Surfing to Cross‐Cultural Awareness: Using Internet‐Mediated Projects to Explore Cultural Stereotypes

Abstract

The Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century stress that learning about culure is an integral part of learning a foreign language (L2); such exploration is a necessary bridge to gaining valuable insights about one's own culture as well as the culture(s) of the target language. Long‐term projects, for example, extended interviews with native speakers, enable learners to develop an understanding of another culture from an “emic” point of view (Barro et al., 1993; Robinson‐Stuart & Nocon, 1996; Wright, 2000). For many U.S. students, however, neither native speaker informants in U.S. cities nor study abroad programs are available or accessible. This study explores Internet‐based culture portfolios that bring insider's views of other cultures into the 12. classroom. In this study, learners enrolled in third‐semester German language courses conducted semester‐long culture projects, in which they explored their stereotypical views of the cultures of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Learners investigated the extent to which these stereotypes might apply, using media from these countries and from their own cultural contexts, library, Internet resources, and online interviews with members of the cultures in Germany. The results of this study indicate that the Internet‐based culture project promoted learners' acquisition of new cultures from an emic perspective.

Foco no Brasil: imagens do país por estudantes malaios de Português do Brasil

“…The authors distinguished eight main categories among the students' stereotypes, namely: (i) the Germans' love of beer, (ii) the personal characteristics of the German people, (iii) cars, (iv) the country or language, (v) schooling or culture, (vi) physical attributes, (vii) history or historical events, and (viii) food and eating. Studies by Taylor (1977), Webber (1990) and Abrams (2002) on learners of German in American colleges reported similar fi ndings; the students frequently made statements about the German people's love of beer and also made references to their food, culture (e.g., folklore, classical music), national traits and school system. Various studies have concluded that language learners' images about Germany and the Germans are highly stereotypical.…”

“…Researchers and language educators agree that enhancing students' critical and theoretical thinking is one of the most important elements in the teaching of the Humanities and Social Sciences disciplines (Abrams, 2002;Byram and Kramsch, 2008;Ferreira, 2003). As Schulz and Haerle (1995, p. 29) have pointed out, one of the most important objectives of foreign language education "is the lessening of preconceived stereotypical images regarding the target culture".…”

“…Country images and stereotypes have been extensively investigated in various academic fi elds and disciplines including the social sciences (Bar-Tal, 1997), tourism and marketing (Echtner and Ritchie, 1993), literature and culture studies (Beller and Leerssen, 2007), applied linguistics and foreign language education (Abrams, 2002;Allen, 2004;Byram and Kramsch, 2008;Nikitina and Furuoka, 2013;Schulz and Haerle, 1995). The focus of these studies varies according to the aims of the researchers and the academic discipline.…”

“…Generally speaking, studies on language learners' stereotypes about the TL country and culture have been done in the contexts of teaching German (Abrams, 2002;Schulz and Haerle, 1995;Taylor, 1977;Webber, 1990), Spanish (Vande Berg, 1990), French (Allen, 2004;Steele and Suozzo, 1994) and English (Kim, 2010;Peng, 2010). More recently, research interest has extended to the learners of Mandarin (Nikitina and Furuoka, 2013).…”

Teaching Intercultural Communicative Competence: The Perspective of Foreign Language Graduate Student Instructors

“…Abrams, 2002;Belz, 2002Belz, , 2005Ware, 2005), research on teachers and their teaching of IC has been rather scarce (Doğançay-Aktuna, 2005;Byram & Kramsch, 2008;Kohler, 2015;Sercu, 2006;Sercu et al, 2005). Of this research, only few studies have been conducted on FL teachers other than English (FLOTE).…”