Politicizing Intercultural Language Teaching - CERCLL

Politicizing Intercultural
Language Teaching
CERCLL – Intercultural Competence Conference
University of Arizona / USA - 22-23 January 2016
Dr Chantal Crozet
RMIT University - Australia
5/02/2016
1
Preface
• Most Modern Foreign Language Teachers (MFLTs) agree
that their practice ought to include the teaching of culture
from an intercultural perspective/IP (Liddicoat & Scarino
2013, Byram 2014).
• General agreement that it means adding: “ … a dimension
of reciprocity (‘inter’) and sociohistorical understanding
(‘culture’) to the notion of communicative competence”
(Kramsch 2005).
• Teachers have mitigated views on what the IP means in
practice, including the political and ethical(moral)
engagement as called upon by scholars such as Byram
(1988 & 2009), Guilherme (2002) Beacco (2013), Kramsch
(2014) it ought to involve.
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Focus of presentation
• Teachers’ mitigated views on the IP: key points
Based on Crozet’s (forthcoming) review of case studies of MFLTs on culture
and intercultural competence: Byram & Risager (1999), Sercu (2001, 2002),
Sercu (2006), Guilherme (2002), Johnstone Young & Sachdev (2001), Crozet
(2005), Diaz (2013).
• Politicizing Intercultural Language Teaching
(tertiary level)
• Applied political & ethical ILT. Insights into the
review of French Studies at RMIT University
5/02/2016
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Summary of teachers’mitigated views on the IP: their rationale
Mainly secondary sector & indicative data only.
•
IC not the sole responsibility of language teachers.
(In tertiary environment: how does ILT # from a course on Intercultural communication? How
can they support each other) – Need to differentiate between teaching language and culture
and teaching about L & C.
•
‘We have always done it, we’ve always taught culture!’ (challenges professional identity ?
‘Being a # teacher’?).
and/or
Unclear on which and whose culture should be taught (see Kramsch 2011), its progression?
which pedagogy (‘how to unpack culture’) and forms of assessment?
•
•
Unclear on which and whose language should be taught. Ex: educated written Parisian
French?, French slangs? Algerian French? Francophone ‘Frenches’....?
•
Researchers’ unrealistic prescriptive discourse.
•
Reluctance and/or unprepared to deal with controversial issues and ‘real communication’
in the classroom (trained to be ‘culturally salient’& ‘politically neutral’)
•
Question the level of political and ethical (moral) engagement the IP ought to involve: a
personal choice?
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Language teachers’ positioning on the IP
(Crozet forthcoming)
↓
→
↓
TCP
ILP
Low political/ethical engagement
Traditional Culture Pedagogy
‘I am a language teacher’
↓
Essentialist concept of culture
High political/ethical engagement
↓
CIP
Intercultural Language Pedagogy
Critical Intercultural Pedagogy
‘I am a language & culture educator’
↓
Postmodernist concept of culture
↓
↓
Majority
Emerging (and contested?) paradigm
5/02/2016
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Politicizing ILT at tertiary level
•
Requires an interest, knowledge and some endorsement of the literature/theories on
ILT (not a given/ Diaz & Crozet new project).
•
[ILT is not mandatory at tertiary level, no particular approach to language & culture
teaching is. Note: Courses on Intercultural Communication are for degrees such as a BA
in International Studies]. No connection between the two.
•
Requires a professional and individual choice
•
Requires an on-going conscious engagement at: Institutional, Discipline and Programme
levels to address colleagues and students’ often erroneous perceptions of what
‘Language teaching’ can be (i.e: more than language skills, includes culture (and its
associates/history, politics), critical thinking), an actual academic area within applied
linguistics in its own right.
•
Requires a degree of institutional power to implement change
•
Requires long-term collaborative work (interested and committed colleagues)
•
Highly context dependant for all the above reasons, and more…
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Review of the French Studies programme at RMIT University:
insights into applied political intercultural language teaching
Our aim: to implement a stronger and more systematic IP perspective in our programme with ONE
clear educative, political and ethical/moral (philosophical) agenda
Which in our terms means to engage students :
• a/To reflect on the mechanics of meaning-making when using culture and
language.
• b/To reflect on personal and collective identity constructs (including the role
of secular nationalism in the promotion of collective identity, the power
dynamics between self and other(s) through the use of language & culture).
• c/To reflect on human nature (nature of self, the relationship between self,
others and the world) and the notion that there is choice in deciding what kind
of person one can be.
• d/To contribute to the development of intercultural sentiment/ hybrid
identity formation for a better ‘vivre ensemble’ in Australia and globally. A
clear agenda potentially against current trends in societal and political
movements in France…
5/02/2016
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Franco-French (secular) nationalist fantaisies…
Regional elections (Dec 2015)
27%
Front National
3%
(Debout la France)
Le Pen
27%
Les Républicains
(UDI, MoDem)
Sarkozy
↓
Essentialist
↓
Essentialist
↓
Essentialist/
Universalist
24%
Parti Socialiste
(PRG)
Hollande
↓
Multiculturalist ?
Essentialist /Universalist
Discourse samples
Marine Le Pen: ‘La France d’abord’
Sarkozy: ‘Fidélité à la France’
Hollande/Walls: ‘Fierté de la France, de sa langue, de sa culture’
The notable absence of an interculturalist discourse…
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Cultural essentialism dominates…
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Official and popular discourse on naming ‘self’ and ‘the other’
1995: ‘La France gagnante’: ‘Black, blanc, beur’
2016: France’s increased awareness and splits over its diversity
Les Français de souche/ Les Franco-Français
• Les Gaulois - Les Fromages
Les Français issus de l’immigration
• Les Gris
-Les Arabes, les Maghrébins (les rats, les
bazanés)
• Les Black
-Les Renois, les Noirs, (les Nègres)
• Les Chinois -Les Asiatiques, (les Jaunes)
• Les Roms
-Les Gitans
‘Je suis arabe, voleur et menteur’ (secondary student in a French lycée)
‘I am an Arab, a thief and a liar’
5/02/2016
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Programme structure
French is offered as compulsory courses (e.g IS), electives or part of the Diploma of
Languages (6 French courses + 2 other courses)
French 1
Complete beginner level
French 2
Current review ↓
French 3
French 4
French 5
Post year twelve /intermediate
French 6
French 7
Advanced ↓
French 8
Advanced option 1
Advanced option 2
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Approach to review
•
On-going, organic review over several years & Developping the review into a ‘proper’ research project
2015 & 2016: review of French 3 to 8
-The introduction of more cultural content, and more francophonist & global content
in a progressive yet cyclic pattern through a careful selection of ‘discourse takes’
(Hage 1998): using extracts from historical, sociological, philosophical and literary
works, films, songs, cartoons, the press and social media (requires intensive
research). Common narrative = identity constructs, human nature, interculturality.
(FOCUS OF PRESENTATION)
-More systematic intercultural pedagogy through real engagement, dialogue &
critical thinking with students on current societal & political issues in context.
- Introduction to discourse analysis [CA, Cross-Cultural Pragmatics, CDA, Enonciation
& Ethnopragmatics see Dervin & Liddicoat (2013)]– and concepts such as
Intertextuality (Kristeva) & Dialogism (Bakhtin), Cultural capital, Field, Habitus,
Structure & Agency (Bourdieu).
-A better progression in oral, aural, reading and writing practices
-A systematic review of our approach to assessment (language & intercultural
competences)
2017: Review of French 1 & 2
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Stage one – 1/ The introduction of more Francophonist & Global
cultural content/in a progressive yet cyclic pattern from French 3
Culture →
French 3 (4h)
No textbook onwards
One reference grammar
book from FR3 to FR6
CLASS A (in language)
→
a/Grammar (formal & in context)
b/Cross-cultural pragmatic and interactional
norms (see Crozet 1996) includes some
metalanguage to refer to the links between
language & culture / Registers
(grammar & vocabulary)/ Discourse markers…
c/Current affairs in the French/Francophone
press
CLASS B (in context)
French/Francophone essentialist culture and
identity: Astérix & Tintin
French 4 (4h)
↓
French & Francophone biographies and
memoirs - Reflecting on personal history
(Beauvoir, Rochefort, Camara Laye, Luga
Jugerson, Rachel Mizhari…)
French 5
(3h)
↓
The other France (L’autre France). Focus on
films (La Marche (2013)/ Musulmans de France
(2010)/ Indigènes (2007)/Le Gone du Chaâba
(1997), Bande de filles (2015) - socio- political
cartoons (eg: ‘Arabico’, ‘L’affaire du voile) extracts from historical, sociological, political &
literary works.
French 6
(3h)
↓
Francophonie & Francophone Literature
(Cheikh Anta Diop, Aimé Césaire, Franz Fanon,
Léopold Senghor, Maryse Condé, Tahar Ben
Jelloun…) – Films: Harkis (2011) - Loin des
hommes (2015) - La source des femmes (2011).
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Advanced levels
Class A
Class B
French 7
Language & current affairs
in the French alternative &
specialised press (critical
analysis)
-‘La décroissance’ (the
degrowth movement)
-‘Religions &
Laïcité/secular nationalism’
(introduction) –
-‘Féminismes & Identité
masculine’
French 8
Language & current affairs
in the French alternative &
specialised press (critical
analysis)
‘Les intellectuels français
médiatisés’ (Zemmour,
Onfray, Fourest…)
Advanced options
French/Francophone songs
as historical, social and
political discourse
5/02/2016
?
14
BAO: boîte à outils (on line toolkit / in
progress)
• Common site of resources for all French students
for independent learning.
• Will Include a pool of ‘supporting documents’,
access to online sites on French & Francophone
History (in English & French) favoring a critical
perpective on History.
• Extracts from relevant literature on Discourse
Analysis.
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FR6 student
‘Pendant que je fais ce cours j’apprenais des
choses sur la civilisation mondiale ce qui a
transformé la façon dans lequel je regarde le
monde entier’
5/02/2016
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Concluding remarks
Politicizing ILT implies:
•
Clear political, ethical (philosophical) engagement /sense of social responsibility
from teaching staff.
•
Collaborative team work.
•
More and new cultural content (e.g French/Francophone/Global )c ontent as 1st
step for politicizing ILT (at tertiary level) targeting current societal issues in their
historical contexts.
•
Challenge: finding ‘a common narrative’ across levels suited to the educational
context .
•
‘Real communication’ and teachers’ political, ethical, moral engagement in
dialogue with students.
•
Collaborative work with faculties of education (language & culture education) to
develop coherent content and progression from primary through secondary &
tertiary levels.
5/02/2016
Contact: [email protected]
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References
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