Intercultural learning

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Systematisation of different learning methods for intercultural learning

Intercultural learning describes a form of social learning with the aim of acquiring intercultural competence . This is the basis for successful intercultural communication and cooperation with people from other cultures.

The sub-goals of intercultural learning or components of intercultural competence are:

There are different ways to improve intercultural competence. These take place either “on the job” (e.g. intercultural coaching, intercultural mediation) or “off the job”. The latter mostly refers to intercultural training.

Intercultural training

Creation of intercultural training

In the 1950s, the United States Department of State increased its demand to culturally prepare diplomats for deployment outside the United States. A research group led by the ethnologist and linguist Edward T. Hall was entrusted with the elaboration of a corresponding concept . The first courses lasted four weeks and were aimed at improving local knowledge as well as language and personal skills. Hall and his colleagues have since been considered pioneers in intercultural training research and practice. In the meantime, intercultural training is no longer used only for preparing expatriates abroad , but also in youth work, for promoting intercultural (and virtual) teamwork, in intercultural opening and integration processes .

Typology of intercultural training

Intercultural training is designed to improve the participants' ability to interact socially with people from other cultures. A typology of such trainings, which is often referenced in the literature, goes back to an essay by William B. Gudykunst and Mitchell R. Hammer. According to this, a distinction can be made between culture-independent and culture-specific trainings with regard to the content, and between informational and interaction-oriented trainings with regard to the process. Jürgen Bolten further specifies the methods of intercultural training. Accordingly, training courses (components) differ in terms of their teaching and learning methods (" learning by distribution "; " learning by interaction ", " learning by intercultural collaboration "). Furthermore, they differ in terms of the training content ( culture-specific , cross- cultural , intercultural ).

The Gudykunst / Hammer typology results in four types of training with the content and methods described in more detail below. Intercultural training courses can last from a few hours to several days or be carried out over a longer period of time (e.g. intercultural simulation games).

Culture-specific information training

Each training course can have different learning objectives - these must be checked before each training session
  • culturally specific assimilator ( culture assimilator )
  • culture-specific seminars, e.g. B. on history, everyday history and changing values ​​of a cultural area
  • Discourse-analytically sound training
  • Case study processing
  • Foreign language teaching

Culture assimilator

The culture assimilator approach is a method of informational training based on the principles of programmed learning. It was developed in the sixties by Harry Triandis ( University of Illinois ) and was introduced in Germany in the early nineties a. a. introduced by Alexander Thomas .

Goals and Methods

Culture Assimilators consist of numerous briefly described situations, each of which describes a reaction of members of a foreign culture that is more or less incomprehensible for the person being trained ( critical incident ). Several explanations and behavior options are offered for each situation. After the decision, the reader usually receives a rating for his choice and an explanation of which behavior option is likely or appropriate in the target culture in the response section. The aim is to learn how members of the culture attribute the situation (= interpret, ascribe the cause). The aim of the Culture Assimilator is to explain events to themselves as the majority of members of the culture would do. According to Thomas, the impact of different cultural standards comes into play in the critical incidents (for example the importance of building a relationship of trust in China or different time management). Several critical incidents are combined into a culture standard, which is then described in more detail. They are offered in both book and computer-aided form.

Strengths and weaknesses

The strengths of this method lie in the ease of use. Culture Assimilators can be used anywhere and can prepare for contact with a foreign culture in a culture-specific, cost-effective and time-effective manner. Above all, it is viewed critically that the selection of the situations is not always relevant to the specific tasks of the reader in the foreign culture. In addition, the gain in knowledge is mostly purely cognitive, as it is not a behavioral training with active interaction options. Due to the lack of processing of the emotional part, the learning experience is not always sustainable. In addition, Culture Assimilator describe a series of critical situations, so that the impression arises that interculturality is consistently connected with conflict, the trigger of which is mostly “the foreigner”.

Culture-independent informational training

Culture-independent, informational training courses do not aim to prepare training participants for a specific culture, but convey general knowledge about the development of intercultural conflicts or intercultural synergies. The following aspects are often discussed here:

Methodologically, in this form of training, the trainer's presentations can also be supported by case studies ( critical incidents ), provided that their focus is not on cultural standards but on general intercultural dynamics. Furthermore, self-tests and self-reflections as well as training videos are used.

Cross-cultural, interaction-oriented training

  • intercultural workshops (multicultural groups)
  • Simulations, role-plays for intercultural awareness

In cross-cultural, interaction-oriented training courses, the participants are confronted with experiences of foreignness and uncertainty that do not affect a specific cultural area, but are suitable for being transferred to various intercultural encounters. Often one speaks of " culture- sensitizing measures" ( culture awareness approach ).

Goals and Methods

The culture awareness approach is based on the theoretical assumption that the central difficulty of intercultural communication is that one normally does not relativize one's own, culturally shaped system of perception, thought and value. The participants of a training should become aware of their own cultural influence and thus make it clear that other cultural perspectives can produce completely different views of the supposedly self-evident. The aim is for the participants to encounter other cultures sensitively, openly and without prejudice. In terms of content, the focus is not on the norms and values ​​of a certain foreign culture, but on all the attitudes of the participant that prevent intercultural sensitivity. The learning gain for the participants consists primarily in recognizing the cultural influences on their own behavior.

Methodologically, simulation exercises, discussion-generating tasks and role-plays are mainly used. The Barnga and Bafá Bafá methods are particularly popular . In Barnga is a card game that is provoked when the ambiguous communication and understanding of the dynamics to be reflected by unconsciously assumed control systems. At Bafá Bafá, the participants learn to deal with abstract experiences of foreignness as members of fictional and opposing cultures. Case studies with critical incidents can also be structured interactively.

Strengths and weaknesses

The strengths of this approach lie primarily in its universal applicability, as the method is primarily about the participants' self-reflection. It is suitable for schoolchildren, students and young professionals, as well as for professionals who deal with a variety of different cultural groups. Conversely, the weakness of the culture awareness approach lies in its lack of cultural specificity, since the participant does not learn anything about a specific foreign culture, as well as in its stereotypical, essentialist culture approach, in which the members of the (fictional or real) cultures act homogeneously and predictably.

Culture-specific, interaction-oriented training

  • bicultural communication workshops
  • culture-specific simulations
  • Sensitivity training
  • Intercultural collaborations and projects

Goal and method

The culture-specific, interaction-oriented trainings are simulations or role-plays with representatives of different cultures. This creates realistic dynamics that are analyzed and transferred to other practical situations. This type of training often involves team teaching, with two trainers from different cultural backgrounds. In some trainings (for example the Contrast Culture approach) task and region-specific settings are created.

In the context of electronically supported learning, there are also e-simulation games or blended learning opportunities for culture-specific, interaction - oriented training, in which actors from different countries can interact with one another over a longer period of time and across time zones.

Strengths and weaknesses

Culture-specific, interaction-oriented training courses enable intercultural learning in task and country-specific situations. In addition, realistic intercultural dynamics are created. However, they are very expensive in terms of time and costs.

Reintegration training

Starting from the realization that the return to the home country and the associated so-called reintegration shock ( re-entry shock is) one of the biggest challenges of intercultural assignments, have now also called reintegration training established. These are intended to help returnees after a foreign assignment to process their experience abroad, to use the skills they have gained for the future and to absorb false expectations of their return.

Role of the trainer in intercultural training

Intercultural trainings are often carried out by freelance lecturers. Some of these are also institutionally linked (e.g. to a university, an association, a consulting company or the chambers of foreign trade). There are further training courses for trainers (and teachers) to carry out intercultural training. Carrying out a training unit (e.g. a role play) requires good preparation and, above all, sensitive debriefing of the participants. This prevents the establishment of stereotypes and supports the trainees in reflecting on the experiences, especially since the participants sometimes had irritating foreign experiences and personal experiences during the exercise. Intercultural trainers are often moderators who do not focus on themselves but on the participants and their experiences and strengthen the participants' independence.

Stiftung Warentest ( financial test ) analyzed ten intercultural training courses from various providers in the USA and China in 2004 and identified significant differences in quality between the providers.

Intercultural learning in school and youth work

In the field of school and youth work, there are various forms that differ in terms of content and methodology according to the objectives of intercultural communication , anti-racism , mediation and conflict management / de-escalation . Intercultural training can also be used here, but also intercultural coaching, intercultural mediation and intercultural project work.

As in intercultural adult education, the targeted development of competencies is also promoted in children and adolescents by achieving a high learning intensity that remains close to the person of the pupil, forms behavior through exercises and trials and always a reflection of the learning processes and results includes.

Adaptation conflicts through intercultural learning

Where members of different cultures come together, intercultural differences of opinion and conflicts can easily arise. Intercultural training can put learners in a position to prepare for possible points of conflict and differences in communication. But the adaptation through such training can also be a reason for intercultural misunderstandings. The main causes are the overfitting as well as the conflicting adaptations of the learners:

Hypercorrection

Overadjustment occurs when one party in the intercultural exchange adapts to the other side excessively. This can cause alienation and even amusement. For example, it can be observed that members of German culture behave excessively polite in contact with Chinese cultural representatives, although this is no longer up-to-date or only common in certain situations. On the Chinese side, this can be seen as ingratiation. Thus, the inappropriate adaptive behavior would not achieve the desired mutual understanding, but on the contrary lead to alienation.

Contra correction

Opposing corrections through intercultural learning exist when both sides of the intercultural exchange adapt (too strongly) to the other. In the case of the German-Chinese exchange mentioned above, it is conceivable that, for example, a Chinese woman expresses herself particularly directly in order to adapt to the German culture of conversation, whereas the German behaves very politely in order to conform to the Chinese side. This could also lead to a conflict situation, although attempts were made on both sides to adapt positively.

Self-study in particular leads to forms of hyper- and contra-correction, as no trainer or teacher can accompany the adjustment process and correct it if necessary. Experienced trainers of intercultural training courses point out these forms of wrong learning in their events.

In intercultural training, these four conditions must always be taken into account

See also

literature

The series "Beruflich in ...." is published by Alexander Thomas with changing colleagues at Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht and is based on the culture assimilator concept.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jürgen Bolten: Introduction to intercultural business communication . V&R, Göttingen 2007, p. 223 .
  2. ↑ Juliana Roth: Intercultural Learning Measures Today - New Realities, New Concepts . In: Klaus Götz (ed.): Intercultural learning, intercultural training . Rainer-Hampp-Verlag, Mering 2006, p. 116 .
  3. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink: Intercultural Communication. Interaction, external perception, cultural transfer . 2nd, updated and exp. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2008, ISBN 978-3-476-01989-9 .
  4. ↑ Jürgen Bolten: Rethinking intercultural training . In: Interculture Journal . No. 15/26 , 2016, pp. 83 .
  5. ↑ William Gudykunst, Mitchell Hammer: Basic Training Design: Approaches to Intercultural Training . In: Dan Landis, Richard Brislin (Eds.): Handbook of Intercultural Training . 1st edition. Vol. 1: Issues in Theory and Design. Pergamon Press, 1983, pp. 118-154 .
  6. ↑ Jürgen Bolten: Introduction to intercultural business communication . V&R, Göttingen 2007, p. 224 .
  7. ↑ Georg Auernheimer : Intercultural communication, viewed from a multidimensional perspective, with consequences for the understanding of intercultural competence . In: ders. (Ed.): Intercultural competence and educational professionalism . 4th edition. Springer, 2008, p. 40 .
  8. ^ A b Jürgen Bolten: Introduction to intercultural business communication . V&R, Göttingen 2007, p. 226 .
  9. ^ A b Jürgen Bolten: Introduction to intercultural business communication . V&R, Göttingen 2007, p. 225 .
  10. ↑ IKUD: Barnga - an intercultural simulation game. Retrieved November 26, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Jürgen Bolten: Introduction to intercultural business communication . V&R, Göttingen 2007, p. 228-230 .
  12. ^ Günther Stahl: International deployment of managers . Oldenbourg, Munich / Vienna 1998.
  13. ↑ Finanztest 2004: Intercultural Training - Avoid Misunderstandings . In: Finanztest 5/2004, pp. 32–35.
  14. ↑ Jonas Polfuß: "Critical Culture Assimilator Germany for Chinese Participants" In: Interculture Journal. Issue 17, August 2012, pp. 27–46. Retrieved October 19, 2012.

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