To illustrate this concept, perhaps consideration of "Circles of Concern" will be helpful (See Figure 1). The smallest, innermost circle is that of the self, the individual. Surrounding that innermost circle is a slightly larger circle, that of the individual's family, followed by a still larger circle representing friends and acquaintances. Increasingly larger circles represent the individual’s home town, or city, then the state, widening out to include the country, and finally--the widest circle of all--the world.

In an educational setting, the desire for effective communication at regional and global levels must arise first from the hearts and minds and choices of individual administrators, individual teachers, and individual students. You may be saying, or thinking, "What can I do about any of the world's problems or about barriers to effective cross-cultural communication? I don't have any power."

The premise of this paper is that each of us--whether administrator or teacher or student--has more power than he or she realizes. Decades or working with college or university students in Kentucky and in Texas in the United States, in Hong Kong, in Shanghai, in Beijing, and in Japan have only reinforced my firm conviction that when students are encouraged to take risks in classrooms designed for friendly interaction among students and between teachers and students, the students grow in a sense of their own power over their tasks. Furthermore, I propose that such awareness carries over and out into the broader world, that a "can do" attitude nurtured in the language classroom will flower in fields far beyond the language classroom.

And how is friendly interaction between teachers and students and among students most effectively fostered? Two keys to such interaction are understanding and respect--not simply teachers understanding students while students respect teachers, but mutual understanding and mutual respect.

And how does one person gain understanding of another person, or of another group of people? One way to gain understanding is to ask questions--not only to use questions as polite conversation starters but in order to listen attentively and respectfully to the answers, which will generate still other questions and other answers.

What is truly important to the other person, or to the other group? What does the other person, or the other group, really think about certain issues? How can we know, unless we ask? We can't know, unless we ask. Even with the asking, we can't know until we listen respectfully.

Too often, it has seemed to me, professional educators--whether administrators or classroom teachers--have assumed that, because of their years of study and/or their advanced academic degrees, they are the experts in the classroom, they are the ones whose opinions should carry the most weight, theirs are the voices that should be heard most frequently in the classroom.

Yet, in a very real sense, out students are also experts--experts at language study. That is not to say that they have necessarily mastered the language, or the languages, which they study, but they are experts by virtue of their long years of exposure to a wide variety of teachers and methods and textbooks and contexts. Because all students can speak with authority about their own experiences in language study, their voices deserve to be heard, as well. What do students think about their language programs? What have been their disappointments, their triumphs? What improvements in language study would they like to see implemented? What do they value most highly, both in class and out of class?

In the hope of learning the answers to these and other questions, about my own students and about students in other parts of the country, in 1988, after I had lived and taught English for three years in Shanghai and Beijing, I designed an anonymous two-part educational research instrument which was administered by me or by cooperating colleagues to more than 500 men and women in fifteen colleges or universities throughout China. Every province of China was represented in the group of 512, whose ages ranged from 18 to 52. Some were English majors; others were not.

The first part of the instrument was a 40-item survey dealing with cultural values, presented only in Chinese (See Figure 2), The second part consisted of questions related to demographics and nine semi-structured or open-ended questions related to students' attitudes toward English-language study The questions related to English study were presented in Chinese and in English, and students were invited to respond in their language of choice (See Figure 3). Thus, students understood that it was their candid opinions which were sought and valued, not their facility with written English.

Motivation for the original study was a conviction that the more teachers know about their own values systems and their own attitudes toward learning and teaching, and the more they know about the values systems and attitudes of their students toward learning and teaching, the better they will be able to relate to students, to foster genuine communication in the classroom, to earn students' trust and confidence, and to design meaningful classroom activities, assignments, and examinations.

In subsequent years, the study has been replicated widely throughout Japan, in Taiwan, and in Hong Kong, and it was repeated throughout China five years after its first administration. A very brief overview of results follows, along with some implications that can be drawn from data analysis. More extensive discussion can be found elsewhere (Garrott 1991, 1993, 1995a, 1995b).

Three most important values. Not surprisingly, Chinese college students surveyed in a variety of institutions of higher education scattered throughout China placed highest value on knowledge, or education. However, whereas students of both sexes, all ages, and all major fields prize education highly, t-tests show that females rate education even higher than do males. All students rate Trustworthiness second in importance among the 40 values items. At third place, Self-Cultivation is more important to females, to younger students, and to English majors than it is to others.

Four least important values. Having Few Desires, Non-Competitiveness, Moderation, and Being Conservative appeal least of all to the students being polled. As Having Few Desires and Non-Competitiveness are rated at least important by students, respondents obviously consider having many desires and being competitive as very important. Furthermore, males value competitiveness even more highly than do females. Equally clearly, Chinese college students of English disdain the concepts of Moderation and Being Conservative. Though no one considers Moderation as very important, English majors are the very least interested in Moderation, in following the middle way. Regarding Being Conservative, 43 percent say, "Being conservative is of no importance to me."

Levels of analysis: quantitative. Frequently, when researchers conduct surveys, they analyze their date only quantitatively and only at the highest, or "culture" level, from which vantage point they tend to make remarks such as "The Italians think . . . " or "the average German. . . " or "the typical Chinese . . ." Data analysis using means and standard deviations, using "normal curves" or other descriptive statistics only at the "culture" level leads to stereotypical thinking. Has anyone ever met an "average Russian"? I doubt it. Who can define "normal"? Not I! Stereotypes are convenient--a kind of intellectual shorthand--but they are essentially reductive: labeling and reducing something or someone who is actually quite complex to something or someone who appears to be quite simple.

Quantitative analysis can be also carried out below the "culture" level, to great effectiveness, according to demographics such as sex and age and major field of study. In this way, marked differences are revealed between the responses of males and females, between groups of younger and older students, between groups of English majors and non-English majors. Intriguing as quantitative analysis may be at various levels, such analysis can only show what percentages do; it cannot reveal what individual students think.

Levels of analysis: qualitative. What individual Chinese think can be seen through qualitative analysis of candid student responses to the semi-structured and open-ended questionnaire items related to the study of English.

Greatest and least confidence. Regarding questions of greatest and least confidence and comfort in the four English skills areas, 52 percent of all students report feeling most confident and comfortable when reading English. The second-highest ranked skill, Speaking, involves 26 percent of the students. That is, 78 percent prefer either reading or speaking. Listening and writing fall in third and fourth place. The ranking probably reflects the extent of students' personal experiences with and use of English. That is, they read English from their first day in class. They recite English from the very beginning, too, which is a form of speaking, though it is NOT a form of communication. In many instances, speaking and listening complement each other. Writing, on the other hand, is in a class by itself--foreign at any age or stage.

Most effective study methods. Regarding their most effective study methods, 35 percent of all students say that reading is most effective. Frustration frequently surfaces in student answers to the open-ended questions, such as this one:

"I have not any good or bad method to learn English, because I learn English after teacher. Teachers let me read or write, I do it. I never think method about English. I don't like English. It's only because of my future's job".

Least effective study methods. In listing what they consider least effective, students reveal what they have tried or what has been imposed upon them: (2) "Deadly memorizing without understanding," (2) "Memorizing dictionary," (3) "Memorize thousands of words but I still can't use them idiomatically."

Many students project their linguistic difficulties onto their language teachers: (1) "Teacher-centered method is the least effective," (2) "Teachers speak all the time in the class, leaving no chance for me to practice," (3) "In the whole class we study the same thing without any humor and activity."

Plans for future use of English. Respondents often furnish humor, though they may not have been conscious of doing so: "Actually, I didn't think about this problem seriously before, but I am anxious to be an active reporter or an interpreter. If the worst comes, I may be a teacher." Others are challenged positively by their English-language study: (1) "I want to be a tour guide or do anything concerned with English. I love English," (2) "I'll be an English teacher, so I'll use it to teach my students well.

New methods. No new methods, or strategies, for language learning are mentioned by these contemporary Chinese students. No culturally specific approaches emerge. The findings suggest that effective learning methods may be universal but that individuals and groups will differ in the extent to which they value and emphasize certain approaches. Emphasis, then, rather than method, may be culturally specific.

For example, though all language learning involves memorization to some extent, societies with a long tradition in which memorization and recitation are primary likely will prize and emphasize memory work more so than societies lacking such a tradition. Or students who have few--if any--opportunities to use English outside of the classroom setting may quite understandably cite reading as their most helpful personal study method.

Key findings. "Diverse" and "complex" most accurately describe the characteristics of the more than 500 men and women in this study, both in relation to the cultural values survey and to the questionnaire on attitudes toward the study of English.

Implications. Socrates writes, "I am not an Athenian or a Greek; I am a citizen of the world." In truth, Socrates is an Athenian and a Greek and a citizen of the world. Just so is each person at this conference both a unique individual and a member of the several larger groups illustrated in "Circles of Concern." Just so is each student a unique individual and a member of the same larger groups. No single study--no battery of tests--can ever reveal "all about" any person or any group of people. Nevertheless, wise administrators and teachers would do well not only to teach their students but also to allow themselves to learn from their students, through the asking of genuine questions and the listening respectfully to students' answers.

Each person's individual and cultural values constitute a major part of his or her world view. If we educators can gain insight into our students' "worlds," we should be able to make a difference for the better in those worlds. Furthermore, our own "worlds" are enlarged and enhanced by interactions with the "worlds" of our students. Both quantitative and qualitative data, both universal and individual aspects of language study, both close-ended and open-ended criteria instruments can enrich research, can enrich both language learning and language teaching, can enrich both theory and practice. Multiple perceptions gained at the local level of the classroom foster singular insights and prepare the way for effective regional and global cross-cultural communication.

1. Garrott, J.R. (1991). Chinese students' cultural values and their attitudes toward English-language learning and teaching. Doctoral dissertation. The University of Texas at Austin.
2. Garrott, J.R. (1993). Student attitudes toward English-language learning and teaching in China. Language and Content. Eds. Norman Bird, John Harris, and Michael Ingham. Hong Kong: Institute of Language in Education: 236-249.
3. Garrott, J.R. (1995a). Chinese cultural values: New angles, added insights. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 19.2 (Spring): 211-226.
4. Garrott, J.R. (995b). On the search for Chinese values: 1948-1994. Selected Papers. Southwest Conference on Asian Studies; 7-19.

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