View Article

Volume 2, Issue 3  December 2019, pp. 120–141          

Regular Articles
"I don't want to be stereotypical, but..." Norwegian EFL learners' awareness of and willingness to challenge visual stereotypes

Cecilie Waallann Brown <sup>1

1</sup> University of Stavanger, Norway

DOI: https://doi.org/10.29140/ice.v2n3.194

This article reports on a study that investigated Norwegian upper secondary pupils' visual stereotypes, as well as their awareness of and willingness to challenge these stereotypes before and after participating in an educational intervention. In the intervention, critical visual literacy was introduced as one approach to teaching about culture in English foreign language (EFL) teaching. Over the course of 16 weeks, the pupils were engaged in tasks that required them to reflect on visual stereotypes embedded in commonplace ways of representing the world, the origins of these stereotypes, their socio-political consequences, and ways of promoting social justice through taking informed action. Focus group interviews conducted with 30 pupils before and after the intervention comprise the main data set for the current article. These were supplemented by texts produced by the pupils during the intervention. The results of the study showed that the pupils were less inclined to explicitly stereotype based on ethnicity or religion after the intervention. The pupils also displayed an increased awareness of stereotyping as a process, which led some of the groups to challenge specific stereotypes and one group to challenge the process of stereotyping in general. These findings are encouraging for EFL teaching, where one of the aims is to encourage greater understanding between people with different cultural backgrounds.

© Cecilie Waallann Brown


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Brown, C.W. (2019). "I don't want to be stereotypical, but..." Norwegian EFL learners' awareness of and willingness to challenge visual stereotypes. Intercultural Communication Education, 2(3), 120–141. https://doi.org/10.29140/ice.v2n3.194

Related Articles:

Intercultural communicative competence and mobility: Perspectives on virtual, physical, and critical dimensions
Beatrice Dupuy, Chantelle Warner
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 19 April, 2021, Volume 4(1), 1–5.

Should Standard Arabic have “the lion’s share?”: Teacher ideologies in L2 Arabic through the lens of pedagogical translanguaging
Mahmoud Azaz, Yousra Abourehab
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 19 April, 2021, Volume 4(1), 90–105.

Shaping the teaching and learning of intercultural communication through virtual mobility
Theresa Catalano, Andrea Muñoz Barriga
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 19 April, 2021, Volume 4(1), 75–89.

Multiracial Chinese American women studying abroad in China: The intersectionality of gender, race, and language learning
Wenhao Diao, Yi Wang
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 19 April, 2021, Volume 4(1), 39–55.

Roadblocks to intercultural mobility: Indigenous students’ journeys in Colombian universities
José Aldemar Álvarez Valencia, Manuela Wagner
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 19 April, 2021, Volume 4(1), 6–21.

Intercultural education in times of restricted travel: Lessons from the Gaza Strip
Maria Grazia Imperiale
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 19 April, 2021, Volume 4(1), 22–38.

At the crossroads: Rethinking study abroad students’ social networking and intercultural communication in the age of globalization
Irwin Compiegne
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 19 April, 2021, Volume 4(1), 56–74.

Reframing and hospicing mobility in higher education: Challenges and possibilities
Adriana Raquel Diaz, Marisa Cordella, Samantha Dispray, Barbara E. Hanna, Anna Mikhaylova
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 19 April, 2021, Volume 4(1), 106–121.

Enrolled or engaged? Students’ perceptions of engagement and oral interaction in a blended learning language course
Kirsi Korkealehto, Minna Lakkala, Auli Toom
The JALT CALL Journal Published: 27 April, 2021, Volume 17(1), 1–22.

The impact of implementing augmented reality to enhance the vocabulary of young EFL learners
Kholoud Binhomran, Sultan Altalhab
The JALT CALL Journal Published: 27 April, 2021, Volume 17(1), 23–44.