We had some lovely comments
at the break and they said to
me, "We'd really like to see
how this all works in
practice. You know, a little
bit closer to the classroom."
So that's precisely
what we're going to do over the
next session between now and
lunch.
The first activity
that we're going to set you
doing is a common one
across languages.
We have used
some texts that are in English.
Obviously, for
the purposes of your classroom,
you would be using your own
target language texts.
But, just so that we can work
through the thinking and
through the process of
beginning to tease out what the
intercultural might look like
in practice, we've
selected a number of texts
for discussion.
So, what we'll do is
ask you to look at your
handout two.
In that, you'll see there are
three texts.
Now, these were just
selected from the Internet.
They're just regular texts
made in
the local language and culture.
But, if you could spend
5 to 10 minutes reading through
the text and then
beginning to analyze
it, deconstruct it,
look at it more closely for the
sorts of language and culture
meanings that are in it.
If you go to the end of the
handout, there is a
table with a series of
questions.
You might not need to fill in
all of the boxes.
I know we like to fill boxes
sometimes, but it's really
more the process and the
thinking through of looking
at these texts and considering
the aspects of the
ideas in them and then,
more closely, how those ideas
are being realized through
the language and cultural
references in the texts.
Okay? So, I'll leave you to
read a little and then begin
some discussion at your tables.
For the first one, it
highlights the Australian icon
of a barbecue.
We had a great discussion
when we were deconstructing:
what does it mean, and how does
it reflect culture?
Because, again, with the
photographs, it highlights the
stereotypical culture and
has this stereotypical
assumption that barbecues are
masculine orientated.
And this is also demonstrated
through the abbreviations of
the language, 'barbies',
'you've'.
And then, the one thing that we
really, really ...
So you think it's speaking directly to ...
... more so to ...
... males. Yes. And we had the
question come up,
and it's a great question,
actually. We asked ourselves:
what if the roles were
reversed?
Sorry, if the roles were
reversed, would the language
used be different in
regards to the abbreviations
the imagery portrayed?
Lovely. So, the idea of whose
perspective is embedded in this?
And, if you flip
the perspective, or see it from
a different perspective,
how would that impact language?
Lovely. I mean, you know, what
a fantastic question to ask
students.
And this goes back to, of
course, what
Angela was saying before: how
we internalize the language,
and we have just done this
through imagery, not just
through verbalisation.
So, this
is a great topic of discussion.
Absolutely. So, yes, of course,
we're interested in the words,
the meaning through the words
and through the form of the
words, but also the
broader semiotic, the broader
meaning system of the images
and the representations and so
on and, you know, aspects like
gender and so on.
We talked a lot about how the
marketing teams clearly looked
at all of these Australian
stereotypes and tried to get as
many of them on the page as
they could.
We've got the beach, we've got
surfing, we've got a girl
in summer wear looking like
she's more at a music festival
than a barbecue.
We thought that maybe they, the
marketing team, looked at the
first draft, whether the
man barbecuing was
in full focus and thought, "Oh
no! We can't have that.
Let's blur him
out and put the girl
front and centre there." And,
we have the idea that
we're clever like that, we're
true blue geniuses,
but we're Aussie, so we're
gonna be a bit understated and
say naturally, "We're pretty
good at it. We're not awesome.
We're not American.
We're pretty good."
So there's, you know, there
seems to be that real
Aussie stereotype stuff and
then, "Oh, hang on a minute.
We better tone that down."
Yes, lovely.
Yes, so, again, you're seeing
that connection of the sort
of the messages that we're
telling ourselves
about what kind of identity
we have, what kind of character
we have, national character,
whether this is true or not, of
course, but this is what's
being depicted here.
And, it comes through the
language about understatement,
which is a classic kind of
Australian tendency.
We had some interesting
discussions about that.
Still dealing with the, I
suppose, the content of the
language.
So, I said like, you know, if
we changed it to Europe like,
you know, what would happen?
Like, you know ...
Yes.
And then ...
Lovely. Again, flipping the
perspective.
And then we'd have a look at
the perspective from Europe.
And, like, that would just be a
given, you know, in Italy.
Most people want to move to ...
You wouldn't have an article
probably.
No.
That's right.
Yes. It's like, that's what you
do. You want to move to the
city, you want to get close to
jobs, you know.
And, like, kind of, it's
talking about, I suppose, that
change of paradigm.
There are, looking at the
language ...
So, looking at 'takeaway
chicken joint'.
Yes.
'Small bar scene',
the 'veritable conga line'.
So, a metaphor there ...
Yes.
... 'of coffee shops'.
So we thought that was
interesting in that article.
So, it was an article to inform
about the shift in the housing,
about the shift of the
Australian dream, really.
And that the shift ...
that the dream has
actually changed.
In the 'Night Owls', the
third one, the flyer,
we, as part
of the purpose of that,
the flyer was to attract
people to join the Adelaide
Bowling Club.
And, part of the attraction was
the free sausage sizzle, which
is a very Aussie thing to do,
that you will see if you go to
Bunnings, you see a sausage
sizzle. So ...
Hey, we've had whole prime minister,
you know, prime ministerships,
you know
resting on the sausage sizzle.
So, it seems to be
what we do here.
And, we also picked
up that there's a young
lady there on the cover.
And normally, we don't
associate bowling with young
people. So, they're
targeting a particular
demographic here
of young people.
And the heading there,
'Night Owls',
which is a particularly Aussie
expression.
So, I don't think that
expression is used
in other parts.
But, you know, again ...
And what does night owl sort of
conjure?
What does it suggest?
What is a 'night owl'?
Staying up late, partying,
probably
drinking ...
... nocturnal. Yes. So, you know ...
Having fun.
So, you know, the whole
idea of the contrast
with what we normally expect of
lawn bowls.
That's right it's making
it more exciting for that
demographic.
Yep.
Yes.
Okay.
Lovely.
I just want to say, one of the
ways to work with these,
with texts that aren't
absolutely explicit,
is to have a division between
sense and reference.
If you're familiar with the
linguistics of Michael
Halliday, he would use
the terms denotation, what
it denotes, what it's telling
you explicitly in the world,
and connotation.
That is, the emotional,
ideological overlay.
So, you know, it's useful
to kind of have that as a
method for attacking
what's behind these texts.
So, what is the reference
that it's making?
I can see it in this one,
the bowling one.
There's a whole lot of factual
information there.
There'll be two rounds, the
first round will be the 20 ...
All of this boring, but
important, factual information.
And then it tells you the
emotive thing.
'Come and have a laugh.'
Right? It's actually an
invitation to
enjoyment, to pleasure.
So, that's
the sense of it, or the
connotation of it, which is an
emotive appeal.
And, all of them have this
binary element and they
gravitate between them.
And what makes these really
distinctively Australian and
therefore interesting from
an intercultural point of view
is that they're shot through
with informality and
defying expectations.
And the best version
of that one is in this one,
I think, the text
number two in
the second paragraph
where it's basically creating
expectations and then defying
them. It says, 'The move wasn't
precipitated by' ...
What?
'Wanting to be closer to a
better school'.
That would be a good thing,
wouldn't it? You would admire
someone who did that for their
child.
So, you see what they're doing?
They're creating, or the author
and the people who said it,
they're creating this thing
that's saying, "That would be a
noble thing to do.
It would be a noble thing to go
to an aging grandparent."
Right?
If you move closer?
No one could challenge
you on that. You're looking
after your granny.
"Or for financial or work
reasons." Both of these are
practical things. But the
killer that follows next.
It wasn't for any of these
virtuous reasons.
It was actually just to have a
better time, drive less -
all these selfish reasons.
And they're connoting
that, which is normally a
negative thing, in a positive
way.
So, I think, sense and
reference or denotation and ...
are a useful kind of
dichotomy to get into the
analysis.
Are they creating expectations
and then defying them?
What is the specific
reference in the world, and
what sense are they giving it?
Lovely. Thank you, Joe.
Thank you, Joe.
That gives us a nice little
framing. I mean, I often think
about that in terms of, 'what's
at the surface?' And, 'what's
the embedded or the deeper, you
know, below the surface kind of
meanings and references?'
But, you've given us another
way of thinking about that.
As you can see, we've been
talking about interpretation.
Yes. And I hope that you've
had a sense of
the variation,
in terms of what a bunch
of teachers can come up with,
in terms of looking at these
texts, and that's
really another
dimension that we
can cultivate
in teaching and learning
because,
as I'm trying to do now,
I'm asking you to consider
the range of meanings that
people have drawn from
the very same three texts,
and the different things that
different people have chosen
to foreground
or to bring forward in our
shared discussion.
And how important it is
for us in our own pedagogy
to actually invite
the students to be attentive
to the different responses
that different people
actually give
in the classroom and, to
then, actually get them
to engage.
So, we've just heard Angela's
comment and I could flick
to Livia and say, "Now, Livia,
what did you just make of
Angela's comment?
Do you agree?
Do you think it's far fetched,
it's stretched?
And that's, then, how we weave
the conversation in the
classroom and actually
get more out
of the students
inviting them to reflect, not
only on their own view,
not only on the text, but
on each other's.
All of which is happening
in diversity.
And it is always this
return to a message about
the way in which we,
as individuals, understand
things, understand the world.
That is also part
of the intercultural work that
we're trying to do.