Teaching Culture in an EFL SettingChallenges and (Possible) Paths to
SuccessLaurence Raw
Language Teaching
Language teaching with a “culture” garnish
“It is possible that learners can
feel alienation in the process of
learning
a foreign language, alienation
from people in their home
culture, the target culture,
and from themselves”
Turkish Teacher of English Language, 2007
Ideology
Educator Reluctance
Learner Nervousness
Obstacles to Developing Inter- or Cross-Cultural Awareness
Acquiring Inter- or Cross-Cultural Competence
A tripartite model of acquiring intercultural competence
INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE COMPRISES …
JEROME BRUNER (1915 --)
DISCOVERY LEARNING
A learning situation in which the principal content of what is to be learned is not given but must be independently discovered by the learner.
We use story as a form of telling about what happens in our life and in our own lives …. Not only are stories products of language … but telling stories … becomes intertwined with, even at times constitutive of, cultural life (Bruner 2002)
Cross-Cultural Awareness = Discovering the ‘stories’ that individuals and/or their communities use to make sense of their lives
Discover, recognize and negotiate difference
COMMUNITY OF
PURPOSE
Its scope is flexible yet clearly defined
Discover and reflect on your own stories as a basis for discovering others’ stories
Everyone – learners and educators – are involved in creating and sustaining that community
Educators and learners should understand how to sustain that community through feedback and discussion of future needs
Flexible Competencies and standards negotiated by individual communities
NEGOTIATE BINARIES
