Unfamiliar Culture Research Articles

Contextual Aspects of Style and Translation: With Particular Reference to English-Arabic Translation

Some activities are easier to practice than to talk about, translation is one of them. This is simply because translation as a practice existed long before translation as a theoretical discipline. Most translators with no doubt wish to see their role in such a positive way: “opening a window” for TT readers, in order to illuminate for them an unfamiliar culture. In today’s translation circles, the translations accepted by mainstream translation norms more often than not share such features as fluency, smoothness and transparency. The target text is free of the slightest trace of translation and reads as if it had been written by the original author in the target language. The differences, including the strangeness, and otherness, are replaced by something familiar to the target reader. This paper, is basically devoted to shedding light on the impact of Abu Deeb’s style, in translating Orientalism, and how Abu Deeb’s style effect his translation.

Preparing to Teach Culturally Diverse Classrooms

Immersing preservice teachers in an unfamiliar culture helps prepare them to teach children from cultures different from their own.

Culture Shock an Obstacle for EFL Learners

Students from different countries are exposed to new cultural, social and intellectual experiences in a second language learning environment. Reviews of previous studies suggest that their beliefs, values and attitudes to knowledge can lead to ‘culture shock.’ In this study, theoretical concepts of culture shock and adaptation are reviewed in relation to the pedagogical adaptation of students in an unfamiliar culture. An interview with a sample of 38 Prep. School students, mainly from Azerbeijan, Syria and Iraq at Bahcesehir University were reviewed. The results showed that foreign students had some major difficulties adjusting to academic requirements, particularly with regard to managing the demands of the English as Foreign Language program (EFL). This is a qualitative study which specifically analyzes culture shock in respect to psychological perspectives stress, social identification and adaptation. The use of various indicators showed that foreign students manifested significantly higher degrees of stress, than did the local students. The recommendations of the study are that more academic and counseling support and resources should be provided for this increasing intake of foreign students.

Abordar a diversidade linguística no 1º ciclo: ideias das crianças

The awareness of the child to the languages and cultures of the world has become a concern of educational entities that seek to include it in the primary school curriculum, fostering an approach to languages that appeals to the child’s affection. In this perspective, we drew up an action plan consisting of a variety of activities and games designed for the task of raising awareness of the child to the linguistic and cultural diversity, applicable to a class of children in the fourth year of primary school. The observation of the interactions arising from the session, as well as the analysis of a questionnaire, allowed us to collect, analyze and systematize the ideas of these children about unfamiliar cultures and languages.

The Potential Sources of Foreign Language Reading Anxiety in a Jordanian EFL Context: A Theoretical Framework

The last decade has witnessed an increasing research trend on foreign language reading anxiety as a skill related to but distinct from foreign language anxiety. However, sources of foreign language reading anxiety have rarely been investigated. Thus, the current study responds to the study by (Saito, Horwitz, & Garza, 1999) and extends the work of (Al-Shboul, Ahmad, Nordin, & Rahman, 2013b) in this specific area to propose a theoretical framework that represents the sources of foreign language reading anxiety and to measure the extent of those sources in the Jordanian EFL context. A cross-sectional survey of 1500 undergraduate students who were taking Basic English courses was administered. A total of 1006 questionnaires were valid for analysis. However, only 408 questionnaires were randomly chosen according to the criteria of quota sampling techniques. The proposed theoretical framework was tested to measure the prevalence of the sources of foreign language reading anxiety to reveal that there were two aspects of foreign language reading anxiety: personal factors and text features. Under the concept of personal factors, there were two main sources of foreign language reading anxiety; afraid of making errors and worry about reading effects. On the other hand, there were three main sources of foreign language reading anxiety under the concept of text features; unknown vocabulary, unfamiliar topic, and unfamiliar culture. Implications to the study and recommendations for further research were considered.

International Students: Challenges of Adjustment to University Life in the U.S.

Learning a new culture and learning in a new culture which may have different beliefs and values can be difficult. Even though international students are subject to the same stresses of academic and personal life as their U.S. counterparts, these stresses are compounded by being in an unfamiliar culture and surrounded by challenges of communication and language. Language is the most frequently reported barrier to adjusting to U.S. university life, followed by financial difficulties and problems adapting to the culture. In the U.S., the university strategy should include both international and multicultural themes and reflect the great diversity of ethnic, racial, and national groups. Educators must encompass both the U.S. and international students in promoting understanding about diversity--commonalities as well as differences, strengths as well as weaknesses, and values as well as practices. The cultural diversity of the U.S. society can be used to appreciate and understand diversity in the world (Scott, 1994).

Foreign Language Reading Anxiety in a Jordanian EFL Context: A Qualitative Study

In the last two decades, investigating the sources of foreign language anxiety in general has increasingly attracted the attention of many researchers in the field of foreign language teaching. However, the sources of anxiety that influence the acquisition of certain specific language skills such as reading in particular have rarely been investigated. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore and understand the underlying problems and factors that contribute to reading anxiety faced by EFL students at Yarmouk University, Jordan. It was a qualitative exploration of the sources of English language reading anxiety for which observation, semi-structured interviews and diaries were collected from six informants with different levels of English language proficiency. The findings of the study revealed that there were two aspects of foreign language reading anxiety: personal factor and text feature. Under the concept of personal factor there were also two main sources of foreign language reading anxiety, which are: afraid of making errors and worry about reading effects. On the other hand, there were three main sources of foreign language reading anxiety under the concept of text feature, which are: unknown vocabulary, unfamiliar topic, and unfamiliar culture. The five main sources of foreign language reading anxiety were arranged according to their occurrences and percentages in the study. Moreover, recommendations were proposed.

WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN'S 1905–1906 WORLD TOUR

ABSTRACTThis article is a study of the 1905-6 world tour undertaken by William Jennings Bryan and his family. Bryan was one of the major US politicians of his era. Three times a Democratic party presidential nominee (1896, 1900, 1908), he played a prominent role in the various reform crusades of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and was the leading figure on the populist, agrarian wing of his party. To date, however, historians have paid little attention to his extensive travels and voluminous travel writing, in large part because hostile journalists and historians – chief among them Walter Lippmann, H. L. Mencken, and Richard Hofstadter – succeeded in casting him as an archetype of American parochialism. This study makes us aware of Bryan's published and unpublished correspondence, the memoirs of his daughter Grace, newspaper reports, and cartoons to form a reassessment of Bryan, focusing primarily on his encounters with unfamiliar cultures, and with imperialism in the Philippines, British India, and the Dutch East Indies. In so doing, it places Bryan for the first time in a global and transnational frame, and mounts a broader critique of the rigidly regional and national orientation of the US historiography of populism.

When You Move to a New Job and Campus…

When You Move to a New Job and Campus…

Destabilising Notions of the Unfamiliar in Australian Documentary Theatre: version 1.0’s CMI (A Certain Maritime Incident)

This article offers a fresh analysis of Sydney-based version 1.0’s theatre production CMI (A Certain Maritime Incident, 2004), which engaged with asylum seekers arriving by boat in the context of the so-called ‘children overboard affair’ and the maritime disaster, in which over 300 people from the SIEV X, a brittle Indonesian fishing boat, perished. The performance invited audiences to see the unfamiliar in themselves rather than in those frequently rejected as ‘the other’. In doing so, it questioned common notions of the unfamiliar that is perceived by audiences as different, foreign or insufficiently known, and interrupted a long tradition of opposing the familiar culture(s) of Australians and the unfamiliar culture(s) of the ‘boat people’. The article explores how version 1.0 used effectively a destabilisation of meaning, a playful inversion of socio-political responsibilities and challenged common notions of the roles of fact and fiction in order to offer an alternative perspective on public events, thus making an important contribution to Australia’s communicative memory of issues that continue to be pertinent beyond Australian borders.

Expectations in culturally unfamiliar music: influences of proximal and distal cues and timbral characteristics

Listeners' musical perception is influenced by cues that can be stored in short-term memory (e.g., within the same musical piece) or long-term memory (e.g., based on one's own musical culture). The present study tested how these cues (referred to as, respectively, proximal and distal cues) influence the perception of music from an unfamiliar culture. Western listeners who were naïve to Gamelan music judged completeness and coherence for newly constructed melodies in the Balinese gamelan tradition. In these melodies, we manipulated the final tone with three possibilities: the original gong tone, an in-scale tone replacement or an out-of-scale tone replacement. We also manipulated the musical timbre employed in Gamelan pieces. We hypothesized that novice listeners are sensitive to out-of-scale changes, but not in-scale changes, and that this might be influenced by the more unfamiliar timbre created by Gamelan “sister” instruments whose harmonics beat with the harmonics of the other instrument, creating a timbrally “shimmering” sound. The results showed: (1) out-of-scale endings were judged less complete than original gong and in-scale endings; (2) for melodies played with “sister” instruments, in-scale endings were judged as less complete than original endings. Furthermore, melodies using the original scale tones were judged more coherent than melodies containing few or multiple tone replacements; melodies played on single instruments were judged more coherent than the same melodies played on sister instruments. Additionally, there is some indication of within-session statistical learning, with expectations for the initially-novel materials developing during the course of the experiment. The data suggest the influence of both distal cues (e.g., previously unfamiliar timbres) and proximal cues (within the same sequence and over the experimental session) on the perception of melodies from other cultural systems based on unfamiliar tunings and scale systems.

Experiences of Parenting among Burmese Refugee Mothers: Social Support in a Playgroup

Parenting is a critical element in the wellbeing of children and the focus on early years (Mustard, 2008; Mustard & Young, 2007) has meant increased energy on maximising early childhood learning by considering the influences of family and social/cultural environments on parenting, and connecting with early childhood education such as playgroups, day-care, preschool, and kindergartens. Psychological literature suggests that parenting in an unfamiliar culture can be one of the more significant challenges experienced by refugee families. However, the factors affecting refugee parenting and how parents can be supported continues to be poorly understood.

“Rasa Yatra” — Using film to teach cross-cultural empathy

AbstractEmpathy is a key skill for intercultural understanding. This paper evaluates the results of a pilot study for an exercise designed to introduce undergraduate geographers to the problems of interpreting emotional messages from an unfamiliar culture and world view. It is based on the screening of a film “Rasa Yatra: A Pilgrimage to the Heart of India”, which communicates a spiritual, non-western message through images and music. Learners are set the task of interpreting the emotional content of this film and of trying to share the feelings of an Other. Although almost the whole class claimed this exercise to be both enjoyable and worthwhile, only a fifth made any systematic attempt to engage with the film’s emotional content, while more remained detached spectators. Several learners attempted objective analyses of the film’s structures, some focused on embedded cross-cultural ethical issues concerning social justice or gender, while others sought counterpoints between tradition vs. modernity, materi...

Close Encounters of a Different Kind: Arthur Phillip and the Early Opening of Australia

While much has been published regarding Captain Arthur Phillip (1738–1814), the first governor of New South Wales, some gaps remain in our knowledge. Using a wide variety of materials, embracing both manuscript and printed sources, ranging from correspondence to journals and from newspaper materials to book subscription lists, this article sets out to answer four questions. Firstly, to what extent was Arthur Phillip mentally and intellectually prepared for his manifold tasks in New South Wales? Secondly, what form did his close encounters with new lands and a new and unfamiliar culture take? Thirdly, how and to what extent were people in England kept informed of his achievements? Finally, what impact did those encounters have on Phillip himself? As a result, fresh light is cast, not only on Phillip the man, but also on his not inconsiderable achievements.

ERP responses to cross‐cultural melodic expectancy violations

In this preliminary study, we measured event-related potentials (ERPs) to melodic expectancy violations in a cross-cultural context. Subjects (n= 10) were college-age students born and raised in the United States. Subjects heard 30 short melodies based in the Western folk tradition and 30 from North Indian classical music. Each melody was presented in its original and deviation form, and subjects were asked to judge the congruence of the melody. Results indicated that subjects found the Indian melodies less congruous overall and were less sensitive to deviations in the Indian melody condition. ERP data were partly consistent with the behavioral data with significant P600 responses to deviations in both cultural conditions, but less robust in the Indian context. Results are interpreted in light of previous research on listeners' abilities to generate expectancies in unfamiliar cultures and the possibility of overlap in the scale systems influencing the findings.

Independent learning crossing cultures: learning cultures and shifting meanings

This paper contrasts the notion of ‘independent learning’ as perceived by two informant groups at a UK institution of higher education: (1) teachers, educators and providers of education and (2) their students or ‘consumers’ of education. Both informant groups are staff and students studying in a culture different to that of their first education. They are identified in their receiving institution as ‘international’, or have identified themselves as such. The experience of transition into a UK University was explored with both informant groups, through interviews and focus groups, over a cycle of two years. ‘Independent learning’ as rhetoric and practice emerged for both groups as an issue in their transition from familiar to unfamiliar learning culture. Three key insights emerged. Firstly, a mismatch is identified between teacher perceptions and student interpretation of ‘independent learning’ expectations and practice. Secondly, it emerges that student experience of the learning culture is in a state of continuous flux, evolving between first arrival and end of programme through cycles of bafflement and empowerment. Finally, both students and teachers identify a number of strategies for dealing with this experience of ‘transitional’ independence. The paper concludes by recommending a notion of ‘phased scaffolding’ that might inform educational practice and by reflecting on the implications for the educator in revisiting received educational discourse from the perspective of participants negotiating a second learning culture.

Immigration and School Choice in Australia

This article examines the relationship between the share of immigrants in a locality and private versus public school choices of natives and immigrants in Australia. Using the 2001 Australian Census data, it finds that private school attendance among native-born Australians is higher in localities with a higher share of immigrant populations. Immigrants’ private school attendance is lower where the share of their like-type immigrants is higher. These effects vary with the presence of a common language and ethnic background between the natives and the immigrants. Overall, the results suggest the possibility of a ‘flight’ from unfamiliar cultures in the Australian school system.

Simulating Iraq: Cultural Mediation and the Effects of the Real

For more than three years, between 2007 and 2009, Bostonbased photographer Claire Beckett documented army personnel and civilian workers who were readying American soldiers for deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan. With security clearance to access various military sites across the United States, most notably the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California, Beckett has been privy to the simulation techniques and role-play exercises used to prepare troops for these foreign theaters of operation. The large-format color photographs in the series Simulating Iraq capture the artificial scenarios, fabricated personas, and imitation landscapes used by the military to transform the unfamiliar cultures, peoples, and locations of the Middle East into a representational range both knowable and coercible. Beckett’s photographs critically communicate a canny elision among visual imaging systems, the field of perception, and the logic of military operations. The staging of a war, her project suggests, is intertwined with a multitude of techniques that play a formative role in constituting the self. Indeed, animating this battlefield of power relations is the construction and diffusion of representations of identity, a terrain of signifiers that may be marshaled to craft distinct differences between “us” and “them” but which inexorably escape any singular identification or localization. Beckett’s portraits of individuals and groups offer some of the strongest instances of the military’s engineering of otherness. Based on descriptions provided by intelligence services, the portraits include fair-skinned, blue-eyed Marine Lance Corporal Nicole Camala Veen, who by loosely donning a white hijab (head covering) and blue abaya (outer garment) is transformed into an Iraqi nurse in the questionably dubbed town of Wadi al-Sahara (2008), and Army Specialist Gary McCorkle, who is swathed from head to toe in white head scarf and

Teaching Heterogeneous Students in Israel

I have been teaching in the University of Haifa for almost twenty years. The courses range from Slavic Folklore and various topics in Russian Literature to the Comparative Epic Poetry and Modern Folklore. The classes are heterogeneous not only in ethnic/religious composition but also from linguistic point of view. For almost half of the students as well as for me, Hebrew, which is the language of instruction, is not a native language. The material taught represents unfamiliar cultures. The explanations given confront different cultural expectations. This paper will concentrate on the strategies implied in my pedagogical work.

The optimism bias

The optimism bias