Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Topic 4
Topic 4
Introduction.
Interest in linguistic diversity by getting to know a foreign language and its culture.
Legislative framework.
Concept of culture.
Culture-based activities.
Conclusion.
Bibliography.
1. As it is established in the Organic Law 8/2013 LOMCE the domain of a second
language has become a priority in the global world we are living in.
The new social demands of a world in continuous expansion where the relationships
between individuals, countries, agencies and corporations become more frequent
and closer, have produced a change in the conception of the teaching of any foreign
language.
Now, we are not interested in learning about a language but being able to communicate
in that language. As a response to these necessities, the Decree 54/2014, which
establishes the Official Curriculum in Castilla -La Mancha, states that the learning of a
foreign language will be centred in communication. Furthermore, the English classroom
should be the place where students can find the kind of activities they can use in real
life.
competence in the foreign language since this concept includes a strong cultural
element.
2.a. It seems clear that language can act as a barrier to communication. Moreover,
the lack of understanding through a common language is also a barrier for progressing.
In order to solve these great problems, some options were given although any of them
was entirely successful:
Provide increased motivation and opportunity to learn foreign languages. That is,
promote the teaching/learning of different languages to children in different
educational settings.
2.b. At this point, an important question emerges: why is learning a foreign language
necessary? In order to answer this question in an appropriate way, it is required to deal
with CRYSTAL who pointed out some important reasons to learn a foreign language:
Learning a foreign language is not a luxury, but a real necessity in order to get
common understanding among different countries. Moreover, in Europe, the
learning of a foreign language is a criterion of responsible international
membership.
It promotes understanding, tolerance and respect for the cultural identity, rights
and values of others. Learning a foreign language broadens our minds since we
discover other ways of thinking about things.
Foreign language teaching plays an important role in preparing our pupils to cope
with an ever-changing environment. In other words, students will be able to
overcome their insecurity and develop their confidence as they face up to social
and personal demands found in other contexts.
Learning a foreign language is the only way to fully appreciate our own language.
Therefore, it can be claimed that a language is a way of understanding the world and
a way of organizing the relationships among people. This fact makes necessary the
inclusion of social and cultural aspects in the teaching/learning process in such a way
that some aspects such as tolerance, critical thinking, catering for diversity,
communicative abilities, self confidence, respect, interest in travelling, reading
information, interest in traditions, habits or events (LOMCE, Title IV) will be worked out.
2.c. Nowadays, we live in a multi-lingual world. This fact has gained importance
along the years. It started in the XIX century with the development of media such as the
railway and steam-ships, which made distances shorter and improve the relationships
among countries. In the XX century, some countries showed their wish to co-operate
among them. It was the born of the European Community.
Moreover, we cannot forget that in our current society aspects such as migration,
tourism or mass media are fostering the learning of other foreign languages.
Nevertheless and, despite the existence of thousands of languages, English was
adopted as the universal, diplomatic and commercial language all over the world. But,
why was English adopted as the universal language to get common understanding? To
answer this question, some reasons can be argued:
Taking into account all these aspects and reasons to learn a foreign language and,
more specifically, English language, it is also necessary to establish some guidelines to
be included in any foreign language teaching programme:
Once we have studied the importance and reasons to learn a foreign language, I will
deal with the second part of the topic, which will be devoted to the interest in language
diversity.
3. Historically speaking, countries such as America, United Kingdom, Spain or
France have never felt the necessity of learning a foreign language since their
languages were widely spread all over the world. In contrast, small countries such as
Denmark or Norway accepted the official multilingualism.
3.d. But, why should we focus on culture instead on other aspects of the
Curriculum? The following reasons have been argued:
Therefore, it can be claimed that anyone who learns a foreign language will also
learn about its culture aspects such as geography, economy, social values, sports, etc.
This way, our students will become aware of different behaviors. Nevertheless,
KRAMSCH (1993) proposed four new ways to teach a language and its culture:
we must get used to what social scientists and socio-linguistics think about the
target language.
It is also required to know how cultural awareness can be developed. To facilitate
this process, we should give our pupils opportunities to:
Come into contact with native speakers in the own country and abroad.
Work with authentic materials from the countries of the target language in order
to get a permanent link with the foreign country.
Consider and discuss both, differences and similarities between our pupils
culture and the target languages culture.
Learn the most appropriate social conventions in order to make them aware of
the different attitudes and habits of English speaking countries.
3.f. However, the teaching of culture is not an easy task since our students can
consider it as something useless (they do not use it since they do not have any contact
with foreign speakers). It is also necessary to increase their interest and curiosity
towards the target language. In order to do that, we can plan culture-based activities.
Objective: the aim of these activities will be to increase our students cultural
awareness and develop their curiosity towards both cultures (target and own
one), helping them to make comparisons among cultures. These comparisons
will enrich students experience and make them aware of the great diversity
among cultures.
Determining topics: we will select topics related to the word culture and the
order will not be important. Topics such as social identity, Belief and
behaviour, Everyday life, National history and geography; Media: TV,
newspaper, radio; Arts: Literature, cinema.
Once these aspects have been considered, we will design the activities following a
specific order and organizing them in such a way that we can adapt them to our
students needs. All the activities designed to work on culture must contain these
elements:
AIMS to be reached.
PROCEDURE, that is, how we are going to carry out the activity.
FOLLOW-UP: depending on cultural and linguistic aims of the lesson, the activity
can be followed by the exposition and practice of some items.
3.g. The last step in my discourse will be aimed at explaining the main cultural goals
of the target language that must be included in our lesson planning.
4. As a conclusion I would like to point out the fact that we can justify the teaching of
a foreign language for educational, social and cultural reasons in order to make our
students more understanding and tolerant in a multicultural society as it is established in
the Royal Decree 126/2014, in the general objective for the stage to know, understand
and respect different cultures and the differences among persons
Language is the way through which human beings are able to communicate but, at
the same time, it can make communication fail when acting as a barrier due to the lack
of knowledge of the culture and of the language we are learning.
As culture is a vehicle for language, we should introduce it as an important element
in the teaching/learning process.
The main bibliography used for the development of this topic is: