Enhancing student awareness of cultural stereotypesthe languaging of intercultural clichés

Resumen

The contemporary meaning of "stereotype" denotes a preconceived and standardised picture held in common by members of a group and representing an oversimplified opinion, affective attitude, or uncritical judgement. Modern society is full of examples of stereotypical ideas, images and opinions which often lead to prejudice and cultural bias. Being able to understand a different culture is part of intercultural competence, an essential skill which has often been overlooked in the past, due to a false assumption that a high level of linguistic competence was suffiCient for a non-native speaker to be able to relate to native speakers. In practice, however, native speakers tend to accept more readily a foreigner's incompetent handling of their language than "inappropriate" behaviour, which is usually interpreted simply as bad manners. When the outsiders' performance clashes with local customs, non-natives are usually acting according to their own values in situations which seem familiar to them, but which they fail to realise are dealt with in a different way in the host culture. The ability to practise critical language awareness, to detach oneself and consider differences of interpretation, is a very important tool for any learner. Cultural concepts may be expressed in many ways, but in order to understand them jitlly, students must actively employ their linguistic resources and predisposition to capture meaning, nuances and symbols to which others attach cultural importance. This chapter presents an example of cross-cultural prejudice with a view to indicating how university learners of a foreign language can be helped to avoid taking the cognitive shortcut represented by stereotyping. Advertising messages chosen to promote Britain to French and Belgian travellers, and vice versa, are analysed from a linguistic, historical, and cultural stance. Examining such cultural cliches and their possible implications contributes to enhancing students ' ability to detect biased attitudes in the media. Since languaging is an underlying process in all cultural groups, the activity suggested should, ideally, help to reorient students ' visions of the world around them, as well as highlight for both teachers and students the importance of cliches and stereotypes in the context offoreign language learning.