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Every language has its cultural norms, some of which can be completely different and conflict with other cultures' norms. Consequently, communication problems may arise among language users who do not know or share the norms of other cultures. Perhaps one solution for such problems is to help language learners to learn the target culture within the syllabus. Raising the learners' cultural awareness in a language course, as Tomlinson and Masuhara (2004) note, can facilitate language acquisition too. This paper aims at presenting a general understanding of cultural awareness and surveying different ways through which it can be developed in language instructional materials.
2006
Regardless of different points of view, culture has taken an important place in foreign language teaching and learning studies. It has been widely recognized that culture and language is used as a main medium through which culture is expressed. However, "pure information" is useful but does not necessarily lead learners' insight; whereas the development of people's cultural awareness leads them to more critical thinking. Most frequently confronted that students to a great extend know the rules of language, but are not always able to use the language adequately as it requires since they are not knowledgeable enough about the target culture. Bearing all this in mind, the aim of this article has been to provide necessary information for the foreign language teachers and learners so that they can establish a good connection with the target language and its culture.
English Teaching Forum, 2013
Creative Education, 2015
The present article reports a descriptive and explanatory case study, whose objective was to identify and describe to what extend students develop cultural awareness through activities designed under the principles of the Text-Driven Approach (TDA). This approach, presented by Brian Tomlinson, answers the question of how a second language can be learned or acquired in the most effective way in the classroom, and also aims to design interesting materials for students which lead them to think, reflect, and communicate. The research deals with developing cultural awareness in Elementary English students in the Modern Languages Degree at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Basically, the research development comprised 3 stages. The first one consisted of the identification of the problem, which was intended to figure out if students develop cultural awareness in their English classes; the second stage was intended to design a set of activities following the TDA principles. Said design became the core of the pedagogical intervention to give answers to the problem found. The third stage was featured by the implementation of the activities in two different classrooms for a period of three months. During such implementation of the activities, data were collected by using 3 important instruments: the observation sheets, which were helpful in order to gather information about observable students' behaviors (what students do). The second instrument was a questionnaire, in which students had the opportunity to express what they thought and learned during the implementation of the activities (what students say they do) and finally, we count on artifacts from students (what students really do), regarding the activities designed in order to develop cultural awareness; such artifacts were found by means of the teacher's guide, the document in which the activities were presented. Therefore, the same phenomenon was observed from 3 different perspectives obtaining a triangulation, a technique, which was considered the most appropriate to do the analysis of the data. The information collected led researchers to 4 important categories through which answers were given to the research question: knowledge (savoir), socio-cultural competence (savoir fare), attitude (savoir être), understanding ''the other''. Such categories allowed researchers to classify the information gathered and obtain the L. Cardona et al. 1361 preliminary findings, which showed that the activities designed definitely developed cultural awareness to some extend in Elementary English students.
There is close relationship between language and culture. Language reflects culture and it is influenced and shaped by culture at the same time.
Journal of Education, 2014
This study sets out to identify the importance of inclusion of culture in English language teaching for non-native speakers. Communicative competence, an essential goal in learning English as a foreign language, is identified as the linguistic and behavioral competence. In addition, this study explores the contribution of culturally-sensitive English language teaching to students' increased awareness of culture. The study uses the culture tests, developed by the author, throughout the culturally-sensitive English language teaching course to check students' progress in cultural awareness. The research revealed that there is valuable benefit in adopting the view of inseparability of language and culture by teachers and using culturally-sensitive English language teaching. It is essential to increase students' sensitivity about different cultures in today's culturally rich environments.
IASET, 2020
Language is a basic form of communication. It can be verbal, physical and biologically innate. Culture is the distinctiveness of a specific group of people. This distinctiveness can be observed in the language, religion, social behavior, music and the arts of these groups. Language and Culture are closely associated as culture finds its expression in language. Therefore, anyone learning a new language without having knowledge about its culture is deficient. In learning language, Culture plays an important role. It is pertinent then to mention that including culture in the learning process of a foreign language does not rule out the need to learn the four language skills in addition to spellings, sentence structure, word articulation, and vocabulary building. This article aims to establish the role that culture plays in the teaching and learning process of English as a foreign language. In its examination, the study highlights how culture in English as a foreign language (EFL) can be taught. The study of the Documentary Research Survey examines the usefulness of culture in teaching language and verifies whether their teaching conforms to the curriculum. Data used in the analysis of this study were obtained from external sources such as documents, articles and book chapters. The study confirmed that including culture in the context of learning foreign language is important. The outcome of the culture curriculum is not yet incorporated into secondary school operational plans.
This study was conducted with the participation of the students of the ELT department of Çukurova University in Turkey. We have tried to find out what students think about the effects of the culture class they attended in the fall semester of 2003-2004 academic year. As a result of the study, a significant similarity between the students' views and the theoretical benefits of a culture class as argued by some experts in the field was observed. Regarding the benefits of learning about culture, attending the culture class has raised cultural awareness in ELT students concerning both native and target societies. This study illustrates how arguments of language teaching experts in favour of a culture class in language learning and teaching are justified by some sound evidence provided by the participants of this study.
Paola Baccin, Elisabetta Pavan, authors. The purpose of this paper is not to outline a specific curriculum or methodology for use in the foreign language classroom, rather this paper will describe an attitude teachers and learners should adopt. A framework will be provided for understanding the cognitive patterns related to the shift from communicative competence to intercultural communicative competence. The teaching of culture is arousing great interest among foreign language teachers, nonetheless the problems most language teachers must face, such as uncertainty about which cultural aspects to teach and how to use and adapt authentic materials to integrate course books, may lead to unexpected difficulties. However, even though it is widely acknowledged that to be competent speakers in a language it is necessary to know and understand the main issues about the culture which has moulded it, in most course books, lessons concentrate on linguistic structures and forms, putting aside cultural elements: it is not unusual among teachers ‘to do on their own’.
English has been designated as a source of intercultural communication among the people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. A range of linguistic and cultural theories contribute meaningful insights on the development of competence in intercultural communication. The speculations suggest the use of communicative strategies focusing on the development of learners’ efficiency in communicating language through cultural context. However, the teaching of culture in communication has not been paid due importance in a number of academic and language settings of Pakistan and Iran. This assignment study indicates problems in view of teaching English as a medium of instruction in public sector colleges of interior Sindh, Pakistan and prescribed textbooks in Iranian schools. It also aims to identify drawbacks and shortcoming in prescribed textbooks for intermediate students at college level and schools. Therefore, the assignment study recommends integration of cultural awareness into a language teaching programme for an overall achievement of competence in intercultural communication.
Journal of gender, culture and society, 2024
Learning multiple languages is advantageous for individuals engaging with diverse communities across borders. However, language barriers and miscommunication have posed significant challenges, prompting learners to improve their foreign language skills, knowledge, and expertise. A lack of cultural awareness and sensitivity has hindered learners from successfully mastering foreign languages. The inability of the UK and European populations to promote diversity and inclusion, coupled with disrespectful attitudes towards other cultures, contributes to their struggles in language acquisition. To address these issues, active engagement in cultural activities can boost motivation and proficiency in language learning. Exploring Hofstede's six dimensions of cultural competency reveals that American learners exhibit lower anxiety levels than Korean learners in language training classrooms due to high individualism. Conversely, the high power distance in China, compared to Mongolia and Hungary, results in Chinese students being less interactive and assertive in classrooms. Limited interaction negatively impacts students' psychological and behavioral development, highlighting the importance of fostering intercultural communication skills. Thus, cultural factors have been elaborated with the implementations of Lewis's cultural competency model, which has elaborated that nations worldwide can be segregated into three categories based on their cultural beliefs such as linear-active, multi-active, and reactive. Among these three categories, reactive has been identified as the most flexible, people-oriented, and culturally aware nation, wherein most Asian countries like India, Malaysia, Korea, and Thailand belong. It has been identified that due to a lack of cultural awareness, the students have been confronting significant issues in confidently learning new languages with the inability to speak appropriate terms and pronounce them properly. Participation in cultural activities and training on intercultural communication might be helpful in mitigating cross-cultural issues in new language learning.
Language use involves not only making choices about lexis, grammar, discourse structures and other language aspects, but also contexts, i.e. topics, participants, settings. The explicit knowledge, sensitivity, and perception on the language regularities, so-called language awareness is essential for the language users to understand and produce language accurately. Learners are also expected to recognize language users' norms, belief systems and behaviors. Cultural awareness, as the knowledge of cultural differences among the first language cultures and others speakers' cultures, is of paramount. Since the number of ‗new variants' of English from periphery countries are increasing (Canagarajah 2002) and at the same time English has become ‗de-nationalized' (McKay 2002) other speakers' culture-the writer means-are cultures of inner-cycle (native) speakers, outer-cycle (L2) speakers, and extended-cycle (FL) speakers (see Kachru 1985). Intercultural awareness is vita...
2018
Di era di mana globalisasi telah menjadi fenomena yang mana orang dapat berkomunikasi dengan orang-orang dari negara lain dengan budaya dan latar belakang yang berbeda melalui internet, orang harus dapat berkomunikasi dengan bahasa yang digunakan oleh mayoritas orang di dunia, termasuk bahasa Inggris. Sayangnya, situasi ini dapat menciptakan isu-isu transnasional dan budaya karena ada besarnya kemungkinan orang memiliki sikap negatif terhadap penutur asli dari bahasa tertentu karena mereka kurang memahami budaya tersebut. Penelitian ini menanyakan tentang teknik yang guru bahasa Inggris gunakan untuk mengintegrasikan cultural awareness di kelas mereka, cara mereka menerapkannya, dan tantangan apa yang harus mereka hadapi. Oleh karena itu, penelitian ini didasarkan pada metode studi kasus yang mempelajari berbagai masalah yang terikat pada satu ruang lingkup utama dan bertujuan untuk mendapatkan pemahaman tentang masalah secara mendalam dan detail. Data penelitian dikumpulkan dengan ...
2013
In the field of language education four basic skills are essential in the process of teaching and learning. These are: reading, writing, listening and speaking. In many teaching methodology publications, these skills are integrated in one particular learning context. However, in the curriculum of many newly-formed countries in the Balkan Peninsula there is multicultural element that overshadows every learning/teaching material. Treating culture as a fifth skill widens the horizon of teaching. Introducing cultural contexts in educational curriculums might be interesting and thorny at the same time. Besides the literature review and research work conducted in Macedonia this paper provides a list of some well known teaching techniques and practices from the western world educational practices. In the field of language education there are 4 basic skills that are essential in the process of teaching and learning. These are: reading, writing, listening and speaking. In many foreign languages teaching methodology publications, all these skills are integrated into one particular learning context. However, in many curriculums of the Balkan Peninsula although the reality is multicultural there is an element that shadows almost every learning/ teaching material and that is the cultural aspect. Kramsch (1993) was among the first to argue that culture is the fifth skill in teaching. This skill is evident in every step of the process not only in language teaching but also in other fields of study/research. According to Omaggion (1993) teaching culture is considered important by most teachers but it has remained "insubstantial and sporadic in most language classrooms". This study aims to reflect on cultural and language aspect usage when teaching English with the intention of promoting and raising awareness on the cultural element in the educational curriculums that is evident and necessary in the teaching and learning process. How is this context perceived in cultural studies? Culture is an essential element in the formation of identity. It reflects a set of rules or behaviors that are common for a particular ethnic group or region. The importance of this element is also reflected in many societies as a competence that is necessary in
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Developing Materials for Language Teaching, 2003
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