Abstract
The present study investigates multilingual students’ representations of the material cultures of several countries, acquired by the participants either directly (for example, because they have studied the languages in question, visited the countries, etc.) or indirectly (from films, literature, social representations widespread in Polish society, etc.). As the results show, despite the diversity of responses reflecting individual representations, particular cultures are associated with certain categories of objects (for example, food, vehicles, clothes, etc.) and the difference between the cultures is statistically significant at p < 0.001, so the objects associated with each culture depend on the culture, at least in the case of the participants. On the basis of these results, a suggestion is made concerning the use of representations in developing cultural awareness and overcoming negative stereotypes.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The original spelling used in Kramsch (2008, p. 321).
References
Aitchison, J. (1994). Words in the mind. An introduction to the mental lexicon. Oxford/New York: Basil Blackwell.
Araújo e Sá, M. H., & Schmidt, A. (2008). The awareness of language prestige: The representations of a Portuguese school community on important languages. In M. Candelier, G. Ioannitou, D. Omer, & M.-T. Vasseur (Eds.), Conscience du plurilinguisme. Pratiques, representations et interventions (pp. 109–124). Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
Aronin, L. (2012). Material culture of multilingualism and affectivity. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2(2), 179–191.
Aronin, L., & Laoire, M. Ó. (2007, September 3–5). The material culture of multilingualism. Paper presented at the fifth international conference on third language acquisition and multilingualism, Stirling, Scotland.
Aronin, L., & Laoire, M. Ó. (2013). The material culture of multilingualism: Moving beyond the linguistic landscape. International Journal of Multilingualism, 10(3), 225–235.
Bandura, E. (2014). Raising intercultural awareness of monolingual EFL students in an international educational project: Challenges and possibilities of the ABC’s model. In K. Warchał & A. Łyda (Eds.), Cultural interfaces in academic setting and beyond (pp. 231–242). Katowice: Uniwersytet Śląski.
Billiez, J. (1996). Langues de soi, langues voisines : représentations entrecroisées. In L. Dabène & C. Degache (Eds.), Comprendre les langues voisines. (Études de Linguistique Appliquée. Numéro spécial) (pp. 401–410). Paris: Didier Érudition.
Bono, M., & Stratilaki, S. (2009). The M-factor, a bilingual asset for plurilinguals? Learners’ representations, discourse strategies and third language acquisition in institutional contexts. International Journal of Multilingualism, 6(2), 207–227.
Börner, W., & Vogel, K. (1997). First edition 1994. Mentales Lexikon und Lernersprache. In W. Börner & K. Vogel (Eds.), Kognitive Linguistik und Fremdsprachenerwerb: Das mentale Lexikon (pp. 1–15). Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
Byram, M. (2003). On being ‘bicultural’ and ‘intercultural’. In G. Alred, M. Byram, & M. Fleming (Eds.), Intercultural experience and education (pp. 50–66). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Calvet, L. -J. (2006). Towards an ecology of world languages. Malden: Polity. [First published in French as Pour une écologie des langues du monde, Paris, Plon, 1999].
Coste, D., Moore, D., & Zarate, G. (1997). Compétence plurilingue et pluriculturelle. In Langues vivantes. Vers un Cadre Européen Commun de référence pour l’enseignement et l’apprentissage des langues vivantes : études préparatoires. Strasbourg: Éditions du Conseil de l’Europe.
De Angelis, G. (2007). Third or additional language acquistion. Clevedon/Buffalo/Toronto: Multilingual Matters.
Gabryś, D. (2001). A cross-cultural aspect of the interaction of languages in the mental lexicon of multilingual learners. In J. Cenoz, B. Hufeisen, & U. Jessner (Eds.), Looking beyond second language acquisition: Studies in tri- and multilingualism (pp. 97–160). Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag.
Gabryś-Barker, D. (2005). Aspects of multilingual storage, processing and retrieval. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego.
Gorter, D. (2006). Linguistic landscape: A new approach to multilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Jessner, U. (1999). Metalinguistic awareness in multilinguals: Cognitive aspects of third language learning. Language Awareness, 8(3/4), 201–209.
Kallenbach, C. (1998). “Da weiß ich schon, was auf mich zukommt”. L3-Spezifika aus Schülersicht. In B. Hufeisen & B. Lindemann (Eds.), Tertiärsprachen: Theorien, Modelle, Methoden (pp. 47–55). Tübingen: Stauffenburg Linguistik.
Kramsch, C. (2008). Contrepoint. In G. Zarate, D. Lévy, & C. Kramsch (Eds.), Précis du plurilingualisme et du pluriliculturalisme (pp. 319–323). Paris: Éditions des archives contemporaines.
Melo, S., & Araújo e Sá, M. H. (2008). “[Ual]...Duas palavras... hoje. Elle est compliquée ta langue”: imagens do PLE na comunicação intercultural plurilingue. In P. Osório & R. M. Meyer (Eds.), Português Língua Segunda e Língua Estrangeira. Da(s) Teorias à(s) Práticas (pp. 133–173). Lisbon: Lidel.
Mondada, L., & Pekarek, S. (2000). Interaction sociale et cognition située: Quels modèles pour la recherche sur l’acquisition des langues? AILE, 12, 147–174.
Moore, D., & Gajo, L. (2009). Introduction – French voices on plurilingualism and pluriculturalism: Theory, significance and perspectives. International Journal of Multilingualism, 6(2), 137–153.
Newmark, P. (1988). A textbook of translation. London: Longman.
Pavlenko, A. (2009). Conceptual representation in the bilingual lexicon and second language vocabulary learning. In A. Pavlenko (Ed.), The bilingual mental lexicon. Interdisciplinary approaches (pp. 125–160). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Py, B. (2004). Pour une approche linguistique des représentations sociales. Langages, 154, 6–19.
Seelye, H. N. (1993). Teaching culture: Strategies for intercultural communication (3rd ed.). Lincolnwood: National Textbook Company.
Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (1986). Relevance. Communication and cognition. Oxford: Blackwell.
Wlosowicz, T. M. (2008a). L2 and L3 word representations in the multilingual lexicon. Paper presented at the AILA congress in Essen, 24–29 August 2008.
Wlosowicz, T. M. (2008b). Quelques remarques sur le lexique plurilingue basées sur les associations lexicales (Vol. 1, pp. 114–126). Corridor: Revue des sciences humaines et sociales de l’UPJV d’Amiens.
Wlosowicz, T. M. (2012). Die Assoziationen polnischer Anglistikstudenten zu Wörtern in Deutsch als Drittsprache. In D. Kaczmarek, J. Makowski, M. Michoń, & Z. Weigt (Eds.), Felder der Sprache, Felder der Forschung: Sprache – Kommunikation – Kompetenzen (pp. 273–287). Łódź: Primum Verbum.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix: The Questionnaire Used in the Study, Translated from Polish into English
Appendix: The Questionnaire Used in the Study, Translated from Polish into English
1.1 Questionnaire
-
Sex: F_/M_
-
1a) L1 (native language): ________________
-
L2: __________________ Learning time/proficiency level: ________________
-
L3: __________________ Learning time/proficiency level: ________________
-
What other languages have you studied? Please, indicate the learning times and proficiency levels.
-
b) Have you ever stayed abroad? If so, please, indicate the country (and the language in the case of bi- and multilingual countries, such as Switzerland) and the length of your stay there.
-
2a) What objects do you regard as typical of English culture/ the cultures of the English-speaking countries (in case of differences between Great Britain, the United States, Australia, etc., please, indicate which country you mean)? Why?
-
b) What dishes and/or drinks do you regard as typical of the cultures of the English-speaking countries (please, specify, which country or countries you mean)? Why?
-
c) What do you associate the English language with? Why?
-
3a) What objects do you regard as typical of French culture/the cultures of the French-speaking countries (in case of differences between France, Belgium, etc., please, indicate which country you mean)? Why?
-
b) What dishes and/or drinks do you regard as typical of the cultures of the French-speaking countries (please, specify, which country or countries you mean)? Why?
-
c) What do you associate the French language with? Why?
-
4a) What objects do you regard as typical of German culture/ the cultures of the German-speaking countries (in case of differences between Germany, Austria, etc., please, indicate which country you mean)? Why?
-
b) What dishes and/or drinks do you regard as typical of the cultures of the German-speaking countries (please, specify, which country or countries you mean)? Why?
-
c) What do you associate the German language with? Why?
-
5a) What objects do you regard as typical of Spanish culture/the cultures of the Spanish-speaking countries (in case of differences between Spain, Mexico, etc., please, indicate which country you mean)? Why?
-
b) What dishes and/or drinks do you regard as typical of the cultures of the Spanish-speaking countries (please, specify, which country or countries you mean)? Why?
-
c) What do you associate the Spanish language with? Why?
-
6a) What objects do you regard as typical of Portuguese culture/the cultures of the Portuguese-speaking countries (in case of differences between Portugal , Brazil, etc., please, indicate which country you mean)? Why?
-
b) What dishes and/or drinks do you regard as typical of the cultures of the Portuguese-speaking countries (please, specify, which country or countries you mean)? Why?
-
c) What do you associate the Portuguese language with? Why?
-
7a) What objects do you regard as typical of Russian culture? Why?
-
b) What dishes and/or drinks do you regard as typical of Russian culture? Why?
-
c) What do you associate the Russian language with? Why?
-
8a) What objects do you regard as typical of _______________culture (if you want to add still another culture, please, indicate which country you mean)? Why?
-
b) What dishes and/or drinks do you regard as typical of _____________ culture? Why?
-
c) What do you associate the ______________ language with? Why?
-
9a) What objects do you regard as typical of Polish culture? Why?
-
b) What dishes and/or drinks do you regard as typical of Polish culture? Why?
-
10a) Enumerating the objects, dishes, etc. associated with the different countries, you relied on (please, indicate the sources):
□ your own experience/journeys/scholarships abroad
□ foreign language textbooks
□ knowledge from your studies (given by the lecturers)
□ books (literature)
□ films
□ the press
□ information from the Internet
□ information given by your friends or relatives living abroad
□ stereotypes popular in Poland
□ other sources (please, specify)
Please, specify which cultures the sources correspond to (use letters, e.g. E for English , F for French, G for German , S for Spanish, P for Portuguese , R for Russian ; should you add another culture, please, give it your own code, e.g. Sw for Swedish, I for Italian, etc.). In case of differences (for example, you got to know England during a journey, whereas your knowledge of the United States comes from books or films, please, indicate this.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Włosowicz, T.M. (2018). Multilingual Students’ Representations of Material Culture. In: Aronin, L., Hornsby, M., Kiliańska-Przybyło, G. (eds) The Material Culture of Multilingualism. Educational Linguistics, vol 36. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91104-5_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91104-5_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-91103-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-91104-5
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)