Bilingualism and culture

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For several decades, experts in the field of Linguistics have debated  the benefits and disadvantages of bilingualism or multilingualism in the development of children. From a cognitive perspective, some argue that bilingualism may delay or negatively affect the linguistic development of a child. However, most linguists nowadays support the idea that bilingualism does not only provide the skills to communicate fluently and effectively in two languages, but it also enhances other cognitive abilities, such as working memory, and it may help prevent certain illnesses. Chris Berube, blogger at radiolab.org, wrote a blog post a couple of weeks ago on this topic: Mapping the Bilingual Brain. Having consulted with currently very relevant researchers such as Ellen Bialystok and Cathy Price, Berube makes some points about the “wiring” of the brain of a bilingual or multilingual person, such as the increased ability of sorting information in busy environments, and the importance of learning two or more languages from an early age.

These positive effects have been extensively studied in the area of Linguistics from multiple perspectives, also with much evidence from the area of Bilingual and Bicultural Education. Some leading voices in the field, such as Ofelia García, suggest that, along with language abilities, there are other cultural and personal abilities that are heightened in bilingual and multilingual learners.Languages are not only channels of communication, they also capture ideas, values and frameworks around which their speakers build their interactions and descriptions of their environment. With the proper sensitivity, those raised in bilingual and multilingual environments can be more likely to bond with cultures similar to those of their languages, find ways to communicate ideas overcoming language barriers, or holding greater tolerance to different beliefs, behaviors or traditions.

The relation between bilingualism and intercultural learning is very close and direct and both develop similar abilities. Of the many factors that influence our intercultural abilities, language is one not to be ignored.

Intercultural Dialogue Day 2012 Photo and Video Contest Winners!

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On 27 September 2012, the European Federation of Intercultural Learning (EFIL) and AFS partnered to celebrate Intercultural Dialogue Day (IDD) 2012 to promote intercultural learning. This year, IDD held a best Video and Photo contest for events and activities that celebrated intercultural learning and dialogue.

Everyone who participated in the IDD made wonderful contributions to furthering the awareness of intercultural learning. As well, many stayed connected through IDD’s facebook page, which is where the winners of the photo and video contest were announced. Congratulations to the winners from AFS Hungary and AFS Russia!

Watch the best video and see the best picture on the IDD facebook page!

 

AFS Intercultural Link Newsletter – volume 3, issue 4

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The newest edition of the Intercultural Link Newsletter has just been launched. Feel free to leave a comment after you read it. Enjoy!

AFS Intercultural Programs is pleased to announce the October/ November/ December 2012 issue of AFS Intercultural Link Newsletter volume 3, issue 4 – Global Edition, which can be shared with everyone interested in learning more about intercultural education.

The AFS Intercultural Link Newsletter is the quarterly newsletter on intercultural learning in the AFS Network. The newsletter features content shared by the Intercultural Learning Work Group as well as other AFS Partners and guest writers, including information on trends in intercultural education, interviews with experts in the field and overviews of upcoming and previous conferences.

Happy International Volunteers’ Day!

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Dear Volunteers around the world – Today is your day!

In 1985, the United Nations declared 5 December as International Volunteer Day, to formally recognize the millions of people around the world who participate in volunteer activities and make visible their contributions on the local, national, and international levels. In celebration of this year’s International Volunteer Day, Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has shared this message:

“Founded on the values of solidarity and mutual trust, volunteerism transcends all cultural, linguistic and geographic boundaries. By giving their time and skills without expectation of material reward, volunteers themselves are uplifted by a singular sense of purpose.”

AFS also extends its heart-felt thanks and appreciation to all of its 43,905 active volunteers, who dedicate their time, energy, and passion to AFS in so many ways! We invite you to view the below video from AFS’s President and CEO, Vincenzo Morlini, as well as visit the AFS Intercultural Programs website today for special information related to International Volunteer Day.

Happy International Volunteer Day!

Puget Sound Off: Opportunities for Young People to Connect

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Puget Sound Off is an online site where young people between the ages of 13 and 21 can connect, collaborate, share inspiration in different causes and take action. Participants can choose a cause in areas as varied as animal rights, health and safety, social justice and sports.

The platform is a space to express opinions, learn about different perspectives, create groups around common interests and participate in collaborative action strategies to advocate for a cause. Sharing strategies in this way can help youth have a better understanding of how to work with others or how advocates for one cause in different areas of the world can result in a common goal becoming meaningful in many local contexts.

Youth can share ideas, projects or resources, such as videos. Through the interest groups, they can also connect with events that happen in their area and announce career opportunities that may inspire others. The whole idea behind Puget Sound Off is to provide young people the necessary channels and outlets for experimentation and creativity.

At AFS Intercultural Programs, we also provide opportunities for youth to connect and enrich their cultural and learning experiences by emphasizing the commonalities, but also the singularities, of people of different cultures who want to work together and learn from each other to make their local environments better.

Developing Awareness in the Personal Realm

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One of AFS’s guiding frameworks is the pyramid of Educational Objectives. This pyramid shows how the intercultural experience that AFS provides is based on the development of personal awareness.

In an entry featured here in July on the power of introverts, we summarized the findings of Susan Cain, author of Quiet, a book publishing research on the characteristics of introverts and the impact that a culture and society tending to favor characteristics of extroverts in professional and educational settings can have.

Personalities as well as the societies we are raised in both influence our identities and cultural make-up and while introverts and extroverts exist everywhere, their characteristics in work and learning environments may be valued differently depending on cultural values. This analysis is pertinent to many of the curricular aspects on which AFS, the Intercultural Link Learning Program, and the greater Intercultural Learning department focus. Becoming aware of these traits can help enrich our interpersonal and intercultural experiences in our roles at AFS and in our lives.

So, where do the concepts of introvert and extrovert come from? Psychological type is a theory developed by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, which proposes that although people use their minds in different ways, they do tend to follow certain patterns of behavior. Jung defined eight patterns of normal behavior, which he called types. The introverted and the extroverted pattern reveals where individuals like to focus their energy or how they are energized by either the internal world of ideas, memories and emotions, or by the external world of people, experience and activities. Especially relevant to our AFS work is the notion that, while an introvert, for example, can operate in the external world, this individual will likely prefer or be more comfortable focusing their attention inward. An extrovert may be successful in solo projects, but then may require stimulation from a group setting to regain energy. These personality traits have been observed across cultures and are not determined by our cultural background, gender or age, although, as Susan Cain suggests, the learned values may imply that a culture or society prefers or rewards behavior that is characteristic of an introvert or an extrovert.

Several tools have been developed that are based on Jung’s theory and that can be used to assess personality type in professional and educational organizations.

Many of these are available online. To explore how these tools assess your personality type check out: Myers Briggs Type Indicator, the Jungian Type Index and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter.

Single-Loop and Double-Loop Learning Model

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The model describes two ways that we can learn from our experiences and calls these single-loop and double-loop learning.  The model, based on the work of Psychology and Organizational Development Professor, Chrys Argyris can support group development processes, global teamwork, and intercultural learning. Single-loop learning involves connecting a strategy for action with a result. For example, if an action we take yields results that are different to what we expected, through single-loop learning, we will observe the results, automatically take in feedback, and try a different approach.

This cyclical process of applying a new strategy to achieve an expected or desired outcome may occur several times and we may never succeed. Running out of strategies may push us to re-evaluate the deeper governing variables that make us behave the ways we do. Re-evaluating and reframing our goals, values and beliefs is a more complex way of processing information and involves a more sophisticated way of engaging with an experience. This is called double-loop learning and looks at consequences from a wider perspective.

Adapted from interpretations of Argyris's writings: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/argyris.htm and http://bsix12.com/double-loop-learning/

Our values and beliefs are deeply rooted to our cultural background, as are the assumptions we make about what strategies will be successful in a given situation, or what outcomes will result from any given action or behavior.  When confronted with an intercultural misunderstanding, it is natural for us to “react” with our default behavior. If this behavior is not effective we will reassess our strategy (through single-loop learning) until we find one that gives a result that makes sense to us. In many environments this may be enough.

In intercultural situations, however, if we do not address the governing variables, deeper beliefs and conceptual frameworks of WHY this outcome makes sense to us, and why we do what we do, we may frequently be unsuccessful.

These situations require a deeper assessment of the situation and our strategy. In cases like these, not only will we evaluate our own goals and beliefs, but also those of the people we interact with. To have a constructive outcome, we may need to modify and adapt some of these variables to create an attitude that is open to many cultural values and application methods.

Both single-loop and double-loop learning are effective in the right situation. In AFS intercultural environments, we need to be receptive to feedback and will often revise not only our strategies, but also our deeper governing variables. Read here for more about the loop learning model and its relation to Experiential Learning method, such as that experienced in AFS.

 

The Multicultural Project “Journeys of Belonging”

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The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), the British Council’s Our Shared Future project, the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the Reynolds Institute have recently launched the multimedia project Journeys of Belonging, an original multicultural idea that takes an in-depth look at the personal narratives of 17 men and women of a diverse range of ages, backgrounds and religions.

This project was initiated by a group of Missouri students who were able to produce 114 video testimonials from people including former President of Portugal Jorge Sampaio, Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Auma Obama, and activist and athlete Beatrice Faumuina to shed light the fundamental commonalities that people of diverse backgrounds and ages hold.

“Journeys of Belonging tackles mistaken religious, cultural and gender identity stereotypes like the inaccurate assumption that non-Westerners hold contrary values to those of Americans, the British and other Europeans.”

You can find the videos on the official website and sort them by topic or person interviewed. This project will also continue with a panel discussion in Washington DC in December (check website for updates) in which the speakers will build on some of the topics arising from the videos: personal identity, the relationship between religion and democracy, the “us versus them” mentality and many more topics.

“Part of what it means to develop the skills to live in multicultural, diverse societies is to recognize that we are the product of diverse strands of identity. Personal stories play an important role,” Emmanuel Kattan, Project Manager, Our Shared Future.

We leave you with a short video as an introduction to the project Journeys of Belonging.

Winter Academy on Intercultural Competence – Register Now!

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The end of 2012 doesn’t mean the end of intercultural learning opportunities! Students in many places around the world may have a break from classes, but experiential learning outside the classroom is at the heart of the AFS experience! To this end, the first Winter Academy on Intercultural Competence organized by InterCultur gGmbH (the non-profit subsidiary of AFS Germany which was founded in the beginning of this year) and Jacobs University will take place in January 2013, and hopes to encourage and develop intercultural competence, knowledge and skills! The Winter Academy will take place 14-25 January on the campus of Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany.

The Winter Academy on Intercultural Competence will not only present theoretical frameworks regarding intercultural learning, but also practical competencies and knowledge, to enable participants to work as intercultural trainers themselves in the future.

All courses will include workshop sessions with both theoretical and practical content offered by academic professors and AFS trainers. This collaboration will bridge the gap between theory and practice!

The Winter Academy addresses people who are interested in teaching intercultural competence themselves. Such as:

  • Students with an intercultural area of studies or/and their own international experiences, who would like to pass their theoretical knowledge through practical trainings.
  • Trainers, who have already gathered experience and would like to start working in an intercultural context.
  • Young professionals and/or multipliers, who are committed or devoted to intercultural learning, e.g. teachers or practitioners in the field of international youth work.

Enrolled students have the opportunity to obtain 5 European Credit Points (ECTS) for participating in the first seven course days. This is a standardization of higher education within the European Union that accumulates points which lead to the completion of a degree. One year of coursework usually counts for 60 points.

As well, after participating in the entire duration of the Winter Academy (10 course days), participants will be awarded the certificate “Intercultural Trainer” issued by Jacobs University and InterCultur gGmbH.

The Winter Academy offers a great opportunity for people who are involved in (intercultural) training activities. Through the Winter Academy, AFS will not only give students the opportunity for a diverse intercultural education experience, but will also demonstrate our competence at a university level and confirm our identity as an educational organization.

The registration deadline is 15 November 2012. If you have any questions regarding the program, please contact Barbara Langholf (Barbara.Langholf@intercultur.de).

Culture through Education and Textbooks

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How is culture created? How is it transmitted in educational settings? Can students be exposed to a culture-neutral curriculum? What role do textbooks have in shaping one’s cultural views and attitudes?

These questions arise while reading the article “Textbooks around the world. It ain’t necessarily so”, published in The Economist on 13th October 2012. Textbooks are an essential tool in education and what is taught often spurs controversy, because it may challenge or confirm our accounts of national history, of our culture and the cultures of our neighbors.

An international reference in textbook research is the Georg Eckert Institute, which has collected textbooks from over 160 countries and analyzed their content, maps, images, etc., and has found significant reason to be concerned about this topic. The most controversial areas are history and geography, but opinions also differ around the content of religion and science. Language is a critical area too, especially with regard to which foreign languages are chosen to teach and learn in the general curriculum. The choice of a language may or may not represent the language and the culture that a community speaks. Children and communities expected to learn in a language that is not their first or native language receive subtle messages that their language is not as good, as precise or developed to transmit knowledge and educate. Because language is so rooted in culture, by extension they also sense a devaluing of culture.

Governments and communities all over the world have used textbooks as tools to influence and modify national culture and attitudes, and continue to do so. Sometimes these policies are used to depict the neighbor as undesirable and dangerous. While textbooks can be used to spread knowledge and tolerance, it is important to be mindful of the knowledge limitations and intolerance which can also be built as a result of incomplete or biased information.

We must explore the ideologies printed in educational texts around the world and remain mindful that this is part of our work as global educators in AFS with a mission to build knowledge, skills and understanding that create a more just and peaceful world. As facilitators of intercultural learning, global professionals and emerging global citizens it is critical that we are aware of the messages being sent by our community’s educational institutions. We can reflect on these and ask ourselves how messages are rooted in cultural norms. How do these messages solidify or contradict our values and our understanding of what is right and wrong?