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Culturally Yours
Developing and Implementing
Cross-Cultural Education in Foreign Language Teaching
Sevgi Can & Ayça PalancılarKoç University English Language Center
İstanbul, Turkey
SLTEP Alumni ConferenceNovember 1, 2014
SABANCI UNIVERSITY
Is language use associated with cultural behaviour?
One afternoon after work, a British teacher of EFL, who had recently started teaching at a college in Hong Kong, decided to visit some friends who lived in a different part of the city. She went to the appropriate bus stop, and as she walked up, a group of her students who were waiting there asked “Where are you going?” Immediately she felt irritated, and thought to herself, “What business is it of theirs where I’m going? Why should I tell them about my personal life?” However, she tried to hide her irritation, and simply answered, “I’m going to visit some friends.”
Several months later, this British teacher discovered that “Where are you going?” is simply a greeting in Chinese. There is no expectation that it should be answered explicitly: a vague response such as “Over there” or “Into town” is perfectly adequate. Moreover, according to Chinese conventions, the students were being friendly and polite in giving such a greeting, not intrusive and disrespectful as the British teacher interpreted them to be.
How can educators raise cultural awareness and help learners produce cultural identity in foreign language teaching ?
Today’s Outline
How is culture defined?
What constitutes cultural values?
What is included in cultural behavior?
Why should we consider teaching of
cultural skills?
Classroom Applications
How Culture is Defined?
Culture is defined as…
‘as an integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thoughts, communications, languages, practices, beliefs, values, customs, courtesies, rituals, manners of interaction and roles, relationships and expected behaviors of a racial, ethnic, religious or social group, and the ability to transmit the above to succeeding generations’
(The National Center for Cultural Competence of Georgetown University)
Culture
“third culture”
fifth skill
The “Big C” and “Little C”
I. Cultural Knowledge
language and thought, • “dress of thought”
“non-verbal thought” Thought is completely determined by language.
II. Cultural Values
the ‘psyche’ of the country
How can we teach cultural values?
What can be used to introduce culture in the language classroom?
Art work Commercials Videos/movies (made in the original country) Music videos News casts Pod casts Radio Field trips
Festivals Maps Songs Newspapers Anecdotes Illustrations Photographs Literature Stories Authentic materials
(Materials used by native speakers)
III. Cultural behavior
“Not only is the transmission of knowledge and language important, but also are the nuances of values and attitudes.”
(Corner & Bunt-Kokhuis, 1991)
IV. Cultural skills
+
“Attention to cultural details doubles the usefulness of the lesson, not only in adding another dimension, but also in making the lesson more interesting and therefore easier to learn.” (Harrison, 1990)
Classroom Application
Communicative Language Teaching Community Language Learning
Activity 1: Gestures
Aims: recognizing the meaning of specific
gestures in one’s own culture identifying with the meaning of
gestures in American culture differentiating the meaning of
gestures between US culture and other cultures
Activity 2: Thanksgiving
Activity 2: Thanksgiving
Aims: discussing traditional celebrations in
one’s own culture recognizing the significance of
Thanksgiving (Friends segment) raising awareness of traditional
celebrations in US culture
Key Ideas to Remember
thoughts and behaviour are determined by language
third culture, fifth skill, the Big C the ultimate goal: to communicate and to be
able to use language correctly and appropriately
achieving a balance and exchange between cultural and educational experiences
Q & A
Questions?
Bibliography
Abrams, M. H. 1953. The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bruner, J. S., J. S. Goodnow & G. A. Austin (1956] 1962. A Study of Thinking. New York: Wiley. Corner, T. & Bunt-Kokhuis, S. 1991. The Space between words: Cross-cultural Essays in Education. Tilburg, Tilburg
University Press. Fish, S. 1980. Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretative Communities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press. Freeman, D.& Freeman, Y. 2004. Essential Linguistics: What You Need to Know to Teach Reading, ESL, Spelling,
Phonics, and Grammar. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Giroux, H, & McLaren, P. 1994. Between Borders: Pedagogy and the Politics of Cultural Studies. New York; London:
Routledge. Goode, Sockalingam, Brown, & Jones, 2000. National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project. 1996.
Standards for foreign language learning in the 21st century. Yonkers, NY: Author. Web. April 2014 <https://www.actfl.org/ >
Harrison, B. (Ed.) 1990. Culture and the Language Classroom. Hong Kong: Modern English Publications and the British Council.
Hymes, D. 1972. Models of the Interaction of Language and Social Life. In J. Gumperz & D. Hymes (Eds.), Directions in Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communication. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston.
Kramsch, C. 1993. Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Krasner, I. 1999. The Role of Culture in Language Teaching. Dialog on Language Instruction, 13(1-2), 79-88. Peterson, E & Coltrane, B. Culture in Second Language Teaching. Center for Applied Linguistics, December 2003.
Web. April 2014. <http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0309peterson.html> Sapir, E. 1958: Culture, Language and Personality (ed. D. G. Mandelbaum). Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press. Tomalin, B. Culture – The Fifth Language Skill. British Council, 29 September 2008. Web. April 2014.
<http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/culture-fifth-language-skill> Tomalin, B. & Stempleski, S. 1993. Cultural Awareness. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Whorf, B. L. 1940 'Science and Linguistics', Technology Review 42(6): 229-31, 247-8. Also in B. L. Whorf (1956):
Language, Thought and Reality (ed. J. B. Carroll). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
