BBN-ANG 371 Cultural Studies Holló Dorottya 1

WHAT IS CULTURE?

'Big C' Culture– 'achievement culture' culture-history, geography, institutions, literature, art, music
'little c' culture – 'behaviour culture' “culturally-influenced beliefs and perceptions, especially as expressed through language, but also
through cultural behaviours that affect acceptability in the host community” [Tomalin & Stempleski, 1993, pp.6-7]

1. Some definitions of 'culture': Task: Read the following definitions and underline key concepts that help understand the essence of culture.
Linton, R. (1945):
"A culture is a configuration of learned behaviors and results of behavior whose component elements are shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society"
(p. 32).
Parson, T. (1949):
"Culture...consists in those patterns relative to behavior and the products of human action which may be inherited, that is, passed on from
generation to generation independently of the biological genes" (p. 8).
Kroeber, A.L., & Kluckhohn, C. (1952):
"Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive
achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e. historically
derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of
action, and on the other as conditioning elements of further action." (p.181)
Useem, J., & Useem, R. (1963)
"Culture has been defined in a number of ways, but most simply, as the learned and shared behavior of a community of interacting human beings" (p. 169).
Hofstede, G. (1984):
"Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another." (p. 51).
Damen, L. (1987):
"Culture: learned and shared human patterns or models for living; day-to-day living patterns. These patterns and models pervade all
aspects of human social interaction. Culture is mankind's primary adaptive mechanism" (p. 367).
Banks, J.A., Banks, & McGee, C. A. (1989):
"Most social scientists today view culture as consisting primarily of the symbolic, ideational, and intangible aspects of human societies.
The essence of a culture is not its artifacts, tools, or other tangible cultural elements but how the members of the group interpret, use,
and perceive them. It is the values, symbols, interpretations, and perspectives that distinguish one people from another in modernized
societies; it is not material objects and other tangible aspects of human societies. People within a culture usually interpret the meaning of
symbols, artifacts, and behaviors in the same or in similar ways."
Lederach, J.P. (1995):
"Culture is the shared knowledge and schemes created by a set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing, and responding to the social realities around them" (p. 9).
Seelye (1997):
“Culture is the systemic, rather arbitrary, more or less coherent, group-invented, and group-shared creed from the past that defines the
shape of "reality", and assigns the sense and worth of the things; it is modified by each generation and in response to adaptive pressures;
it provides the code that tells people how to behave predictably and acceptably, the cipher that allows them to derive meaning from
language and other symbols, the map that supplies the behavioral options for satisfying human needs.” (p.23)
Turner (1999):
“[C]ulture […] is a dynamic process which produces the behaviours, the practices, the institutions, and the meanings which constitute our
social existence. Culture comprises the processes of making sense of our way of life.” (p.52)
Spencer-Oatey, H. (2008):
“Culture is a fuzzy set of basic assumptions and values, orientations to life, beliefs, policies, procedures and behavioural conventions that
are shared by a group of people, and that influence (but do not determine) each member’s behaviour and his/her interpretations of the
‘meaning’ of other people’s behavior” (p. 3).
BBN-ANG 371 Cultural Studies Holló Dorottya 2

……………………………………………………………….
To sum up the ideas in these definitions:
Culture can be understood as a dynamic complexity of shared orientations to life as well as shared values and patterns of behaviour and
interactions, as well as cognitive and affective concepts that are learnt in the process of socialization generation after generation. Because
of the way they are learnt, these shared values and patterns create cohesion among the members of a particular community, and they
may also be responsible for differences between groups. The common features may relate to different levels of culture, i.e., national,
ethnic, regional, professional, organisational, social, age- or gender related, etc. groups.

2. Levels/types of culture
Different types of groups that people belong to and where they share norms and expectations with their fellow group members.
National – regional/ethnic/language/religious - overlapping categories
Community - purposefully chosen or random (a hobby group or a neighbourhood)
Genders - differences in roles, responsibilities, attitudes, etc.
Age, Generations - generation gap,
Classes - social groups, layers, strata, etc. ‘Classless society’ – nonsense. Upper, middle (upper and lower) Working, under-class. Signs:
clothes, behaviour, language, food, interest, habits, etc
Organisations - business, professional groups, schools, teams, associations, etc.
Religions - they display strong, embedded views, and define people’s basic assumptions, prescribe ethical standards and cannot be
rationally explained.

Question: Can the levels of culture be rank ordered?

3. Elements of culture

CULTURE

Civilisation Speech & Behaviour Patterns Text/Discourse Structures & Skills

(Functions)
Civilisation topics: Behaviour, etiquette Discourse features:
History Language functions The aim and audience of a text
Geography Greeting, Leave taking Text structure
Icons (people, products…) Starting a conversation Genre characteristics
Sights Chatting Topic structure
Traditions Socialising Coherence, logic, cohesion
Customs Inviting opinions Arguments & evidence
Institutions Expressing opinions Figures of speech
Economy Agreeing, Disagreeing Public speeches
Arts Moderating a conversation Translation
Sciences Interrupting Mediation
Literature Requesting, Refusing Interpretation
Popular Culture Advice, suggestions Summarising, etc.
Values Complaining, criticising Discourse processes and skills:
Culinary traditions Complimenting Researching a topic
Administrative and Praising, encouraging Focusing on issues
other practicalities Apologising Outlining
Taboo topics Visiting, Telephoning, etc. Developing & structuring ideas
Humour, etc. Pragmatic features Drafting, re-writing, editing
Cultural connotations of vocab. Socio-linguistic features Relating to audience
etc. Body language Using dictionaries
Cultural dimensions, etc. Avoiding plagiarism, etc.

Accumulation of Appropriate conduct Clarity of expression

Background knowledge Ability to adapt
Social & moral awareness Confidence
Tolerance
Acceptance
Open-mindedness
Flexibility

Better acceptance of a non-native speaker

BBN-ANG 371 Cultural Studies Holló Dorottya 3

Based on: Holló (2019)

Civilisation - The institutional features of a culture. Civilisation relates to products, artefacts, rituals, practices and values.
Behaviour pattern - Behaviour in particular situations that is generally accepted in a culture.
Speech pattern - Language used in particular situations, and generally accepted in a culture.
Discourse features - Characteristic traits of written or oral texts.

4. Perceptions of culture
4.1 Culture can be visible or invisible (petals of a rose, Hofstede (1991): layers of an onion, Brembeck (1977): iceberg,)

Task: Choose 8-10 items from the list below and decide if their cultural features are visible or invisible. Put them
in the chart below.

relationship to animals; patterns of superior/subordinate behaviour; definitions of sin; architecture; patterns of handling
emotions; courtship practices; conception of justice; incentives to work; food, notions of leadership; tempo of work;
conception of cleanliness; techniques of conversation; patterns of decision-making; attitudes toward the dependent;
approaches to problem solving; eye behaviour; conception of past and future; roles in relation to age, sex, class, occupation,
kinship; conversational patterns in various social contexts; nature of friendship; dancing; ordering of time; preference for
competition or cooperation; body language; notions of adolescence; notions about logic and validity; facial expressions;
arrangement of physical space;

visible

invisible

Culture has many facets. Some are visible, others are not. We can see symbols, artefacts, products, rituals but may not be
able to recognize or understand the values behind these. Values are learned implicitly; they remain unconscious and are
taken for granted. This can be dangerous and lead to misunderstanding.
Example: Television presenters greeting the audience: (very loudly at a high pitch): “Hi, everyone!” Or: (conventionally):
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!”
Here it is easy to see the difference between the forms of the greetings, but it may be more difficult to guess why
one presenter used the formal, and the other the informal greeting. We may not be able to guess if there is a
difference of respect, or when one or the other form can be used appropriately.

4.2 Three levels of the uniqueness of mental programming (Hofstede,1991 p.6)

4.3 When analysing cultural phenomena, we should approach them from both an etic and an emic perspective:
etic - examining the form of a phenomenon as can be observed by ‘outsiders’ (how greeting rituals are performed)
emic - examining the function of a phenomenon, as well as attitudes to phenomena or values attached to them as
experienced by the ‘insider’ (what the various greeting rituals mean and when they are appropriate)
BBN-ANG 371 Cultural Studies Holló Dorottya 4

Cultures change - People relate to values differently than they do to products or rituals. Belief attached to values are
difficult to change.

Culture is shared and learned through socialisation. We are often not aware of our culture until we come into contact
with another culture.

5. Culture and Communication

Communicative Competence - the ability to use language appropriately
Communicative Competence leads to greater awareness of the relationship between linguistic and sociocultural
components. Children develop a theory of speaking, appropriate in their community which they employ like other forms of
tacit cultural knowledge. (Hymes, 1972)
Canale and Swain, (1980) and Canale (1983) identified four components of communicative competence:
1., Grammatical (or linguistic) competence – the knowledge of language items, lexis and grammar (grammar rules,
vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling, etc.)
2., Discourse competence 1 – the ability to organise language structures into different types of cohesive and coherent
texts, i.e., to form texts larger than a sentence (e.g., lectures, diary entries, letters, notes, speeches, poetry, stories,
academic essays, conversations, memos,)
3., Sociolinguistic competence – the appropriate use of the sociocultural rules of language and discourse in the given
social context.(the appropriate use of vocabulary, register, politeness, and style)
4., Strategic competence – the ability to overcome difficulties in communication caused by lack of proficiency, fatigue or
other factors through the use of verbal or non-verbal strategies, or to heighten the quality of communication thereby.
(paraphrasing, repetition, guessing, circumlocution, hesitation, avoidance, body language, simplification, etc.)

van Ek’s (1986) model of communicative ability elaborates the previous model by adding two more categories:
5., Socio-cultural competence: every language is situated in a sociocultural context and implies the use of a particular
reference frame which is partly different from that of the foreign language learner; sociocultural competence presupposes
a certain degree of familiarity with that context (p. 35).
6., Social competence: involves both the will and the skill to interact with others, involving motivation, attitude, self-
confidence, empathy and the ability to handle social situations (p. 65).
Cultural awareness is the term that describes “sensitivity to the impact of culturally-induced behaviour on language use
and communication”. Tomalin & Stempleski (1993, p.5)

Cultural awareness encompasses three qualities (Tomalin & Stempleski,1993, p.5):

• awareness of one's own culturally-induced behaviour;
• awareness of the culturally-induced behaviour of others;
• ability to explain one's own cultural standpoint.
'Cross-cultural awareness' (or ‘Intercultural awareness’) is the sensitivity to the impact of culturally-induced behaviour
on language use and communication in an intercultural situation. It covers life and institutions, beliefs, and values, as
well as everyday attitudes and feelings conveyed not only by language, but also by paralinguistic features such as dress,
gesture, facial expression, stance, and movement.
Why is the study of cross-cultural interaction important?
• People need to perceive and understand cultural differences and the way these affect communication.
• People need to develop skills of adapting to intercultural communication flexibly.

Linguistic studies in the field of pragmatics (the ways in which language use is influenced by social context) have heightened awareness
of the degree to which cross-cultural communication is affected by culturally-related factors. Such factors include people's expectations
regarding the appropriate level of formality and degree of politeness in discourse.
Studies of non-verbal aspects of communication such as gesture, posture, and facial expression have shown these non-verbal
elements to be the most culturally-influenced part of behaviour.

Culture clash (culture bump, culture clash, cultural conflict, ≠ culture shock)
“A culture bump occurs when an individual from one culture finds himself or herself in a different, strange or uncomfortable
situation when interacting with persons of a different culture. This phenomenon results from a difference in the way people
from one culture behave in a particular situation from people in another culture.” Archer (1986, pp. 170-171)

1
This competence was added to the original model by Canale in 1983.
BBN-ANG 371 Cultural Studies Holló Dorottya 5

The situation might be the same, e.g. being late, but the reaction and polite behaviour pattern may be different from culture
to culture. The culture bump happens when one expects a particular behaviour and gets another one. It may be negative,
positive or neutral. (Archer, 1986)
(N.B. ‘culture shock’ is part of the acculturation 2 process, and is a longer lasting state of uneasiness, anxiety, frustration or
depression one feels when experiencing the difficulties of settling down or living in a new culture and of not being able to
deal with the norms and expectations of the new culture well enough.)

Dealing with culture bumps (Archer, 1986 p.171-172):

1., pinpoint the situation
2., define the situation
3., list the behaviours of the other person
4., list my own behaviour
5., list my feelings and emotions in the situation
6., list behaviours that I expect in my culture in the same situation
7., list the underlying values that prompt these expectations
+1, (if possible discuss the problem/difference with the other person, and) learn what the underlying values are of their expectations.

This process helps in moving beyond culturally biased judgmental behaviour to the comprehension of the other and to self-
comprehension. The situation becomes depersonalized and is placed in a cultural context.
People would not normally verbalize their feelings this way, if they do, they are often judgmental, frustrated and pejorative of the other.
The depersonalization process helps in making the situation easier to see and analyze objectively. The controlled sequence makes sure
the incident is accurately defined as “observable behaviour”.
This process also helps in consolidating our values with those of others.

Compulsory reading:
Polyák I. (2004) Cross-cultural Communication. Budapest: Perfekt. - Chapter 1 pp. 9-38.
This chapter of Ildikó Polyák’s book looks at various facets of culture. It looks at how we encounter culture, then goes on to
define the concept, gives a description of different elements of culture, and finally provides an overview of the levels of
culture, i.e. it explains how culture surfaces in various social and professional groups. The reading is interspersed with
activities that create space for thinking about the issues discussed.

Recommended readings:
Archer, C. M. (1986). Culture bump and beyond. In: Valdes, J.M. (ed.) Culture Bound. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Bennett, M. J. (1997). How Not to Be a Fluent Fool: Understanding the Cultural Dimension of
language. In: Fanitini, A. F. (ed.). New Ways in Teaching Culture. Alexandria, VA: TESOL.
Culture Matters - The Peace Corps Cross-cultural Workbook. Downloadable from:
https://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/library/T0087_culturematters.pdf
Damen, L. (1987). Culture Learning: The Fifth Dimension on the Language Classroom. Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley.
Fantini, A. E. (1997). Language: Its Cultural and Intercultural Dimensions. In: Fanitini, A. E. (ed.). New Ways in
Teaching Culture. Alexandria, VA: TESOL.
Fantini, A. E. (2000). A central concern: Developing intercultural competence. In: SIT Occasional Papers
Series (1). Brattleboro VT: School for International Training. Downloadable from:
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.117.8512&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Seelye, N. (1993). Teaching Culture - Strategies for Intercultural Communication. Lincolnwood, IL: National
Textbook Company.

References for this lecture:

Archer, C. M. (1986). Culture bump and beyond. In: Valdes, J.M. (ed.) Culture Bound. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Banks, J.A., McGee-Banks, C. A. (1989). Multicultural education. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Brembeck, W. (1977) The Development and Teaching of a College Course in Intercultural Communication. Readings in
Intercultural Communication. Pittsburgh: SIETAR Publications.
Canale, M. (1983). From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy. In Richards, J. C. & Schmidt, R. W. (eds.),
Language and Communication, 2-27. London: Longman.
Canale, Michael - Swain, Merrill (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and
testing. Applied Linguistics 1(1), 1-47.

2
the process of acquiring a new culture
BBN-ANG 371 Cultural Studies Holló Dorottya 6

Damen, L. (1987). Culture Learning: The Fifth Dimension on the Language Classroom. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Hofstede, G. (1984). National cultures and corporate cultures. In: L.A. Samovar és R.E. Porter (ed.),
Communication Between Cultures. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Hofstede, G. (1991) Cultures and Organisations: Software of the Mind. London: McGraw-Hill.
Holló D. (2019). Kultúra és interkulturalitás a nyelvórán. Budapest: KRE & L’Harmattan. Retrieved 8 July, 2019 from:
http://www.kre.hu/nyelveszet/images/hollo_dorottya_web_2019.pdf
Hymes, D. (1972) On Communicative Competence. In: Pride and Holmes (ed.) Sociolinguistics: Selected Readings.
London, Penguin Books.
Kroeber, A. L., and Kluckhohn, C. (1952). Culture: A critical review of concepts and definitions. Harvard University Peabody
Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology Papers 47.
Lederach, J. P. (1995). Preparing for peace: Conflict transformation across cultures. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University
Press.
Linton, R. (1945). The Cultural Background of Personality. New York: Appleton.
Parson, T. (1949). Essays in Sociological Theory. Glencoe, IL.: The Free Press.
Polyák I. (2004) Cross-cultural Communication. Budapest: Perfekt.
Spencer-Oatey, H. (2008) Introduction. In H. Spencer-Oatey (ed.), Culturally Speaking: Culture, Communication and Politeness Theory,
2nd ed. London: Continuum.
Tomalin, B. & Stempleski, S. (1993). Cultural Awareness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Turner, G. (1999). Film as Social Practice - 3rd ed. London: Routledge.
Van Ek, J. A. (1986). Objectives for Foreign Language Learning, Vol. 1: Scope. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.