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CULTURAL TRAINING IN THE L2 CLASSROOM
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, 2013
Table of Contents
1.Introduction22.Cultural Training in the Curriculum: The
Objectives and the Actual Situation42.1Another Dimension in
Language Education42.2The objectives52.3 The actual situation62.4
Are private schools more successful in incorporating cultural
training?73.Time Management for Successfully Implementing Cultural
Training in the L2 Classroom93.1Making the Lesson Plan93.2 Course
books103.3 INSERTING cultural
content114.Conclusion165.References176. Appendix19
1. Introduction
Tell me and I forget, teach me and I might learn, involve me and
I will know.-Benjamin Franklin
One of the best ways to involve students in the process of
learning a foreign language is to teach them something about the
target culture. Learners of foreign languages usually do not have
the opportunity to acquire the target culture by being directly
exposed to it. Therefore, bringing the target culture in the
classroom is essential for their progress. A small scale research
was initiated by the hypothesis that from all the skills taught in
the EFL classroom in public schools, cultural training is by far
the most neglected one. This paper will deal with the importance of
incorporating cultural training in language education in public
schools despite the limited amount of time that teachers have. The
research was conducted between March and May, 2013 and it is based
on observation of 15 English classes in several public and private
language schools, the content of the course books used during
classes, the program prescribed by the Ministry of Education and
interviews with teachers of different age and with different
experience. The observations were made in OOU Krste Petkov
Misirkov, Gevgelija; SOU Josif Josifovski, Gevgelija; Petta
Privatna Gimnazija, Skopje; Language and Computer Center Arka-Mk
and Center for Language Education Simbol, Gevgelija. The interviews
were conducted with the teachers whose classes were observed and
their colleagues from the same schools. In addition, there were
questionnaires distributed to teachers from other schools: Center
for Language Education Bronco, Skopje, Private Language School
Piccadilly, Kriva Palanka; Private Language School Next Level,
Kavadarci. The interviews and the questionnaires consisted of the
same questions. In total, 20 teachers were interviewed/answered the
questions from the questionnaire. (See appendix, p. 20)
Seven teachers taught in private schools only, 10 taught in
public schools only and 3 of them had experience in both public and
private schools at present or at some point in their career. Among
the interviewees and those who answered the questionnaires (20
people), 7 teachers were aged 22-30, 8 were aged 31-40, 4 were aged
41-50 and there was only one teacher older than 50.
The collected data was analyzed and compared in terms of private
vs. public schools, the choice of books, classroom equipment and
teachers attitude towards the subject and their ways of dealing
with cultural training. The conclusion which followed was that
almost all of the teachers are familiar with the concept of
cultural training and the benefits that come along with it, but
very few of them teach culture explicitly, mostly because of lack
of time or classroom conditions and in some instances because of
lack of competence. Additionally I tried to explore some possible
ways of making culture a more prominent component in language
learning.
Curriculum is a means, not and end: If the aim is to engage with
particular students in productive activities that are personally as
well as socially significant, covering the curriculum should not be
thought of as the ultimate goal of education. Instead, the
specifies knowledge and skills that make up the prescribed
curriculum should be seen as items in the cultural tool-kit which
are to be used as means in carrying out activities of personal and
social significance.- Gordon Wells
2. Cultural Training in the Curriculum: The Objectives and the
Actual Situation
2.1 Another Dimension in Language Education
Language learning is a long, complicated process which involves
the learning of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and pragmatics
intertwined in the learning of the four skills: reading, speaking,
listening and writing. Nowadays, more and more scholars refer to
culture as the fifth skill in language learning. Despite this,
teachers often neglect the importance of cultural training on the
pretext that there is never enough time for this. We regularly come
across this complaint, but fortunately teachers are beginning to
realize that without the cultural aspect of language, language
teaching itself cannot bring about the intended results, and
students do not fully understand the language in context. Bringing
the culture into the L2 classroom is indeed a challenge. But the
need for having this kind of combined language and culture
education is based on an ever-expanding list of reasons.The idea
that learning about the target culture helps students to be more
successful in learning the language permeates in this paper, but it
is worth mentioning that there is more to the fifth skill than
language learning. Cultural training opens students minds to the
possibilities of encountering difficulties in the communication
with people from other cultural backgrounds.English has undeniably
taken the role of LINGUA FRANCA of today. It is the language that
helps us connect with the rest of the world. Having cultural
training as part of language learning teaches students something
about the target culture, or better said- something about another
culture. Making students realize the vast differences between two
cultures will also spread a subliminal message about the existence
of differences between the cultures in the world in general.Barry
Tomalin is a specialist in intercultural communication and in an
article which he wrote for the Teaching English Community he said:
What the fifth language skill teaches you is the mindset and
techniques to adapt your use of English to learn about, understand
and appreciate the values, ways of doing things and unique
qualities of other cultures. It involves understanding how to use
language to accept difference, to be flexible and tolerant of ways
of doing things which might be different to yours. It is an
attitudinal change that is expressed through the use of language.
Thus, gaining cultural skills could largely contribute to gaining
intercultural competence.Globalization changed the way we
communicate. Today, English is the language that connects us with
the rest of the world and intercultural competence is the only
thing which guides us in this new way of communicating. As a
result, the combination of learning English together with cultural
training has become nothing less important than the learning of any
other life skill.
2.2 The objectives
There are number of reasons because of which cultural training
is an essential part of language education. In order to use the
language for its intended purpose, students need to achieve
lingo-cultural competence. For that reason, teachers must devote
time for cultural training and engage students into exploring the
target culture. A proficient speaker of any language is not s/he
who can only construct grammatically correct sentences. A
proficient speaker is pragmatically precise in communication and
uses the language in a way that reflects the culture of the native
speakers. Language consists of many other elements apart from the
grammar rules and vocabulary. All languages are shaped by the
culture of the speakers, by their history and contemporary ways of
living, their values, their belief system and other more or less
visible segments of culture. Unless the learner is made aware of
all this, s/he will never be close to proficiency and there will
always be a possibility for misunderstanding because it is language
in its cultural context that creates meaning: creating and
interpreting meaning is done within a cultural framework.( Scarino
& Liddicoat, 2009). Scarino and Liddicoat further on
differentiate between the two ideas of language viewed as a social
code vs, language viewed as a social practice and they point out
that in developing a professional stance to language teaching, it
is important to consider how language as code and language as
social practice are balanced in the curriculum.
Pic. 1: , The program of the Ministry of Education clearly
states that learning about the target culture is inevitable.
Culture is part of 8 components of the curriculum, the other 7
being: listening, speaking, writing, reading, grammar, vocabulary
and communication. Achieving good results requires holistic
approach to teaching. While this looks good on paper, the question
remains: -How applicable is it in reality?
2.3 The actual situation
The objectives do not reflect what really happens during English
classes. The need of combined language and culture education has
been widely recognized by both private and public schools, although
this alone is not enough. Every teacher will admit that cultural
training is beneficial, but very few will answer affirmatively when
asked if they can successfully implement this idea into practice.
The following charts show how teachers answered some of the
questions in the questionnaire (see appendix, p. 18).
Teachers with more experience show more enthusiasm. All the
teachers who claim to teach culture have at least 10 years of
experience. All of them are aged above 31. During the observations
it was seen that more experienced teachers tend to pay attention to
things like sharing travel experiences from the countries of the
target culture, talking about famous people, mentioning holiday
traditions and even inserting popular quotes and proverbs during
discussions.However, a more structured way of teaching culture is
almost never present in the EFL classroom, regardless of the age or
the experience of the teachers. Within classes of 40 minutes,
cultural training cannot be inserted as a single activity unless
the students have advanced knowledge or if the teacher has a method
which is highly effective. In that case the prescribed program is
quickly covered, and dedicating time to cultural training as an
activity on its own is very possible. This is the case only with
experienced teachers who feel more comfortable in their role of a
teacher, have a lot of knowledge of the culture and plan their
lesson in details. But most of the time, teachers are racing
against time to go over the units of the course books and assign
classes for revision and tests. With a fixed program, teachers
usually care little about expanding the syllabus or combining the
course books with some extra materials. As shown in the figures
above, only 6 of 20 answered that they add cultural content to
their lessons. So, with an obvious necessity of cultural training
in the classroom, why do teachers tend to minimize this part of
language teaching? All of the nine teachers who answered that they
sometimes skip the pages with cultural information in their books
stated lack of time as one of their reasons. Ten teachers who
claimed that they do not expand the syllabus to teach about the
target culture also stated lack of time as their main reason. Lack
of time is undeniably teachers greatest concern and there is very
little they can do to make their jobs easier.
2.4 Are private schools more successful in incorporating
cultural training?
Private schools seem to have been more successful in
transmitting the cultural traits of the target culture through
language education. Considering this, one could ask why teachers in
public schools would simply not adopt approaches from private
language schools.Private language schools pay more attention to
cultural training, but time (even though it could be) is almost
never a problem here. Public schools cannot adopt the same way of
language teaching. Private schools are more successful in cultural
training and the main reason is time management and freedom in
designing the syllabus.Teachers who work in private language
schools find it easier to make an estimation of how much time can
be dedicated to cultural training. It can be said that this is due
to the duration of classes which are usually 20 minutes longer than
English classes in public schools which last 40 minutes. During the
extra time, teachers can play games, play videos, make
presentations, play music and discuss different topics like movies,
literature and travelling in the countries of the target language.
But if we calculate the total amount of time for English classes
per week in private and public schools it appears that teachers in
public schools are those who have 20 minutes more, considering that
students in public schools have English classes three times a week,
which is one additional class compared to the private schools where
courses usually consist of two classes per week. Then why does it
seem that teachers in private schools have more time to do cultural
training activities?According to the teachers who work both in
private and public schools there is a clear distinction between
these two. First of all, teachers in private schools are more
flexible with the syllabus, or in other words, they can create the
syllabus according to the students needs. Secondly, they have
classrooms which are only used for language learning and these
classrooms are usually better equipped. Finally, if students show
interest, teachers could organize visits to the country of the
target language and culture at the end of the courses.At any rate,
it would be a false conclusion to say that teachers in public
schools do not care about teaching culture. Trying to compare
language learning in private and public schools is impossible since
they are two processes which take place in different sets of
conditions. A solution to the problem must be found elsewhere, not
in trying to make English classes in private and public schools
more similar.
3. Time Management for Successfully Implementing Cultural
Training in the L2 Classroom
According to the 10/90 Rule, the 10% of time that you take to
plan your activities in advance will save you 90% of the effort
involved in achieving your goals later. The very act of thinking
through and planning your work in advance will dramatically reduce
the amount of time that it takes you to do the actual job.-Bryan
Tracy3.1 Making the Lesson Plan
The general opinion of the teachers-participants in the research
is that cultural training is of great importance, but in order to
be more prevalent in the syllabus, it must be structured and well
thought of.
(See appendix, p.19)
Time is limited, the syllabus is extensive and the simple
calculations tell teachers that their primary concern should be
covering the material. Despite being aware of the need for cultural
training in the L2 classroom, teachers in public schools often
leave out cultural content due to lack of time. Teachers have their
tight schedule and seem to be pressed for time and. Most often time
is too short to even cover the basic lessons in the textbooks and
adding extra material is virtually impossible during English
classes.Pre-planning of lessons and thinking about which teaching
aids to use will certainly take some extra time, but it will not
take any of the time in the classroom. A well-planned lesson is the
one which is created beforehand, especially when it comes to
culture, which is a broad subject. According to Alex Case, an ELT
scholar and an editor of a teacher-advising blog called TEFLastic,
any lesson including culture should be designed with a great deal
of consideration. Among many other things, cultural training should
fit in the syllabus, have a clear language focus, a lot of Student
Talk Time and be practical.English teachers who work in public
schools say that their tight schedule does not always allow them to
spend time exclusively on teaching culture, so at the end of the
day, it all usually comes down to teachers enthusiasm and how
wisely they choose the course books. Teachers who understand the
importance of wider-than-grammar language education choose books
which combine grammar exercises with everyday language, pragmatics
and culture and put some additional effort into inserting cultural
content in the lessons.
3.2 Course booksThe observations have shown that while depending
almost completely on the course books which they have chosen,
teachers will only cover the cultural information which is given in
the book. During the observations, situations were noted where
teachers even skip this part of the lesson or briefly mention it
giving the impression that it is not important.
Pic.2: Excerpts from Dream Team 2, Blockbuster 2, Messages 1-
Approved English course books for primary schoolsBy carefully
choosing the course books, teachers will not have to think too much
about tying the syllabus with other materials all the time. The
more content the book provides the bigger the chances are that
students will learn at least something about the culture.The most
commonly used books in primary schools are: Welcome by Elizabeth
Gray and Virginia Evans (Express Publishing); Blockbuster (by the
same authors and publisher); Dream Team by Norman Whitney and David
Mckeegan (Oxford University Press), Messages by Diana Goodey and
Noel Goodey (Cambridge University Press).In high schools, teachers
usually choose New Headway by Liz and Joan Soars (Oxford University
Press) and New Opportunities by Michael Harris et al (Pearson and
Longman).
Pic.3: Excerpts from New Headway Intermediate and New
Opportunities Intermediate- Approved English Course books for high
schoolThe Ministry of Education has also approved other sets of
books which are in accordance with the program. Considering that
there are so many books to choose from, how can teachers select the
ones which best suit the needs of the students? There are number of
things that need to be thought over: the amount and level of
grammar, new vocabulary, reading, and writing, and of course what
is the concern of this research- culture. All of the course books
include culture, but the organization and representation of the
information is different in every book.Cultural content is kept to
the minimum in the books intended for primary schools, especially
in the lower grades. This is expected, bearing in mind that the
focus with beginners is acquisition of vocabulary. But the higher
the level, the more cultural information we see. Dream Team 2, has
around 20 lessons which include culture, Blockbuster 2 has around
17 and Messages 1 around 15. Welcome 2 has barely 5.Between New
Headway and New Opportunities the main distinction is on the level
of organization. The New Headway is a book which has many short
texts and notions of the target culture (mainly information about
the life in the UK) throughout the whole book. In addition to the
scattered texts on history, pop-culture, geography and famous
people, the authors of New Opportunities have devoted special
sections for culture which gives more focused and clear material
for lessons. Also, New Opportunities has around 25 pages of lessons
on culture, while New Headway around 15.Clearly, the number of
pages devoted to culture is not the only concern of the teachers.
As mentioned previously, all the activities should be balanced.
Having a book with broad lessons on culture and no grammar at all,
will not serve any purpose and vice versa- books with mechanical
exercises will be boring and cause students to be ignorant of a
great deal of what should be learning a foreign language.
3.3 INSERTING cultural content
Making a good lesson plan does not only mean following the
teachers book. With just a little extra effort, teachers could
place in so much more into a lesson. This extra effort will bring
about extra knowledge for the students, the kind of knowledge that
will make them competent in using English in a real context. That
is why every teacher should strive towards making his/her students
familiar with the culture.Among number of topics tackled by Alex
Case, there are few articles on incorporating cultural training
into language education.In one of his articles he wrote that there
are many good reasons for bringing the topics of cultural training
such as body language differences and politeness universals into
EFL classes, including improving international communication skills
and providing students with an interesting topic. It is also almost
impossible to do functional language such as apologizing or
requests properly without mentioning cultural similarities and
differences.Furthermore, he states a few concerns which prevent
teachers to teach culture during language lessons. The first
concern is the actual effect of cultural training or to be more
precise, the concern that cultural training has no effect at all.
The other two are connected with the lack of time: the difficulty
to tie cultural training with the syllabus and the possibility that
cultural training could take so much time that it will turn the
class into communicating about communication.Still, the only way
for teachers to deal with the lack of time is to incorporate
cultural information in the regular activities during English
classes i.e. to tie the cultural training with the syllable. This
will make grammar exercises and the practice of the four skills
more enjoyable and purposeful.There are very few teachers who
actually undertake redesigning, modifying or enriching the
syllabus. he results of the questionnaires show that only 6 of the
20 teachers interviewed bring additional materials to teach culture
in class. Most of the teachers question whether the extra effort
pays off while the real question is whether the teachers are really
willing or competent to invest themselves into this. For those who
are willing time is not a problem. The following chart shows which
activities the participants have used to teach culture.
What has been done in class during the observations?Identically
to the results from the questionnaires, it was seldom seen during
the observations that teachers combine the course book material
with cultural information provided by themselves. These are some of
the rare situations where the teachers taught some content other
than the content from the book. They are put in a particular order
starting from the most to the less structured ones.
A lesson completely designed by the teacher:
Three days before Easter, the teacher devoted a whole class to
this holiday.First, students shared what they knew about the
celebration of Easter. Together with the teacher, they wrote one
sentence on the board which best described the holiday. Then,
working in pairs and using the Internet, they had to answer several
questions which were written on the board. In this activity they
learnt some new words like: crucifixion, fasting, orthodox, etc.
They also learnt the differences between Christian churches in
different parts of the world. Once they compared their answers, the
students had to write a short text, based on the new pieces of
information they learnt.This was a lesson completely designed by
the teacher.(7th grade, primary school; class observed on
02.05.2013)
Linking grammar and culture:The students were covering the
culture section in their course books. During the lesson they got
acquainted with some of Londons most popular landmarks through
pictures and texts. They enjoyed the lesson, so the teacher used
their interest to engage them into a very interactive exercise.
They were supposed to plan a trip to London. The teacher helped
them by sharing her experiences from her visits to the UK. Students
practiced posing questions and learnt about the most popular places
in LondonHow much does the plane ticket cost?Where are we going to
stay?They also practiced using different tenses for expressing
future actions and possibility:Well be staying in a youth hostel.
We are going to visit the London Eye.It might rain. We could also
visit Oxford.(6th grade students; class observed on 29.03.2013)
Learning about the pop-culture with visual aids:The primary
school had a separate classroom for English classes. The teacher
had used this advantage to assign projects in which students had
chosen topics from contemporary history or pop-culture and made
posters which were hung on the wall.(5-8th grade; observation made
on 02.05.2013)
Expanding the lesson from the book by adding extra
information.Paying attention to culture-specific terms:In a lesson
about modal verbs used for giving advice, the teacher talked about
the magazine section in which a doctor, psychologist or any other
competent person answers to readers problems.The teacher asked the
students if they knew how this person is called. Students did not
know, so the teacher played the Hangman with the students until
they discovered the meaning themselves. The answer was:A G O N Y A
U N T.The students then had to think about why this person was
called like that and think of the Macedonian word for the same
person (if there is one).(2nd year high school students; class
observed on 22.03.2013)
Proverbs:One student arrived late. He apologized and the teacher
accepted his apology. The teacher asked his students if they
remembered a proverb about being late. Students answered in one
voice: Better late than never.(7th grade students, pre-intermediate
level in a private school; class observed 30.04.2013)
First-hand experienceTeachers tend to share their experience
from visits to the countries of the target culture. In instances
where they come across a topic in the course book with which they
are familiar, they take their time to explain and exemplify and
hopefully, to insert a little positive distraction, engage the
students and encourage them to consider travelling themselves.
What else can be done?Teachers seem to use the Internet for
teaching, but they forget about one very traditional source of
knowledge, i.e. literature. Teachers could assign book projects on
which students would work at home and in that way get acquainted
with the literature which by all means reflects the target culture.
Homework is a useful way to make students explore and make papers,
movies assignments, presentations, etc. These activities are useful
and do not necessarily have to consume time intended for teaching.
And last but not least, non-verbal behavior is completely left out
by both teachers in private and public schools and this leaves the
students unaware of this less obvious, but equally important factor
in communication.
Communication is culture, culture is communication. -Edward T.
Hall
4. Conclusion
Since this is a small scale research the conclusion cannot be of
any specific nature. The purpose of the paper is for that reason
not to draw conclusions, but to pinpoint some parts of language
teaching practice which can be used in a more effective way and to
emphasize the need for conducting a large scale research which will
additionally explore the issue and help teachers improve their
work. So far, it is clear that cultural training is becoming a part
of the language learning curriculum, although it has not been
completely made a part of the L2 classroom due to the complexity of
presenting cultural content, lack of time or lack of
competence.Cultural training requires a lot of preparations, time
and experience which teachers do not always have. But overcoming
these obstacles to merge culture with language is worth the effort
since in a classroom where language learning is synchronized with
cultural training, students are more likely to enjoy the
activities, successfully acquire the language skills and become
aware of cultural diversity. By carefully planning the lessons and
choosing effective teaching aids, teachers enhance the syllabus and
give the students so much more than plain language courses.
Language and culture are so closely related that they affect each
other to the point where it is impossible to imagine one without
the other. Language is system of symbols and culture is symbolic.
They are connected because culture is impossible without
communication and language is the perfect form of communication.
Surely, learning the language can be futile without instructions
about the context in which that language was created. If no formal
instruction is provided, it is said to generally take at least 10
years in a second-language context (as opposed to foreign-language
context) to be able to use the language in a pragmatically
native-like manner (Ishihara and Cohen, 2010). If the purpose of
learning a foreign language is to prepare learners to communicate
in a given language, providing cultural training together with the
traditional language lessons is essential. The amount of diverse
competence that students gain is much greater than the amount of
effort teachers need to put in to organize the classes.
5. References
Wells, Gordon. "DIALOGIC INQUIRY IN EDUCATION: BUILDING ON THE
LEGACY OF VYGOTSKY."Vygotskian Perspectives on Literacy Research:
Constructing Meaning through Collaborative Inquiry. Cambridge:
Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 2000. 51-85.
Print.
Scarino, Angela and Anthony J. Liddicoat "2 Language, Culture
and Learning."Teaching and Learning Languages: A Guide.
Banksmeadow: GEON Impact Printing Pty, 2009. 15-33. Print.
Hall, Edward T.The Silent Language. New York: Anchor, 1956.
Print.
Ishihara, Noriko, and Andrew D. Cohen. "Learners' Pragmatics:
Potential Causes of Divergence."Teaching and Learning Pragmatics:
Where Language and Culture Meet. Harlow: Longman, 2010. 75-96.
Print.
Whitney, Norman.Dream Team 2, Student's Book. Oxford: Oxford UP,
2002. Print.Evans Virginia and Elizabeth Gray.Welcome 3: Pupil's
Book. Newbury: Express UK, 2001. Print.
Evans, Virginia and Jenny Dooley.Blockbuster 2. Newbury: Express
UK, 2005. Print.Soars, Liz and John Soars.New Headway Intermediate.
3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003. Print.
Szmerdt, Dominika and Monika Galbarczyk. New Opportunities
Intermediate. Harlow: Longman, 2006. Print. Soars, Liz, and John
Soars.New Headway Intermediate. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003.
Print. Whitney, Norman.Dream Team 2, Student's Book. Oxford: Oxford
UP, 2002. Print.
Web sources:
Tomalin, Barry. "Culture - the Fifth Language Skill."Teaching
English. British Council, 29 Sept. 2008. Web. . Case, Alex.
"Linking Cultural Training and Grammar." Weblog
post.Http://tefltastic.wordpress.com/. Alex Case, Apr. 2012. Web.
.
Tracy, Brian. "Four Rules of Time." Weblog
post.Http://www.briantracy.com/. Brian Tracy International, 03
Sept. 2012. Web. .
Macedonia. Ministerstvo za obrazovanie i nauka. Biro Za Razvoj
Na Obrazovanie.Nastavni Programi. By Zora Busovska,, Ekaterina
Babamova, Stefanka Cekik, and Efimija Naumoska,. Biro za razvoj na
obrazovanie, Nov. 2003. Web. .
6. Appendix
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