Teaching culture, as you all know, is an integral part of teaching a foreign language. Just think about your own learning experience. It was, and still is as has always been, very common to come accross with units in textbooks devoted to christmas, easter, or these kinds of cultural elements. These units included written or and/or audio-visual materials to help students learn about new vocabulary and concepts on the target culture.
Without any debate, we have all accepted that teaching of such cultural elements is of vital importance for learners. This is also relevant to the aims of communicative approach in teaching, as language and culture are insaparable. BUT I AM SURE, NOTHING IS UNQUESTIONABLE FOR BRILLANT TEACHERS LIKE YOU!!! What about dedicating a unit to THE FEAST OF THE SACRIFICE in a textbook for teaching English as a foreign language in Turkey ? Do you think that it is scientific and appropriate for teaching and learning goals?
I am quiet sure you've heard about the term globalism many times, but what about glocalism? What about teaching a foreign language using your own cultural values or signs? Suppose that you have McDonalds in your street, but you can have kebap or kofte beside cheesburger (that is what they have done wihin the last decade following glocalization instead of globalization).
So my friends, please be as critical as possible and comment on this discussion. Should we use native cultural elements in teaching English, or 100% target culture is the absolute solution? Your comments are welcome...
Olcay
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2 comments:
Of course national cultural elements should be included in English language teaching. We all experienced that in our high school or secondary school times, we learnt a lot related to cultural knowledge(knowledge of the world) from our English coursebooks, such as the highest mountain/city of the world, Picasso's life and etc. To use cultural elements is a useful way of teaching English. Especially nowadays when teenagers/youngs and even adults claims/admits that Egypt pyramids have been stolen from Turkey and taken to Egypt, it is significant to include cultural elements in language learning process:) But it is also important how to use these elements. I think it should be as authentic as possiple in terms of language use. Because As far as I observed in my training school (Beytepe Primary School), students finds the material so artificial that they don't want to participate in the activities, don't listen to teacher and even say "teacher! it is so silly". So the coursebook writers should be really careful about it.
Thnaks..t_avci
comparison maybe the best way, I think. of course target culture should be included in teaching process. authentic materials giving clues about the target culture shows the real usage of language.thus, students are more aware about what they are learning andhow to use it. ıt is nonsence to use our own culture to teach a language of an another culture. it does not work since language and culture cannot be seperated. however, we, Turkish people,are very likely to adopt every new thing to our own culture. I want us to preserve our own values and just learn the others. maybe teaching culture by comparing the two cultures is preferable.
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