Communicating Foreign Cultures in America: A Study Case from Cultural Ambassadors

of International Culture Service Program at OSU

Study Objectives

Have you ever heard your friend making a comment that children in Thailand are riding
elephants to school? In other case, your friend might make a “naïve” comment about practice of
cannibalism in Indonesia or imagining Indonesian as size as hobbits after reading the National
Geographic Magazine.

Media often makes us mistakenly having false imageries of a foreign country as an exotic, wild,
and savage tribal. Under our conscious, we often bring such prejudice and stereotype about
habits and customs of foreign people who we have never known before to our daily life.

As an international student, I once had a prejudice about America too. My imageries of America
came from Hollywood movies, where they describe that being American is associated with sex,
power, wealth, and having excessive freedom. However, I learn on how to break the “Hollywood
myths”.

My research proposal aims to study on how the foreign culture is communicated to American
public. What kind media is used to visualize a foreign culture to audiences? What kind of
topic the speakers choose to present and on what consideration? What kind of preparation
they have to do? What kind of reaction audiences make? What kind of interaction occurs
between the presenters (cultural Ambassadors) with audiences?

Sometimes, the audience has little or no knowledge on the foreign culture. This can be a
challenge for presenters.

However due to time constraint, I will focus my study at Oregon State University. For that
purpose, I will make observations to the group of international students who receive a
scholarship from the International Culture Service Program (ICSP).

ICSP began at OSU in 1983 and it has attracted many outstanding students from countries
around the globe. Currently, there are representatives from 28 different countries serving this
program. The program offers a scholarship to international students in exchange for cultural
service to the surrounding communities. The goal of the ICSP program is to increase cultural
awareness and understanding throughout the local region and the state of Oregon.

Literature Review
Communicating Foreign Cultures in America: A Study Case from Cultural Ambassadors
of International Culture Service Program at OSU

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“The ability or competence will be shown to extend beyond the four classroom walls after the
acquisition of language has been accomplished” (Savignon, et.al. 2002).

The quotation above is a picture of synergy emerges once the students and teacher reach an equal
understanding to lecture material. When the position was reached, the interaction between
teachers and students will be ideal and meaningful. A meaningful communication, in addition,
can provide students visualization of an authentic or real life situation with native or native-like
speakers of the target language (Canale and Swain, 1983).

To teach language, one must also teach the culture inherent in the language, including the verbal
as well as the non-verbal aspects (Savignon& Sysoyev, 2002). They also suggested that teaching
foreign culture to language students will foster in these students “socio-cultural competence”. In
the same parable, when speaker spoke to public who have minimal knowledge about their
culture, the presenter must be able to present it in language that is easily to be understood.

The definition of socio-cultural competence is developing an understanding of general cultural

contexts and their implications will enable someone who was not raised in a particular culture to
fully comprehend speech or text in that culture's language, and to use the language more easily
(American Immigration Law Foundation, 2002).

There are four components of socio-cultural competence: social contextual factors, stylistic
appropriateness factors, cultural factors, and non-verbal communicative factors (Celce-Marcia,
Dorneyi & Thurred, 1995). Some of these components are often neglected. It leads to confusion
or comprehension difficulties in the future.

For example, forms of non-verbal communication, such as body language, eye contact, and use
of personal space are an integral part of the American culture, whose norms are implicitly
understood and are often not discussed. However, people of other cultures usually have different
customs in regards to the type of body language they use, whether or not they maintain eye
contact, and how close they stand to the person with whom they are speaking to in their own
language.

People who are unaware of such communication standards in the American culture frequently try
to employ the norms of their own cultures. However, if their customs are different from those of
the United States, they might give the impression of having a rude or distrustful nature
(Allwright, 1995).

Culture teaching can help to dispel myths or debunk stereotypes associated with the target
culture peoples (Hammerly, 1982). Teaching students and allowing them to reflect about
stereotypes associated with the targeted culture will make students more aware of what culture
is. In addition, having reflection and discussion are crucial to the growth of an intercultural
competence in students enrolled in language classes.

Communicating Foreign Cultures in America: A Study Case from Cultural Ambassadors

of International Culture Service Program at OSU

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There are several strategies that can be used to communicate foreign cultures:

1. Use of Various Materials

Cullen and Sato (2000) encourage an approach encompassing materials such as newspapers,
songs, videos, and stories which are tactile, visual or audio-based in order to touch on many of
the various learning styles of students.

2. The Internet as a Resource

Internet can bring different cultures on hand in a minute. For Hackett (1996) the usefulness of
the internet to language teachers can be summed up by the following statements about internet
resources; that they “provide a direct, immediate link to the target culture” or can serve as “a
multimedia mirror on the target culture” (p.3).

3. Virtual Realia.

Smith (1997) advocates the use of other realia which he postulates “can language and cultural
comprehensibility, which are both prerequisites for real language learning” (p.1). He defines
Virtual Realia as “digitized objects and items from the target culture which are brought into the
classroom as examples or aids and used to stimulate spoken or written language production”. It
can be a means to increase student interest and motivation in learning about language and
culture.

4. Reformulation

Cullen and Sato (2000) describe the activity of reformulation, explaining what one has read or
heard to a partner in one’s own words, as a useful technique that teachers can have their students
engage in. The authors believe it is useful in learning culture as well as language.

5. Selling Differing Cultural Views

Another strategy outlined by Cullen and Sato (2000) involves teachers “selling” differing
cultural views to their students, by contrasting such cultural phenomena as “attractive vs.
shocking, similarities vs. differences…city life vs. country life, stated beliefs vs. actual
behavior”.

6. Personalizing Cultural Content

Communicating Foreign Cultures in America: A Study Case from Cultural Ambassadors

of International Culture Service Program at OSU

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The importance of personalizing cultural content so that students are given the opportunity to
talk about them is another useful technique that Cullen and Sato (2000) believe can help “lead
students to a better cultural understanding”.

7. Presentation of Cultural Misunderstandings

Shumin (1997) suggests presenting situations in the classroom involving cultural

misunderstandings, which in real life would cause one or more of the interlocutors to become
confused, angry or even offended. By having students role play in this way and having a
discussion follow, it is Shumin’s (1997) belief that students will be prompted to think about how
native speakers would behave and see the situation, which in turn will “gradually sharpen
students’ cultural awareness” (p.9).

Theoretical Framework

To understand how culture can be communicated, we first must understand the definition of
culture. The term culture can be confusing or very broad. Culture has been, and continues to be,
defined in many ways.

Peck (1998) described culture as, “the accepted and patterned ways of behavior of a given
people” (p.1) and “as membership in a discourse community that shares a common social space
and history, and common imaginings” (p.10). Sysoyev defined it as, “a system of symbols,
meanings, and norms passed from one generation to the next, which differentiates groups of
people united by certain characteristics such as origin, race, ethnicity, gender, religion,
socioeconomic class, or political views (Sysoyev as cited in Savignon & Sysoyev, 2002, p.513).
Hammerly (1982) stated very simply that culture is, “the total way of life of a people” (p.513).
It is this latter definition which will be used for the purpose of this paper.

Dell Hymes (1962), on the Ethnography of Speaking”, wrote how communication behavior
constitutes the social relationship. It is however, not necessary standing on its own. His question
on ethnography of communication encompassed the basic knowledge a speaker needs to know
to communicate appropriately within a particular speech community.

Dell Hymes’ study can be used to understand what the speakers must understand and prepare
before and when they communicate their culture. He revealed that in order to understand how
culture can be communicated, there are several issues speaker must understand:

(1) The Speech Community, where community is perceived as a natural unit of

sociolinguistics and social entity where they share rules for the conduct and interpretation
of speech. It is important for speaker to know what kind of audience they will have,
whether they are first grader or sophomore. When they understand what kind of speech
rules the community share, it will be easier to design the presentation and choose their
Communicating Foreign Cultures in America: A Study Case from Cultural Ambassadors
of International Culture Service Program at OSU

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 material. In addition, presenter will know how to approach audience and make them
engage with their material.

(2) Speech situation such as activities that are in some way marked (i.e. ceremony, fishing
trip, party). To be more specify, different situation can influence ambiance and
communication pattern. For example, making presentation in class room will be different
to make one in informal fundraising dinner.

(3) Speech Event.

It is restricted to activities that are governed by rules or norms for the use of speech, for
example: conversation at a party.

Having an understanding of communities and their norms will make the presenter able to
visualize their culture in the language or gesture that is easily understood. People, who are
unaware of such communication standards in the American culture, frequently try to employ the
norms of their own cultures. However, if their customs are different from those of the United
States, they might give the impression of having a rude or distrustful nature (Allwright, 1995).

Normative force: given a consensus with a community and intensity (agreement to violation
enforcement) and given individual knowledge to follow the norms, patterns of action in
particular social world will reflect the preferences embodied in the normative system. It is
important to explore alternative these of norms relationship. Bilmes (1976) proposed an
alternative approach on interpretive function. Rather than controlling, resources are used to make
sense of conduct but not necessarily as rules that deterministically govern conduct. As with
norms, their relationship to communicative conduct is a topic open to investigation.

Methodology

Communicating Foreign Cultures in America: A Study Case from Cultural Ambassadors

of International Culture Service Program at OSU