Addressing cultural diversity: effects of a problem-based intercultural learning unit

Abstract

This article explores to what extent a problem-based learning unit in combination with cooperative learning and affectively oriented teaching methods facilitates intercultural learning. As part of the study, students reflected on critical incidents, which display misunderstandings or conflicts that arise as a result of cultural differences. In dealing with these cases, students were encouraged to reflect on their own cognitive and affective processes (such as categorisation and judgement) in order to become aware that thoughts, emotions and actions are socially and culturally influenced. Students devised strategies to handle the situations depicted. Participants were young adult learners (N = 40). Students in the experimental group were compared with a control group, which received regular intercultural learning classes. Results indicated that the intervention supported learning and the cooperative learning situations in combination with the affectively oriented teaching methods stimulated intercultural learning processes. However, the analysis also revealed the limitations of short-term interventions in tackling the motivational and attitudinal dimension of student learning, therefore hinting at the need for long-term projects in order to sustain a lasting positive approach to cultural diversity.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Description of film sequence: cultural misunderstanding

The sequence shows three people who live in Germany and talk about their personal experience with misunderstandings in intercultural settings. The first person is a young German woman travelling abroad. She is invited to tea with a Kazakh family. After one cup of tea, the young woman is not thirsty anymore, which she explains to the family, but more tea gets poured into her cup whenever she empties her cup. A young girl saves her by telling that she has to turn the cup around when she has had enough tea. The second is a young Polish doctor who does a professional exchange in Germany. During a surgery, he wants to ask one of the fellow doctors to excuse him for a moment, because he has a congested nose. What he actually says, however, is that he has a “full nose” which in German has quite a different meaning and means that you are sick and tired of something. The third person is from Russia. She remembers the time when she studied German as a foreign language in Russia. The course was taught by Russians, but 1 day they got a new lecturer from Germany. While the announcement of a native speaker from Germany first caused great excitement, students felt confused and somewhat appalled when the lecturer actually arrived, as she walked into the lecture room, sat down on the table instead of the chair, and blew her nose forcefully.

The communication problems depicted are therefore situated at different levels: verbal communication (e.g. idiomatic language use), non-verbal communication (e.g. blowing the nose) and sometimes conflicting messages between verbal communication and non-verbal communication (e.g. the German woman who says that she does not want to have more tea but fails to turn the cup around).

Appendix 2: Worksheet “Autobiography of intercultural encounters”

Appendix 3: Example of critical incident with work instructions

Lisa is a 19-year-old from Cologne who has studied Spanish at school for some time. She now wants to do an internship in Barcelona. First, Lisa lives in a hostel, but she really wants to share a flat. However, it is quite difficult to find a flat with people of her age. There are few offers, and whenever she finds a potential match, she is turned down on the telephone. Lisa can‘t help thinking that it is her fault. Finally, she finds a flat and moves in with two young women from Barcelona, Maria and Rosa. They all get along well. One night friends come to visit. The guests are very friendly to Lisa, but talk to each other only in Catalan. Lisa doesn’t understand Catalan. When the friends come back to visit, Lisa asks them to speak in Spanish, to which her flatmates and the visitors agree. However, they continue speaking Catalan amongst each other. Lisa feels quite annoyed. A couple of days later, she tries to loosen up the atmosphere and proposes to celebrate her birthday. Maria and Rosa are enthusiastic, but Lisa feels snubbed when they propose to celebrate the party at a bar. Lisa has never complained about Rosa’s and Maria’s visitors, and now she cannot celebrate her birthday in the flat! Lisa thinks about moving to another flat.

Instructions

Step 1 (individual work)

• Which situations irritate Lisa during her stay in Barcelona? How does she deal with them?

• How does Lisa interpret the situations and what kind of feelings does that evoke in her? Why could that be?

Step 2 (group work)

• Compare your answers.

• What other possibilities could there be to deal with the situations depicted? Try to consider Rosa’s and Maria’s perspective. Write down your answers.

Step 3 (group work)

• Prepare a role play. There are three roles: Lisa, Thorsten/Tamara, and Ruben/Rosalie.

• The situation: Lisa is talking with two of her friends about the incident described above in a café and asks her friends for advice. Present are: a friend from Germany (Thorsten/Tamara), who is visiting Lisa in Barcelona, and a Catalan friend (Ruben/Rosalie), who speaks German.

• First decide in your group which roles you will play. Ruben/Rosalie is the only group member to receive some additional information. This background information should not be shared with the other group members beforehand and should only be introduced during the role play.

Appendix 4: Assessment scheme

Assessment category (maximum score 6)	Problem analysis	Affective Analysis	Strategies	Conclusions
	What happened here?	What kind of feelings does this situation probably trigger in Sofia and Carol? Why is that?	How would you react in Sofia’s place? Please be specific	What can we learn from a situation like this?
Superordinate assessment criterion: Answers should show that students take the cultural dimension into account when interpreting the situations. Students are aware that the persons’ actions in the incidents could be culturally influenced, and they accept and respect these differences. They develop appropriate and effective behavioural strategies for the situations depicted	Sofia’s communication problems with her fellow students could be because “see you later” etc. is just a way to say goodbye and should not be taken literally. For Sofia, there is thus a contradiction between what her fellow students say (see you later) and their behaviour (they do not ask to meet her somewhere else). Sofia’s communication problems with Carol could be because Sofia discusses a topic that you can discuss openly in Germany, but perhaps in the USA you have to be more cautious about this or should not talk about this at this point in the friendship. Sofia assesses the behaviour of her fellow students and Carol as a dismissal and she wrongly concludes that superficiality must be the reason	Sofia probably feels that her fellow students are rejecting her and that is why she is sad and feels a little lonely/isolated. Sofia wants to get to know Carol, which is why she asks her about her political views. Because Carol evades this topic, Sofia probably feels rejected by her as well. Because Sofia and Carol haven’t known each other for very long, and foreign politics is possibly a topic that is either discussed cautiously or at this point in the friendship is not typically discussed, Carol could feel cornered by Sofia’s constant questioning. Carol could also think that Sofia might want her to feel responsible for the decisions of her government and might feel like she is under pressure to justify herself	I would talk about the problem with my fellow students or with my host family and try to find out more about how to meet people somewhere else. I would also try to exactly observe how my fellow students arrange a meeting and imitate this behaviour. As for Carol, I would not talk to her about specific political topics and would try to talk to her about more innocuous things. That way I can get to know her better and she will not feel pressured	We can learn something about cultural diversity. We can see, for example, that arranging a meeting can be introduced differently in different countries. We can learn what topics you can talk about at a specific point in the friendship. You might not be able to openly discuss politics everywhere. We can also learn that cultural differences can lead to communication difficulties or stereotypes. For example, in this case, Sofia concludes that the others are superficial. This then leads her to giving a stereotype to a whole group of people (in this case, US-Americans). We can learn that cultural background could influence communication habits. You therefore have to be open and observe things carefully. In general, you should be flexible and try out different strategies and modes of behaviour

1. Negative strategies (e.g. accuse Carol of being superficial and not interested in politics/not greet classmates anymore/break off contact with Carol) were assessed with 0 points

Appendix 5: Interview guide

Appendix 6: Creation of a poster

• 1. Students put index cards on the blackboard

• 2. After having categorised the index cards, students removed the less relevant cards and created a poster