Cultural Synergy: Using Chinese strengths in EAP

Lixian Jin & Martin Cortazzi

Cultural synergy: a theoretical orientation

Notions of culture which are relevant to EAP:

• Culture seen as frameworks of behaviour and values, expectations and interpretations, as active and sometimes variable engagement or social construction with others
• Culture perhaps seen on a macro level (nation, linguistic or ethnic group) but preferably on a micro level (smaller, more localized or contextualised groups, specific groups or communities)
• Culture seen as dynamic and variable, including some diversity and often tensions, contradictions or paradoxes
• Ethnographic perspectives on culture are helpful: statements about culture are made in terms of general trends and common practices on the basis of research evidence; they are not taken to apply necessarily to every individual or situation; they should not involve stereotypes or bias if we are willing to engage with participants’ own interpretations of their cultural practices and if we continually attempt to identify our own predispositions and the bases of our own interpretations while we interpret
• Culture seen in different ways, as:
• communication, ways of speaking and constructing meanings, e.g. socializing through language, being polite, asking questions
• systems of mediation of knowledge and learning, e.g. as academic cultures, disciplinary cultures, institutional cultures, classroom cultures
• systems of practices, routine actions, recurrent and habitual systems of dispositions and expectations, e.g. what teachers and students are supposed to do, how textbooks should be used, what self-study means
• systems of participation, interaction with social groups, membership of a community of ideas and practices, e.g. classroom interaction and participation patterns

Cultures of learning involve all of the above with specific groups of teachers and students as general expectations of all aspects of learning and teaching, in terms of communication, mediation, practices, and participation; they are variable, dynamic and adaptable; they may seem problematic if evaluated from the viewpoint of a participant from a different cultural background. In relation to EAP, a cultures-of-learning perspective may include aspects of

• learning-centred and social constructivist models of learning relevant to particular cultures
• academic and professional discourse systems and ideologies
• a human rights perspective on learning: the right to learn in a particular culture of learning
• cultural adaptation
• intercultural communication competence
• social and cultural identity and identity negotiation
• intercultural transformation

Cultural Synergy involves all of the above with groups of learners or teachers from two or more cultural backgrounds with variable ideas, expectations and practices of cultures of learning: the notion of synergy implies mutual effort from all participants to learn about, understand and appreciate others’ cultures and their interpretations of learning and reciprocally to learn with and from others.

• Cultural synergy involves meta-cognitive and meta-affective aspects of learning in relation to both ourselves and others.
• Cultural synergy involves respect for others and dignity for oneself, a sense of integrity about one’s own participation in a range of cultures of learning, an aspiration for confirmation or enhancement of identity for both learners and teachers
• The enactment of cultural synergy, with some degree of explicitness, is useful for EAP learners because it clarifies expectations of practices regarding uses of English in social and academic contexts; it should expose some underlying presuppositions about academic cultures of learning as they apply to the local institutional context and target disciplines. It is useful for teachers because it sets appropriate but challenging goals for professional development: learning about others’ notions of learning and finding ways to enhance them in relation to relevant host institutions

Originally, we conceived of cultural synergy as a learning-oriented solution to the problem of conceptualising Chinese learners in terms of perceived inadequacies vis-à-vis EAP and academic study in the UK. This still seems a useful approach but we now see that it involves a series of dilemmas between teachers and students, especially in multicultural and internationally diverse contexts

• A dilemma of expectations: who expects what and how do we know this?
• A dilemma of change: who changes; is this imposed or negotiated?
• A dilemma of choice: what are the real choices regarding the right to learn with different cultures of learning when some are differentially recognized in terms of status or power?
• A dilemma of context: what are participants’ perceptions of the validity of different aspects of cultures of learning in different academic contexts?
• A dilemma of identity: do cultures of learning relate to primary or secondary aspects of identity; are they stable or transient; how do cultures of learning related to multiple identities?
• A dilemma of pedagogy: how do teachers relate professional-personal theories of learning with learning-centred orientations if learners bring identifiably different cultures of learning to the classroom?
• A dilemma of interaction: when all participants are aware of different cultures of learning, who uses which one, when, where, how, and why?
• A dilemma of management: how will these dilemmas and the enhanced learning about learning implied in a cultures-of-learning approach nbe managed?

Chinese strengths: illustrated with researched examples

Using questionnaires, interviews, classroom observation and visual ethnography in a series of projects over more than ten years, we identify the following strengths a Chinese cultures of learning:

• A high degree of commonality and consistency of approaches to learning found in different institutions at different levels in different cities in China
• Strong conceptions of teachers and teaching, including aspects of authority and knowledge; respect; ‘parental’ notions of care and concern; notions of reciprocity in human relations; the teacher as a model of learning and standards
• A measure of centrality in classroom interaction with a strong focus on the teacher, the text, and learner-trained learning; surprising variety of activity and intense use of time and pacing; very careful and detailed planning by teachers
• Recent developments, especially in English classes but also in Chinese, Maths and Science classes, using pair and groupwork; these show shifting participation patterns in classroom interaction
• Increased uses of technology, such as multimedia, in learning
• Student activity which focuses on listening to understand with concentrated attention; reading and discussing texts, often in ways which have been clearly exemplified in advance; much homework or out-of-class preparation and follow-up; high awareness of the use of time in class
• Balances between modelling and memorizing; mimicry and mastery with postponed creativity; student preparation and performance, student independent learning and collaborative learning in certain ways
• Strong student conceptions that effort and hard work are as important as ability or talent; that focus and discipline are important for studying; that rigorous self-study, practice and preparation are important for success
• Elaborate class-oriented uses of scaffolding, seen in teachers’ uses of question and answer exchanges which are used, together with close observations of learners
• Sensitive and sophisticated student notions of the uses of language for learning which include learning from the teacher and the book but also learning for oneself in autonomous ways; these ideas are seen in the use of student questions in class, which include high awareness of the teacher and teacher preparation, teacher status, notions of face and awareness of the collective of the class, ideas about finding information for oneself and using questions to confirm one’s own efforts

References

Cortazzi, M. & Jin, L. (1996) English Language Teaching and Learning in China (State of the Art article) Language Teaching, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 61-80.

Cortazzi, M. & Jin, L. (1996) Cultures of Learning: Language classrooms in China, H. Coleman (ed.) Society and the Language Classroom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 169-206.

Cortazzi, M. & Jin, L. (1996) Changes in Vocabulary Learning in China, in H. Coleman & L. Cameron (eds.) Change and Language, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, pp. 153-165.

Cortazzi, M. & Jin, L. (1997) Communicating for Learning across Cultures, in D. McNamara & R. Harris (eds.) Overseas Students in Higher Education, issues in teaching and learning, London: Routledge, pp. 76-90.

Cortazzi, M. & Jin, L. (1999) Cultural Mirrors: materials and methods in the EFL classroom, in E. Hinkel (ed.) Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 149-176.

Cortazzi, M. & Jin, L. (1999) Bridges to Learning, metaphors of teaching, learning and language, in L. Cameron & G. Low (eds.) Researching and Applying Metaphor, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 149-176.

Cortazzi, M. (2000) Languages, Cultures, and Cultures of Learning in the global classroom, in W. K. Ho & C. Ward (eds.) Language in the Global Context, implications for the language classroom, Singapore: SEAMEO RELC, pp. 75-103.

Cortazzi, M. & Jin, L. (2001) Large Classes in China: ‘good’ teachers and interaction, in D. Watkins & J. Biggs (eds.) Teaching the Chinese Learner: psychological and pedagogical perspectives, Hong Kong: CERC, pp. 115-134.

Cortazzi, M & Shen, W. W. (2001) Cross-linguistic Awareness of Cultural Keywords: A study of Chinese and English speakers, Language Awareness Vol. 10, Nos 2 & 3, pp.125-142.

Cortazzi, M. & Jin, L. (in press, 2002) Cultures of Learning, the social construction of educational identities, in D. C. S. Li (ed.) Discourses in Search of Members, in honor of Ron Scollon, New York: Universities Press of America, pp. 47-75.

Jin, L. & Cortazzi, M. (1993) Cultural Orientation and Academic Language Use, in D. Graddol; L. Thompson, & M. Byram (eds.) Language and Culture, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, pp. 84-97.

Jin, L. & Cortazzi, M. (1995) A Cultural Synergy Model for Academic Language Use, in P. Bruthiaux; T. Boswood & B. Du-Babcock (eds.) Explorations in English for Professional Communication, Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong, pp. 41-56.

Jin, L. & Cortazzi, M. (1996) ‘This way is very different from Chinese ways’: EAP Needs and Academic Culture, in T. Dudley-Evans & M. Hewings (eds.) Evaluation and Course Design in EAP, London: Macmillan, pp. 205-216.

Jin, L. & Cortazzi, M. (1998) The Culture the Learner Brings: a bridge or a barrier? In M. Byram & M. Fleming (eds.) Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective, approaches through drama and ethnography, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 98-118.

Jin, L. & Cortazzi, M. (1998) Expectations and Questions in Intercultural Classrooms, Intercultural Communication Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 37-62.

Jin, L. & Cortazzi, M. (1998) Dimensions of Dialogue: large classes in China, International Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 29, pp. 739-761.

Jin, L. & Cortazzi, M. (in press, 2002) English Language Teaching in the People’s Republic of China, a bridge for the future, Asia Pacific Journal of English,

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