| In recognition of the importance of incorporating culture learning into foreign language curricula, the major goal of this study was to examine the applicability and effectiveness of the ethnographic interview approach as a way to facilitate culture learning in the context of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL). Before the research was conducted, various perspectives on culture from the fields of anthropology, psychology, and intercultural communication were analyzed, and three approaches to culture learning were generated. The position of this study is that culture learning is a developmental process that requires development of both culture-specific knowledge and culture-general skills. The central purpose of the study was to create real cross-cultural contacts with native speakers of the target culture from the local community. Students were first trained in the skills of ethnographic interview techniques, and then arrangements were made for them to conduct two ethnographic interviews on their desired topics over the time frame of fifteen weeks within a single semester. A concurrent mixed methods research design was employed to capture the complex nature of culture learning. The Intercultural Developmental Inventory (IDI) and a custom-designed survey were used for quantitative data collection. The results of the custom-designed survey suggest that the students' cross-cultural competence increased after the interview project. The quantitative data also revealed that the students' background heritage was a factor that affected their performance in cross-cultural competence and their perceptions of the relationship between language and culture. Four sources of qualitative data: the custom-designed survey, students' reflective papers and final essays, and a focus-group interview, were collected to examine how the interview project had impacted the students' development of cross-cultural competence. The qualitative data identified ten cross-cultural attributes that students demonstrated as a result of the interview project. Motivated by both the quantitative and qualitative findings, the study concludes with a discussion of (a) a reexamination of the definition of culture learning, (b) a proposal for a model of culture learning, (c) additional suggestions for ethnographic interview techniques, and d) the issue of heritage learners and culture learning. Students' feedback on the interview projects and potential difficulties in incorporating culture learning into CFL curricula is also discussed in this study. |
