02 The Meaning of Culture

1. 02 The Meaning of Culture Lecturer: H. Cindy Lee Intercultural Communication & English Education

2. Conceptualizing ‘Culture’ • ‘Big C’ Culture • Achievement Culture/ Objective Culture/ Elite Culture/ High Culture / Formal Culture • e.g. geographical monument, history, arts, literature, political system, religion, education, customs, etc.

3. Conceptualizing ‘Culture’ • ‘little C’ Culture • Behavior Culture / Subjective Culture / Daily Culture • e.g. worldview, a shared system of attitudes, values, beliefs and behavior, ‘collective mental programming’, ‘software of the mind’, etc.

4. Characteristics of Culture • Culture is learned • Enculturation • Conscious Learning / Unconscious Learning • We learn our culture through: • proverbs • traditional literature • art • mass media • elders, parents…

5. Characteristics of Culture • Culture is subject to change through: • Innovation • Diffusion • Acculturation • Culture is integrated • Culture is ethnocentric

6. Culture in Language Education(Conventional Views) • Culture as element of pragmatics and semantics • e.g. the cultural history of lexis, particular usage of vocabulary • Culture as Macro-context for language use • e.g. politeness in context

7. Culture in Language Education (Conventional Views) • Culture as thematic content • e.g. topical issues for reading texts or lecture such as human rights, environmental problems, festivals, etc.

8. Culture in Language Education (Communicative View) • Subjective Culture in learning of language: • Language use (social context of language) • Nonverbal behaviors (e.g. body language) • Communication style (patterns of discourse) • Cognitive style (e.g. preferred forms of logic) • Cultural values (e.g. judgment of behaviors)

9. Note of Culture in Language Education • In current English teaching and learning materials, there are more or less culturally relevant content. • All kinds of culturally relevant content contribute to IC teaching and learning to a certain degree. The effect depends on how you interpret and teach it in class.

10. The Focus of This Course • We concern about what drives people to do things in a certain way (cultural root). • We will also look at various cultural patterns in different communicative contexts. • The way people communicate is the way they live. It is their culture.

11. behavior clothing food The Focus of This Course cultural patterns, products, life style meanings, beliefs, attitudes, values cultural roots

12. The Aim of This Course Intercultural Concept Intercultural Knowledge Intercultural Understanding Intercultural Communication Intercultural Competence

13. Reflection • Describe a typical day from morning to night in terms of the cultural values that govern your actions. For example: Culture Values Hygiene is part of basic manner. (Most Taiwanese people take shower at night, but you may find many Westerners take shower in the morning to avoid odors.) Action Brush teeth (Do you take shower in the morning?) Eat breakfast (sandwiches, porridge/bun? ) Breakfast often reflects the origin of one’s family and cultural influence. For example, families from North of China may prefer 燒餅,油條,饅頭, those from the South may have 稀飯. If you live on your own, probably you buy a bread or whatever the vendor next to your school sells to you!? Isn’t this like western-style ‘fast-food’?

14. Reference • Smith, A. G. (ed.) 1966. Communication and Culture: Readings in the Codes of Human Interaction. Now York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. • Gibson, R. 2002. Intercultural Business Communication. Oxford University Press.

15. Discussion & Assignment • Please go on the section of Discussion and Assignment. -End- See you in next unit!