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Ethnographic Activities in the Intercultural Classroom
Roberts, Davies and Jupp’s (1992) report is a detailed account of the
benefits and difficulties of using ethnography in such a wide-scale
programme of workplace language training. However, it is true that most
EFL teachers, as opposed to teachers of ESL, are working with learners who
have little or no daily contact with native speakers. Neither do they have
the extensive opportunity to observe native speakers interacting among
themselves that the trainers in the ILT programmes enjoyed. What
relevance, then, does ethnography have for EFL teachers, teacher-trainers
and course co-ordinators? Sercu (1998) describes in detail a programme of
inservice training for Belgian teachers of modern languages. Developed to
increase teachers’ awareness of intercultural competence, the course Sercu
describes involves textual interpretation (of items like cartoons and pho-
tographs), discussion of intercultural competence training versus the
nature of more traditional ‘Landeskunde’ classes (whose emphasis was
more on factual information), and a degree of participant observation and
‘empathy-building’ activities. The training course also covered topics such
as prejudices and stereotypes, and the evaluation of course materials.
Ideally, course materials should not simply provide models for good
language use; they should also encourage the exploration of cultural
practices (e.g. what kind of body language accompanies basic exchanges
such as greetings; when handshakes or kisses are acceptable or unaccept-
able). If the course materials themselves do not contain ‘ethnographic’ activi-
ties then teachers and curriculum designers need to supplement them with
activities that develop the ethnographic skills of systematic observation.
The idea of teaching learners ethnographic skills is not a new one. For
example, Damen (1987) draws upon a wealth of cross-cultural training
techniques and anthropological writing in the USA in her detailed explora-
tion of ‘culture learning’ in the language classroom. Like those involved in
the ILT projects described in the above section, Damen is concerned largely
with learners who are immigrants, although the contexts of learning are
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different. Damen’s language classrooms are not in the workplace, and the
ultimate goal of language and culture learning for her is ‘acculturation’,
which she defines as ‘the continuous process in which the immigrant
adapts to and acquires the host culture, so as to be directed towards
ultimate assimilation’ (1987: 141; see also 228–30). Although Damen grants
that the degree of assimilation attained is a matter for the learners to decide,
the goal of ‘culture learning’ for her is markedly different from those of the
‘intercultural learner’ as formulated by such as Kramsch (1993) or Byram
(1997b). For Damen, the observation and understanding of the kinds of
knowledge and assumptions that guide different cultural behaviours
should lead ultimately to the adoption of that knowledge and behaviour to
some degree. In the intercultural classroom, the learner is not expected or
required to assimilate but to mediate. The target behaviour does not need
to be simulated exactly, but an understanding of the behaviour of native
speakers might lead to some adaptation of the learner’s usual behaviour, in
order to ‘manage’ an intercultural encounter. For example, a Moslem
learner might be presented with an invitation to dinner by a non-Moslem
friend or colleague. He or she might wish to refuse because of concerns
about the preparation of the food. Repeated conventional refusals, no
matter how polite, can put a strain on friendship. Presumably, an ‘accultur-
ated’ learner would finally agree to the invitation, because acculturation
implies assimilation into the norms of the target community. An inter-
cultural learner, however, would recognise the conventions of friendship
and religious belief that were in conflict and try to manage a resolution – for
instance, by explaining politely that Islam demands strict conditions about
the preparation of food, and he or she therefore cannot accept invitations of
this kind. The learner might add that he or she does not wish to seem
unfriendly or give offence, and could actively seek an alternative way of
socialising.
On the other hand, even in intercultural classrooms, there may well be
students who do wish to imitate the customs and behaviours of the target
culture. Many EFL learners do have a strong ‘integrative’ motivation for
learning the second language, and they should therefore be given a chance
to ‘think their way into’ the target culture. A general distinction can
therefore be made in the aims of ethnographic activities devised for
learners: those which promote observation and understanding of the target
culture, with intercultural mediation as a goal, and those activities which
encourage learners to ‘think’ like those in the target culture, and to
reproduce their cultural behaviour. Care should be taken, when the latter
type of activities is used, to make explicit that the activities are largely
exercises in ‘decentring’ the conventional attitudes of the home culture;
they are not meant to deny or substitute the patterns of thought of the home
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culture or to imply that one way of thinking is better than another. A key
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