Making culture happen in the English language classroom
Submitted by
Barry Tomalin
on 8 October, 2008 - 16:48
This is the second in a series of articles by our Guest Contributor Barry
Tomalin.
In my first article for this intercultural forum I outlined why we needed to
rethink the teaching of culture in ELT and put forward arguments for treating
culture as a 5th language skill. This second article looks at teaching the
cultural agenda in more detail and explores possible avenues of thinking in the
following areas:
These points should give us all plenty to think about and discuss. So here are a
few thoughts of my own to stimulate discussion.
Where does culture fit? What discipline does culture belong to?
Culture has many mothers – academic disciplines that have influenced its
development. One is linguistics, which has provided the concepts of language
analysis that are the basis of inter-cultural communication. Another is
psychology, that has provided many of the concepts we use in understanding
people’s motivation and behaviour. Two other disciplines, sociology and
anthropology, have both influenced our study of behaviour and also the
influences that form social values in different communities.
So we can say that cultural awareness is an interdisciplinary subject that draws
on the resources of a variety of humanistic disciplines to profile the aptitudes
and skills required to understand and work successfully in another culture. To
my mind, the skills of cultural awareness are part of the newly developed
subject of emotional intelligence, created by psychologist Daniel Goleman at
Harvard University. However, you may well identify other ‘mothers’ and other
antecedents and other homes for the study of cultural awareness or cultural
competence.
Culture in the curriculum
Once you have discussed the roots of culture then you can search for its
appearance in the curriculum. The Council of Europe Common European Framework
for Reference (CEFR) has no section for culture but several cultural references
spread through its examples. Pretty much all textbooks at secondary level and
upwards now have a cultural syllabus and many primary ELT books make room for a
‘culture spot’ or ‘cultural corner’. My concern in such resources is that the
syllabus is really ‘tacked on’ to the topic area of the textbook unit and has no
real consistency of development as a skills set on its own.
One writer, Simon Greenall, who has an informed interest in this subject, has
tried to tackle the cultural agenda in his Macmillan textbook ‘People like Us’.
Simon chooses other cultures as his subject. But should we be teaching a
specific culture? For example, British or US culture. If so, why exclude
Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, Singapore or Indian culture, all of whom have
English medium instruction, as do some other countries.
When should we introduce culture in English language teaching? Do students need
to understand basic English before they begin looking at culture and if so what
level are we talking about? Is it A1, A2, or B1 or even B2 according to the CEFR
(Council of Europe Framework of Reference)? It would be good to have your views
and your experience.
Cultural materials
Culture tends to be relegated to a specific section in textbooks or to be the
subject of readers. Yet you could argue that every photo, drawing, reading
package and dialogue is the subject not just of linguistic exploitation but of
cultural discussion and debate.
Nowadays our textbooks contain print, audio, CDROM and DVD components and even
dedicated websites. Are these better avenues for teaching cultural awareness and
if so what should we be putting in them? Teachers of Professional English often
complain about the lack of ‘critical incident methodology’ video material which
highlights key areas of misunderstanding between cultures and presents them for
discussion. We should exchange our recommendations on materials. I’ll gladly
share mine if you’ll share yours.
An important question is how can we best incorporate cultural material in our
teaching materials? Should we provide more cultural input in our ELT textbooks
or should we ‘deculturalise’ our textbooks to give them the widest application?
The issue of de-coupling English language from cultural assumptions and
background is a longstanding debate in ELT. Once again it would be good to know
what you think.
Cultural methodology
How should we teach cultural awareness? Should we be teaching it as a special
slot, such as a culture corner or culture spot in the lesson, or should each
lesson seek to contain a cultural awareness skill that students develop through
working through the textbook and associated materials? Should we be teaching the
skills of identifying culturally significant information, how to research
cultural information and how to develop cultural skills?
Should we have lectures and presentations where we tell our students what they
need to know? Should we be using task-based learning and discovery techniques to
help our students learn for themselves? Are some methods more appropriate than
others for teachers who are not native-speakers (and may be less familiar with
the culture) or have large classes of sixty or more students?
In other words, when do you include culture in your lessons and how do you teach
it? What methodology works for you?
Conclusion
When we discuss the teaching of cultural awareness as a skill as opposed to
teaching cultural information, we have to consider a number of issues, such as
the curriculum, the materials and the methodology. The challenge is to initiate
a debate on what and how to teach to help develop our children as international
citizens of the world, using English and other languages as their lingua franca.