Today we live in a globalized world where we engage in cross-cultural dialogue on a daily basis. As a result of our participation in this growing multicultural environment, our cultural identities are being redefined, as we transcend borders, and broaden our connections to various communities, at home and abroad. While we have achieved new levels of peace and unity, it is evident that discrimination, prejudice, and bias still plague our society and impact our interactions with others. In this presentation I will critically examine cross-cultural interactions that take place in the ESL classroom, discussing how we as teachers can shape our students into multilingually aware and interculturally competent world citizens.

1. The Intercultural Being:
Fostering Cross-Cultural
Interactions in a
Globalized, Multicultural
Society
Amanda M. Bent

2. Presentation Outline
➢ Rationale
➢ Research Questions
➢ Defining Culture
➢ Using Critical Discourse Analysis
➢ Research Findings
➢ Implications
➢ Classroom Applications
➢ Directions for Future Research
➢ References

3. Rationale
Our participation and engagement in cross-cultural interactions calls for a need to:
● Gain a deeper understanding of our transnational identities in an evolving
globalized, multicultural society
● Raise cross-cultural awareness of our own misconceptions, stereotypes, and
biases
● Engage in critical dialogue that challenges our perceptions and opens our minds
to other perspectives
● Cultivate active world citizens who are multilingually aware and interculturally
competent

4. Research Questions
1. How is ‘culture’ defined and influenced by participants in the classroom?
2. How do ESL teachers mediate cross-cultural tensions and issues
surrounding power that arise in the classroom?
3. How can ESL teachers utilize a more inclusive, multicultural approach
that: a) acknowledges other world & local cultures, b) supports the
development of student’s cultural identities, and c) fosters a greater
sense of community among students?

5. Defining Culture
“Everyone talks about culture, but nobody knows what it is.”
According to English poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold, culture can be defined as:
“A pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all the matters
which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world; and
through this knowledge, turning a stream of fresh and free thought upon our stock
notions and habits.” (as cited in Shanahan, 1998)
Problem arise in notion of “the best,” dividing cultures in terms of who is ‘primitive’ vs. ‘modern,’ or ‘inferior’
vs. ‘superior.’ Anthropologists like Claude Lévi-Strauss aimed to combat such notions by examining the
lives of all different groups of people. However, this cultivated the idea that cultures could be read and
studied like textbooks, lending to notions of cultures as artifacts, countries, and nationalities.
(Shanah

6. Using the Lens of Critical Discourse Analysis
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) provides us with a means of examining how inequality is established
by social structures and institutions, and is maintained in and through language and discourse.
By using this critical vantage point, we can define culture instead as a dynamic process that is
constantly changing over time and space:
- Giroux, 1992: “A process of lived antagonistic relations within a complex of socio-political
institutions and social forms that limit as well as enable human action.”
- Quantz, 1992: “An ongoing political struggle around the meaning given to actions of people
located within unbounded asymmetrical power relations.”
(as cited in Sehlaoui, 2011, p.43)

7. Findings
Tensions that Arise in the Classroom:
A. Cultural Essentialization
B. Opposing Values & Beliefs
C. Race & Social/Political Domination

8. Cultural Essentialization
Tensions arose when students were casted as the “Other,” becoming the cultural
‘ambassador’ or ‘expert.’
● Example: Asking questions to compare and contrast between students’ home culture and the
target language culture, such as, “How is this done in your country?” (Lee, 2014)
Problem: Leads to essentializing a given culture (i.e. overgeneralizing), imposing
our own assumptions, and perpetuating stereotypes on the characteristics of a
larger culture. Results in not recognizing the variation or “co-cultures” that exists
on the state, local, and individual levels (e.g. race, gender, social class, and
physical or mental disability). (Sehlaoui, 2011)

9. Opposing Values & Beliefs
Issues arose when students (and teachers) expressed values and beliefs that
differed from one another, as well as from the target language culture.
● Example: Students feeling as though they must choose between their home culture and the target
language culture, which have different beliefs on what is considered “healthy.” (Santos, McClelland,
and Handley, 2011)
Problem: In research studies, classroom participants’ representations of culture
were constructed from their own personal experiences. This presents challenges
for students and teachers to cooperate and reach an agreement when their values
and beliefs that are deeply embedded in their identities, clash with one another.

10. Race & Social/Political Domination
Tensions arose when topics on culture exacerbated racial injustices, and
demonstrated the social/political domination of the target language culture.
● Particularly, in many classrooms, the English language was found to be associated with ‘Whiteness’
and with Anglophone cultures (i.e. American, British, Canadian, and Australian)
● Example: Students “turning white” through assimilation- adopting the language, accent, and way of
living of the target language community. (Duff, 2002)
Problem: By teaching the language from the perspective of what Kachru (2001) calls
the “inner circle” cultures, we fail to acknowledge and cultivate the various cultural
identities of the students in the classroom.

11. Implications
Current research suggests that we:
● View culture as something that is fluid and complex
● Acknowledge cultural variation
● Be aware of cultural assumptions being brought into the classroom
● Legitimize world Englishes by taking a pluricentric approach (i.e. recognizing
the multiple identities of English)

12. Classroom Applications
● Engage in critical discussion with your students to show complexity and ambiguity by
incorporating multiple perspectives on one topic (Menard-Warwick, 2009)
● Create a space for students to share their ‘transnational voices’ (Santos et. al, 2011)
● Use communicative activities and authentic texts to encourage students to reflect on “the nature of
language, discourse, communication and mediation” (Kramsch, 2011)
● Develop a unit where students can conduct research about their ‘homelands’ and share with their
peers (Ortmeier, 2000)
● Have learners self-assess the development of their intercultural competence by using a portfolio
approach - the European Language Portfolio where they reflect on what they learned in class
(Byram, Gribkova, Starkey, 2002)

13. Directions for Future Research
● Study the influence of supportive networks formed outside the ESL
classroom that provide cross-cultural, collaborative learning opportunities
● Incorporate student voices and experiences in the research
● Develop more practical methods for all teachers in education to use to
cultivate students’ intercultural competence
● Examine ways in which we can create more opportunities to foster better
relations between native English speakers and English language learners
(e.g. experiential learning)

14. References
Byram, M., Gribkova, B., & Starkey, H. (2002). Developing the intercultural dimension in language teaching: A practical
introduction for teachers. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.
Duff, P. A. (2002). The Discursive Co-construction of Knowledge, Identity, and Difference: An Ethnography of
Communication in the High School Mainstream. Applied Linguistics, 23(3), 289-322.
Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. London: Longman.
Kachru, B. (2001). World englishes and culture wars. Ariels: Departure and Returns: Essays for Edwin Thumboo, 391-414.
Kramsch, C. (2011). The symbolic dimensions of the intercultural. Language Teaching, 44(3), 354-367.
Lee, E. (2014). Doing culture, doing race: everyday discourse of ‘culture’ and ‘cultural difference’ in the English as a second
language classroom. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 36, 80-93.
Lin, A. (2014). Critical discourse analysis in applied linguistics: A methodological review. Annual Review of Applied
Linguistics, 34(Mar), 213-232.
London, G. Hands [Image]. (2014). Retrieved from https://ginalondon.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/hands.jpg
McGroarty, M. (2012). Home Language: Refuge, Resistance, Resource? Language Teaching, 45(1), 89-104.

15. References (continued)
Menard-Warwick, J. (2009). Co-constructing representations of culture in esl and efl classrooms: Discursive faultlines in chile
and california. The Modern Language Journal, 93(1), 30-45.
Ortmeier, C. (2000). Project homeland: Crossing cultural boundaries in the esl classroom. TESOL Journal, 9(1), 10-17.
Pham, L. & Tran, L. (2015). Understanding the symbolic capital of intercultural interactions: a case study of international
students in Australia. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 25(3), 204-224.
Santos, M., McClelland, J., & Handley, M. (2011). Language lessons on immigrant identity, food culture, and the search for
home. TESOL Journal, 2(2), 203-228.
Sehlaoui, A. (2011). Developing cross-cultural communicative competence via computer-assisted language learning: The
case of pre-service esl/efl teachers. Research in Learning Technology, 9(3).
Shanahan, D. (1998). Culture, culture and "culture" in foreign language teaching. Foreign Language Annals, 31(3), 451-458.
[Untitled photograph of intercultural hands]. Retrieved from http://hopeinterculturalcomm.weebly.com/understanding-cross-
cultural-nonverbal-communication.html