How to bring culture into the classroom?

KEY WORDS:

CULTURE, LANGUAGE, INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE, TEACHING

How are culture and language bound?

1. Language expresses cultural reality (with words people express facts and ideas but also reflect their attitudes).

2. Language embodies cultural reality (people give meanings to their experience through the means of communication).

3. Language symbolizes cultural reality (people view their language as a symbol of their social identity)

What’s the aim of introducing culture into the class?

1. Knowledge about the target culture. 2. Awareness of its characteristics and of differences

between the target culture and the learner’s own country.

3. A research-minded outlook. 4. An emphasis on the understanding socio-cultural

implications of language and language use.

Culturetangible and intangible components

everyday living (e.g., food and drink, holidays and working practices),

living conditions (e.g., housing conditions),

interpersonal relations (e.g., class structure, family structures and relations between generations),

values, beliefs and attitudes (e.g., social class, wealth, regional cultures, minorities and arts),

body language,

social conventions (punctuality, dress and behavioral and conversational conventions)

ritual behaviors (e.g., birth, marriage and death)

Approaches to the teaching of culture

the intercultural approach – comparison of the target and the learners’ own culture, main focus is on the target culture;

the multicultural approach – a focus on the ethnic and linguistic diversity of the target country, but also on the learners' own culture;

the trans-cultural approach – a foreign language is an international language, so that it is not necessary at all to link the foreign language to any specific culture;

the foreign-cultural approach – focuses on the target culture and neither takes the learners' own culture into consideration nor does it compare the two cultures together.

Intercultural competence

Attitudes – cultural diversity and pluralism , Knowledge and understanding – awareness and

understanding of one’s own and other people’s assumptions, stereotypes, prejudices, and overt and covert discrimination

Skills – cognitive flexibility, linguistic, sociolinguistic and discourse skills

Actions – Interacting and communicating appropriately, effectively and respectfully with people who have different cultural affiliations from one’s own

Activities emphasising multiple perspectives

develop skills of observation, interpretation and decentring, openness and non-judgemental thinking

e.g. a verbal description or visual recording of an event, action or phenomenon supplemented by or juxtaposed to descriptions or visuals of the same event, behaviour or phenomenon provided by others who see these from different perspectives

Role plays and simulations

develop attitudes of openness, curiosity and respect, as well as a willingness to empathise and suspend judgement and skills of observation and interpretation, skills of learning about one’s own culture and discovering others as well as skills of adapting and empathy.

Theatre, poetry and creative writing

gain knowledge about people they have never met, and to learn about lives they have never imagined

e.g. staging theatrical works

Ethnographic (sociocultural) tasks

learn about the norms, behaviour or social practices of people with different cultural affiliations and belonging to different ethnic, religious, or socio-economic groups.

e.g. expressing respect, gratitude, anger or any other emotions; personal stories from people on historic events

Use of films and short videos

raise learners’ awareness of multiple perspectives and develop their critical thinking

e.g. British Council series “Britain is Great” including Countryside is Great, Creativity is Great, English is Great, English is Great, Entrepreneurs are Great, Green is Great, Heritage is Great, Innovation is Great, Knowledge is Great, Literature is Great, Music is Great, Shopping is Great, Sport is Great

Social media and other online tools

raises communicative awareness and awareness of one’s own ‘voice’

e.g. social networks – Facebook, Tweeter

on-line courses – Coursera, Future Learn