The Developing Intercultural Competence Through English (DICE) Project was informally launched in 2009. It was initially conceived by prof. Anna Niżegorodcew as a collaboration initiative between staff members of the Institutes of English Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University in Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukraine).
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| Initial publication, 2011 |
At its starting point lay the idea of building bridges of mutual understanding between members of Polish and Ukrainian cultures. The two nations’ neighborhood is marked with violent and difficult past which sometimes casts a shadow on their current relations. Therefore, there is a need to actively search for dialogic spaces facilitating the development of mutual trust and friendly coexistence.
The English language, today’s lingua franca, offers a useful platform for communication. Though no language can be entirely neutral in terms of its cultural and communicative contents, English seemed to be a good tool for a project of this kind due to at least two reasons. First, it allowed us for stepping aside from the historically, culturally and emotionally difficult past. Second, English is a natural tool of communication between the communities of scholars and students, which, additionally, fits well with the academic profiles of both institutes.
Despite the fact that initially the project aimed at bringing together the two universities’ staff members, it evolved into an initiative which embraced students, too. Both staff and students explored issues related to intercultural communication and aspects of Polish and Ukrainian cultures. At the same time, groups of students from both universities engaged in investigating and sharing their reflections on their own and the partner’s cultures.
During the seminars devoted to intercultural communication through English, students asked and answered their partners’ questions concerning culture specific issues. Their questions ranged from those concerning national stereotypes, such as those about the attitudes towards minorities to the more personal ones, for example those about student life. This task was facilitated through a social network created especially for the purposes of this exchange.
The DICE Project (see Niżegorodcew, Bystrov and Kleban 2011)[1], led to the building of a better understanding of our own as well as our partner’s culture. It helped both the students and the involved staff members to develop their knowledge of specific aspects of our cultures and led all its participants to realize the different conditions of studying and teaching in both institutions.
Taken together, the experience of staff and student collaboration and the collaborative work on the publication gave rise to interesting intercultural comparisons and reflections. First of all, it showed that there is much room for a dialogue between our cultures. We discovered that due to the different historical and political trajectories there are a number of differences which underpin everyday and academic life in both countries. Secondly, it also showed that English has its important place in facilitating intercultural dialogue.
This collection of e-Materials developed by students of the English Studies Department at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, including projects on Polish culture, is the outcome of an Intercultural Communication Course conducted at the English Studies Department by prof. Anna Niżegorodcew in the year 2012/13. The addressees of the materials are students of English interested in intercultural communication and in Polish culture, in particular students of English from the Precarpathian University in Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukraine), our partner English Philology Department.
This e-Project is a continuation of the DICE Project (Niżegorodcew et al. 2011) in the sense that it explores intracultural themes and it presents background theoretical knowledge. This time our focus is on Polish culture. Its main aim is to raise intracultural awareness and knowledge among Polish authors of the e-Materials, as well as to provide students of other nationalities with interesting materials which would also improve their intercultural awareness and develop background knowledge. Its other aim is to improve communicative competence in English as a language of international communication (lingua franca).
Let us outline the content of our e-Materials. The theoretical presentations have been based on prof. Jerzy Mikułowski Pomorski’s book Jak narody porozumiewają się ze sobą w komunikacji międzykulturowej i komunikowaniu medialnym [Intercultural communication and media communication between nations] (2007/2012)[2]. Selected parts of the book have been summarised and presented in English.There are four presentations which introduce the readers to various aspects of intercultural communication:
1. Intercultural communication by Anna Sudoł and Natalia Sas
2. Culture and values by Klaudia Matras and Sylwia Niewczas
3. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions by Bożena Cieślar, Paulina Juszczak and Karolina Zarzycka
4. From cultural meetings to multiculturalism by Małgorzata Zoń, Anna Widzińska and Karolina Dąbrowska
Each presentation is accompanied by discussion questions.
There are seven presentations on Polish culture:
1. Poland by Natalia Sas and Anna Sudoł
2. Tarnów by Karolina Dąbrowska
3. Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains: The history and culture of Podhale by Anna Marszałek, Justyna Sroka and Agnieszka Zając
4. The life and legacy of Bruno Schulz by Paulina Juszczak and Karolina Zarzycka
5. Polish history in motion by Anna Widzińska and Małgorzata Zoń
6. Stereotypes about Poland by Natalia Biel, Tomasz Szydło and Katarzyna Wąż
7. Implementing the assumptions of the Bologna Declaration in Polish higher education by Bożena Cieślar, Klaudia Matras and Sylwia Niewczas
Each presentation is accompanied by questions.
Some of these projects were presented during our visit at the Precarpathian University in December 2012. We also present pictures from our visit and Polish students’ first-hand impressions.
Our e-Project is varied, as was our Intercultural Communication Course. The presentations about aspects of Polish culture have been developed by teams of students, who have chosen their topics, visual materials and commentaries, and whose approaches vary between those of tourists’ guides, prospective Erasmus students, film viewers, and pop culture and literary critics. However, the common feature of the presentations is their attempt to reach the intercultural audience and make them reflect on their own cultures.
It is interesting to observe how students of an English Department in Poland have become interested in their own country and its culture, and how they approach the general theme of making their own culture available to students from a neighbour country. It seems that it is the autonomy given to the students that involved them so much in the Project and made them so creative. And they rediscovered a new role for English as a medium of intercultural communication.
We would like to stress that cultures are “unexhausted sources of inspiration in intercultural contacts”, and that we believe in the role of English as a lingua franca in “bridging the gaps of mutual prejudices and shedding more light” on our cultures in an international context (Niżegorodcew et al op.cit. p.10).
By prof. A. Niżegorodcew and dr M. Kleban
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[1] Niżegorodcew, A., Bystrov, Y. and Kleban, M. (eds.). 2011. Developing Intercultural Competence through English: Focus on Ukrainian and Polish Cultures. Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press.
[2] Mikułowski Pomorski, J. 2007/2012. Jak narody porozumiewają się ze sobą w komunikacji międzykulturowej i komunikowaniu medialnym. Kraków: Universitas.
