About Intercultural Competence through Narrative (ICN)
The following paper outlines the rationale and pedagogical objectives underscoring an ICN approach.
Narrative-based approaches to empathic development for the acquisition of
intercultural competence in English education
Abstract
Despite the necessity of incorporating cultural components within EFL curricula, how to best assist learners acquire intercultural competence (IC) remains an area of pedagogical contention. The lack of a definitional consensus of IC, as well as misunderstandings on the nature and function of empathy, have contributed to the current situation. The present paper presents an empathy-centered, narrative-based approach, intercultural competence through narrative, to assist learners in the acquisition of cultural awareness and understanding through development of the ability to engage in perspective taking, a cognitive empathic process. Research from the field of narrative medicine is introduced, where studies have demonstrated the efficacy of combining narrative encounters with reflective exercises and discussions to raise scores on an empathy instrument. Finally, in addition to the use of literary narratives, the potential benefits of employing digital narratives to address changes in L1 reading trends is presented.
Key Words: EFL, culture, empathy, intercultural competence, narrative
Introduction
Broadly speaking, foreign language learners of English can be expected to engage in cross-cultural communication in two environments: with native English speakers from various English-speaking countries or, increasingly, with interlocutors who themselves employ English as a second language. While students preparing for communication with a particular cultural group, such as in preparation for work, travel, or study to a specific country, may be expected to focus on achieving higher degrees of cultural understanding for that culture, most EFL learners will benefit from curricula that enhances the ability to understand cultural differences in general.
This paper outlines trends within EFL education towards an integration of intercultural competence (IC) components within foreign language curricula, including research indicating the efficacy of targeting development of learner ability to engage in cognitive empathy (i.e., the ability to see the world from alternate cultural perspectives). This is followed by a discussion of a new approach to incorporating IC within foreign language curricula: intercultural competence through narrative (ICN), through which learners participate in substitutional encounters to practice engaging empathically with members of other cultures. Finally, the efficacy of employing various media (literature; digital media) is discussed and presents the researcher’s current project: the construction of a database of interviews consisting of immigrants is presented.
Expanding the goals of EFL education
Beginning with Sapir (1929) and Whorf (1956) the concept of the interrelatedness of language and culture has been comprehensively researched, resulting in broad agreement for the concept that language both contains and reflects the values of a culture (Wardhaugh, 2010), acting as a determinative factor in the creation of the worldview of its speakers.
Recognizing this interrelatedness, amongst foreign language educators, support has increased for the belief that rather than being taught independently, culture and language are optimally acquired when presented in a unified curriculum (Schulz, 2007). However, such agreement has not resulted in a broad consensus as to how cultural components may be integrated into foreign-language instruction (Dema & Moeller, 2012), or even what aspects of culture should be taught. Beginning with Brooks (1971), debates have developed over the advisability of teaching high culture (musical, literary, and architectural components of a given culture) versus curricula focused on shared cultural characteristics (i.e., low culture). Furthermore, educators such as Thiong’o (1986) have elucidated the problem of emphasizing the culture of a dominant group in favor of minority groups or sub-cultures. Given the prevalence of such concerns, not least the question of how educators should approach issues of culture in the language classroom, Galloway (1981) notes the proclivity for cultural information to be emphasized (e.g., the 4F Approach: folk dances, festivals, fairs, and food) over more critical examinations of culture.
From such discussions has emerged a recognition of the inadequacy of curricula centered around the imparting of cultural knowledge. While it can be expected that a presentation of cultural information (e.g., customs, cuisine, history, geography, etc.) may improve learners’ general understanding of a particular culture, such knowledge does not, in itself, equate to competence. Bennett (2005) argues that for most EFL learners, a curriculum targeted at helping one “get along” in a target culture by providing specific information on mores and customs is inadequate; that such knowledge itself also does not constitute competence. For Byram (1997), the accumulation of cultural knowledge represents a cognitive orientation, or what one knows about culture(s); however, what is also necessary is an evaluative orientation, where learners develop the ability to recognize and reflect on social norms from a variety of cultural perspectives, including their cultural biases. For such competence, then, an ability to flexibly process cultural thought and behavior is required. With this in mind, the following section summarizes trends within intercultural competence scholarship in order to present the approach presented in this research.
Intercultural Competence in EFL
The concept of intercultural competence may be traced to Hirsch’s (1980) cultural literacy, the characteristic of speakers of a language to share a common canon of knowledge in order to communicate with minimal effort. According to Hirsch, North Americans utilized a canon of cultural information that facilitated ease of communication through shared cultural reference. The influence of cultural literacy can be seen in EFL educators’ increasing stress on the importance of attaining a deeper understanding of the cultural underlying language in order to attain high degrees of fluency.
While Hirsch was mainly concerned with communication between members of American culture, proponents of intercultural literacy stress the importance of cultural knowledge in interactions between members of different cultures. Genc and Bada (2005) are representative of the view that EFL learners require knowledge of both the target language and the source cultural underscoring the target language.
Departing from Hirsch’s concept of a “shared corpus” definitions have expanded to include more than essential information. This is exemplified by Heyward (2002), who defines intercultural literacy as “the competencies, understandings, attitudes, language proficiencies, participation and identities necessary for effective cross‑cultural engagement” (p. 9). The inclusion of attitudes in Heyward’s definition are central to the idea of intercultural competency, where EFL learners demonstrate a combination of skill sets: linguistic, of course, but also a basket of attitudes that underscore the ability to successfully recognize and bridge cultural differences.
The concept of intercultural competence expands on definitions of intercultural literacy; however, IC literature reveals significant definitional confusion concerning what it means to be a competent language learner. In an attempt to establish a consensus, Deardorff (2006) presented members of 24 U.S. postsecondary institutions with nine scholarly definitions of IC to find that the only definitional component of IC to receive 100% agreement was that IC involved “understanding others’ worldviews (p. 249).
Despite failing to reach broad agreement on a comprehensive definition of IC, Deardorff was able to identify specific IC components receiving at least 80% support, which she divided into four categories: abilities, skills, knowledge, and attitudes. Included in the first category are the ability to understand other’s worldviews, cultural diversity, and situational/social/historical contexts, the ability to adjust and adapt to new cultural environments, the ability to be culturally self-aware and to self-assess, and the ability to be cognitively flexible. Learner skill in analyzing, interpreting, and relating to members of other cultures comprise the second category. The category of knowledge refers to both culture-specific knowledge, as well as a deep knowledge of culture in general. Finally, attitudes necessary for learner acquisition include empathy, toleration, curiosity, respect, openness, and flexibility, among others (summarized from Deardorff, 2006, pp. 249‑250).
In addition to efforts aimed at defining intercultural competence, various attempts have also been made to model the acquisition of IC. Bennett (1986) presented an early process model that has remained influential in the field. Bennett conceptualizes learners as moving through three stages of ethnocentrism, where one evaluates other cultures based on one’s own culture’s standards and values, to three stages of ethnorelativism, where one’s culture is experienced in the context of other cultures:
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Figure 1. Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity
Source: Adapted visualization from Bennett (1986)
Learners in ethnocentric stages often react negatively to aspects of other cultures that disagree with norms, behaviors, and thinking in their own culture. Learners in the earliest stage, Denial, learners demonstrate minimal understanding of cultural diversity, often resorting to broad categorizations of culture (e.g., employing terms such as “Western,” “African,” “foreigner,” etc.). In the second stage, Defense against Difference, learners understanding of world cultures becomes expanded, while primarily hierarchical, with their culture occupying a place near or at the top. Learners in the third stage, Minimization, demonstrate a degree of acceptance of the validity of other cultures; however, such toleration is often couched in simplistic beliefs of a shared humanity that may function to preclude a more nuanced understanding of differences between cultures.
A learner enters the first enthnorelative stage, Acceptance, when the are able to recognize that a diversity of worldviews exists, and that behaviors, values, and beliefs—including their own—should be understood as culturally specific. Adaptation involves learners consciously altering behavior in intercultural situations, as they gain the ability to see the world from multiple cultural perspectives. In the final stage, Integration, learners are capable non-judgmental recognition of cultural differences, according to which they flexibly adapt behavior to match cultural contexts (for a further discussion of process modeling in IC, see Ting-Toomey & Chung, 2005; King & Baxter Magolda, 2005; Deardorff, 2006; Spitzberg & Changnon, 2009).
Even with definitional components and a conceptual understanding and of how a learner might acquire IC, the manner in which educators might facilitate such development in learners remains unsettled. Rather, when compared with academic efforts devoted to defining and modelling IC, the lack equivalent scholarship in IC pedagogy becomes apparent, particularly within foreign language curricula.
A partial explanation of this discrepancy relates to the countries where the majority of IC research has historically taken place: multicultural, heterogeneous communities where encounter with cultural “others” is easily facilitated (Deardorff, 2011). In such learning environments, direct encounter factories heavily in learner acquisition of cultural knowledge, the ability to recognize and interpret behavior from various perspectives, and the fostering of pro-social attitudes. It should also be noted that learners in Western universities experience cultural diversity in their classrooms, and often have access to members of other cultures within their communities. In such cases, cultural “otherness,” rather than theoretical, is a part of learners’ everyday existence—in school, at work, and even at home. This raises the pertinent question of how foreign language educators operating in primarily homogeneous cultural environments can facilitate encounters with cultural others.
IC education has been influenced by Kolb (1984), who presented a holistic model of learner development where learning is understood as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping and transforming experience” (p. 41). In addition to abstract conceptualizations, for Kolb, experiences followed by reflective observation and active experimentation are also necessary.
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Figure 2. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle
Source: Adapted visualization from Kolb (1984)
Kolb’s (1984) Learning cycle models learning as a process that begins with meaningful experiences, from which learners can draw observations, reflect, and conceptualize, before demonstrating understanding through experimentation.
In the case of IC programs in heterogeneous cultural environments, physical face-to-face encounters form the nucleus of the learning process, from which learners may analyze, reflect, and discuss, before putting into practice what they have learned in future encounters. This research proposes the use of substitutional narrative encounters to provide learners with experiences, which through post-encounter analysis, reflection, and discussion they can gain competencies to succeed in future encounters. Success in this experiential learning process comes from assisting learners develop empathic ability, a learning objective that has heretofore received minimal attention in EFL education.
The importance of empathy for IC acquisition
Within IC literature, the importance of learner ability to flexibly engage with cultural others, to shift cultural perspectives, and to respond to members of other cultures with toleration, respect, and curiosity feature prominently. Such abilities and attitudes correspond to aspects of cognitive and affective (emotional) empathy. In contrast to IC literature, which evidences unclear and often contradictory understandings of empathy, psychologists have devoted considerable efforts to understanding and clarifying empathic processes. From these efforts have emerged a general understanding of empathy as consisting of two processes. Cognitive empathy, characterized by Goldie (2000) as “a process by which a person centrally imagines the narrative (including the thoughts, feelings, and emotions) of another person” (p. 195), involves the ability to discern, to varying degrees, the thoughts and feelings of others. In short, it is our ability to think ourselves into another’s mental state. In its simplest form, it involves reading body language, while more complex forms of perspective taking involve imagining how one would feel in the situation of another, to imagining how others think and feel in their shoes. Affective, or emotional empathy, by contrast, is defined by Eisenberg and Strayer (1987) as “an emotional response that stems from another’s emotional state or condition and that is congruent with the other’s emotional state or situation” (p. 5). Differing from sympathy, which involves how another’s suffering makes one feel, affective empathy involves the matching of one’s emotional state to that of another person’s (Feshbach & Roe, 1968). Eisenberg and Miller (1987) delineate the two concepts succinctly:
[Sympathy is] an emotional response stemming from another’s emotional state or condition that is not identical to the other’s emotion, but consists of feelings of sorrow or concern for another’s welfare. (p. 92)
Affective responses to engaging in cognitive empathy include emotional contagion, emotional distress, and empathic concern. Hodges and Myers (2007) explain the three phenomena as follows:
The first [component] is feeling the same emotion as another person…. The second component, personal distress in response to perceiving another’s plight…. The third emotional component, feeling compassion for another person, is the one most frequently associated with the study of empathy in psychology. (p. 296)
The experiencing of empathic concern has been correlated with the experiencing of pro-social attitudes and behaviors towards members of other groups, and even towards groups as a whole (Hodges & Myer, 2007). Empathic concern offers a solution as to how to foster positive attitudes in IC learners towards foreign cultures. When learners successfully take the perspectives of individuals from other cultures, they step outside of their cultural orientations to experience the world as a member of another culture experiences it. When this occurs, the learner gains both understanding of the other and a concern for their welfare, resulting in the formation of positive attitudes: a respect for others as human beings, an openness to their worldviews, and a toleration of differences in lifestyles, thoughts and values.
The centrality of empathy to IC acquisition has been widely recognized. Sercu (2005) alludes to it in his definition of IC as “the ability to see the world through the others’ eyes” (p. 2), as does the academic consensus, identified by Deardorff (2006), that IC involves “understanding others’ worldviews.”. Similarly, Bennett (1993) asserts that learners in ethnorelative stages “can empathize or take another person’s perspective in order to understand and be understood across cultural boundaries (p. 17). Furthermore, in their analysis of 138 publications concerning IC, Fantini and Tirmizi (2006) indicated empathy as one of the 15 commonly appearing attributes.
Despite the homage paid to empathy, closer inspection reveals misunderstanding within the field as to its nature, exemplified by Deardorff’s categorization of it as an attitude. This differs sharply with understandings within the field of psychology that cognitive empathy (i.e., perspective taking) is an ability that may be practiced and improved, resulting in various emotional responses, among them interest, concern, and respect. Rather than an output resulting from the accumulation of cultural knowledge and interactions with cultural others, empathy is a skill that can be developed to enable learners to take alternate cultural perspectives, from which increased cultural understanding and pro-social attitudes may develop (for a discussion of the concept of empathy within the field of IC, see Ostman 2019a).
Empathic engagement with narratives in medical education
Developing empathic abilities in learners through engagement in perspective taking represents an educational strategy already utilized in other fields. Educators in the field of medicine face the task of preparing medical students with the task of caring for individuals—suffers of chronic diseases, often of advanced ages—with whom they struggle to relate. Professor Jodi Halpern (2001) in her book From Detached Concern to Empathy: Humanizing Medical Practice, argues for the importance of assisting medical students in developing the ability to take patient perspectives; to see the world from the perspective of the elderly, of the opposite gender, of other cultural backgrounds, to better understand and provide superior care.
Attempts to inculcate empathy in medical students didactically (i.e., through direct instruction) have proven ineffective and even counterproductive (see Henry-Tillman et al.; 2002). However, the use of patient narratives has resulted in the growing field of Narrative Medicine, which aims to provide medical students with narrative knowledge, defined by Charon (2001) as “what one uses to understand the meaning and significance of stories through cognitive, symbolic, and affective means” (p. 1898). A curriculum in which a learner reads or compiles a narrative of a patient’s life, performs reflective exercises, and engages in discussions, results in a more complex and detailed understanding of patient needs and suffering (for examples, see Shapiro, Morrison, & Boker, 2004; Welch & Harrison, 2016).
Narrative medicine employs stories to humanize patients, transforming the way physicians think about their charges—from sterile cases to personal narratives. At present, narrative medicine curricula draw on multiple literary forms literary forms including biography, memoir, news story, obituary, and clinical case reports (Hurwitz, Cushing, & Chisnall, 2011). Positive outcomes on empathy instruments and questionnaires in studies involving the use of digital narratives (interviews, biographies, videotaped physician/patient interactions, films) have also been reported (Brand et al., 2017; Heidke, Howie, & Ferdous, 2018; Sweeney & Baker, 2018; Ahmadzadeh et al., 2019).
With the proliferation of narrative medicine curricula, considerable diversity has emerged within the field; however, three key components underscore this educational strategy: 1) interaction with literary/digital narratives, 2) reflective exercises, and 3) discussion. After experiencing a given narrative, learners engage in exercises wherein they take character perspectives, imagine character motivations, and seek to understand mental processes underlying patient behaviors. Such refection enables learners to subsequently engage in discussions, often in groups, where they are given the opportunity to share their discoveries and learn from others (for a discussion of the use of empathy acquisition through literature in the field of Narrative Medicine, see Ostman 2020).
Literary narrative encounters in EFL curricula
Researchers have elucidated multiple benefits of utilizing literature in the EFL classroom, including 1) providing learners with a more interesting form of discourse compared with traditional learner materials (e.g., textbooks) (Lazar, 1993), 2) building a wider range of vocabulary when compared with informative texts (Povey, 1967), 3) providing a learner-centered, autonomous activity (Brumfit, 1986), 4) exposing learners to authentic, unmodified material (Barnett, 1989), among others. Such applications fall into Carter and Long’s (1991) language model for use of literature in foreign language education.
Carter and Long further indicate a cultural model, wherein literary texts serve as authentic windows into the culture underlying the text. According to the authors, literature forces the learner to “think your way into another culture” (1991, p. 153), indicating the ability of literature to facilitate perspective taking, and representing an early conceptualization of the incorporation of an intercultural competence component into foreign language curricula.
Narrative prose offers language learners something absent in other mediums. It provides readers direct access to character thoughts and emotions, allowing them to gain an awareness and understanding of culture and cultural differences, which differs from a fact-based presentation of culture. Furthermore, readers are invited to interact with the writer through the medium of the text (Widdowson, 1979), which Rosenblatt (1994) describes as a transactional relationship between a reader and a literary work.
A narrative is “a story or a description of a series of events” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2019) containing: 1) a beginning, middle, and end, 2) a plot, and 3) action (Riessman, 2008). Narrative reading is linked with the phenomenon of reader transportation (i.e., reader immersion), defined by Green and Brock (2000) as “the extent that individuals are absorbed into a story or transplanted into a narrative world” (p. 701). Readers of narratives, when transported, suspend disbelief to co-experience events with characters (Brock, Strange & Green, 2002; Green, Garst & Brock, 2004), during which character identification, “a cognitive state in which the reader takes on character perspectives” (Ostman, 2019b). Reader transportation and character identification are crucial aspects of narrative empathy, which Keen (2013) defines as “the sharing of feeling and perspective-taking induced by reading, viewing, hearing, or imagining narratives of another’s situation and condition” (“narrative empathy,” para 1). A further benefit of learner engagement with literary narrative is that retention of information has been show to occur at a higher rate when compared with the reading of expository texts (Marsh & Fazio, 2006; Zwaan, 1994).
Incorporating the strategies employed in narrative medicine, Ostman (2019b) presented a novel pedagogy, Intercultural Competence through Literature (ICL), and reported results from experimental classes employing immigrant narratives (2018) and flash fiction (2019c). As in narrative medicine programs, foreign language learners read short narratives in the target language, performed written exercises encouraging them to engage in perspective taking from the standpoint of characters, and finally, to engage in group discussions. In addition, learners researched cultural aspects presented in stories to gain greater understand of the target culture.
Educators critical of employing literature in the foreign language classroom insist that it is often level inappropriate (Vincent & Carter, 1986), and that texts are often selected for their status as literature, rather than their applicability or accessibility (Buckledee, 2002). A further objection concerns the use of excerpts or simplified versions of more difficult texts, that may be lacking context and the stylistic characteristics of the original versions (Cook, 1986).
An intercultural competence through literature approach addresses the above criticisms by providing learners with complete, authentic texts that are often grammatically and stylistically straightforward as they are selected for a specific purpose: to facilitate learner ability to engage in perspective taking from the standpoint of characters from other cultures. As immigrant narratives and flash stories are written from the perspectives of members of other cultures, learners are given ample opportunities to step outside their respective cultures, to consider character thoughts and behaviors from alternate worldviews.
Furthermore, an intercultural competence through literature approach addresses foreign-language learner resistance or unfamiliarity with long literary texts by presenting them with short narratives that can be read and re-read within the parameters of a single class. Flash stories, defined by Thomas and Shapard (2006) as narratives within 750 words, are of sufficient brevity so that the reader “shouldn’t have to turn the page more than once” (p. 12). For readers unfamiliar with reading printed prose, these literary forms serve as an introduction and a gateway to the processing and enjoyment of longer works.
Literary narratives present learners with unique opportunities to interact with members of other cultures to whom they may be otherwise unable to physically encounter in their respective learning environments. However, literature is not the only medium capable of facilitating learner empathic engagement.
Video media for a reduced reading environment
To date, an ICL approach has exclusively employed short immigrant narratives and flash fiction stories, standing in contrast to more traditional usage of literature in foreign-language curricula, which often employ longer literary forms from authentic or simplified texts.
Despite the promise of an intercultural competence through literature approach, trends in learner reading habits create uncertainty for a literature-centered, foreign language curriculum. The problem is simple: increasingly, learners do not read books. Despite increases in the volume of words consumed over various media, an average of 100,000 words per day for Americans (Bohn & Short, 2009), the time given to long-form prose is being usurped by words in text messages and on screens in increasingly terse configurations.
According to Liu and colleagues (2005; 2016), the culprit is digital media, which force readers to consume more while comprehending less. To summarize, readers employ the strategies of browsing and skimming (keyword spotting) to gain a tertiary understanding of content. Author of Reader Come Home, Maryanne Wolf (2018), notes a chief consequence of such reading habits: the rapid speed at which many readers consume text does not allow for deep comprehension, especially in longer sentences. In analyzing this global phenomenon in a multi-decade study, Lorenz-Spreen, Mønsted, Hövel, and Lehmann (2019) note the effect of digital media platforms to shorten attention spans to conclude:
[P]roducing and consuming more content results in shortening of attention spans for individual topics and higher turnover rates between popular cultural items. In other words, the ever-present competition for recency and the abundance of information leads to the squeezing of more topics into the same time intervals as the result of limitations of the available collective attention. (p. 6)
The downward trend of L1 reading habits has been the topic of some concern. N. Katherine Hayles (2010) has noted teacher frustration with getting students to read, saying: “Everywhere I went, I heard teachers reporting similar stories: ‘I can’t get my students to read long novels anymore, so I’ve taken to assigning short stories’; ‘My students won’t read long books, so now I assign chapters and excerpts’” (p. 72).
Similar trends may be seen in Japan, where survey data indicate that 99.3% of high-school students daily connect to the Internet over 200 minutes (Government of Japan Department of Statistics, 2019). These numbers are only expected to increase, with the consequences bleeding into foreign-language education. Norwegian researcher Habegger-Conti (2015), noted a 22% drop in enrolment in EFL Literature and Cultures class over four years (2009-14). The explanation, she notes, is straightforward: “They don’t want to read books” (p. 107).
Learners who decreasingly read literature in their native language may be expected to react negatively when presented with lengthy literary narratives. Long-form, time-consuming literary works, consisting of lengthy sentences and complex grammatical structures, pose challenges for learners accustomed to processing shorter digital texts, which have been demonstrated to impair reading comprehension (Duncan, McGeown, Griffiths, Stothard & Dobai, 2016; Pfost, Dörfler & Artelt, 2013).
Intercultural competence through narrative in EFL education
This paper has argued that despite recognition for the need to expand the goals of EFL education to include cultural components for learner acquisition of intercultural competence, confusion has resulted when attempting to implement IC objectives in learning environments that are culturally homogeneous and lacking opportunities for intercultural encounters. Narratives, combined with reflective exercises and discussions, can function as substitutional encounters through which to increase awareness and understanding of members and groups from whom learners may differ not only culturally, but also by age, gender, and in socio-economically.
The key to a successful encounter, be it literary or through digital media, involves the engagement of learner empathic ability, where they are asked not only to take alternate perspectives to consider the mental states of others, but also to imagine how they might feel in another’s shoes. Research from the field of narrative medicine has repeatedly demonstrated that such reflections, when followed by group discussions, are effective in developing empathic ability in health care workers.
Under the title Gaining intercultural competence through narrative, previous research (Ostman, 2019b) has reported the use of literary narratives (flash fiction, short immigrant narratives) as components in EFL curricula, employing an approach similar to that employed in narrative medicine. However, considering L1 trends away from literature in favor of digital media, this research suggests the inclusion of video narratives, particularly pre-recorded interviews, as potentially efficacious vehicles that, when combined with reflective exercises and discussion, may function as sufficient substitutionary experiences through which EFL learners can develop empathy for the acquisition of intercultural competence.
In order to test the efficacy of this expanded intercultural competence through narrative approach, this research is currently engaged in the construction of an online resource (Database of Immigrant Narratives, DIN) for EFL educators containing over 30 interviews from individuals who have moved to Japan to live and work. Future research will involve the implementation and testing of a DIN-based curriculum in a university-level EFL class.
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