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40PHILOSOPHY AND PHILOLOGY
THE USE OF TRAVEL GUIDE BOOKS IN NATIONAL STEREOTYPES STUDIES
Didkovskaya T. L.
Ukraine, Kyiv, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
Abstract. The article presents and discusses teaching activities focusing on national stereotypes and developed for intercultural education in foreign language teaching, as well as for intercultural education in general. The author focuses attention on such a category as "ethic stereotypes" which are considered to be the most stable, shared by most representatives of the ethnic group, emotionally coloured, reflected in the national language and constitute the language-biased worldview. The Travel Guides teaching activity introduced in the following article aims to address the lack of methodological suggestions for teachers to use and manage education language students to identify, challenge and interpret national stereotypes. This means providing students with critical and interpretative tools that enable them to identify and deconstruct stereotypes around them, recognise, assess and manage the stereotypes they unconsciously spread, and become aware that anyone is a potential multiplier of stereotypes. Beyond culture-specific considerations, travel guides were chosen because they work as interpretative filters between the tourist/ traveller/ exchange student and the foreign country; hence, their fundamental social and intercultural role. Besides, like any other medium, especially commercially-driven ones enhancing sales, travel guides require critical reading. The author also focuses on stereotype accuracy or the difference between positive and negative stereotypes, emphasizes a strategic role, played by the distinction between auto-stereotypes, heterostereotypes and projective hetero-stereotypes. Special attention is also devoted to the cultural dimension of stereotypes. In conclusion, the author puts forward a number of theoretical and practical suggestions that will allow teachers to apply the proposed methodology creatively by adapting it to their classes and curricula. Thus, effective intercultural communication can be provided by means of stereotypes studies which demonstrate basic ethnic directives, facilitate real communication and help to achieve greater tolerance, embracing language and culture, eliminating "symbolic racism", regional and confessional negativism and ethnophobia.
Keywords: ethnic stereotypes, intercultural education, travel guides, intercultural competence, youth.
Currently many researches in linguistics and adjacent branches are focusing their studies on the interaction of different cultures, on the way one culture perceives another. The collective image of a nation preserves ideas and delusions of many generations as a set of stereotypes, actually, "schematic pictures" for comprehending complex objects and concepts [1].
The notion "stereotype", introduced in 1922 by an American psychologist W. Lippmann, proved to be very fruitful for investigating cognitive processes, schemes and models of thinking. It is known that stereotypes result from two significant reasons: economy of the efforts, typical for everyday person's thinking and speaking (categorization and generalization), and defense of the group values (social function) in order to confirm one's identity and specificity.
The use of stereotypes is not new to the modern foreign languages and intercultural communication curricula. Its popularity has fluctuated over time, and even today, teaching materials show ambivalent attitudes towards stereotypes as a conceptual phenomenon, the purposes of their use in the classroom, and the methodological principles for addressing them in the most effective way. Such multiplicity of approaches and methods is partly due to the great variety of perspectives and theories applied - today as much as in the past - in stereotyping research within social psychology [2]. Interestingly, a considerable amount of teaching activity draws, more or less explicitly, on the social cognition perspective on stereotypes, presenting them as normal cognitive processes directly or indirectly influenced by socialization [3, 4].
The concept "stereotype" has found wide application in foreign languages and intercultural communication teaching as well. It enables to represent globally unordinary behavior, thinking or
unique features of the members of other cultural groups, to facilitate their perception, linguistic and cultural differences in distinct socio-cultural contexts. Among several positive functions of the stereotypes, the two ones are considered to be the most essential: the orienting function of the stereotypes helps to create a simple model of the surrounding reality, to place various social, cultural, ethnic, etc. groups into certain "cells"; the stereotypes impact function results in pronounced differentiation of one's own and other groups. Intensive interdisciplinary researches of the stereotypes 1 allowed establishing their main parameters and methods of evaluation, peculiarities of revealing the variety of the types (social, mental, behavioral, communication, etc.) [6].
We focus our attention on such a category as "ethic stereotypes", which are considered to be the most stable, shared by most representatives of the ethnic group, emotionally colored, and what is more important - they are reflected in the national language and constitute the language-biased worldview. To our mind, real intercultural competence can't be achieved without taking into consideration ethnic stereotypes as an integral part of ethnic identity and a peculiar source of linguistic and extralinguistic information available for effective foreign languages studying with the aim of intercultural communication.
Nowadays traditional relationships among representatives of various cultures and nationalities have greatly changed, and globalization trigged off new mechanisms of interaction among people from different countries. According to the specialists, there exist three cultural and economic centers - the USA, Western Europe and Japan, where the major global cultural stereotypes of consumption and behavior are created, modeled and transmitted via mass-media and other information channels, the main instrument being the English language, not native for many participants of the intercultural communication in the global world [7].
Communicative methods have the undoubted merit of having fully integrated foreign culture into foreign language curricula; yet, for a long time, and to an extent still today, cultural contents were introduced for purely utilitarian purposes, causing the foreign culture presented to students to be fragmentary, anecdotal, and often stereotyped. The real innovation introduced by Intercultural Foreign Language Education (IFLE) in terms of stereotype conceptualization and management in the classroom is represented by its push for greater awareness and critical thinking on the part of teachers (in the first instance) and students, when they are exposed to stereotypes. Practicing critical thinking means "to step beyond common sense assumptions and to be able to evaluate them in terms of their genesis, development and purpose" [11, p.26] in order to reach personal stances aside from dominant ideas and ideologies, as well as to uncover prevailing interpretations. Critical thinking is related to the notion of critical cultural awareness (CCA), "an ability to evaluate, critically and on the basis of explicit criteria, perspectives, practices and products in one's own and other cultures and countries" [12, p.323]. IFLE acknowledges the difficulties in setting stereotyped images aside when talking about culture and considers stereotyping as an automatic, socially transmitted process affecting professionals in the sector and teachers alike. Furthermore, the latter are considered "highly influential in the formation of cultural stereotypes for the students" [13, p.43]. As far as stereotype management is concerned, however, the comprehensive theoretical framework offered to teachers is not complemented by equally clear methodological directions for managing stereotypes practically through the most appropriate teaching materials and procedures.
The Travel Guides teaching activity introduced in the following pages aims to address the lack of methodological suggestions for teachers to use and manage stereotypes in their classrooms. It makes use of different travel guides in order to help higher education language students to identify, challenge and interpret national stereotypes they unconsciously spread, and become aware that anyone is a potential multiplier of stereotypes. The aim here is to show students how stereotypes can be hidden even in what we see as the most neutral and transparent cultural products, how they are spread and amplified by the media, and how they are received by individuals.
Within the Travel Guides teaching activity, a strategic role is played by the distinction between auto-stereotypes (how we see ourselves), hetero-stereotypes (how we see others and how others see us) and projective hetero-stereotypes (how we think others see us). Special attention is also devoted to the cultural dimension of stereotypes. If considered collective meanings or representations, they can provide a wealth of information on the group sharing them. Since people become aware of stereotypes only when these regard their group of origin and convey negative evaluations, training in the development of a critical method for stereotype deconstruction must initially focus on the student's own culture and only at a later
stage be applied to the foreign culture. In line with these considerations, students were first encouraged to collectively analyze the introductions of three travel guides of Ukraine in order to identify possible stereotypes. Subsequently, they were asked to repeat the analysis on the introduction of a travel guide of Italy, for example. It was expected that early exposure to the difference between hetero-stereotypes, autostereotypes and projective stereotypes would provoke an emotive response in students (whether surprise, amusement, disappointment or annoyance) - a response that the Italy travel guide and the stereotypes contained in it could not possibly have elicited. The desired outcome was that, once exposed to the feelings (surprise, uneasiness, amusement, etc.) provoked by the unusual, incorrect or even unfair portrayal of their in-group, students would be more sensitive and perceptive in identifying stereotypical images of Italy or another country, gaining deeper understanding and adopting a less naive view of the more familiar cultural product (the Italy travel guide).
The above-said methodology was partially challenged by the participation of three non-Ukrainian (i.e. Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijan) students, who study in the same intercultural group. However, what could appear as an inconvenience at first glance, proved to provide a further occasion for collective critical thinking. Non-Ukrainian students were explicitly invited to assume a slightly different role compared to Ukrainian students during the activity: they could work as experts of Ukraine, though offering to their peers diverse perspectives on the country and on the travel guide descriptions. Moreover, whenever opportune and possible, their own national culture was also addressed directly.
As a preparatory phase of the teaching activity, students were given a brief form they had to complete individually by answering three questions, which are presented in Table 1 along with some of the students' answers. All the answers were then read and discussed in class by the students and the teacher. The questions in the form aimed to re-activate students' knowledge of cultural stereotypes setting aside their personal beliefs.
Table 1
Questions Students' answers
1. In your opinion, what are the most popular stereotypes about Italy and Italians? Live in political anarchy: unable to form Governments; lament at football; love art/culture/fashion; have a very hot climate, poor in the South of Italy; Mafia; eat a lot of pasta, drink coffee; are short and loud; very Catholic; extremely fashionable, a bit rude.
2. In your opinion, what are the most popular stereotypes about Ukraine / your country? A lot of Ukrainians speak Russian; lard, borsch, vodka (horilka); radioactive country; corrupted country; long-term internal conflicts; surviving a political and economic crisis; Ukrainians are gloomy, non-emotional and aggressive; Ukrainians are individualists; greenness of the countryside; beautiful women; melodic songs; tasty cuisine; hospitality; Euro2012
3. What is a stereotype? A fixed opinion about someone/something/a people; Supposed "facts" which, however, have not been proved; An image or belief about something, a group of people, place that isn't always true; An image of one person can be placed on a whole group (without considering that others may be different!); Generalization; Idea may be based on ideas from newspapers; It's an image or thought a person has about a place or thing; It might not be the correct image but people associate it with a specific thing.
This initial group discussion is intended to activate critical analysis skills which participants would later need when reading the travel guides.
The next stage activity is a text type choice. It is based on several considerations. First, it was hypothesized that the use of travel guides would increase instrumental motivation (in students studying Italian as an optional subject to be able to travel to Italy for work or leisure purposes) and cultural motivation (in those studying Italian because of their interest in Italian art, cinema, opera, etc.). In the case at hand, these considerations were particularly relevant, since a questionnaire was submitted to 1st, 2nd, and 3dyear Tourism students at the Geographic Department before the beginning of the FLSP course. Secondly, travel guides were chosen as teaching materials as such texts are usually familiar to higher education language students, though their apparently transparent and neutral nature might not make it easy for students to identify and unmask stereotypes. Beyond culture-specific considerations, travel guides were closely examined because they work as interpretative filters between the tourist/ traveller/ exchange student and the foreign country; hence, their fundamental social and intercultural role. The literal meaning of a text is only the starting point for an analysis that goes beyond it to investigate the society that produced the text, its intended reader (the English-speaking reader) and its goals (promoting tourism in Italy and enhancing the sales of the travel guide itself). In the travel guide analyzed, information on contemporary Italy was incorporated in this intricate web of cultural meanings. Therefore, critical thinking was required for decoding these texts (or any other text) at different levels and for discriminating information from interpretation and both of these from stereotypes.
Reading of the three travel guides on Italy (Guide Turistiche Airplane, Lonely Planet and The Rough Guide) was completed in groups. Students were invited to mix to form groups which were as diverse as possible in terms of language proficiency - in order to encourage peer support among students - and nationality - separating the three non-Ukrainian students. As mentioned earlier, they were explicitly made aware of their possible special role within the groups: they could suggest a wider range of perspectives on the travel guides thanks to both their foreign background and their familiarity with Ukraine.
All groups were asked to cooperatively formulate a short evaluation of each introduction making use of a form provided to them. In the form, they were invited to look for stereotypes, to identify the authors' prevalent aims choosing from a list (informing, describing, discussing, telling, recommending, entertaining, instructing), and to identify the clues from which they could recognize both aims and stereotypes. All the group members had to agree on all the answers provided; possible incompatible opinions had to be reported on the form.
The task was intended to make students feel like experts, possessing the necessary knowledge to assess the travel guides. Consequently, the teacher maintained a low profile, while playing the double role of "expert" in stereotypes and mere spectator/addressee of the students' activity. The teacher is desirable to have visited the country under discussion and got to know it well.
Progressively, during the class discussion, students' attention was directed to the English (or Italian in case with Italian-studying students) language used in the travel guides, thus introducing linguistic input based on language description and analysis, in addition to the communicative input provided throughout the activity.
To finalize the teaching activity, each student individually read the introduction of a travel guide of Italy for English-speaking readers (Dorling Kindersley) and wrote a brief comment of evaluation on it. In contrast to the previous group discussion, the teacher deliberately did not provide any form with criteria of analysis, in order to allow students to choose their own criteria and practice their own critical reading. This was followed by a brief class discussion during which students presented to peers their comments and exchanged ideas on them.
As we shall see, travel guides only represent one of the many kinds of text with which the suggested teaching methodology can be implemented.
Thus, effective intercultural communication can be provided by means of stereotypes studies which demonstrate basic ethnic directives, facilitate real communication and help to achieve greater tolerance, embracing language and culture, eliminating "symbolic racism" (T. Dijk), regional and confessional negativism, ethnophobia and Europhobia [14].
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3. Abrams, Z.I. Surfing to cross-cultural awareness: Using internet mediated projects to explore stereotypes. Foreign Language Annals, 35(2), 141-160, 2002.
4. Corbett, J. Intercultural language activities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
5. Utley, D. Intercultural resource pack: Intercultural communication resources for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
6. Steele, Claude M. A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance//American Psychologist, 1997.
7. Grant C. A. Multicultural Education: Commitments, Issues, and Applications. URL: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/recordDetail?accno=ED143609?
8. Hall E. T., Hall M. R. Understanding Cultural Differences: Germans, French and Americans. "Intercultural Press", 1990.
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10. Givens, D. B. The Nonverbal Dictionary of Gestures, Signs and Body Language Cues. Washington, 2003.
11. Giroux, H.A. Pedagogy and the politics of hope: Theory, culture, and schooling. Boulder: Westview Press, 1997.
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13. Itakura, H. Changing cultural stereotypes through e-mail assisted foreign language learning. System, 32, 37-51, 2004.
14. Miall A., Milsted D. The Xenophobe's Guide to the English. London, Oval books, 2002.
DISCURSIVE APPROACH TO ANALYSIS OF THE LITERARY TEXT AS ONE OF THE PROBLEMS IN LITERARY CRITICISM (BASED ON BULGAKOV'S NOVEL «MASTER AND MARGARITA»)
Master Karlygash Baikanova L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University
Abstract. This article deals with the problems of actualization of a literary text. For example, Bulgakov's novel «Master and Margarita», the author tries to analyze the world of the text using current approaches to the study of the text, such as the cognitive-discursive analysis of the product, and to determine the creation of a literary text.
The Bulgakov's novel «The Master and Margarita» is like a final product in relation to the whole work of the writer, summing up his ideas about the meaning of life, of man, of death and immortality, the struggle of good and evil in the history of the beginning. In addition, the tragic complexity of the establishment of the novel, as well as the associated creative and dramatic personal fate of Bulgakov, organic and original combination of works of world cultural traditions put «Master and Margarita» in a number of interesting literature phenomena of XX century. Innumerable works dedicated to this novel acknowledge it. In this novel, we explored the central element of the integrative model of discourse - a literary text of the novel. The text of the novel depends on the subject of discourse: its substantial integrity or completeness of the forms in the course of interaction of the author and the reader. Due to the temporal and spatial fragmentation discourse of each character of the novel takes place in the mode autocommunication. Creating text, Bulgakov was based on their perceptions of the destination created by them text. By his, the author's discourse, which is the product
