BYRAM VERSUS BENNETT: DISCREPANCIES IN THE ... - CERCLL

Paula Garrett-Rucks Byram Versus Bennett
want to indicate the emphasis on skills, knowledge and attitudes other than those which are
primarily linguistic” (p. 49). Byram defines:
(1) Intercultural Attitudes: “Curiosity and openness, of readiness to suspend disbelief
about other cultures and belief about one’s own” (p. 50).
(2) Intercultural Knowledge: “Knowledge of social groups and their products and
practices in one’s own and in one’s interlocutor’s country, and of the general processes
of societal and individual interactions” (p. 51).
(3) Intercultural Skills: “Ability to interpret a document or event from another culture, to
explain it and relate it to documents from one’s own” (p. 52).
Byram provided 19 additional objectives (Appendix C) under each of these three broad
definitions that he claims provide “a step towards describing teaching and assessment” (p. 50)
of learners’ IC. These additional objectives guided my interpretation of the broader definitions in
Byram’s multimodal model. I then reported changes in learners’ impressions of French people
and French culture in relation to changes in their intercultural attitudes, knowledge and skills for
each phase of each discussion.
In order to respond to RQ2, the influences on the collective emergence of intercultural thinking
for the class as a whole, I analyzed the transcripts of the discussions within a complex systems
theoretical framework for the most salient cultural practice discussed. For example, in
Discussion 1, French greetings, learners discussed shaking hands, smiling, la bise, and
hugging. By using a line-by-line coding method (Charmaz, 2006), I identified smiling practices
as the most salient cultural practice discussed. I then further analyzed all of the postings in the
five week discussion that mentioned French or U.S. smiling practices to investigate shifts in
learners’ worldviews toward differing smiling practices. I used the definitions provided within
Bennett’s (1993) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) to categorize
participants’ IC developmental stages based on their statements about the cultural practice in
question in each posting. Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity consists of
six stages grouped into three Ethnocentric Stages (Denial Stage, Defense Stage, and
Minimization Stage) where the individual’s culture is the central worldview. Each stage is
defined as follows:
Stage 1—Denial: The individual denies the difference or existence of other cultures by
erecting psychological or physical barriers in the forms of isolation and
separation from other cultures.
Stage 2—Defense: The individual reacts against the threat of other cultures by
denigrating the other cultures (negative stereotyping) and promoting the
superiority of one’s own culture. *Reversal Phase—In some cases, the individual
undergoes a reversal phase, during which the worldview shifts from one’s own
culture to the other culture, and the own culture is subject to disparagement.
Stage 3—Minimization: The individual acknowledges cultural differences on the surface
but considers all cultures as fundamentally similar.
Within the Ethnorelative Stages (Acceptance Stage, Adaptation Stage, and Integration Stage)
where the individual has a more complex worldview in which cultures are understood relative to
each other and actions are understood as culturally situated, Bennett further defined each stage
as follows:
Stage 4—Acceptance: The individual accepts and respects cultural differences with
regard to behavior and values.
18 CERCLL ICC Proceedings