Программа по формированию навыков безопасного поведения на дорогах и улицах «Добрая дорога детства» 2
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Минасян Е. Т.к.ф.н., доцент, кафедра иностранных языков № 1 ФГБОУ ВПО, РЭУ им. Г.В. Плеханова г. Москва, РФ EXPLOITING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE IN ESP CLASSROOMLanguage and culture must be integrated in one. With the increase of the importance of the multinational economy in the sphere of ‘Global Village’, there emerges a great need of intercultural awareness rising with respect to methods and approaches used in the classroom and in terms of students’ response. Educators should often have the idea that culture teaching is as important as language teaching, so that students have the general understanding of the related English-speaking countries’ cultural background knowledge, history and politics, etc. Nowadays facilitators of ESP classrooms face completely new requirements referring to methods and techniques necessary to equip students for doing business with different countries, using English as a lingua franca at all times. Business English is therefore concerned with communication but this has to be understood as more than the exchange of information and sending of messages, which has dominated ‘communicative language teaching’ in recent years. Even the exchange of information is dependent upon understanding how what one says or writes will be perceived and interpreted in another cultural context; it depends on the ability to identify and take up the perspective of the interlocutor. But successful ‘communication’ is not judged solely in terms of the efficiency of information exchange. It is focused on establishing and maintaining relationships [2, p.3]. The goal of rather natural multinational communication is even more difficult to reach when students learn English in order to interact with other non-native speakers, using this international language as a medium to communicate across cultural boundaries. The initial assumption was that four types of communication problems could be observed and elaborated in such a virtual setup, explicitly:
And that divergence of assumed meanings would lead to misunderstandings that would help students learn about communication blunders from firsthand experience. Recently Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, namely Management Department, held a business week hosting students from 4 countries (China, Netherlands, Poland and Holland). The theme of the Second International Business Week was “Strategic Management in Global Economy”. The day one was devoted to mutual greeting, introducing one another their counties, cultures and values. To my great surprise I witnessed a series of intercultural communication blunders, such as the greeting slide of the participants from Netherlands stating: “Netherlands - С НОВЫМ ГОДОМ! ВОДКА! – HAPPY NEW YEAR! VODKA”. Though, at first view it looked rather humorous and warm welcoming, but from the point of business etiquette that was impolite and revealed their misinterpretation of the host country culture. Intercultural aspects do not seem to have been entirely integrated into language teaching and learning in this precise context. In order to avoid and further enhance students’ understanding of culture-specific behavior patterns within business communities around the world, the organizers needed to conceive a Do’s and Don’ts questionnaire, based on aspects of business etiquette that seemed most important to all the partners in the project. The questionnaire was to be used as an introspective tool, helping students to gather a number of important insights about themselves and their own culture, namely:
Information gathered with this questionnaire in the various cultural environments was to be compared and discussed in the classroom. At this stage it was assumed that a large variety of culture specific features could be deduced from a random list of behavioral norms forming the core business etiquette in the different cultural environments. Moreover, up-to date classrooms equipped with all mobile and digital instruments facilitate online communication even during the lessons, where the ESP educators could monitor the process of intercultural socializing by revealing and discussing stumbling stones relevant to culture and language. Below are some examples of discussions within the forum of the online project CCBC (http://www.2cbc.net/) and a selection of answers. I kept on investigating further and addressed the same questions to Russian learners from different age/social groups (workers, students, etc.) Subsequently, I selected the most notable ones, drew parallels and would conclude with recommendations. Here are some important issues which refer not only to the routine matters but are also vital in business environment, relate to business etiquette in trying to establish rapport. Q1: A man goes into a bar with a woman. They sit at a table. When the waiter comes to take orders, does he usually address the man or the woman? Why? A1: I think that a few decades ago the waiter addressed the man, because he was expected to be a leader, who was responsible for a woman. But nowadays, in my opinion, men and women are treated equally. Usually, when the waiter comes to take orders, he asks in general without appealing to someone special, so everyone has an opportunity to order. (Russia, a business student) A2: The waiter usually addresses the man because in our country the man plays a more important role in such situations. As he invites the woman to the restaurant, he pays the bill. (Russia, a bank employee) According to the other researched European countries the responses differ greatly. Most countries stressed the gender equality stating that ‘It depends on the waiter who is serving the couple. The situation is Croatia is rather free-minded so it is a case to case approach’; ‘In Italy men and women are equal, so it isn't important if the waiter addresses the woman or the man first’, whereas ‘According to the Romanian good-manners code, at the restaurant a woman shouldn't talk to the waiter, the man does all the talking. But I've noticed that this custom is not respected any more, neither by the clients or the waiter because it's old, and perhaps some people never heard of it. I don't respect it either’. Q2: Would you normally hold the door open to allow a woman/girl to enter a restaurant/classroom/building/car first? Why? Why not? A1: Usually, when I`m in the company of my friends and I have to open the door - I hold it open for them to come in and only after that I enter a building. But if I`m alone, I don`t do that with people of the same age and rank (but I hold the door open for older people or people, who have the higher rank due to etiquette). A2: It depends. If it is necessary (for example, a woman/girl carries baggage), I hold the door open. But if we talk about a situation when I go out from the building and a woman tries to enter, I don't hold the door because it is a traditional rule of etiquette to allow the person to go out first. It should be noted that there was revealed a series of similarities among surveyed countries in answering this question. The strong perception of individualism and equality is demonstrated nearly in every reply like ‘This is just wishful thinking with us! Yes, as a girl, I would like to be treated with some more respect, but I guess I will have to wait until I am older. It seems that people in my generation do not pay much attention to gender when it comes to "Ladies first" and such behaviour. We are pretty equal! (Slovenia) or ‘We think that a boy or a man doesn't hold the door open to allow a woman enter a car first. Unfortunately, nowadays this custom is lost and it's used only in certain cases like weddings. Personally we think that for young people this form of kindness is not necessary’ (Italy). Q3: What is the role of money in your lives? Has the role of money changed in your country lately? A1: Of course, money is an important part of our lives - without them you can hardly provide yourself with basic needs. But at the same time there are a lot of other things like love, friendship, laugh, family etc., which you can`t buy. And I personally think that the best things come free to us, so we shouldn`t overestimate the role of money. Yes, I think that there was no such cult of money in Soviet Union that we have nowadays in our country. Socialistic ideology encouraged equality among the population. In modern Russia we can see huge differentiation of living standards and domination of materialistic values. A2: The role of money in our life is rather important, because it shows your status and estate in society, your successfulness. The role of money has changed in our country in the 21st century. Similarly the respondents of other cultures emphasize the altering importance of money in their lives as ‘In France, money is very important, you can do anything you want, especially on the French Riviera were the corruption is much spread’, and another point from Italy ‘In the past there was a lot of hypocrisy about the topic of money in Italy, but nowadays the attitude is changing. However, we should always remember that money is a means, not a value!!’ Q4: When would you ask for a discount in your everyday life? A1: Usually I ask for a discount when I`m going to buy something in the non-perfect condition (for example, when a new dress has some spots on it). And of course I ask for a discount in cases when I can get a discount (for instance, student`s discount in museums). (Daria, 3 year, REU) A2: I would ask for a discount in such situations as, when I know the level of price on such goods and the price in this place is evidently overstated, but the thing suits me; also when it is a market (or bazaar) where the perfect competition takes place. (Olga, Absolute Bank specialist) Astonishingly the participants have demonstrated perfect bargaining skills and why not appropriate business approach alleging ‘whenever I am buying big and expensive goods in Austria, for example: cars, furniture, etc. (Auatria) or ‘Romania was under Turkish rule a long time. Therefore it is customary to try to bargain every time’. The first two questions above refer to gender issues, and the answers might indicate to what extent traditional etiquette is observed in certain situations in a particular country. Since the respondents are all of the same age group, it is not surprising that their answers provide similar information. They show that gender differences are disappearing, but also seem to point out that youngsters are aware of traditional good manners, however, hardly anyone bothers to observe these rules in daily life. The questions about money issues are always interesting and particularly relevant to future business people since neglecting some subtle cultural differences, such as timing, local practices, hierarchies, etc. can be damaging in dealing with foreign business partners. The answers to these and similar questions will indicate to our students if there are significant cultural discrepancies between other countries, and where sensitivities of particular countries lie. When students travel and do internship abroad, they can gain invaluable experience and learn "by doing". At present networking gives us all a safe environment in which we can present ourselves and learn about the others. If it is true that everything we think and do bears a stamp of our culture, then all that our students produce, both in words and images, has an intrinsic intercultural value, explicitly or implicitly displaying elements of national or regional cultures. ESP educators should encourage learners to organise an intercultural activity through email and, context permitting, they can organise virtual meetings of participating students from different countries via videoconference. Such activities will have three different phases where students will:
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