By Dalat TESOL
From stereotypes to structures — why critical interculturality matters in applied linguistics today
🤔 Beyond Cultural Differences: The Need for a Critical Lens
We often begin intercultural communication by describing surface-level differences:
“In Canada, students call teachers by their first name. In Vietnam, we say ‘thầy’ or ‘cô’.”
“Westerners value directness; Asians prefer indirectness.”
These facts may be accurate in some contexts, but they risk flattening people into cultural types. They don’t tell us why these differences exist, who benefits from them, or what ideologies they reflect. That’s where Critical Intercultural Communication (CIC) enters the picture.
CIC is not just about understanding others. It’s about asking hard questions:
- Who decides what “good English” is?
- Why are some cultures represented as modern, others as traditional?
- How do educational systems maintain these ideas?
🧠 Key Concepts Made Simple
| Term | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Ideology | A system of ideas that shapes how we see the world — often without realizing it |
| Representation | How people, cultures, or identities are portrayed in media, textbooks, or policies |
| Hegemony | When one worldview becomes accepted as “normal,” marginalizing others |
| Critical Cultural Awareness (Byram) | The ability to evaluate cultural practices (ours and others’) ethically and reflectively |
🇻🇳 A Vietnamese Example: Whose English Is “Correct”?
Imagine a Vietnamese teacher working in an international school in Thailand. They speak fluent English, hold two postgraduate degrees, and have years of experience. But parents sometimes question their pronunciation. A British colleague, meanwhile, receives automatic respect — despite being new and less experienced.
On the surface, this might seem like a personal opinion. But CIC reveals how language ideologies are tied to race, history, and colonial assumptions. “Native speaker” is often racialized, and linguistic legitimacy is unequally distributed.
📚 From Holliday to Dervin: Shifting the Lens
- Holliday (2010) critiques traditional IC research for reinforcing “us vs. them” narratives. He argues for recognizing small cultures — dynamic groups formed through shared practices, not fixed national identities.
- Dervin (2016) pushes for “interculturality,” where identities are seen as fluid, multiple, and influenced by history, mobility, and context.
Both authors call for a critical turn — a move away from viewing culture as a stable container and toward seeing it as socially constructed and power-laden.
🏫 A Vietnamese Classroom Perspective
In Vietnamese classrooms, teachers may provide very direct and public feedback — a style rooted in academic seriousness, exam culture, and efficiency. Western students might perceive this as harsh, while some Vietnamese learners take it as normal or even expected.
On the flip side, Vietnamese students often hesitate to challenge authority figures publicly, even when they disagree. This isn’t about passivity — it’s a learned form of respect shaped by hierarchical social norms. Both behaviors are cultural — but also historical, institutional, and contextual.
A critical approach helps us understand these norms without stereotyping and encourages educators to reflect on their own assumptions.
📖 What’s Wrong with “Culture Talk”?
“Culture talk” is when we reduce people to cultural clichés:
“Vietnamese students are shy.”
“Westerners are individualistic.”
“Asians avoid eye contact.”
These generalizations might sound familiar. But they:
- Ignore context (urban vs. rural, old vs. young, formal vs. informal)
- Silence variation (not all Vietnamese students are quiet)
- Reinforce cultural determinism (as if people have to act this way)
Instead of “culture talk,” Byram (1997/2021) urges us to develop critical cultural awareness — to ask not only what people do, but why, and how we know what we know.
📘 Case Activity: Textbook Critique
Choose a widely used English textbook. In small groups, analyze:
- Who speaks English in the book? What accents and ethnicities are shown?
- Are cultures shown as static or changing?
- Are any countries exoticized, oversimplified, or missing altogether?
Then ask:
“What cultural ideologies are embedded here? How could we revise this material for more critical representation?”
🎭 Student-Side Example: Accent Anxiety
A Vietnamese MA student at an international university in Australia constantly apologizes for her “bad English,” even though she communicates clearly. When asked why, she says, “I know my accent is not native.”
This example reflects internalized linguistic hegemony — the belief that real English must sound Western. A critical educator helps students recognize that intelligibility and communicative effectiveness matter more than native-likeness.
✍ Reflection Prompt
Think of a time when a cultural assumption or stereotype shaped how someone treated you — or how you treated them. How could a critical perspective have reshaped the interaction?
Or as a classroom activity:
Discuss: “Should English teachers explicitly address race, power, and inequality in global Englishes? Why or why not?”
🎓 Why This Matters in Applied Linguistics
As English educators, we:
- Choose what voices appear in our materials
- Decide which accents to model
- Shape how students see themselves as English users
If we don’t question cultural ideologies, we risk reinforcing invisible inequalities. Critical intercultural communication gives us tools to:
- Recognize hidden power in everyday language
- Reflect on whose voices are centered or silenced
- Create more just, inclusive classrooms
📚 Recommended Readings
- Holliday, A. (2021). Intercultural communication: An advanced resource book for students. Routledge.
- Dervin, F. (2016). Interculturality in education: A theoretical and methodological toolbox. Springer.
- Byram, M. (2020). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence: Revisited. Multilingual matters.