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Cross-Culturally Speaking
Speaking Cross-Culturally

6 to 8 July 2009

An international conference
organised at Macquarie University, Sydney,
by the Department of International Studies, Macquarie University
in cooperation with
the Département des Sciences du Langage, Université Montpellier 3

A provisional timetable and abstract booklet are now available

(please click to view the full promotional flyer)

Organisational board

Bert Peeters (Chair), Brigitte Jandey, Marika Kalyuga, Martina Möllering, Karin Speedy (all of Macquarie University); Christine Béal (Université Montpellier 3)

Scientific board

Nathalie Auger (Université Montpellier 3), Astrid Berrier (Université du Québec à Montréal), Christopher Candlin (Macquarie University), Françoise Demougin (IUFM Montpellier), Jean-Marc Dewaele (Birkbeck College, University of London), Cliff Goddard (University of New England), Marie-Noëlle Guillot (University of East Anglia), Barbara Hanna (Queensland University of Technology), Tony Liddicoat (University of South Australia), Miranda Stewart (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow), Véronique Traverso (Université Lyon 2), Jock Onn Wong (National University of Singapore)

Guest speakers

Christine Béal (Université Montpellier 3)
Juliane House (Universität Hamburg)
Anna Wierzbicka (Australian National University)

Conference blurb

Issues in cross-cultural communication have exercised the minds of thousands of scholars world-wide and will no doubt continue to do so in the foreseeable future. Cross-cultural communication is often relatively unproblematic (as relatively unproblematic, that is, as communication within cultures), but it is a well-known fact that problems do develop from time to time and warrant the attention of linguists and applied linguists alike. Cross-cultural pragmatic failure, as it has been called, occurs because of insufficient knowledge, either of the formal rules of the language in which an interaction takes place (rules that relate to its lexicon, its phonetics, its syntax), or of more elusive aspects related to implicit cultural norms and values, often not adequately taught in foreign language classrooms. In the absence of appropriate cross-cultural savoir-faire, it can have disastrous repercussions for interpersonal relationships and lead to unhelpful stereotyping.

Like its predecessor, the July 2007 Montpellier conference on which it seeks to build,  the present gathering is part of an ongoing cooperative agreement between our two institutions and will bring together a number of scholars interested in gaining a better understanding, through the study of actual communicative behaviour or otherwise, of the various linguistic and pragmatic aspects of cross-cultural competence which are required for communication across cultural boundaries to be successful. Presenters wishing to analyse actual communicative behaviour were asked to choose among the following approaches:

1.	A “comparative” approach which entails side-by-side observation of native speakers using their respective native languages in similar contexts or interactions
		The comparative approach allows similarities and differences in usage and expectations in pre-defined communicative contexts to be brought into focus, and thus paves the way towards formulating hypotheses on potentially sensitive points in cross-cultural situations.
2.	A “cross-cultural” approach which entails analysis of contact situations in which speakers belonging to different cultural backgrounds interact with one another
		The cross-cultural approach allows identification of presumed obstacles in cross-cultural communication which appear to generate misunderstanding or interpersonal clashes, and thus paves the way towards the identification of underlying cultural values which are relevant for one or more of the speakers but not for all.
3.	A “pedagogical” approach which relies on observation of interlanguage behaviour among peers, comparing it to native performance in similar contexts or interactions
		The pedagogical approach relies on simulations and allows L1 interferences on L2 to be brought into focus and thus complements findings achieved within a cross-cultural approach.

 

Regardless of the approach selected for a particular investigation, presenters have been asked to examine how the linguistic and cultural aspects of verbal behaviour are intertwined. In addition, they have been invited, whenever possible, to go beyond a purely descriptive approach and to envisage the theoretical and/or pedagogical implications their data may provide.

Presentations not based on concrete communicative behaviour (i.e. the analysis of linguistic interaction using one of the approaches mentioned above) were also invited, especially if they sought to engage with a newly developed ethnolinguistic pathways model, preferably honouring its requirement to use the natural semantic metalanguage developed by Anna Wierzbicka and Cliff Goddard. The aim of the model is to facilitate the study of cultural values through language, and provides researchers and advanced students alike with strategies to gain a better knowledge of values using linguistic data. It seeks to illustrate how and to what extent the detailed study of communicative behaviour (ethnopragmatics), phrases (ethnophraseology), key words (ethnosemantics) and productive syntactic patterns (ethnosyntax) can lead to the discovery of putative cultural values which are then to become the subject of further investigation leading to either the confirmation or the rejection of their assumed status; and also how and to what extent, through a detailed study of communicative behaviour, phrases, key words and productive syntactic patterns, cultural values typically associated with a particular linguistic community can be further corroborated (ethnoaxiology). More information on the ethnolinguistic pathways model is available on http://www.eurolang.mq.edu.au/staff/peeters/Pathways.pdf

Registration fees

To register for the conference, please complete the registration form (pdf) or (rtf) and return it to the address marked at the bottom of the form. The following registration fees apply:

Early bird (academic) Early bird (students / developing countries) Regular (academic) Regular (students / developing countries)

AUD 200 AUD 100 AUD 250 AUD 125

Early bird rates will be available until April 30. Fees include morning and afternoon tea, as well as lunch on each of the three conference days.

Concurrent events

This conference takes place at about the same time as a series of other events of international significance, organised in Sydney and Melbourne:

1. July 8-10: 3rd Conference of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies (held at Monash University, Melbourne)
2. July 9-11: Annual Conference of the Australian Linguistics Society (held at the Ibis Hotel, Melbourne)
3. July 10-12: Ethnography symposium (held at Macquarie University, Sydney; organised by Christopher Candlin)
4. July 12-17: 11th International Pragmatics Conference (held at the University of Melbourne)