAPHRASE RELATIONS, IDIOMATICITY, AMBIGUITY and the like, concepts that in
principle can become computational. A much later goal is to tie these concepts and relationships to
interlanguage syntax, as it exists.
AN EXAMPLEWHERE MEANING GOES BEYOND THE LEXICAL253 into a deeper semantics of
presupposition, entailments. implicatures, and the like. This example actually led to misunderstanding in an
251
My experience here is limited to consultation on several LARGE INTERLANGUAGE DATA BASES in China and
Japan, where I have seen first hand that Automatic Coding of Interlanguage involves multiple problems of the type hinted
here, often involving semantic puzzles that remain unresolved (Cf. the papers by Tenfjord, et al, 2007; Izumi, et al, 2007).
Additionally, I have explored two other new media areas: ―distance online interlanguage analysis‖, trying to develop a
DOILA tool (Browne, Kinahan, & Selinker, 2002) and speech recognition by computer (Selinker & Mascia, 2002)
252
I do not wish to imply by anything I say here that I am intending a criticism of the current lexical semantics, ie.
vocabulary acquisition that we have in SLA. My point is that the knowledge we gain from studies of the lexicon in SLA is
far from the whole story, ie. we are dealing with necessary but not sufficient information.
253
This example is from data in my extensive diary studies as are other examples presented here, unless specifically
referenced otherwise, are from my diary studies gained mostly in ordinary conversation; they are mostly digitalized and
details are available upon request at email above.
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ongoing conversation, the source of data where interlanguage semantics must be coded in a divergent manner
from native languages to get at underlying idiosyncratic semantic representation.
Consider the context of the following sentence: in discussing some friends, a native Italian speaker says:
- - ―but now they are broken‖?
Native speakers in the conversation clearly do not understand and they starts to ask what they mean. Several
exchanges follow and it took awhile til one of the Native Speakers said: ―oh, you mean they are broke.‖
―Ah‖ went everyone else there.
Now, in terms of this interlanguage semantics, there is a divergent association where ―broken‖ in being
coded semantically and must associated with ―a person being broke‖ but ONLY IN THE
INTERLANGUAGE254.
This sort of idiosyncratic interlanguage association, the semantic linking of various forms of the word
―BREAK‖ differently in the native language and interlanguage cannot be predicted. This divergence between
interlanguage (association of all the forms of ―break‖) and native language (no necessary association) shows
what a difficult learning problem this is, because in terms of linguistic entailment, as Huddleston Pullam (2002)
so clearly describe NATIVE ENGLISH SEMANTICS:
1. ―Frank broke the vase‖. ENTAILS
2. ―The vase broke‖. AND
3. ―The vase is broken‖.
but the sentence ―Frank broke the vase‖ in Native English DOES NOT ENTAIL:
4. ―Frank knocked over the vase.‖. Thus, says Huddleston & Pullum (2002, ...) in their massive and impressive
grammar of modern English. But they do not include any information on the many and various multilingual
forms of English.
By our extension to [+human} here, in Native English
1. ―Frank is broke‖ ENTAILS
5. ―Frank has no money‖,
but the grammatical form ―broken‖ in:
6. Now they are broken‖. DOES NOT ENTAIL in Native English:
7. ―Frank has no money‖
as it does in this interlanguage.
What is the divergent grammar? Clearly the subject of the verb must be human, but does that cover it
all the time. The IL speaker is making a cognitive connection that native speakers do not, i.e. between ―broke‖
meaning no money and ―broken‖ the past participle of the verb ―break‖; this is the core of the interlanguage
analysis.
coded ―broke‖, not necessarily ―break‖ differently.
With this sort of ―idiosyncratic association‖, we are back to Corder‘ idea (1973) of interlanguage as an
―idiosyncratic‖ system, in this case, a semantic IDIOSYNCRATIC ENTAILMENT, but such a particularity
related to ONLY ONE FORM OF ONE VERB. But, to generalize, if we see it here from someone who knows
English very well, we are ready to assume that this will happen whenever particular forms of a word take on
specific idiomatic meanings but only with some of its grammatical forms, which is surely widespread, eg. if you
say:
8. ―I am having trouble with my transmission.‖
you are probably talking about your automobile though there is nothing in the semantics of the core simple form
―transmit‖ to tell you that.
This is the kind of ―semantic thing‖ - UNEXPECTED INTERLANGUAGE ENTAILMENTS - - - that abound in interlanguage, that lead to misunderstandings, and that must be accounted for in an interlanguage
semantics, coming within range of computational coding, especially that deemed ―predictive‖.
The oral version of this paper attempted to explore some of the unresolved areas outlined in II. above,
starting with the idea that:
254
Note that in this context, in native language semantics, it is ―broke‖ only, and in certain contexts, but not ―break‖ or
―broken‖, that appently gets coded for the ―no money‖ entailment.
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AN INTERLANGUAGE SEMANTICS REQUIRES AT LEAST 5 THINGS:
1. an understanding of ―information packaging‖ and how this works in interlanguage.
2. an understanding of ―conversational implicature‖.
3. an understanding of the ability to perform referential tasks (adequately?).
4. an understanding of how ―semantic networks‖ are created and persist in interlanguage.
5. paraphrase relations in the interlanguage, and how they are the same or different for more standard languages.
These are some of the most important bits of interlanguage semantic information that must be coded in
order to build an interlanguage semantics, one that in principle can be coded in ways that can be accessed by
SMART predictive technology.
TWO FURTHER EXAMPLES: I have in mind such interlanguage semantic information as:
- - the coding of the academic idiosyncratic use of the word ―claim‖ in certain kinds of linguistic contexts, where
the absence of presupposition is the presence of error.
- - the unexpected use of reflexives inside a clause.
amongst other types255. I attempted to sketch out key variables, as I understood them that day, concerned with
the issue of the creation of an interlanguage semantics relatable to developing technologies, especially where
machine learning and predictive technology is involved.
This latter information technology perspective is developing daily and on the web page listed below my
name, I will try to keep up-to-date information on what is true and what is false, as I understand it and compile
it256. It is incumbent upon us to try to make as clear as possible the details of the applied aspect of the basic
premise above, especially their relation to, that for more targeted teaching practices that will relate closer to the
learner‘s ―built-in syllabus‖ (Corder, 1967), teachers must understand and manage the vast amount of
interlanguage data (written and oral) that pour out of the learners in front of them, and the amounts and types of
information relating to interlanguage semantics, machine learning, and predictive technology such teachers need
to master and for what purposes.
Below, I have added computational references which I hope will be helpful and would appreciate
feedback, particularly the value of annotating those which intersect the unresolved areas presented in II. with
computational semantic concerns.
255
Interlanguage coding of verbs like ―claim‖ presents a case of ―absence without presence‖ (Selinker, ) due to ―transfer of
training‖, where teaching PREVENTS a presupposition known to technical writers, even to many NNS proficient technical
writers. However, most NNS students I have worked with in technical & academic writing use ―claim‖ as a synonym for
―show‖ or even ―prove‖ and do NOT know that ―claim‖, in certain constructions, presuppose that you are about to deny, or at
the least question, the proposition. A classical example would be the sentence:
―Chomsky claims that syntax must be autonomous of semantics.‖
where I the writer imply that I doubt it, without directly saying so, but note that the peculiarity that this truth condition may
only hold in second and third person. EG, above, I have used ―claim‖ but with the first person subject and there was no
presupposition I was about to deny my own claim: ―This is the kind of thing - unexpected entailments - that we claim abound
in interlanguage, that lead to misunderstandings, and that must be accounted for in an interlanguage semantics.‖
Transfer-of-training comes in causally where grammar books, even enlightened ones such as Conrad & Biber ( 2009) miss
this entailment and lump ―claim‖ together with other verbs such as ―argue, imply, postulate, indicate, propose, contend,
maintain, suggest, hypothesize‖ under the vague heading of: ―reporting verbs‖ with a ―certainty level‖ of ―less certain‖,
several of these verbs do not have this presupposition of denial.
Another intriguing type of construction where interlanguage is involved concerns sentences like: "You put myself in this
terrible situation."
where without knowledge of interlanguage intention, the interlanguage is inherently ambiguous. You have to know that this
NNS uses the NS ―island constraints‖ (Ross, 1968; Lakoff, 1971; amongst others) in the standard manner, NOT violating the
standard syntactic rule but only when intending emphasis substituting ―themselves‖ for ―them‖, using the reflexive pronoun
emphatically, allowing ―the pragmatic use of reflexive pronoun to take precedence over the syntactic rule forbidding
reflexive pronouns in that slot in that construction.‖ (I thank John Lawler for discussing this issue with me.)
256
If you desire more current information than I have time to code, such as updated reference lists, please email me at the
above email address.
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References
This is a unified bibliography for both this paper and for oral presentation and its handout, which I can
send to readers. Also, I have annotated several entries as an aid for new readers.
Adjemian, C. 1976. On the nature of interlanguage systems. Language Learning 26,
2: 297-320
[The first paper to show that universal grammar principles might be working in the formation of
interlanguage.]
Allwright, R. & Hanks, J. 2009. The Developing Language Learner: An Introduction to Exploratory Practice.
Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
[This well-written book forms the theoretical background for the practical work of Tarone & Swierzbin
(2009). They lay out ―a clear rationale for why it is that
ESL/EFL teachers might want to improve their
lives in the classroom by solving puzzles that come up there.‖ AND, learner language, as a type of
interlanguage, is full of such puzzles.
Ameka, F. (1987). ―A
comparative analysis of linguistic routines in two languages: English and Ewe.
Journal of Pragmatics 11, 299-326.
Bley-Vroman, R. 1983. The comparative fallacy in interlanguage studies: The case
of systematicity.
Language Learning 33: 1-17
Browne, C., Kinahan, C. & Selinker, L. 2002. Distance online interlanguage analysis
(DOILA): an aid to
language learning. Thought Currents in English Literature,
77.
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Cenoz, J. , Hufeisen, B. & Jessner, U. (Eds.). 2010. The Multilingual Lexicon.
Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Clark, A. and S. Lappin (2010), Unsupervised Learning and Grammar Induction in A.
Clark, C. Fox, and S.
Lappin (Eds.), The Handbook of Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing, Oxford:
Wiley-Blackwell.
[Though this handbook is clearly out-of-date, it still provides a useful
introduction to an
important area of formal semantics, ―situation-based
theories‖, which we will need if
fossilization is truly ―selective‖ in Han‘s terms (refs. above). For a more up-to-date summary
see:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/situations-semantics/ ]
Cohen, A. D. & Macaro, E. Eds. 2007. Language Learner Strategies: Thirty Years of
Research and Practice.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. USE THIS.
[In great detail, the papers in this volume summarize where our knowledge
stands in terms of the
various types of strategies and their interactions with interlanguage.]
Conrad S & Biber, D. 2009. Real Grammar: A Corpus-Based Approach to English.
NY:
Longman/Pearson.
Corder, S. P. 1967. The significance of learners‘ errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics. 5
(4):
161-70.
Corder, S. P. 1973. Introducing Applied Linguistics. London: Penguin.
Egbert, J., Akasha, O., Huff, L., Lee, H. 2011. Moving Forward: anecdotes and evidence guiding the next
generation of CALL. International Journal of ComputerAssisted Language Learning and Teaching, 1(1),
1-15.
Ellis, N. (2008). ―Language as a Complex Adaptive System‖. Videos of conference
presentations: In
celebration of Language Learning‘s 60th anniversary, Ann
Arbor, The University of Michigan.
http://www.wiley.com/bw/podcast/lang.asp
Fawcett, R. (2007) The Many Types of ‗Theme‘ in English: Their Semantic Systems & Functional Syntax.
Centre for Language & Communication. Research Papers in Humanities No.4. School of English,
Communication& Philosophy. Cardiff Univ.
Gass, S. & Madden, C. (Eds.) 1985. Input in Second Language Acquisition. Rowley,
MA: Newbury House.
[One of the first full treatments of the interactionist hypothesis.‘
Garcia, O. 2008. Multilingual language awareness and teacher education. In Cenoz, J.
& Horeberger, N.
(Eds.). Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd edition Vol 6. Knowledge about Language. Berlin:
Springer, pp. 385-400
Garcia, O. & Fishman, J. (Eds) 2001. The Multilingual Apple. Languages in New York City (2nd edition).
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Gee, J. & Hayes, E. 2011. Language and Learning in the Digital Age. NY: Taylor &
Francis/Routledge.
[This is a very up-to-date effort to explore the exciting world of games as it
takes over most
entertainment funds, exhibiting and affecting types of learning,
continuing the effort to understand the
making of meaning ―on the fly‖ in context-dependent and ―flexibly-construed‖ situations, a most impressive
effort.]
Gleick, J. 2011. The Information: A History, a theory, a flood. NY: Pantheon Books.
Grice, H. P. 1975. Logic and conversation, in P. Cole & J. Morgan (ed.), Syntax and
Semantics, 3: Speech
Acts, pp. 41–58, New York: Academic Press.
Hakuta, K. 1975. Prefabricated patterns and the emergence of structure in second
language acquisition.
Language Learning 24: 287-97.
Han, Z-H. 2003. Fossilisation: From Simplicity to Complexity. International Journal of Bilingual Education
and Bilingualism, 6:2 95-128.
Han, Z-H. & Cadierno, T. (Eds). 2010. Linguistic Relativity in Second Language
Acquisition: Thinking for Speaking. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Han, Z-H & Odlin, T. (Eds) 2006. Studies of Fossilization in Second Language Acquisition. Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters.
Harris, Z. 1954. Transfer grammar. International Journal of American Linguistics. 20:
259-270.
Howard, M. 2004. Sociolinguistic Variation and Second Language Acquisition: A
Preliminary Study of
Advanced Learners of French." SKY Journal of Linguistics 17: 143-165.
[This paper provides a very nice literature review of recent work in SLA, and particularly
interlanguage variation studies.]
Izumi, E. Uchimoto, K. & Isahara, . (2007). Error annotation for learner English. Special issue of Rivista di
Psicolinguistica Applicata on ―Current Issues in
Interlanguage‖. 6:3. 109-122
Jenkins J. 2007. English as a Lingua Franca: Attitude and Identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kempson, R. 1966. Semantics, pragmatics, and natural-language interpretation.
In: Lappin, S. 1966.
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Kramsch, C. 1998. Language and culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Lado, R. 1957. Linguistics Across Cultures. University of Michigan Press.
Lappin, S. 1996. (Ed.) The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lenneberg, E. H. (1967). Biological Foundations of Language. New York: John Wiley
and sons.
Lewis, D. 1980. ―Index, Context, and Content,‖ in Philosophy and Grammar, Kanger,
S. and Ohman, S.
(eds.), Boston: Reidel.
Long, M. 2003: Stabilization and fossilization in interlanguage development. In:
Doughty, C. & Long, M. (Eds) 2003. Handbook of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Blackwell.
[An extremely well researched case for the effect of fossilization (or not) on
interlanguages.]
Mackey, A. & Polio, C. (Eds.). 2010. Multiple Perspectives on Interaction: Studies in
Honor of Susan M.
Gass. NY: Routledge.
McCawley, J. 1998.The syntactic phenomena of English (2 nd Edition). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Nemser, W. 1971. An Experimental study of Phonological Interference in the English
of Hungarians. The
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Seidlhofer B. 2004. Research perspectives on teaching English as a Lingua Franca. Annual Review of Applied
Linguistics, Vol.24
Selinker, L. 1969. Language transfer. General Linguistics. 9: 67 92.
Selinker, L. 1972. Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics. 10:
209-231.
Selinker, L. 1992. Rediscovering Interlanguage. London: Longman.
Selinker, L. 2011. ―Interlanguage― entry in Robinson, P. (Ed). The Routledge Encyclopedia of Second
Language Acquisition. NY: Taylor & Francis/Routledge. Selinker, L. & Douglas, D. 1985. Wrestling with
‗context‘ in interlanguage theory. Applied Linguistics. 6.190-204.
Selinker, L. & Mascia, R. 2002. Interlanguage speech recognition by computer: implications for SLA &
computational machines. Applied Language Studies. 1.1, 19-55. www.solki.jyu.fi/apples/
Selinker, L. & Lakshmanan, U. 1992. Language transfer and fossilization: The ‗Multiple Effects Principle‘. In
Gass S. and Selinker, L. (Eds). Language transfer in language learning. (Revised edition). Amsterdam:
Benjamins.
[This paper attempts to tie these two concepts together theoretically and empirically, setting up
language transfer as a privileged effect out of many potential in creating interlanguage.]
Selinker, L., Swain, M. & Dumas, G. 1975. The interlanguage hypothesis extended to children.Language
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1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Educational Partnerships and Intercultural Education in Primary School
Marta Santos
martasantos@ua.pt
Department of Education
University of Aveiro, Portugal
Maria Helena de Araújo e Sá
helenasa@ua.pt
Department of Education
University of Aveiro, Portugal
Ana Raquel Simões
anaraquel@ua.pt
Department of Education
University of Aveiro, Portugal
Abstract: Within the framework of a research study developed at the University of
Aveiro, a group of educational partners representing local institutions was gathered. The
aim was to conceptualize, implement and evaluate a collaborative research project on
intercultural education. Each of the participants was interviewed (semi-structured
interview), in order to know their perceptions in practices on intercultural and
collaborative work and the reasons that lead to this collaborative participation and their
expectations concerning the work that is still to be done. Their answers revealed that the
intercultural issue is familiar to all participants and that they feel the need to learn more
about this topic motivated them to participate in this collaborative project. Further more,
all of them reported previous experience on collaborative work, acknowledging its assets
in comparison to the work carried out individually. These data will allow us to guide the
work that will be developed by the network of partners and also to analyze the evolution of
their representations of intercultural education and work in partnership, through the
application of a final interview.
Key words: Intercultural Education, Educational Partnerships.
Introduction
This paper emerges from a research study being developed at the university of Aveiro, Portugal, named
―Intercultural education in primary school: partnerships involving the school and the community‖. Within the
framework of this study a group of educational partners, who represent the different institutions of the local
community was gathered, aiming at conceiving, implementing and assessing a project on intercultural education.
The project began in September 2010 and will be carried out till the end of the present school year (June
2011). During this time, the partners will have the opportunity to develop a set of activities to be implemented to
their target audience and to get training on intercultural education. The group is made of six primary school teachers,
two music teachers (extra-curriculum activities), a representative of an association for Ukrainian immigrants, a
representative of a cultural association, a representative of a cooperative for social work (which deals with people
with disabilities), a representative of the local library and government and a team of researchers from the Open
Laboratory for the Learning of Foreign Languages (LALE) from de University of Aveiro. In the following pages we
intend to present and discuss the results of an interview carried out to the group of partners in order to know their
attitudes towards intercultural education and collaborative work, as well as the motivation for accepting the invitation
of being part of this working group.
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Theoretical Framework
Cultural diversity is an undeniable characteristic of today‘s societies. Managing cultural and ethical conflicts
stands out as one of the most delicate and complex tasks of modern societies and their governmental institutions
(Guerra, 2008). Therefore, there is an urgent call for mutual understanding and respect, where one can find the
acknowledgement of the value of diversity and the promotion of critical participation of all the citizens in the
democratic life (UNESCO, 2006).
Cultural, social, economic and political diversity which characterises each society has its reflection on
schools. In this context, school plays a crucial role, given that it is expected to provide pupils a high level of
education, adapted to its characteristics, needs and interests (Soeiro & Pinto, 2006). In this sense, Breeze (2003)
states that intercultural education does not represent as an option but a necessity and a moral prerogative, since there
is a mandatory demand for education to answer to the context of diversity, by opening a path to dialogue among
people from different cultures.
Intercultural education stands out as an educational approach that aims at developing citizens‘ cultural
enrichment by appealing to the acknowledgement and respect for diversity through exchange and dialogue, active
and critical participation in order to enhance a democratic society underpinned by equality, tolerance and solidarity/
unity (Miranda, 2004). Intercultural education can be defined as:
«an educational approach based on respect for and recognition of cultural
diversity, aimed at every member of the society as a whole. It posits a formal and
informal intervention model, holistic, integral and encompassing all dimensions of
the educational process in order to achieve a real equality of
opportunities/results, to promote intercultural communication and competency,
and to overcome racism in all its expressions.» (Aguado & Malik, 2006:448)
However, this concept is often used ambiguously or even inappropriately, referring to practices that have
nothing to do with intercultural education. To Portera (2008) the concept of interculturalism is often confused with
multiculturalism. The author explains that while the multicultural perspective refers to images and stereotypes of
cultures and cultural differences, the intercultural perspective is related to the dynamics of cultures in contact,
intercultural relations and intercultural competence.
Dervin (2010) adds that intercultural education often comes to be seen as a mere cultural formation.
Pretceille-Abdallah (2006) defines ―cultural formation‖ as the cultural knowledge of the Other, based on a discourse
of categorization that is based on a factual and descriptive knowledge. In other words, Dervin (2010) explains that
the mere knowledge and facts about other cultures do not necessarily contribute to an intercultural education.
Gimenéz (2003) adds that the emphasis on intercultural education is the interaction between culturally distinct
entities or individuals. Thus, intercultural education places its emphasis on mutual learning, cooperation and
exchange, focusing on the coexistence of different, trying to build unity in diversity.
By promoting intercultural education, schools look for the development of their pupils‘ knowledge, skills
and attitudes needed to the construction of a fair and democratic world (UNESCO, 2006). It must be intended to all
students and be able to embrace all participants in pupils‘ education process, so that all the community represents a
place where diversity is valued (Vieira, 2006).
This task cannot be an exclusive concern of schools. Recent studies from Aguado & Malik (2006) refer that
it is essential that the work on intercultural education is developed based on partnerships that comprises not only
school but also the whole community. In this sense, the implementation of an intercultural approach on education
must consider working communities that integrate different educational actors- not only the school community
(teachers, pupils, school assistants and families) but the whole community (Aguado & Malik, 2006; Rey-Von
Allmen, 2004). These collaborative networks allow the dialogue, and the exchange of ideias, values, experiences and
critical reflection, leading to the enrichment of professional development (Damiani, 2008; Veiga Simão, Flores,
Morgado; Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). Thus, the actions of the partners, regarding cultural diversity can
be easily enhanced (Angelides, Stylianou & Leigh, 2007; Leite, 2005).
Other authors argue that educational partnerships are considered crucial in terms of educational
development, since the collaboration between schools and other institutions may lead to new and adapted answers to
the actual educational problems (ACIDI, 2007; Aguado, Jaurena & Benito, 2005, Canário, 2007; Epstein & Sheldon,
2006; Martins, 2009; Ornelas & Moniz, 2007). Educational partnerships are considered a crucial aspect of any policy
for sustainable and sustained development and therefore should be part of every interventional program concerning
education (Campus, 2004). Interaction and collaboration among all participants should also be at the forefront of this
type of projects. Roldão (2007) identifies three main goals of collaborative work: firstly there is a demand for a more
successful achievement of a goal, secondly, the skills of each participants are expected to be activated by insuring
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everyone´s enrolment, and finally the enlargement of knowledge build upon each one‘s contribution and interaction
is expected.
Hernández (2007) admits that the collaborative work may take different forms, according to the
heterogeneity of the group and the objectives of the work to develop. If in some cases the work is limited to an
occasional meeting to plan an activity, in other cases may involve the sharing of opinions, the seeking for help to
resolve conflicts or constraints and the search for new ideas for improving the practices of all elements of the group.
However, some studies also show some constrains related to this kind of work, such as problems with
personal interaction, lack of training and professional development opportunities, along side with other aspects of
organizational and contextual nature (Veiga Simão et al, 2009).
Method of the study
Within the network of partnerships established in this project, a semi-structured interview was developed
with the following aims: i) to get to know the representations of the participants in relation to intercultural education;
ii) to identify and characterize intercultural practices dynamised in the partner institution; iii) to get to know the
views of partners on the importance of carrying out activities related to intercultural education; iv) to get to know the
needs of the participant in terms of knowledge on intercultural education; v) to identify and characterize partners‘
practices concerning partnership work; vi) to get to know the partners‘ representations about working in partnership
(gains, constraints,...) and vii) to get to know their motivations for participation in a partnership project on
intercultural education.
The participants were interviewed individually before the development of the partnership project on
intercultural education. The average duration of the interviews was thirty minutes. Their answers were audio taped,
transcribed and analyzed. To ensure their anonymity, each respondent was identified with the symbol P (partner)
followed by a number between 1 and 12.
The data collected allowed us to make an initial characterization of the partners involved in this project with
respect, not only to their representations on intercultural education and work in partnership, but also in relation to the
type of work undertaken by each one in these areas. It also allowed us to know their motivations and expectations
regarding the participation in this project. These previous experiences reported by them will guide us through the
development of a partnership project on intercultural education. In addition, we intend to replicate this interview at
the end of the project in order to analyze the evolution of partners‘ representations on these issues.
Findings and Discussion
Intercultural concepts and practices of network partners
First, we questioned the participants about their conceptions of intercultural education. The answers indicate
two distinct groups: one refers to a multicultural perspective and the other to an intercultural perspective. Half of the
participants related the theme of interculturalism with the mere existence of different countries and cultures, stressing
that such different cultures should be respected and known. According to these responses, we can assume that the
"other peoples and cultures‖ are understood in a multicultural perspective, as explained in Portera (2008).
The second group states that the word "intercultural" necessarily refers to interaction, considering,
therefore, that interculturalism is related not only with the knowledge of other cultures, but also with the relationship
that may exist between them. The responses of this group refer to a dynamic view of the cultures in contact, which,
according to Portera (2008), corresponds to an intercultural perspective.
Then we asked participants to share with us some of their previous experiences regarding the
implementation of activities on intercultural education. Only one said he had never developed work on this topic. All
the others had already done at least at the professional level, activities related to intercultural education. Four of them
said they had also developed such activities outside the institution where they work.
Nine of the respondents said that their aim to carrying out this type of activity was the awareness of
different peoples and cultures. Seven of them added the integration / inclusion of minorities, four indicated sharing
knowledge and experiences between people of different nationalities and cultures and two cited the respect for
citizens with disabilities. Only one of them indicated the respect for other cultures and the development of personal
and social skills.
When asked about the importance of conducting activities on intercultural education, all respondents are
unanimous in stating that such activities are indeed very important. On the one hand, and for personal reasons, two of
the participants consider it essential to carry out these activities because they are immigrants and have already
experienced situations of discrimination and integration problems caused by this condition. Let's illustrate with the
declaration of P1: ―Personally because I'm different (laughs) in another sense / of course (...).You are trying very
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hard and then someone makes fun of you because you have a different accent (…).Not because you said something
wrong. It‘s (…) just because you have a different accent. Those things hurt a little/ you know?‖ 281
And P11: "Now/ for example/ there is a very boring tendency in politics! Because there are many
politicians who say they do not need immigrants. (...)We didn't come here to take everything away from Portuguese.
We came here/ of course/ to live our lives the best we can but we made a/ huge effort to have something here. "
Moreover, for professional reasons, the remaining respondents consider it very important that the public for
those who develop their work have the opportunity to know and respect different realities, not only in cultural terms,
but also for differences physical, mental, social, religious and economic changes that distinguish us from each other.
Let‘s take the example of P12: ―because interculturalism isn‘t just/ ahm/ and sometimes we forget the people who
can not read/ that are a considerable part of the Portuguese population/ and that device we have is wonderful
because it changes the writing/ ahm/ in voice (…) And besides an amblyopic or blind can read an illiterate person
can also read/ and we're doing intercultural education because culture and cultural parameters of this person are
different from mine/ because there is a big difference, which is access to information, so/ and ahm// the reactions are
great!‖
Besides, they also point out that this type of activity is essential when working with culturally
heterogeneous public, since they promote the inclusion of minority groups, valuing differences and the development
of values of solidarity, tolerance and nondiscrimination. In the words of P7: ―(…) currently, values are falling. It is a
fact that more children discriminate against others. For being different! I do not say that it is always because of the
culture/ but increasingly, we have more people from different cultures in our schools. Many more! And then we must
begin to value and begin to show children that they are normal people and we have to… Of course they have
different cultures/ have different principles/ they do different things in the community but we have to value it! Being
different does not mean being bad!‖
Finally, with regard to their needs for training on intercultural education, all respondents agree they would
like to receive training in this area, either to recall previously constructed knowledge, whether to stay updated on the
evolution of societies from the perspective of permanent training.
Practices and conceptions on working in partnership
We questioned the participants in order to assess whether working in partnership with other partners or with
other community institutions was, or was not, a usual routine for them. According to the answers provided, all the
participants state having already worked with other partners, namely with educative purposes. The eight teachers
revealed that it is usual for them to work in partnership with other community institutions (governmental or cultural
institutions), either in activities of lesson planning, development of projects or management of the school where they
develop their professional activity. Four of them also mention partnerships with their students‘ parents. The
remaining respondents affirm that the partnerships they establish usually involve the participation of other
community institutions, including schools.
By analysing the respondents‘ speech, it becomes clear that there are some discrepancies as far as their
understanding of the concept of ‗partnerships‘ is concerned. In four situations, this concept is described as merely
occasional contacts where one of the partners accepts an invitation or a request, presented by the other partner, to
develop a previously defined activity, without any sharing of ideas or opinions between them.
P1 gives us an example: "In the schools/ when they ask us to do something/ usually leave the job to our
responsibility. Understand? They want us to do a certain thing/ (...)! Now it‘s up to us!‖
The other eight participants refer that there are situations when the work relationship is more occasional (as
previously described) and situations when there is the development of a sustained work in which the participation of
all the people involved is valued and encouraged. These last situations illustrate, in the participants‘ point of view, an
effective collaboration.
This collaboration is indicated in the words of P6: "We try to give everyone/ an active participation in
meetings. Ahm / is important to know everyone's opinion and therefore everyone can collaborate.‖
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P7 also supports this idea: "With the Parish Council (...) is teamwork. We are there to shape activities and to
see if they want to participate/ (...) there is a continuous work, there is a beginning, middle and end."
The data collected in these interviews indicate us, therefore, that the respondents seem to hold different
representations of the concepts of ―working in partnership‖ and ―collaborative work‖ (Hernández, 2007). This fact
may be the result of a certain difficulty in defining these concepts, associated with the lack of an explicit reflection
about them (Veiga Simão et al, 2009).
Following from that, we asked the participants to point out some advantages that they associate with their
understanding of ‗work developed in partnership‘. The majority of the respondents (seven) indicated the enrichment
of the work, as a result of the contribution of different partners, as one of the main advantages. For P8 "work is
always much more positive" and to P9 "(...) there is also the possibility of developing other types of activities."
The ―spirit of mutual help‖ was mentioned by five of the respondents and ‗sharing‘ by four. Two
respondents pointed out the optimization of human and financial resources and other two indicated the deepening of
knowledge. P1 e P11, the two partners who find themselves in a situation of immigration, pointed out the personal
satisfaction of working with other people, as well as the difficulty of working alone. In addition, P6 referred that
working in partnership gives greater visibility to the institution where he/she works: "(...) the institution may ahm/
work in the community/ the institution can be seen in the community (...) there are people who know the institution/
the work that is done there/ (...) and we try to break down barriers through these partnerships."
On the other hand, when questioned about the constraints of working collaboratively with other partners, the
answers were, once again, diversified. Four of the participants did not point out any constraint as far as this type of
work is concerned. Other four mentioned the existence of some personal difficulties in building a relationship with
partners, an idea which is well illustrated in the words of P7: "The difficulty of certain people to work in partnership‖
and P10: "(...) In the place where I used to work things were not going well. There were no partnerships with other
institutions. (...) they were unwilling to participate/ not interested in participating. (...) There are very complicated
cases, people are very suspicious. (...) there is a rivalry and I want to do better than you / I have to do better than
you. "
Two participants indicated that the main constraints are the fear of exposure and public speaking. P4 tells
us: "And I think when we come to this kind of work/ many are willing to say something. But/ what will he think of
me? Or/ I'll speak in public/ I get all flushed when I speak in public. And I think that is the biggest problem.‖
Other respondents indicated, as a constraint, an unbalanced distribution of roles (P12: "when / the
protagonists ahm / / eventually take / gain prominence in relation to what really matters here in the partnership"),
difficulties in conciliating different work schedules (P2, "we work with several/ with many people/ and sometimes the
timings are difficult to conciliate...") and loss of individuality resulting from the participation of other partners.
The respondents demonstrate, once again, differences in relation to their representations on the merits and
constraints of the work developed in collaboration with other partners as well as to the different roles that participants
in such work may take.
Some respondents identified some constraints in partnership working, especially personal constraints.
However, all agree that this type of work has more benefits than disadvantages. Among the benefits, the respondents
point to the "job enrichment" as a result of sharing and mutual help. Consequently, they all affirm to be available for
participation in future projects involving this type of work.
Motivations and expectations for participation in a partnership project on intercultural education
In a final moment, participants were asked about the reasons that led to the participation in the project
proposed to them. Regarding the motivation for participating in the project, all participants indicated that they
consider the issue of intercultural education very interesting. Nine of them added that they would like to acquire
more knowledge in this area, and they saw the participation in this project as an opportunity for personal and
professional development.
Moreover, the fact that they already knew the other participants and the work they developed was one factor
that led five of the respondents to be part of the project. Three interviewees focused on the professional interest in
developing partnership working and two of them mention the personal pleasure of working with other people.
Finally, regarding the expectations for participation in this network of partnerships, it was noted that a
common factor is the concern for their attendance at meetings and the time it will be available for the development of
possible activities.
Besides, once they are willing to give their best, even if the circumstances are not the most favorable, they
expect the other participants do the same, as is demonstrated by the response of P4: ―When I enjoy doing something
it doesn‘t mean I will do an excellent job, but I'll do my best to do it. If I had more time maybe I could do a better job
but it‘s the best I can do according to the time I have available. And I‘m sure I'll do my best! What we can under the
conditions we have.‖
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The same is verified in the words of Q2: ―Overall, I hope that from the moment that the partners become
partners they actually fulfill the conditions of this partnership. And if those conditions imply the participation in
meetings, sharing ideas, I expect them to do so. When they know they are not going to make it, it‘s better to say that it
is difficult and not delay the group because then you have to go looking for other partners. "
Thus, there is a major concern for partners to honor the commitment they are taking by agreeing to
participate in this network, so that the group can achieve their aims.
Conclusions
The realization of an interview, in an early stage of this study, contributed to two essential objectives. On
the one hand, we have to consider the work that is expected to be developed by the network of educational partners in
the next phase of this study, i.e., the design, implementation and evaluation of a project on intercultural education.
From this standpoint, the interview enabled us to gather data that allow us to envision how networking can take
place, taking into account previous experiences and representations of the various partners with regard to this type of
work.
The fact that all partners have affirmed the previous participation in other studies involving partnerships
show that they are aware of the responsibilities and constraints that such work entails, but also all the gains it may
bring to their personal and professional development. However, it should be taken into account that the respondents'
prior representations regarding the work developed in partnership differ, which indicates some uncertainty in the
meaning of this concept and a possible need for further and explicit reflection on the subject.
We also believe that prior knowledge of other partners with whom they will work and the recognition of the
value of the work performed by them has led the participants to accept the invitation to join this network of
partnerships. We believe that this factor may be what gives them the motivation and confidence to try to "give their
best" and expect the other partners to correspond those expectations According to this, we expect that this journey
may be a place for shared reflection, full of discoveries and achievements and an improvement in performance and
personal and professional satisfaction of all participants (Damiani, 2008; Roldão, 2007).
Moreover, it is our intention to include in the final phase of this study a new moment of survey to the
participants in the network of partnerships. We intend, therefore, to know their views on the conduct of the work that
has been done and assess the evolution of their representations not only about working in partnership but also on the
theme of intercultural education. On this matter, we have already concluded that all respondents seem to be aware to
the issues of interculturalism although this concept may still be confused with multiculturalism or even a mere
cultural training (Abdallah-Pretceille, 2006; Dervin, 2010; Portera, 2008).
However, they all claim they feel the need to acquire more knowledge on this subject. This seems to be
another motivation that led them to accept the invitation to form the network of educational partners. In this sense,
we think it will be important to include moments of training on intercultural education in the course of the project,
enabling participants the co-construction of a collective definition of this concept. Such definition will be an essential
guidance for the design of the activities to implement with their students and all the community. Thus, we believe
that the development of this project can lead to rethink and improve intercultural practices of all partners of the
network in order to provide students, parents and the community the necessary growth to become the best citizens in
this intercultural world.
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121
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Educational Partnerships and Intercultural Education in Primary School
Author
Author
Santos, Marta
de Araujo e Sa, Maria Helena
Simoes, Ana Raquel
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Within the framework of a research study developed at the University of Aveiro, a group of educational partners representing local institutions was gathered. The aim was to conceptualize, implement and evaluate a collaborative research project on intercultural education. Each of the participants was interviewed (semi-structured interview), in order to know their perceptions in practices on intercultural and collaborative work and the reasons that lead to this collaborative participation and their expectations concerning the work that is still to be done. Their answers revealed that the intercultural issue is familiar to all participants and that they feel the need to learn more about this topic motivated them to participate in this collaborative project. Further more, all of them reported previous experience on collaborative work, acknowledging its assets in comparison to the work carried out individually. These data will allow us to guide the work that will be developed by the network of partners and also to analyze the evolution of their representations of intercultural education and work in partnership, through the application of a final interview.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
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https://eprints.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/b438209910000016dcc0ccbecb3668b6.pdf
3315ff68d8ef8a314950399ad2b241d8
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Text
1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
The Foundations of Intercultural Education
Helena Maria Sabo
Faculty of Psychology and Science of Education
UBB, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
helena-maria.sabo@gmx.net
Abstract: At present, when within the same society, contacts between different
cultures become more and more numerous, the space of the individual existence
surpasses the traditional limits of the original forming, and socializing background,
the intercultural approach to education becomes a disconcerting necessity for the
present and the future. Within the contemporary education, together with the ―new
types of education‖, the intercultural education represents an infusion of new
elements on the traditional contents by advancing an active and participative
pedagogy, centered on the educated person and aiming at cooperation between
groups and equal educational chances.
Key Words: intercultural education, identity, attitude
Introduction
As an important matter to all those who follow the evolution of humanity in general and/or of the
human rational being in particular, education represents that process oriented towards the spiritual fulfillment of
the person and of the community, which proposes, during its development, involvement, living, communication
between actual individuals within the multiple and complex changes, mutations in all compartments of existence.
Over the last two decades issues like the continual deterioration of the environment or the atmosphere, the
limited nature of natural resources, the rate of demographic growth etc. have led to the idea of an
interdependence between them and to the conclusion that development can‘t take place without peace, that peace
can‘t be authentic without respecting human rights and ensuring fundamental freedoms, that in their turn these
freedoms and rights are illusory when there still are people so poor that surviving is their only ideal. All these
problems have led to stating a new concept – the problems of the contemporary world. (Adler, M.J.1971)
The educational systems have tried to find solutions to the challenges raised by the development of the
contemporary world, despite the skeptics who maintain that education cannot play an important part in preparing
the tomorrow‘s world and in ensuring a better future. The specialists who believe in the transforming power of
the education and in its capacity to contribute with specific resources to the development of the future are aware
of the fact that education can‘t solve all the problems of the contemporary world on its own, but in the same time
a strong and durable solution can‘t be conceived without of the educational systems. Thus, we believe that the
intercultural education constitutes an answer to the development requirements and the dynamics of the
contemporaneity.
The philosophy of the cultural pluralism, which is discussed in the occidental media, constitutes an
action background in many democratic states of the world. ―The pluralist ideology advances numerous
presumptions upon the nature of pluralist-democratic societies and the function of ethnic groups in the
individual‘s socializing skills and the responsibility of their members towards safeguarding their own cultural
values. […] The cultural pluralism promotes the hypothesis that ethnic minorities have a unique learning style;
thus the analytical program‘s in schools and the educational curriculum should be revised in order to suit the
cognitive style and the spiritual profile of students who belong to different ethnic groups‖. (Cozma, Teodor,
2001) It is necessary to promote attachment and ethnic understanding and the students must be helped to acquire
skills, thus allowing the ethnic group to gain the signification power of the large culture of the world. According
to some analysts nowadays we need a self-critical of the occidental monocentrism, a critical distancing from its
ethical and scientific dogmatism; we need to state new principles of living together and reorganizing our
existence based on new points of view, on resymbolising our life, on new ways of analyzing and codifying our
experiences.
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May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Method of the Study
The intercultural education oscillates between the problem of the objective contents of knowledge and the
one that aims at intersubjective relationships. The intercultural approach is an intellectual adventure, with its
restless aspects for teachers and students because it moves away from the norm, but it opens channels towards
stating liberties, individualities, open and multiple identities, by developing the knowledge exchange between
partners, a forming demand and offer. The intercultural orientation of education refers to putting into practice
several ―types‖ of pedagogies, for example:
a pedagogy centered on the person being educated;
an active and interactive pedagogy;(Allport, G. W. 1991)
a pedagogy that takes into account the learning of decentring and develops an intercultural
communication skill;
a pedagogy of the project that favors interdependency among the group members and promotes
cooperation;
a pedagogy of the partnership within the educational system (among the teachers of a school, among
teachers of different origins, researchers, trainers) but also in connection to the other elements of the social,
economic and cultural environment (parents, economic agents, representatives of local authorities, etc.);
a pedagogy of the exchange and interdisciplinarity based on all kinds of school correspondence,
traveling abroad, making connections between several sets of knowledge and values that were initially
acquired separately.
The intercultural education urges us to face and respect alterity by promoting mutual tolerance and
understanding. At the beginning of this millennium the space of the individual existence overcomes the
traditional limits of the original environment (of initial forming and socializing). The meeting and dialogue of
cultures, despite the distances that separate them in time and space, are inevitable and often difficult; thus the
matter of cultures coexisting within the same society seems to be, as stated before, a rather disconcerting
defiance of the present and the future. The intercultural education represents a strategy for preparing future
democratic societies so that people take into account the cultures they represent when they interact (Jackson, T.
1995)
According to McLeon, the analysis of the multicultural education typology leads to three specificities,
the last one defining the intercultural approach:
1. The ethnic specificity approach – that is the approach or planning of the multicultural education based
on ethnic-cultural perspectives. This approach tends to put the accent on culture preserving or on developing
multicultural policies;
2. The problem-oriented approach – includes those people and groups whose fundamental orientation
towards multiculturalism answers certain problems. Immigrants and their integration are considered to be
problems that need solutions for reception centers, interpreting programs and immigration services. Also
racism could be considered a critical matter which makes many people think that antiracism is an aspect of
multiculturalism. Others consider relations between groups an extremely important matter and consequently
they develop intercultural or inter-groups programs;
3. The Cultural\Intercultural approach – it is a more general approach of the intercultural education; it
takes place where multiculturalism is an ethic which constitutes the basis of education and of the entire
school curriculum and includes preoccupations for ensuring continuity, cultural and linguistic development,
matters related to the ethnic and racial relationships, integrating emigrants, bilingualism or human rights.
This approach is a comprehensive social and cultural engagement and it is based on defining
multiculturalism as including or incorporating culture in general as well as in an ethnic cultural way, paying
special attention to diversity and ethnic, racial, linguistic and religious pluralism.
The intercultural education originates in the social, economic and cultural relationships, which
characterize society in general; in order to apply the intercultural education the teacher must be trained not only
for managing strictly didactical situations but also for facilitating the spiritual and cultural permeability of the
students. On the other hand, training doesn‘t only mean knowing, but also practicing intercultural because only
the theoretical knowledge of the cultural characteristics or differences doesn‘t necessarily give cultural skills to
the person who possesses it, as well as knowing the other doesn‘t favors intercultural behavior( Bruner, J. 1970).
The intercultural training steps are difficult and face mainly two problems:
1. each person‘s inherent difficulty to perceive cultural differences and especially minority ones. The
perceptions are selective, ethnically centered, affected by fear of the other, preconceived ideas, tendencies to
reduce things to schemes, attitudes of devaluation and discrimination;(Dewey, J. 1972)
2. our social and cultural identity ―colors‖ the process of knowing the others. The value decoding
concerning foreign cultures are made trough value paradigms already fixed that influence the quality of
perceiving the other.
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May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
We believe that, for any teacher, learning to receive alterity and diversity is a moral obligation in the
present conditions. Thus we need a methodical and structured training, as ―the foreigner‖, ―the foreign‖ and ―the
straneity‖ occupy a more and more important position in our lives. ―We must learn how to read the present day
with ―broadness‖, to permanently question the habitual and the habits, to distance ourselves from familiar things,
to approach more boldly what is unfamiliar to us‖ (CucoĢ, Constantin, 2000).
According to Micheline Rey, the intercultural training involves at least two dimensions that are
permanently linked to each other: a dimension of ―knowledge‖ (as objective as possible and built from multiple
angles) and a dimension of ―experience‖ (subjective and relational), but we only mention them here as we
already discussed them in detail. The intercultural training must concisely endow the teacher with
methodological or conceptual instruments but also with suitable attitudes or behaviors in order to distance
him/her from the didactic position. As highlighted by Ct. CucoĢ, recognizing plurality forces us to reorganize the
teacher training systems, and this new formula will turn variation from a negative thing into a norm and a stable
reference point. C. Camilleri shortly describes a few basic procedural rules for intercultural training:
Understanding the logic of each culture. Cultures must not be valued trough hierarchy and each
individual will understand that he/she is part of a cultured endowed with all the attributes of dignity and
value. The pejorative judgments of any culture must disappear, proving the indestructible ties between
realities, environment of origin and their cultural specificities;
Educating from the perspective of relativism. Cultural systems must be judged in a detached,
decentralized manner in order to overcome ethnically centered judgments. The first level of this position
consists of presenting your cultural model without imposing it. The second level consists of understanding
that we have no reason to consider our own culture superior. Not only must we be tolerant to others, but also
it is only fair to admit that we cannot legitimize a hierarchical value judgment upon two or more cultures;
Do not consider cultures to be sacred. By recognizing certain cultures as acceptable practices, we must
not consider them sacred or believe they are larger than others. The intercultural helps moving away from a
culture imposed or dictated by a group, imposed as transcendence, towards understanding culture as a
dialogue with others, thus moving from the ―product culture‖ to the ―process culture‖, from a static to a
dynamic perspective;
To take heterogeneity seriously. Heterogeneity should not be blamed when it appears naturally, without
being imposed. We live in more and more multiform and different cultural spaces. To be against racism, to
know the mechanisms of exclusion and to fight artificial barriers between individuals or communities is an
attitude that must be acquired by the person designated to educate for diversity;
To recognize misunderstandings and conflicts. To grasp reality as it is, even if there are certain deficits
from an intercultural point of view, is an exam of honesty and professionalism. The conflicts between
cultures or people with different cultural backgrounds are obvious, and admitting their existence constitutes
a first step towards solving them. The social sometimes facilitates intercultural conflicts; the economic
insecurity, unemployment, the competition on the work market, social changes, pride also has a cultural
component that leads to conflict, including from an intercultural point of view. To all these we can add the
differences of opinion between members of different cultures regarding delicate matters like: polygamy,
abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia etc.
In our country, the initial training of teachers for intercultural education is almost inexistent. Teacher
must be trained not only for managing strictly didactic situations but also for facilitating the spiritual and cultural
permeability of their students. To be against racism, to know the mechanisms of exclusion and to fight artificial
barriers between individuals or communities is an attitude that must be acquired by the person designated to
educate for diversity . That‘s why we should pay attention to forming trainers for intercultural education by
using research of intercultural psycho pedagogy, and also from the domains of cultural anthropology, social
psychology, development psychology, conflict solving management etc. A virtual curriculum for intercultural
training should include themes like:
3. Tendencies of the contemporary society: the multicultural-intercultural dynamics;
4. The phenomenon of transmitting and diffusing culture;
5. Cultural identity and difference-consequences in the school system;
6. Cultural relativism;
7. Filtering social reality trough images (categorization, stereotypes, prejudice);
8. Strategies of relating to others;
9. Discrimination;
10. Intolerance;
11. Xenophobia;
12. Ethnocentrism;
13. Racism;
14. Sexism;
15. Objectives and values of the intercultural education;
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May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
16. Intercultural exigencies and family education;
17. Strategies for experimenting the diversity of values;
18. Formal and informal, curricular and extracurricular in intercultural training etc.
As it can be noticed, there are generous themes and multiple possibilities in the field of training for
intercultural education. Where there is intuition, pedagogical skills, will to self improve and where the teacher
understands the evolution of life and of the contemporary world, he/she will know what method to choose so that
the result of his/her transformation –and why not?- his/her accomplishment to raise positive feelings within their
own community or school environment.
Learning in heterogeneous schools and classes (multicultural) is more an advantage than a handicap and
it requires openness and cooperation instead of selection and rejection. We know that identity is built within a
relationship of difference \ likeness with the others, and in a pluralist society, the relationship identity-alterity
must be approached in a plural manner. As stated by C. Camilleri, we are what we are as individuals also by the
―lack‖ that we are looking for or finding in alterity. Within this projection in/towards the other we can become
accomplished or understand our plenitude or real limits. The intercultural education urges us to welcome and
respect alterity by promoting tolerance and mutual understanding.
Conclusions and Discussion
We believe that within the Romanian school system the reform should be given a more intercultural
dimension because such an articulation of our school system could constitute a solid basis for creating a
democratic, open and permissive society, pluralist as well as united. The intercultural approach to curriculum
could enrich the relational aspect of the inhabitants of our country by giving a new dimension to daily human
interactions and by considerably reducing phenomena of intolerance, egocentric tendencies, extreme
pragmatism, as well as psychological and social marginalization phenomena.
The intercultural education teaches us one essential thing: pejorative judgments of any culture must
disappear thus proving the indestructible ties between their realities, background and cultural specificities. Due
to the major changes that took place recently and that endanger the world‘s ecosystem, larger and more diverse
media have realized that the ideological fundaments of our egocentric society are inadequate and have claimed
new paradigms of behavior and action.
A new challenge has been launched for education: to contribute to promoting human rights in a way that
overcomes ethnic centrism. If it succeeds in determining new generations to admit the complex role of
interdependencies and interactions and to actively, acquire constructive and dynamic skills of using individual
rights and liberties in an intercultural way. Education will prepare them to better understand the new stakes
within our societies in the 21st century and will ensure, by admitting the collective identity and the common
future, a solid and durable economic, social and cultural development.
After all, as Micheline Rey noticed, this challenge is aimed at the completely social community because
the ability of education to respond to its expectations depends on its adhesion to the principles of solidarity and
the actual choices.
Because of the perspective of building a unitary European space, of the international character of
economy, of globalizing information the objectives of an enlarged intercultural practice in education are:
admitting the diversity of the cultural codes, communicating in an intercultural context, being aware of your own
cultural identity, overcoming stereotypes and prejudice, knowing the institutions and living conditions in various
European countries, cooperation with representatives of any culture. We believe that all these will bring about
profound mutations in a more or less near future related to the system of thinking, feeling and acting of each of
us. The question that still stands is the following: in what measure are we willing to change our mentalities, even
if we see that it is necessary?
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May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
References
Adler, M. J. (1971). Defending the Philosophy of Education, in an Anthology of the Contemporary American
Pedagogy, The Didactic and Pedagogic Publishing House, Bucharest.
Allport, G. W. (1991). The Structure and Development of Personality, The Didactic and Pedagogic Publishing
House, Bucharest.
Bruner, J. (1970), For a Theory of Training, The Didactic and Pedagogic Publishing House , Bucharest.
Cozma, T. (coordinator) (2001). A New Challenge for Education: Interculturality, Polirom Publishing, IaĢi.
CucoĢ, C. (2000). Education / Cultural and Intercultural Dimensions, Polirom Publishing House, IaĢi.
Dewey, J. (1972), Democracy and Education, The Didactic and Pedagogic Publishing House, Bucharest.
Jackson, T. (1995). Cross-Cultural Management, Butterworth-Heineman, Oxford.
610
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Dublin Core
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Extent
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90
Title
A name given to the resource
The Foundations of Intercultural Education
Author
Author
Sabo, Helena Maria
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
At present, when within the same society, contacts between different cultures become more and more numerous, the space of the individual existence surpasses the traditional limits of the original forming, and socializing background, the intercultural approach to education becomes a disconcerting necessity for the present and the future. Within the contemporary education, together with the ―new types of education‖, the intercultural education represents an infusion of new elements on the traditional contents by advancing an active and participative pedagogy, centered on the educated person and aiming at cooperation between groups and equal educational chances.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics