Transcript Culture-and-Language-Teaching2

Nicholas Bradley
[email protected]
Culture and Language
Teaching
1. What is culture?
2. The ambiguity of language.
3. Cultural nationalism
4. A couple of approaches.
Why is it worth considering?
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Most academics agree that language and
culture are inextricably connected.
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Cultural content in class is interesting and
motivating.
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The dual responsibilities of an ALT
to teach English,
to foster internationalization.
What is Culture?
People in the know.
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“membership in a social group that defines itself by its
national, ethnic, professional, gender or other
characteristics. The term encompasses both the ‘high’
culture of literature and the arts, and the small ‘c’ culture
of attitudes values, beliefs and everyday lifestyles.”
Carter & Nunan
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“the learned and shared pattern of beliefs, behaviours
and values of groups of interacting people” – Milton
Bennett.
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“culture is communication” Edward T Hall
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“Membership in a common system of standards for
perceiving, believing, evaluating, and acting” - Kramsch
Culture and Language.
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Culture is the 5th skill
Surface differences in language point to the
environments in which culture develops.
(E.G - Eskimo and snow. Japanese and hierarchy)
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BUT the culture connection to communication is
much more than this: it is central to the
successful negotiation of meaning.
The Limits of Language
Four general conclusions about language.
1. Language is ambiguous.
2. We must draw inferences about meaning.
3. Our inferences tend to be fixed, not
tentative.
4. Our inferences are drawn very quickly.
Levinson (1990) in Scollon & Scollon (1995) Intercultural Communication
1. Language is Ambiguous
We don’t fully control the meaning of what
we say and write.
 Communication is the exchange of
meaning, but meaning is constructed by
our words and the listeners interpretation
of them.
 Culture is a variable in interpretation.
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Word / sentence level ambiguity.
“There’s a man at the door.”
“There’s a taxi at the door.”
To a stranger on the street.
“What time is it?”
“2 o’clock”
“Thanks”
To a kid in your class.
“What time is it?”
“Very gooooood!!”
“2 o’clock”
Couple are getting ready for a dinner party.
“What time is it?”
“It’s not time to go yet.”
In order to understand these sentences, we call upon our
experiences and knowledge of the world. We are familiar
with these situations and responses due to our culture –
our learned behaviour.
Discourse level ambiguity.
We might understand the meaning of the
individual sentences, but how should we
evaluate / what weight should we give
them from their relation with other
sentences?
Mr Wong and Mr Richardson have a conversation. Mr
Richardson has enjoyed this conversation and when
they are ready to part he says to Mr Wong “We should
have lunch sometime”. Mr Wong says that he would
enjoy that.
After a few weeks Mr Wong begins to feel that Mr
Richardson’s offer was insincere because he has not
invited him to lunch with a time and a place.
We must draw inferences about
meaning.
 2. We must draw inferences about meaning.
No way to avoid it.
Inferences come from - the language used & our knowledge of the worldthis knowledge includes what people usually say in such situations.
 3. Inferences tend to be fixed, not tentative.
Necessary to aid communication.
The fixed inferences are a result of our concept of normal, the day-to-day
world we take for granted (culture- our shared/learned behaviour).
Language is usually associated with a particular meaning. If it is not this
widely understood meaning, we may use different / additional language.
If A man was lying dead or wounded at the door, people usually wouldn’t
say “there’s a man at the door”.
4. Inferences are drawn quickly.
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Inferences are made quickly and without any
conscious process of self-reflection or analysis.
Result of social experience and interactions.
This tells us that communication works better the
more people share assumptions and knowledge
of the world. – common experience and
knowledge
Inferences become more difficult to draw about
meaning the more shared experiences diverge.
How can we teach culture?
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Hands up, who teaches culture?
You all are teaching culture!!
“From the first day of the beginning class, culture is at the forefront.
Whatever approach, method or technique is used, greetings are
usually first on the agenda….. The differences made in formal
greetings, casual greetings, in greetings of young to old and vice
versa, of employee to employer, in who shakes hands, bows, or
touches the forehead, who may be called by first names, etc. are
certainly not universal and serve as an excellent introduction to the
culture of the people who speak the language, as well as to the
language itself.” Valdes (1990)
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Culture is inescapable in language teaching
The culture that is often used in class is often limited and
based on cultural stereotypes.
Nihonjinron
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“A set of propositions about uniqueness of Japanese
derived from traditional culture. It is presented [by
proponents] as if a world characterized by this set of
propositions, having to do with the Japanese national
character, social structures, etc., is literally alive today.”
Befu and Manabe (1991)
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Inescapable. Japanese = race, nationality, language.
Japanese the culture is the most unique!!
America / the West is usually used as the cultural mirror
for self-definition.
‘Self-orientalising’ discourse. “We Japanese….”
Key beliefs- uniqueness of Japanese culture and society,
and the homogeneity of its people.
Nihonjinron exists. (Bradley, 2014)
Teachers as creators / perpetuators? (Rivers 2010)
What is your definition of culture?
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“Culture is the way of thinking for a thing or matter that varies according to
the countries”
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“The thing that originates in each country. When people go abroad and feel
something different, that is culture”
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“I think culture is the form of people’s life. It includes eating habits, clothing
habits, the manners of society and so on. Every nation must have its own
culture. The form of culture takes a long time. It may be formed by the
geographical environment. People may choose the most suitable way to live
and after weeks and weeks, it comes to be the culture”
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“Culture is a norm in a place. Different places have different cultures. It is a
way to say, a way to do things and to live”
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“Culture shows the personality of people in each country. The Japanese like
making a small group or being friends with particular people. They are shy
and wait to be spoken to by others. They are hard working and sometimes
too earnest. They are strict with time so they have things like good transport
systems”
Cross-Cultural Approach
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Cross-cultural approach is the most common.
Using English to examine different cultures (usually
national cultures). E.G – Education in Egypt. Gift giving in
Canada. Usually done comparatively.
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Often implicitly based on certain cultural dichotomies
which are applied to culture at a national level.
(Edward Hall – Monochronic- Polychronic / High context – Low
context.)
(Gert Hofstede – Collectivistic – Individualistic / High - Low Power
Distance / Masculine – Feminine / Long term – Short term
orientation)
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Cross-cultural approach is usually easy for the teacher
and students.
Problem – Us - Them
Problem – English as a Lingua Franca?
Intercultural Teaching
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Widely agreed goals
- raising students cultural awareness
- challenging stereotypes
- prepare students for communicating with
people of other cultures.
- helping students appreciate the diversity in
their own and other cultures.
- helping students predict potential miscommunication
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(English) communication is intercultural and successful
intercultural communication needs to go beyond
vocabulary, grammar and phonology.
Baker’s Intercultural Awareness
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Students likely to use their English with non-native English
speakers. Non-native culture.
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Awareness of others comes from awareness of ones own
communication style / language preferences etc.
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(Hopefully) develop student identity as intercultural
communicators who can mediate and negotiate between
different languages.
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“Years of study have convinced me that the
real job is not to understand foreign culture but
to understand our own” – Hall (1959)
A Thai Example
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Students start by researching their own culture (attitudes
to learning, classrooms, learners views on their own
language and other languages, different cultural
groupings in their culture and their relationship to
language, outsider views of Thai language and culture
etc)
Look at how their own cultural context influences their
own behaviour and communication practices.
Possibility of engaging in small scale ethnographic
projects.
Encourage learners to adopt a critical approach with
information. They, the teacher and all other cultural
sources should be treated as subjective.
Accept your own diversity and identity and then you can
accept that of others.
Food for thought
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Traditional essentialist views of culture are
easy to use in class but are we doing
students a disservice in the long run?
References
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Kramsch, C (1993) Language and Culture
Corbett, J (2003) An Intercultural Approach to English Language
Teaching.
Scollon & Scollon (1995) Intercultural Communication
Valdes, J.M (1990) The inevitability of teaching and learning culture
in a foreign language course. In B. Harrison (ed.) Culture and the
Language Classroom (pp. 20-30)
Befu, H (1992) Hegemony of Homogeneity
Baker, M (2010) Intercultural Awareness
Hall, E (1959) The Silent Language
Bradley, N (2014) Cultural Nationalism and International Posture of
Japanese University Students, TESOL Journal