In February, I originally planned to look at my data from one of my PhD research questions perspectives which is about the purposes of English language teaching (and one of the insights I gained from the fieldwork was that the main purpose is to help students pass exams). My second thought was that when Cultnet is a network of people who are interested in the field of Intercultural Communication, why not trying to see my data from the intercultural perspective. <\/span><\/p>\n Since I didn\u2019t ask my participants any direct question on what they think about the topic, I chose to zoom in to the data I generated from the stimulated recall interviews to explore what teachers said during the interview and the extent to which they commented on (what I think to be) the teaching of inter\/cultural aspects in their teaching. Referring to the title above, it was Richard<\/span>\u2019s idea that I find some provocative quotes from my data and used it as the title. When I found that particular quote, I couldn\u2019t help feeling hopeless about the teaching of the intercultural aspects in English classrooms in Thailand, and I guessed that my presentation would sound negative as well. I consulted with Richard regarding this negative feeling (including the STRESS I had from feeling under-prepared for the presentation). Richard who had just returned from Uganda last Monday was kind enough to agree to see me on Tuesday to \u201cease my stress\u201d. Guess what? He did it by saying \u201cthe purpose is to entertain the audience\u201d and it just rang the bell. I laughed and my attitudes changed.<\/span><\/p>\n I went back to look at my data again and thought how I could present something positive and useful for my audience (including a list of new (practical) jokes). Surprisingly, my views towards the data changed dramatically. Instead of seeing what the teacher said was a negative thing; I found that she really made a good point because the other two teachers also commented on the contents of the course book which mostly feature things that their students cannot relate with (e.g. James Bond and john Lennon). Although this made me became more curious (or confused, I wasn\u2019t sure), I found one possible way to present it as at Cultnet is that you can also present a work-in-progress or issues you\u2019ve found in the process to seek advice from the expert audience. Therefore, I chose to present the data, how I have understood it, offered some possible implications for teachers educators in my context and some possibilities for my thesis writing. I invited the audience to give me some suggestions at the end and those were worth thinking about. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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