M2 - PRAGMATICS - CULTURE AND INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION.

Definition of Culture: The concept of ‘culture’ has been the concern of many different disciplines such as philosophy, sociology,
anthropology, literature and cultural studies, and the definitions offered in these fields vary according to the particular frame of reference
invoked.

The simplest definition, to start with, is the one given from a normative perspective and which usually distinguishes between a small c
culture which refers to the total way of life of a group of people, and a big C culture which refers to products and contributions of a society
Chastain, 1988).

A more complex definition and perhaps the most quoted definition is the one given by Taylor (1871: 1) which runs as follows: ‘culture is
the complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
member of a society’.

In his turn, Shaules (2007: 26) defines culture as 'complex whole' refers to "the shared knowledge, values and physical products of a
group of people". From the above definitions, two basic views of culture have emerged: the humanistic concept of culture and the
anthropological concept of culture.

The Humanistic Concept of Culture: It captures the 'cultural heritage' as a model of refinement, an exclusive collection of a community's
masterpieces in literature, fine arts, music etc.

The Anthropological Concept of Culture: It refers to the overall way of life of a community or society, i.e., all those traditional, explicit
and implicit designs for living which act as potential guides for the behaviour of what is an 'Intercultural Speaker'?

Culture in the anthropological sense captures a group's dominant and learned set of habits, as the totality of its non biological inheritance
involves presuppositions, preferences and values - all of which are, of course, neither easily accessible nor verifiable.

In what follows, the broad anthropological sense of culture will be pursued. Four analytical levels on which culture has been characterized
can be differentiated (House 2005):

1. The general human level, along which human beings differ from animals. Human beings unlike animals are capable of reflexion, and they
are able to creatively shape and change their environment.

2. The societal, national level, culture being the unifying, binding force which enables human beings to position themselves Vis a Vis
systems of government, domains of activities, religious beliefs and values in which human thinking expresses itself.

3. The third level corresponds to the second level but captures 'various societal and national subgroups according to geographical region,
social class, age, sex, professional activity and topic.

4. The personal, individual one relating to the individual's guidelines of thinking and acting. This is the level of cultural consciousness
(Huizinga 1938: 14), which enables a human being to be aware of what characterizes his or her own culture and makes it distinct from
others.
In line with these different levels integrating human, social and individual views of culture, the concept of culture has been variously
defined, most succinctly by Hofstede (1984) as a type of "collective programming of the human mind". Other, like for instance Goodenough
proposed a more elaborate formulation:

Culture is not a material phenomenon; it does not consist of things, people, behavior, or emotions. It is rather an organization of these
things.

Culture is the forms of things that people have in mind, their model of perceiving, relating, and otherwise interpreting them (Goodenough
1964: 36).

Culture and Language Teaching: The various aspects of culture which may be involved in foreign language teaching were discussed by
Robinson, G. L. (1985) and are briefly summarized here:

From a behavioural view, culture is considered as observable human behaviour and includes customs, habits and rituals particular to a
specific group. In relation to language teaching this can be realized through teaching daily practices of native speakers such as doing one's
shopping.

From a functionalist view, culture is seen as forms of rule governed behaviour. The rules underlying a person's behaviour are to be
inferred from her/his observed behaviours. In relation to teaching culture this can be realised through understanding why a native speaker
acts or behaves in a particular way in a particular situation.

From .a cognitive view, culture is seen as a set of mental processes ranging from memorization to interpretation of incoming data much
similar to data processing by computer programs. In teaching culture this can be realised through helping the learners to get an insider's view
of the target culture.

From a symbolic view, culture is seen as a non static system of symbols and meanings. These meanings arise from an individual's
conception of the world around her/ him. In culture teaching, this calls for a union between the learners past experiences (native culture) and
new experiences (target culture) in order to create meaning.
 On the basis of these aspects, a definition of culture may be phrased as follows: Culture refers to the specific and general learned
knowledge about of behaviour, skills, beliefs, values, norms and attitudes which guides individuals and inclines them to function as a group.
This knowledge is required for effective communication and interaction among individuals from the same culture.

Culture is dynamic, pervasive and constantly changing. It engages an individual member of a particular group or society cognitively,
behaviorally, mentally and affectively.

Intercultural Communicative Competence: The growing interest in the development of the learners' communicative competence has
prompted the need to make of culture an active force in foreign language teaching.

This is partly due to people's conviction of the important role of culture in intercultural communication and partly due to the advances
made in different fields of study such as sociolinguistics, ethnography and anthropology.

Intercultural communicative competence in foreign language teaching is, in the first place, an extension of the concept of communicative
competence and builds on it. This, as stated before, refers to the appropriate ways a native speaker, and, for that matter, a foreign language
learner behaves linguistically, socio-linguistically and pragmatically.

Whereas communicative competence includes only knowledge and skills, intercultural communicative competence also includes the
learners' personal identity, social abilities and attitudes, such as risk-taking, tolerance and respect for cultural and individual differences.

Hence, the different components of intercultural communicative competence are of a cognitive (knowledge), pragmatic (performance of
speech acts), and an attitudinal (open mindedness and tolerance) nature.

Intercultural communicative competence also involves a language user's ability to cope with one's own cultural background in the process
of interaction with foreign cultures and requires knowledge about one's country and culture and those of the others', skills, attitudes and
critical cultural awareness...etc.

According to Fantini (2006: 12), intercultural communicative competence can be defined as "a complex of abilities needed to perform
effectively and appropriately when interacting with others who are linguistically and culturally different from oneself'.

According to Fantini (2000), this complex of abilities includes: awareness, attitudes, skills, knowledge and language proficiency. Seen
from this perspective, intercultural communicative competence is a necessary prerequisite for foreign language learners to function in an
acceptable manner with speakers with a different linguistic and cultural background. It covers a speakers' ability to develop and maintain
relationships, to communicate effectively and appropriately and to achieve compliance and collaboration with others.

Merinet Meyer believes that intercultural competence includes ‘the speaker's ability to behave adequately and in a flexible manner when
confronted with actions, attitudes, and expectations of representatives of foreign cultures’ (cited in Byram, 1991: 137).

In terms of foreign language teaching and learning, this can mean to perceive the difference and to be able to cope with it. More
importantly, teaching a foreign culture should not only concentrate on the cultural differences between the culture of the native language and
that of the target language on a cognitive level but should also allow the learners to learn to act acceptably in different cross-cultural
situations.

Seen from this perspective, intercultural communicative competence can be described as a process whereby the learners develop the
capacity to adapt themselves and to alter their perspective with the aim to understand and accommodate the differences between their own
and the foreign culture, i.e., to develop certain sensitivity to cultural differences and open-mindedness.

Intercultural communicative competence, therefore, involves context appropriate interaction, where context is believed to be culturally
influenced. It also refers to the process whereby the learners develop empathy towards the foreign language culture which will help them
build a conception of their interlocutors as culturally built beings and to look beyond stereotype and prejudice. In short, the totality of these
strategies can be referred to as the ‘grammar of culture’.

For Byram (1997), intercultural communicative competence can be seen as an extension of communicative competence. In addition to
linguistic, socio-linguistic and discourse competence, intercultural communicative competence necessitates some skills, knowledge and
attitudes. Building on Byram’s work (1997), intercultural competence, in this thesis, is understood to involve the following skills:

Savoirs: knowledge of self and others, of interaction, of social groups and their products and practices.

Savoir être: intercultural attitudes such as openness, willingness to relativise ones own values, beliefs and behaviours and value those of
others.

Savoir comprendre: skills of interpreting and relating such as the ability to interpret an event from another culture and relate it to events
from one's own.

Savoir apprendre/ faire: skills of discovery and/or interaction such as the ability to acquire new knowledge of cultures and cultural
practices and also use it in interaction.

Savoir s'engager: critical cultural awareness which implies the ability to critically evaluate perspectives, practices and products both in
one's own and other cultures.