Fostering Positive Cross-Cultural Attitudes through Language Teaching

Written by Masako Sasaki, Shirley O'Neill, M. Kono, and D. E. Ingram.
ISBN: 978-1921214-39-4 B5 244pp
AUD $75.00 + p&p

About

The first years of the 21st Century have tragically demonstrated that few issues are so important in the world as that of relationships between nations, faiths and ethnic groups. It is the contention of the authors that the most positive response that can be made to this situation is for societies to try to ensure that each generation grows up with attitudes conducive to harmonious and rewarding lives in the multicultural world in which they live. Societies have basically two tools open to them to ensure such harmony: legislation and the concomitant litigation to suppress acts of disunity or gratuitous antagonism between groups and, more positively, education by which to try to foster positive crosscultural attitudes. Within education, it is the present authors' belief that properly designed languages education can be an effective element to achieve this goal.

This book reviews some of the research into the relationship between languages education and cross-cultural (and inter-cultural) attitudes. It also reports on two large-scale surveys of cross-cultural attitudes amongst Year 10 students in Brisbane, Australia and Akita Prefecture, Japan. It shows that languages education does not inevitably create more positive cross-cultural attitudes and, indeed, the outcome of languages education may be harder or more negative attitudes unless a number of elements of course design and methodology are also in place.

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Table of Contents

FOREWORD

1. Introduction: An Enigma
2. Literature Review
3. The Survey Projects
4. Outcomes of the Brisbane Survey
5. Outcomes of the Akita Survey
6. Discussion and Implications
7. Other Projects
8. Conclusion

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