Small scale research activity

1. Small-Scale Research:
Characteristics of a Country
English C1: Intercultural Communication
Prof. dr. Nemira Mačianskienė
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag-map_of_Lithuania.svg

2. Essentialism & CULTURE
• Essentialism: socially defined groups (cultures) have
• distinct attributes & behaviors, core values that determine how we behave, think, act
• culture = “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group
from another” (Hofstede, 1980, p. 21) = descriptive understanding of culture
• Non-essentialism:
• culture is much more complex (Holliday, Hyde, & Kullman, 2004)
• people are not robots; our behavior depends on position, status, situation, purpose &
mutual relationships (Dahl, 2015)
• Dahl (2014, p. 4): descriptive understanding has become problematic due to globalization:
• 1.”Cultures are never “pure” limited homogeneous units”
• 2. Concept of culture cannot describe “modern complex societies”: people participate “in particular
contexts”, “particular communication processes”, “particular cultural interactions”
English C1: Intercultural Communication N. Mačianskienė

3. English C1: Intercultural Communication Characteristics of Lithuanians Nemira Mačianskienė

4. Breakout Room Discussions
• 1. Find your Group link in Moodle & open your Group’s Jamboard (1/5 or
2/5 or 3/5 …)
• 2. Write the names of all Group members in a text box or a sticker
• 3. Discuss - Share your 5 characteristics of Lithuanians in the group
• 4. Discuss & choose which of them best represents Lithuanians - make a list
of 10 characteristic features
• TIME: 20 min.
English C1: Intercultural Communication Characteristics of Lithuanians Nemira Mačianskienė

5. Home Assignment:
Characteristics of Lithuanians*
* Visiting students can choose whether to do research & present a Lithuanian or their country’s characteristic
1. Participate in FORUM 9: choose 1 characteristic feature
2. Search for information to prove/provide evidence if this characteristic is a fact rather
than opinion
- Search for statistical data, articles, books, stories, etc. (use keywords)
- Copy the references of the source, prepare them according to APA 7
3. Present evidence in 4-5 slides, cite sources on each slide
4. Provide a full list of references (APA 7)
5. Present your research findings in class (5-7 min) (see Evaluation criteria below)

6. Reporting research findings
• Use text and visual aids properly
• Sentence fragments / Paraphrazed sentences/ ideas (Author, year) (no full sentences, unless it’s a quote)
• Direct quotes “...“ (Author, year, p. )
• Tables & data
• Images
• Video & audio files
• Use headings on each slide
• Refer to Figures/ Tables correctly
• Figure 1 / Table 1
• Title
• Notes below Figure 1 /Table 1
English C1: Intercultural Communication Characteristics of Lithuanians Nemira Mačianskienė

7. APA style PowerPoint Presentations
• http://libraryguides.bennett.edu/home/library-tutorials/apa-style-
presentations
English C1: Intercultural Communication Characteristics of Lithuanians Nemira Mačianskienė

8. Refer to Tables/Figures Correctly
Incorrect ❌ Correct ✓
Referring to Figure 1, only 15% of the
respondents...
Referring to Figure 1, we can see that only
15% of the respondents...
Figure 1 indicates that only 15% of the
respondents...
As Figure 1 shows, only 15% of the
respondents...
As can be seen in Figure 1, only 15% of
the respondents...
English C1: Intercultural Communication Characteristics of Lithuanians Nemira Mačianskienė

9. English C1: Intercultural Communication Characteristics of Lithuanians Nemira Mačianskienė
Group 1
BRAINSTORMING:
Lithuanian
characteristic features

10. English C1: Intercultural Communication Characteristics of Lithuanians Nemira Mačianskienė
Group 2
BRAINSTORMING:
Lithuanian
characteristic features

11. English C1: Intercultural Communication Characteristics of Lithuanians Nemira Mačianskienė
Group 3
BRAINSTORMING:
Lithuanian
characteristic features

12. References
Dahl, Ø. (2014). Is culture something we have or something we do? Journal of Intercultural
Communication, 36, November 2014. http://immi.se/intercultural
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2021). William Chandler Bagley. Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Chandler-Bagley.
Holliday, A., Hyde, M., & Kullman, J. (2004). Intercultural Communication. An Advanced Resource
Book (pp. 3-5).
Jackson, J. (2014). Introducing language and intercultural communication. Routledge.
Mačianskienė, N. (2009). Characteristic features of a country. English for Intercultural Communication
(p. 53). VDU.
Images
Flag-map of Lithuania https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag-map_of_Lithuania.svg
Flag of Italy https://pixabay.com/illustrations/search/italy%20flag/
English C1: Intercultural Communication Characteristics of Lithuanians Nemira Mačianskienė