Teaching Culture in an EFL SettingChallenges and (Possible) Paths to

SuccessLaurence Raw

Language Teaching

Language teaching with a “culture” garnish

“It is possible that learners can

feel alienation in the process of

learning

a foreign language, alienation

from people in their home

culture, the target culture,

and from themselves”

Turkish Teacher of English Language, 2007

Ideology

Educator Reluctance

Learner Nervousness

Obstacles to Developing Inter- or Cross-Cultural Awareness

Acquiring Inter- or Cross-Cultural Competence

A tripartite model of acquiring intercultural competence

INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE COMPRISES …

JEROME BRUNER (1915 --)

DISCOVERY LEARNING

A learning situation in which the principal content of what is to be learned is not given but must be independently discovered by the learner.

We use story as a form of telling about what happens in our life and in our own lives …. Not only are stories products of language … but telling stories … becomes intertwined with, even at times constitutive of, cultural life (Bruner 2002)

Cross-Cultural Awareness = Discovering the ‘stories’ that individuals and/or their communities use to make sense of their lives

Discover, recognize and negotiate difference

COMMUNITY OF

PURPOSE

Its scope is flexible yet clearly defined

Discover and reflect on your own stories as a basis for discovering others’ stories

Everyone – learners and educators – are involved in creating and sustaining that community

Educators and learners should understand how to sustain that community through feedback and discussion of future needs

Flexible Competencies and standards negotiated by individual communities

NEGOTIATE BINARIES