ICP Outcomes
Quizzes
The Interculture Quizzes have been developed by The Interculture Project team and members of the Department of European Languages and Cultures at Lancaster University partly as a means of investigating students' state of knowledge prior to residence abroad and partly as the basis of learning activities which are built into the Lancaster Residence Abroad Preparation Course.
A separate Identity Quiz was developed to encourage students to reflect on their own cultural identity.
The quizzes that have been developed are specific to France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Each quiz consists of approximately 30 questions, mostly multiple choice. An answer sheet for each quiz enables students' answers to be collected and analysed, if appropriate. Copies of the answer sheets can also be returned to the students for their own reference. The quizzes having been completed by the students, actual and potential answers to the various questions are discussed in small and/or large groups led preferably by a number of nationals from the culture concerned.
Suggested responses and commentary have also been developed for each quiz, designed to stimulate and support discussion rather than to provide 'one correct answer'.
Below are links to the country specific quizzes. Students - try answering the questions yourself before looking at the suggested responses and commentary.
The Identity Quiz
A total number of 20 questions are split into 5 sets of 4 questions and given out to groups of students in a session. Different groups of students therefore discuss different questions which creates added interest in the plenary discussion at the end. An example of a set of questions is:
TASK 1.
Rapidly write an answer to Questions 1- 4
, using the space on the question sheet. Use as few words as possible - one word where you can. Then discuss your 4 answers as a group.1. What in your upbringing has most shaped you?
2. Which characteristic do you most dislike in other people?
3. What British food do you think you will most miss abroad?
4. Which aspects of British national character will people of the host country be most suspicious of
in you? If you do not define yourself as British, reflect on the implications of this these issues for your own national identityTASK 2.
5. As a group, agree on one extra question which you think would be revealing of a person's identity and write it below …
The other questions to be used in TASK 1 are:
- What do you see as your U.S.P. - your unique selling point?
- What do others most misunderstand about your personality?
- Name four characteristics you associate with Britishness.
- Which characteristics of the host country’s people (name the country) do you think you’ll most appreciate?
- If you were a drink, which drink would you be?
- What do you find most difficult about working in a group?
- Which trait of British character do you value most?
- Your employer abroad tactfully suggests you remove the stud from your lower lip. Would you?
- Of the clothes you wear, what best expresses who you are?
- Which aspect of your personality will make it hardest for you to fit in when abroad?
- Which personality trait do you think foreigners most associate with Britishness?
- What most worries you about the P.R.A. - period of residence abroad?
- Name a food that you cannot bear to eat.
- Which aspect of your personality will most help you fit in when abroad?
- Which national characteristic in yourself would you be most happy to lose?
- What most excites you about the P.R.A. - period of residence abroad?
(Created by Jessica Abrahams, Robert Crawshaw and David Steel of Lancaster University for The Interculture Project)
See also
We welcome any comments - get in touch with us at icp@lists.lancs.ac.uk