Page 520 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

498 Martina Rost-Roth

2. Alternative explanations
a) The Chinese students don’t want to admit to not understanding because they are
afraid of punishment
most applicable – quite applicable – not very applicable – least applicable.
b) In this learning situation, the pupils don’t tell the truth because they want to con-
ceal their weakness and don’t want to criticize the teacher.
most applicable – quite applicable – not very applicable – least applicable
c) […]
d) […]
3. Justification of the explanations
Explanation a) This answer is not quite correct. A German teacher is unlikely to
want or be able to make Chinese students so scared of punishment that they therefore
don’t admit to not understanding. […]
Explanation b) This answer is correct. For us, too, it is difficult to admit that we
haven’t really understood something that we ought to. In China teachers are very
well respected. Especially if they teach such important subjects as computing it is
particularly difficult for students to admit that they do not understand. […]
(Thomas 1996: 122–123, translation by the author)
At the end of each individual unit, information is given on basic ‘cultural stan-
dards’, at a higher level of abstraction. Thomas understands cultural standards
as norms and benchmarks for producing and evaluating behavior, whereby the
aim is to differentiate various orientation systems. The basic assumption is that
cultural standards can be reconstructed via the analysis of critical incidents
(Thomas 1996 and 1999: 115; see also Franklin in this volume). In the training
material, the description of cultural standards is included. For example, the fol-
lowing standards are seen as significant for dealing with the Chinese culture:
– social harmony (HE)
– hierarchy
– relationships (‘GUANXI’ and ‘RENQING’, ‘RENJI GUANXI’)
– ‘work unit’, ‘unit where you live’ (‘DANWEI’)
– face (MIANZI)
– respect, Politeness (‘QIANGONG XING’)
– ‘relativism of rules’(Liang/Kammhuber 2003: 171–182, translation by the
author)
In most cases, around 10 standards are listed per target culture. The descrip-
tions in the materials are frequently found useful as an initial orientation. How-
ever, critics also see a risk that the descriptions of cultural standards in the train-
ing material become absolute. The authors Müller and Thomas (1991: 12)
themselves refer to the critical aspect that differences are emphasized, whereas
common factors tend to remain in the background.