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Teacher Role in Culture Teaching for Foreign Language Instruction
Xu Wenyu
Abstract: Although more and more language teachers have become aware of the importance of culture teaching in foreign language instruction, the result is far from satisfactory. This article aims to point out that teachers¡¯ perspectives on culture teaching has a great influence on their teaching practice as well as on the shaping of students¡¯ perspectives on the role of culture learning in language study, and ultimately, on their acquisition of communication competence. In view of this, suggestions are made regarding the improvement of culture teaching in foreign language instruction.
Key words: teacher role, culture teaching, foreign language instruction. ... Teachers¡¯ Perspectives on Culture Teaching
According to a large-scale investigation of the perceptions held by teachers, students and parents regarding the socio-cultural goals of foreign language study, there is a remarkable agreement among the three groups that language study is first and foremost for understanding the people, general enjoyment and language enrichment. Their common explanation concerning the socio-cultural benefit is that it can give one the key to another culture, will lead to an awareness, understanding and sensitivity toward other people and their ways of life.
In another survey of foreign language teachers, supervisors and consultants, researchers have found that culture learning ranked only eighth among the respondents¡¯ top ten priorities. Testing, promoting interest in foreign language, language learning theory, and developing the oral proficiency all ranked higher. While this listing of priorities could be attributed in part to the preoccupation with proficiency, it also indicates the vagueness of the notion of teaching for cultural understanding.
In view of such results regarding the lower priority status of culture learning among teachers, it¡¯s not surprising to find the disparity between what students demand and what teachers supply. ... Teachers¡¯ Perspectives on Culture Teaching and Their Instructional Practice
There is important evidence to suggest that teachers¡¯ perspectives of subject matter influence their teaching practice. An individual teacher¡¯s beliefs strongly correlate with his behavior, particularly with regard to choices and decisions about instructional practice.
There is no doubt that teachers respond quite differently to the conflicts associated with the teaching and learning of culture. The first approach is to minimize the threat by avoiding culture and by holding to the traditional values of classroom behavior. ... In the third approach, teachers vacillate between the alternative cultural systems by unsystematically integrating various parts of them into classroom teaching. ... Which response the teachers adopt will depend greatly on their attitudes towards the target culture and perspectives on the teaching of culture in foreign language instruction.
Meanwhile, there are still some deeply rooted beliefs as to the nature of language learning and teaching that determine methodology as well as the content of the foreign language curriculum which may have a negative impact on the teaching of culture.
One of the misconceptions that have permeated foreign language teaching is the conviction that language is merely a code and, once mastered, mainly by means of drowning oneself in grammatical rules and some aspects of the social context in which it is embedded, ¡®one language is essentially translatable into another¡¯ (Kramsch, 1993: 1). To a certain extent, this belief has been contributing to promoting various approaches to foreign language teaching, which have certainly tinged the study of language with a social hue. Nevertheless, talking about the social dynamics without trying to gain insights into the very fabric of society and culture that are the indispensable and inexhaustible source of language can only cause misunderstanding and lead to cross-cultural miscommunication. ... , 1991) have found that linguistic analysis and practice dominate instruction, that teachers carefully distinguish between linguistic practice and cultural aspects, and that methodological approach seems to have a causal relationship with teachers¡¯ beliefs. Language teachers who hold that culture is the daily life of people will begin class by asking their students about current events and frequently provide cultural anecdotes based on their own experiences.
Approximate Word count = 3225
Approximate Pages = 12.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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