Cross-cultural awareness training on foreign language courses at the Australian Defense Force School of Languages

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Melbourne, Faculty of Education, 1998This research investigated the extent to which culture learning and the development of cross-cultural skills were incorporated into the foreign language programmes at the Australian Defence Force School of Languages. Data relating to the provision of cross-cultural awareness training was collected through the administration of a questionnaire to selected students from the 1997 general language courses, the conduct of an interview schedule with a representative sample of the staff, and an examination of the School's Curriculum, Syllabuses, and materials used for the teaching of cross-cultural awareness. The research found that cross-cultural awareness training on the various language courses was not derived from an analysis of the needs of students, was concentrated on culture-specific awareness in the cognitive domain, and that there were only limited opportunities for development of cross-cultural awareness in the affective and behavioural domains. Additionally, the research found that course documentation did not provide sufficient guidance to staff on how cross-cultural awareness training was to be treated on the courses and that staff themselves had only a limited understanding of what cross-cultural awareness entailed. The implications of these findings for the School of Languages are threefold: firstly, the School needs to develop a culture-general cross-cultural awareness training programme as a means of enhancing staff cross-cultural . awareness; secondly, cross-cultural awareness programmes for students should be directed at students' needs and, where applicable, contain activities directed at their cross-cultural awareness in the affective and behavioural domains; thirdly, the School's Curriculum and Syllabuses need to provide greater guidance to staff on the manner in which cross-cultural awareness training is to be treated in the School