As most of my classmates and instructors would agree, culture and language are inseperable. Language is one of the most apparent identity markers that we humans possess. I think it was Dulpit that reiterated this point much more elloquantly than I. Drubeil also made some remarkable observations in relation to cultural exploration. I was really taken by his citation of Hall who stated that learning a foreign culture is also learning one's own culture. Learning another culture encourages students to examine their own culture with more of a critical eye when comparing to another culture. The other point Drubeil expresses relates to the role of the teacher. He states teachers need to be willing to engage in conversations that examine cultural differences in order to move beyond ethnocentrism. If teachers don't engage in sincere interaction with students in regards to their culture, the lack of openness will obvious inhibit cultural exploration. The teacher must act as a role-model for students. How can CALL play a part in cultural discovery within the classroom? Drubeil addresses cultural exploration through video and internet. Both are fabulous ways to present different cultures especially through internet. These are mediums that I plan to utilize in the classroom; however, the most challenging aspect to using video/internet is picking and choosing the appropriate material. What types of video/internet clips could be used, where can teachers find meaningful videos and how should they be used are the questions that have gone unanswered.
"Learning another language opens the windows of our minds.... The experience of learning a new language helps to develop openness to other cultures and acceptance of different ways of life and beliefs."
This quote started off Dubreil's chapter, and I really like it. It eloquently sums up how important a role culture has in language learning and how important language learning is, in itself. It's not just learning to speak "English" with literally translated "Spanish" words but instead, its learning to speak & think & act in a new world of language with a whole new set of beliefs & methods & reasoning. We don't give language & what it means to speak a language - it's proper respect.
Culture is at the core of a language therefore it should be at the core of the course curriculum - woven in where it is appropriate and pointed out by the instructor in order to bring awareness to its presence. And this whole idea of "pointing it out" is important, as it will alleviate the frustration from learning the nuances of the language. Instead of having to learn random things (weird & trivial in the minds of the student) by mere rote memorization, students will learn the nuances because they understand the cultural implications and the reasoning or logic behind it.
Application of this idea can be done in any area. It can be applied to the minutest forms of language : prepositions (understanding why the L1 culture applies this preposition to a statement / and then understanding why the culture in the L2 dictates it be done a different manner) OR it can be applied to complicated speech forms such as apologizing or complementing.
To sum up: Ignoring culture in the language learning classroom not only denies the student the opportunity to see the "soul" of the language but it also denies the student an opportunity to truly understand its logic & reasoning.
The Drubeil reading about cultural exploration was really more interesting than the article I presented on -- though that was interesting to. Thinking about what might be a "benchmark" for pragmatic competence is interesting -- it sort of forces us to think intellectually. That is, pragmatics is of the utmost importance to any student who plans to use the language in authentic situations (as opposed to just reading books) yet we have no clear norms or benchmarks for this. It could be that the whole topic is too big and messy. Any attempt to operationalize or reduce it is bound to fail. At the same time, general rules about cultural habits should be shared without somehow reducing the culture to a stereotype. It might have been helpful to know that Chinese male friends hold hands, for instance, before I went to China. We can't bring everything into the classroom, but where appropriate I think we should discuss pragmatics. Ultimately, the test will be out there in the "real world." In an ESL context, these "real world" experiences can be great for sharing / learning. In my experience learning Chinese in Iowa (long story), there was only so much that could be done to prepare me for the "real thing".
I am in agreement with everyone's comments. I found Dubreil's article to be very insightful. To learn culture and a language is an interactive experience. Each one of us brings our own schema in regards to our cultural views and situations. As a teacher, I believe that it is important to always be cognizant of this element when teaching a foreign language. Thus, in order to teach culture, it is great to allow students to compare and contrast C1 & C2, as it helps them to develop cultural sensitivity. The role of the learner is critical-- which is why I support the incorporation of technology in cultural pedagogy. CALL is student-centered, as it allows students immediate access to authentic L2 cultural practices, images, and views. Overall, the use of CALL will allow students to explore various aspects of L2 culture in order to have a deeper understanding of cultural differences and to create their own meaning.
Pragmatics is a very important and very interesting area of language teaching. As was noted in class by Rosetta, I believe, it doesn't really matter if you understand the forms and the vocabulary of a language if you don't know how to use them appropriately. I think that what Mango Haiku said above is very accurate: the real lesson in so many issues of culture are learned hands on, within the culture. For ESL teachers and learners, there is the issue of urgency that does not exist in an EFL setting, and I think often times even just the asking part is difficult for learners. Perhaps CALL could come in here: if a teacher wanted to create a comfortable and sensitive learning environment, a blog could be set up where students could anonymously ask culture questions that they might be afraid to ask otherwise. This way, other students as well as the instructor could respond and explain. The teacher could bring up especially important issues in class as well, if it was ok with the student who posted it. This way, students are being encouraged to be aware of the culture around them and to be sensitive to it, and teachers can build a bank of issues and topics to include in teaching pragmatics to future students. Just a thought.
I am deeply interested in the way to teach “Little ‘c’” or “the aspects of lifestyle and patterns of daily living” (239) associated with a culture. Dubreil maintains that culture is not static and that instructors need to teach dynamic relationships between cultures as well as culture-general and culture-specific information. I am concerned about how to effectively transition between a culture-general and a culture-specific portrayal of a culture. Culture is very complex and I am always very suspicious of overarching statements and generalized portrayals attributed to a specific culture, because if you take a closer look, more times than not, you will find evidence or a sub-culture within a culture that contradicts the statements or portrayals. Stereotypes are inherently flawed because there is no way to describe a group of people, no matter if its 30 people or 300 million people, with such simple concepts and in such simple language. There has been discussion in class about avoiding the teaching of stereotypes…but I don’t think talking around stereotypes is a good idea. Stereotypes should be addressed because they do exist in people’s minds, and I would argue that both positive and negative stereotypes are actually part of the learning process. You have to create stereotypes and generalizations of complex concepts to build upon with more specific information for you cannot just suddenly know every detail about a subject or how every single person actually lives in a culture. You cannot completely KNOW a culture (even your own)…rather, you must piece together a larger picture with smaller elements. I believe instructors must work with stereotypes rather than just trying combat them or not address them at all. The Internet can be a great source of negating discriminatory elements of stereotypes and adding upon and adjusting more accurate elements. You can present students with stereotypes, and they can examine their validity by researching different aspects of cultures, chatting with people from a certain culture if possible (random Skype calls seem to work sometimes), and even looking at personal webpages. I am certain students will find overwhelming amounts of evidence to contradict stereotypes that will also increase their own detailed knowledge of cultures and enhance rather imprecise generalizations they may hold to be true about any culture. I find that as you continue to look closer and closer at a culture, the more you realize that you actually understand very little about it.
Culture certainly needs to be incorporated in any language lesson. I don't know if there would even be a way to separate the two. Anyway, CALL technology has really opened up a lot of possibilities in regards to incorporating culture. But, like Jonathan mentioned, the difficulty lies in judging what is "normal" behavior and what isn't. For our purposes, I think it is best to show students different types of interactions in different circumstances. I was taught a lesson on invitations and the subtlety that sometimes accompanies those invitations, especially those related to someone of the opposite (or same) gender. In my lesson, I showed invitations from The Office(man-woman), Seinfeld (man-man), and Good Will Hunting (man-woman). The students had to observe each and take notice of the little fillers and "distancers" that we throw into invitations. Another possible activity could make use of voicethread or something like that. Put up a picture of a social situation and have students give an example of an appropriate comment or dialogue given the situation. Or, instead of a picture, you could use a video and they could comment on the possible overarching situations given the dialogue. The possibilities seem to be endless. However, the issue of who can judge what is what is not resolved.
Dubreil states that the relationship between teachers, learners, and technology is a “dynamic equilibrium”, and that because they all evolve, we should “humanize” computers to make them useful for sociocultural interaction and collaboration. I think chatting with people from the target culture/language (through MSN or Skype, for instance) is a good example of “humanizing” computers. When students are learning how to order things in restaurants, they should also be taught they are supposed to tip the servers. Virtually interviewing people or doing research about this topic ( How much to tip? When? Why?) could be an interesting task.
Dubreil stated, "If language is envisioned as a social practice, however, it always carries the meanings and values of a community, a social group, or culture, and, as such, language always refers to something beyond itself: the cultural context." This quote (especially the last part) stuck out to me and made me think of my discourse class. As we were analyzing the linguistic components I became so frustrated because it meant nothing without the context and understanding the cultural influence (which I admit comes later in the process). It is essential that culture is taught in correlation with language.
I believe that Call is a useful tool for intercultural competence and teaching pragmatics. It provides us (teachers) with a wealth of input to share with our students. However, I agree with Jonathan and Nathan, is it providing authentic samples of real behavior? Is there anything on youtube thats not sensationalized and exaggerated. Even documentaries, which are supposed to be realistic, are skewed and biased. Therefore its our job as teachers to guide the students to negotiate the meaning between what is realistic and true to the target culture and what is skewed. This can be done through class discussions, wikis, observations, and so on. With all media, we must condition and our students to be critical of it.
Culture through CALL is probably the most interesting CALL topic for me. 1. CALL provides so many opportunities for communication as well as input from CALL resources that will allow exposure to culture and language at the same time. - via email/blog/chat/voicethread one can communicate with other of the target language one is learning and be exposed to ways of expression that will not be in a textbook - via video and audio one can be exposed to the big C"" and the little "c", maybe even both, depending on what the video is about. one can also be exposed to expressions and uses of intonations and body language that will not be taught in the classroom or through a textbook
I want to mention Dubreil's section 4.2: The Role of the Learner. It is important for instructors to have a defined role for themselves as well as their students. Having a breakdown such as the one Dubreil proposes facilitates task creating in that instructors can target specific needs depending on the role they want their students to take. The teaching resources can be alloted accordingly depending on which role is being developed, with the student ultimately developing all roles.
I think that out of all the articles I have read for this class, the Dubreil article is one that I agree completely with. First, I like the statement that says: "If culture mediates all of human experience, learning a foreign culture is also learning one's own culture". Because I am teaching Spanish this hits exactly to what I have as the goal for my student's overall language experience. I hope that students experience the Spanish-speaking cultures as they are relevant to their own communities here in Chicago. Such a goal is so practical to accomplish. "Authentic texts are an excellent medium to teach culture" (Ommaggio Hadley). I could not have agreed more, and more importantly these materials are available through CALL tools and programs. The section in which they talk about research being done with students who watch videos reminded me how a language classroom should have relevant topics. These studies found that students are able to recognize cultural content in videos (commercials), and this is because of the visual component. A second component that I think it equally crucial to this finding is that students actually tend to prefer watching authentic material. I was thinking of incorporating videos that convey a picture of how a target culture is. For example in my website I use a video about a Costa Rican school. I hope that the video not only serves input, but also opens new points of views and possibilities to my students. Going back to my initial claim, students learn about their own culture. I plan to have my students read or research on the web news or information about events in Chicago (in the target language). I know that they will find that their culture here in Chicago is just as rich as the SPanish in Spain. Our culture is a myriad of multiple languages, stories, and communities that share a common territory.
It's easy to take culture for granted when teaching a language, though (and perhaps because) the two are inextricable. As Dubreil notes, it is important that we are aware of our own culture when teaching. Language is so much more than vocabulary and grammatical structures, and any teacher of language needs to understand culture in order to convey it to students. However, as Dubreil also states, culture is dynamic and should be treated as such rather than as a static body of knowledge to be transmitted.
Culture, therefore, is best taught through experience, and CALL applications provide for a great deal of authentic cultural experiences. Primary among them is CMC, which allows students to connect with others in the "target culture" and provides authentic input. Audio and video applications, including radio and television programs and newscasts, etc. can also be rich resources.
As most of my classmates and instructors would agree, culture and language are inseperable. Language is one of the most apparent identity markers that we humans possess. I think it was Dulpit that reiterated this point much more elloquantly than I. Drubeil also made some remarkable observations in relation to cultural exploration. I was really taken by his citation of Hall who stated that learning a foreign culture is also learning one's own culture. Learning another culture encourages students to examine their own culture with more of a critical eye when comparing to another culture.
ReplyDeleteThe other point Drubeil expresses relates to the role of the teacher. He states teachers need to be willing to engage in conversations that examine cultural differences in order to move beyond ethnocentrism. If teachers don't engage in sincere interaction with students in regards to their culture, the lack of openness will obvious inhibit cultural exploration. The teacher must act as a role-model for students.
How can CALL play a part in cultural discovery within the classroom? Drubeil addresses cultural exploration through video and internet. Both are fabulous ways to present different cultures especially through internet. These are mediums that I plan to utilize in the classroom; however, the most challenging aspect to using video/internet is picking and choosing the appropriate material. What types of video/internet clips could be used, where can teachers find meaningful videos and how should they be used are the questions that have gone unanswered.
"Learning another language opens the windows of our minds.... The experience of learning a new language helps to develop openness to other cultures and acceptance of different ways of life and beliefs."
ReplyDeleteThis quote started off Dubreil's chapter, and I really like it. It eloquently sums up how important a role culture has in language learning and how important language learning is, in itself. It's not just learning to speak "English" with literally translated "Spanish" words but instead, its learning to speak & think & act in a new world of language with a whole new set of beliefs & methods & reasoning. We don't give language & what it means to speak a language - it's proper respect.
Culture is at the core of a language therefore it should be at the core of the course curriculum - woven in where it is appropriate and pointed out by the instructor in order to bring awareness to its presence. And this whole idea of "pointing it out" is important, as it will alleviate the frustration from learning the nuances of the language. Instead of having to learn random things (weird & trivial in the minds of the student) by mere rote memorization, students will learn the nuances because they understand the cultural implications and the reasoning or logic behind it.
Application of this idea can be done in any area. It can be applied to the minutest forms of language : prepositions (understanding why the L1 culture applies this preposition to a statement / and then understanding why the culture in the L2 dictates it be done a different manner) OR it can be applied to complicated speech forms such as apologizing or complementing.
To sum up: Ignoring culture in the language learning classroom not only denies the student the opportunity to see the "soul" of the language but it also denies the student an opportunity to truly understand its logic & reasoning.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe Drubeil reading about cultural exploration was really more interesting than the article I presented on -- though that was interesting to. Thinking about what might be a "benchmark" for pragmatic competence is interesting -- it sort of forces us to think intellectually. That is, pragmatics is of the utmost importance to any student who plans to use the language in authentic situations (as opposed to just reading books) yet we have no clear norms or benchmarks for this. It could be that the whole topic is too big and messy. Any attempt to operationalize or reduce it is bound to fail. At the same time, general rules about cultural habits should be shared without somehow reducing the culture to a stereotype. It might have been helpful to know that Chinese male friends hold hands, for instance, before I went to China. We can't bring everything into the classroom, but where appropriate I think we should discuss pragmatics. Ultimately, the test will be out there in the "real world." In an ESL context, these "real world" experiences can be great for sharing / learning. In my experience learning Chinese in Iowa (long story), there was only so much that could be done to prepare me for the "real thing".
ReplyDelete-Jonathan Gourlay
I am in agreement with everyone's comments. I found Dubreil's article to be very insightful. To learn culture and a language is an interactive experience. Each one of us brings our own schema in regards to our cultural views and situations. As a teacher, I believe that it is important to always be cognizant of this element when teaching a foreign language. Thus, in order to teach culture, it is great to allow students to compare and contrast C1 & C2, as it helps them to develop cultural sensitivity. The role of the learner is critical-- which is why I support the incorporation of technology in cultural pedagogy. CALL is student-centered, as it allows students immediate access to authentic L2 cultural practices, images, and views. Overall, the use of CALL will allow students to explore various aspects of L2 culture in order to have a deeper understanding of cultural differences and to create their own meaning.
ReplyDeletePragmatics is a very important and very interesting area of language teaching. As was noted in class by Rosetta, I believe, it doesn't really matter if you understand the forms and the vocabulary of a language if you don't know how to use them appropriately. I think that what Mango Haiku said above is very accurate: the real lesson in so many issues of culture are learned hands on, within the culture. For ESL teachers and learners, there is the issue of urgency that does not exist in an EFL setting, and I think often times even just the asking part is difficult for learners. Perhaps CALL could come in here: if a teacher wanted to create a comfortable and sensitive learning environment, a blog could be set up where students could anonymously ask culture questions that they might be afraid to ask otherwise. This way, other students as well as the instructor could respond and explain. The teacher could bring up especially important issues in class as well, if it was ok with the student who posted it. This way, students are being encouraged to be aware of the culture around them and to be sensitive to it, and teachers can build a bank of issues and topics to include in teaching pragmatics to future students. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteI am deeply interested in the way to teach “Little ‘c’” or “the aspects of lifestyle and patterns of daily living” (239) associated with a culture. Dubreil maintains that culture is not static and that instructors need to teach dynamic relationships between cultures as well as culture-general and culture-specific information. I am concerned about how to effectively transition between a culture-general and a culture-specific portrayal of a culture. Culture is very complex and I am always very suspicious of overarching statements and generalized portrayals attributed to a specific culture, because if you take a closer look, more times than not, you will find evidence or a sub-culture within a culture that contradicts the statements or portrayals. Stereotypes are inherently flawed because there is no way to describe a group of people, no matter if its 30 people or 300 million people, with such simple concepts and in such simple language. There has been discussion in class about avoiding the teaching of stereotypes…but I don’t think talking around stereotypes is a good idea. Stereotypes should be addressed because they do exist in people’s minds, and I would argue that both positive and negative stereotypes are actually part of the learning process. You have to create stereotypes and generalizations of complex concepts to build upon with more specific information for you cannot just suddenly know every detail about a subject or how every single person actually lives in a culture. You cannot completely KNOW a culture (even your own)…rather, you must piece together a larger picture with smaller elements. I believe instructors must work with stereotypes rather than just trying combat them or not address them at all. The Internet can be a great source of negating discriminatory elements of stereotypes and adding upon and adjusting more accurate elements. You can present students with stereotypes, and they can examine their validity by researching different aspects of cultures, chatting with people from a certain culture if possible (random Skype calls seem to work sometimes), and even looking at personal webpages. I am certain students will find overwhelming amounts of evidence to contradict stereotypes that will also increase their own detailed knowledge of cultures and enhance rather imprecise generalizations they may hold to be true about any culture. I find that as you continue to look closer and closer at a culture, the more you realize that you actually understand very little about it.
ReplyDeleteCulture certainly needs to be incorporated in any language lesson. I don't know if there would even be a way to separate the two. Anyway, CALL technology has really opened up a lot of possibilities in regards to incorporating culture. But, like Jonathan mentioned, the difficulty lies in judging what is "normal" behavior and what isn't. For our purposes, I think it is best to show students different types of interactions in different circumstances. I was taught a lesson on invitations and the subtlety that sometimes accompanies those invitations, especially those related to someone of the opposite (or same) gender. In my lesson, I showed invitations from The Office(man-woman), Seinfeld (man-man), and Good Will Hunting (man-woman). The students had to observe each and take notice of the little fillers and "distancers" that we throw into invitations. Another possible activity could make use of voicethread or something like that. Put up a picture of a social situation and have students give an example of an appropriate comment or dialogue given the situation. Or, instead of a picture, you could use a video and they could comment on the possible overarching situations given the dialogue. The possibilities seem to be endless. However, the issue of who can judge what is what is not resolved.
ReplyDeleteDubreil states that the relationship between teachers, learners, and technology is a “dynamic equilibrium”, and that because they all evolve, we should “humanize” computers to make them useful for sociocultural interaction and collaboration. I think chatting with people from the target culture/language (through MSN or Skype, for instance) is a good example of “humanizing” computers.
ReplyDeleteWhen students are learning how to order things in restaurants, they should also be taught they are supposed to tip the servers. Virtually interviewing people or doing research about this topic ( How much to tip? When? Why?) could be an interesting task.
Dubreil stated, "If language is envisioned as a social practice, however, it always carries the meanings and values of a community, a social group, or culture, and, as such, language always refers to something beyond itself: the cultural context." This quote (especially the last part) stuck out to me and made me think of my discourse class. As we were analyzing the linguistic components I became so frustrated because it meant nothing without the context and understanding the cultural influence (which I admit comes later in the process). It is essential that culture is taught in correlation with language.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Call is a useful tool for intercultural competence and teaching pragmatics. It provides us (teachers) with a wealth of input to share with our students. However, I agree with Jonathan and Nathan, is it providing authentic samples of real behavior? Is there anything on youtube thats not sensationalized and exaggerated. Even documentaries, which are supposed to be realistic, are skewed and biased. Therefore its our job as teachers to guide the students to negotiate the meaning between what is realistic and true to the target culture and what is skewed. This can be done through class discussions, wikis, observations, and so on. With all media, we must condition and our students to be critical of it.
Culture through CALL is probably the most interesting CALL topic for me.
ReplyDelete1. CALL provides so many opportunities for communication as well as input from CALL resources that will allow exposure to culture and language at the same time.
- via email/blog/chat/voicethread one can communicate with other of the target language one is learning and be exposed to ways of expression that will not be in a textbook
- via video and audio one can be exposed to the big C"" and the little "c", maybe even both, depending on what the video is about. one can also be exposed to expressions and uses of intonations and body language that will not be taught in the classroom or through a textbook
I want to mention Dubreil's section 4.2: The Role of the Learner. It is important for instructors to have a defined role for themselves as well as their students. Having a breakdown such as the one Dubreil proposes facilitates task creating in that instructors can target specific needs depending on the role they want their students to take. The teaching resources can be alloted accordingly depending on which role is being developed, with the student ultimately developing all roles.
I think that out of all the articles I have read for this class, the Dubreil article is one that I agree completely with. First, I like the statement that says: "If culture mediates all of human experience, learning a foreign culture is also learning one's own culture". Because I am teaching Spanish this hits exactly to what I have as the goal for my student's overall language experience. I hope that students experience the Spanish-speaking cultures as they are relevant to their own communities here in Chicago.
ReplyDeleteSuch a goal is so practical to accomplish. "Authentic texts are an excellent medium to teach culture" (Ommaggio Hadley). I could not have agreed more, and more importantly these materials are available through CALL tools and programs.
The section in which they talk about research being done with students who watch videos reminded me how a language classroom should have relevant topics. These studies found that students are able to recognize cultural content in videos (commercials), and this is because of the visual component. A second component that I think it equally crucial to this finding is that students actually tend to prefer watching authentic material.
I was thinking of incorporating videos that convey a picture of how a target culture is. For example in my website I use a video about a Costa Rican school. I hope that the video not only serves input, but also opens new points of views and possibilities to my students.
Going back to my initial claim, students learn about their own culture. I plan to have my students read or research on the web news or information about events in Chicago (in the target language). I know that they will find that their culture here in Chicago is just as rich as the SPanish in Spain. Our culture is a myriad of multiple languages, stories, and communities that share a common territory.
It's easy to take culture for granted when teaching a language, though (and perhaps because) the two are inextricable. As Dubreil notes, it is important that we are aware of our own culture when teaching. Language is so much more than vocabulary and grammatical structures, and any teacher of language needs to understand culture in order to convey it to students. However, as Dubreil also states, culture is dynamic and should be treated as such rather than as a static body of knowledge to be transmitted.
ReplyDeleteCulture, therefore, is best taught through experience, and CALL applications provide for a great deal of authentic cultural experiences. Primary among them is CMC, which allows students to connect with others in the "target culture" and provides authentic input. Audio and video applications, including radio and television programs and newscasts, etc. can also be rich resources.