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Cultural understanding in language teaching - where now?Ass. Professor, MA in Linguistics and French Department of Languages and Culture, Roskilde University |
The past 25 years have been a period of growth for the content side of language teaching - also when it comes to what the area is actually called: cultural mediation, cultural knowledge, the cultural dimension, cultural and social conditions, or - as here - cultural understanding.
Cultural understanding has been a programme, a vision, a chance of defining a new role for language teachers. The individual teacher has enjoyed great freedom to cooperate with the pupils in choosing themes and activities that, in terms of content, were motivating and highly interesting - and which comprised both fictional and factual texts.
In Denmark, as in many European and North American countries, there has been a considerable debate about the cultural aspect of language subjects - a debate that, at one and the same time, has been a criticism of the one-sided literary tradition of language subjects, especially in upper secondary and higher education, and generated a host of ideas within various parts of the education system, including second and foreign language teaching, as to what cultural mediation can also consist of, cf. i.a. Risager 1988, Byram and Morgan 1994, Buttjes and Byram 1990, Kramsch 1993, and Risager 1994.
Now, however, the time has arrived when the social significance of this international cultural understanding is becoming more apparent. This requires buyers and planners to specify more closely what cultural understanding is really all about, what its aims, content and special methodology are - in other words, to make cultural understanding something which places teachers and pupils under a greater obligation. One could also say that cultural understanding is in the process of changing status, from being a means (to a better understanding of texts - or communication skills) to becoming an independent end in itself, with its own justification. It is perhaps worth noting that working with literature in this context is perceived as an integrated part of the development of cultural understanding, both when it comes to reading for pleasure or for aesthetic reasons and reading for the sake of enlightenment (literature as mirroring culture).
It is possible to trace a change in curriculum requirements, from their dealing with the necessity of studying cultural and social conditions to their dealing with what one is to study, possibly supplemented by regulations as to how the acquisition of this material is to be assessed.
This inevitably raises the question as to what it is most important to mediate within the cultural dimension - in its new, broad interpretation. Or what pupils ought to know as a basic minimum. And this in turn means that language subjects have acquired a political agenda. It is impossible to discuss these matters without adopting a stance as regards general educational issues, such as: To what extent are pupils to have a knowledge of the historical basis for cultural and social conditions today? How important is it that pupils gain personal experience of the foreign culture, e.g. through travel? How important is it that education reduces intolerance and racism? Are we to teach pupils to be autonomous, seeking to develop their own cultural understanding? What does critical cultural understanding mean?
One of the results of the last 25 years' discussion of the cultural dimension is that there is broad agreement that the cultural dimension has three aspects: knowledge, attitudes and behaviour:
Knowledge is an umbrella term for knowledge of, or insight into, cultural and social conditions, primarily in the country or countries whose language(s) one is studying (also referred to as the target countries), but secondarily in the pupils' own country of origin. In this connection one can imagine a spectrum that stretches from fairly isolated facts (Where does St. Petersburg lie? What are the names of the British coins? When did Goethe live?) to knowledge that involves a deeper insight into causal relationships (Why is agriculture important in Denmark? Why do people often go on strike in France?). This often includes comparisons (What are the differences between Danish and Japanese corporate culture - why do these differences exist?). Knowledge may also involve a more general knowledge of one's surroundings, one not linked to any particular national culture (Why do people move or flee to our part of the world?). An important point in connection with the knowledge aspect is that it depends on perspective, on the eyes that do the seeing.
Attitudes are an umbrella term for feelings and attitudes towards people and conditions in the target country and in one's own country of origin, including awareness of others' and one's own identity. This includes working with values, ethics and morals (What do Catholic values mean for everyday life in Spain? Are Hans Christian Andersen's tales the expression of Danish values?), prejudices and stereotypes (Are Scots particularly thrifty? How are Danes perceived by its various minorities?), and further development of the ability to have sympathetic insight into the situation of other people. This quality is also referred to as empathy. Working with attitudes, ethics, etc. can involve interdisciplinary topics that are expressed in different ways in different countries, e.g. human rights, AIDS, environmental issues. Attitudes can also involve working with the psychological and social problems that are connected with cultural shock.
Behaviour is an umbrella term for knowledge of the cultural rules and conventions that apply in the environment in which one finds oneself as well as the ability to follow such rules oneself. It may involve social conventions in daily communication, clothing, eating, the relationship between the two sexes, etc. Here one could imagine a spectrum stretching from rules of etiquette or good form to a more well-informed competence to function in a wide range of contexts. Here too there is often a contrastive element - it is often a question of what one may not do in the culture concerned, rather than what one may in one's own.
These three aspects are interdependent. Feelings and attitudes have, for example, links with the knowledge one has, and one's behaviour is partially determined by one's knowledge and ability to empathise. On the other hand, the behaviour one displays forms the basis for the development or one's knowledge and emotions.
Any discussion of what is most important regarding cultural understanding must assume that all three aspects are contained in it. But it is possible to vary the emphasis: if one emphasises the knowledge aspect, language subjects are mainly perceived as being content studies. If one emphasises the attitude aspect, language subjects are perceived as involving the formation of attitudes and character. It is also possible to emphasise the behavioural aspect, in which case language subjects are perceived as proficiency subjects with an added cultural aspect (cultural competence).
A number of proposals have been put forwards as to how it is possible to structure the aspect of cultural understanding that has to to with knowledge.
Michael Byram, for example, suggests the following subject areas, which together comprise a minimum content (the concept of progression has been excluded):
(Byram and Morgan 1994, p. 51f, my interpretation).
A somewhat similar categorisation is to be found in Risager 1989, which deals with an analysis of the socio-cultural content of school textbooks. It, like Byram, stresses the importance of working with many different social environments, placing a greater emphasis on social & political issues as well as international conditions.
One also sees attempts to structure the field in curricula, typically in theme areas - this applies to general adult education in Denmark, where four such areas are operated with: family, leisure, work and society (Ministry for Cultural Affairs 1990). Also in the National Curriculum, Modern Foreign Languages (England and Wales), where seven such categories are set up: everyday activities, personal and social life, the world around us, work, communications and technology, the international world, imagination and creativity (Depart of Education 1990).
These lists of important topic areas vary considerably, as can be seen from the above, and are an expression of differing views on society. An interesting characteristic of the official lists is that they place heavy emphasis on what Byram calls socialisation and life-cycle as well as everyday activities in the family, during leisure-time and at work.
The fundamental paradigm of language teaching is the idea that the object of teaching is the national language and national culture of the country concerned. But internationalisation and the softening-up of national borders is having a profound impact on this paradigm at present.
Some of the above lists of topic areas reflect this trend; others do not. Byram's proposal expressly deals with the national. Even though there will always be a national core in language teaching, it is, however, interesting to see how experiments are being carried on with topics at other levels than the national: local conditions, conditions in border regions and transborder cooperations, sub-cultural conditions that are linked to transnational processes, e.g. various youth cultures, migration (immigration and emigration) and the resulting cultural blends and clashes, conditions to do with the European dimension and global issues. At the same time, a new perception of language is emerging, in which language is not merely seen as a bearer of a particular national culture but also as a tool of international communication in widely differing environments. English has for a long time been seen as both a national language and a lingua franca, i.e. a language of communication used between people who do not have English as their mother tongue; this dual identity is also spreading to such languages as German, French, Russian, Spanish, etc. One does not refer to Danish as a lingua franca, but it is possible to say that in certain cases it is used as such by various ethnic minorities within Denmark when communicating with each other.
The question of importance becomes acute as soon as one begins to talk about assessment, exams and tests. What aspects of cultural understanding can and should actually be assessed, not to say tested, with quantitative values? When one looks at the proposals that exist concerning testing of the cultural dimension, they can be seen to deal mainly with testing knowledge - typically understood as national knowledge. But can one and should one actually test people's attitudes and feelings? And how can one test their cultural skills?
The main problem as regards the testing of knowledge is that it is easy to fall back on testing a knowledge of facts via multiple-choice tests. Testing a deeper insight into social and cultural relationships requires, however, a more discussion-type mode of testing, whether it be oral or written. Added to which, there is the question of whether the testing takes place in the native language or in the target language, i.e. the type of integration between the linguistic and the cultural. And, concerning the attitude aspect, it is difficult to envisage really appropriate tests, unless one focuses on the pupils' ability to adopt a stance towards and discuss their own and others' attitudes and feelings, their ability to reflect on and acquaint themselves with the perspectives of various people, i.e. their ability to empathise. Byram, in Byram and Morgen 1994, suggests precisely this, that the pupils' empathy should be tested.
Testing cultural skills inevitably becomes extremely limited if it is integrated into the written assignment or an examination conversation. This only results in the small part of cultural skills finding expression that are used in an subject-related piece of writing or discussion-type of conversation. Role play would perhaps be more suitable. But, as a supplement to testing pupils' actual demonstration of cultural skills, one can focus on pupils' knowledge of cultural behaviour in various environments and their ability to describe and possibly explain them.
Research and development into testing cultural understanding is only in its early stages, but it is sure to gain greater attention in the next few years. It is obvious that if the emphasis is laid on testing the knowledge aspect, this will have a backlash effect on teaching. This is all the more paradoxical, since at present there is a great interest in developing the attitude/feelings dimension and intercultural understanding in language teaching - as well as an interest in getting the various aspects of cultural understanding to cohere better.
The Achilles' heel of foreign language teaching has always been the distance to the foreign culture. To a certain extent, it has been possible to 'read up' a knowledge of the country, with feelings and attitude typically being mediated at a distance via, for example, the mass media - without being thematised to any particular degree. Cultural skills have been difficult to achieve at all.
This distance is reduced or completely disappears during stays abroad as part of (language) teaching. When one stays in the target country, one has in principle optimal opportunities to integrate knowledge, emotions and behaviour in one and the same acquisition process. One of the latest developments within cultural teaching focuses precisely on this integration, i.e. the ethnographic method, where pupils seek during field work to put themselves in the position of the ethnographer, observe and take part in cultural practice, process attitudes and develop appropriate behaviour, cf. i.a. Byram and Morgan 1994.
In second language teaching, e.g. Danish as a second language, one has in principle always been able to integrate the three aspects of cultural understanding: the pupils learn something about Denmark and the local cultural variety; they process certain attitudes; and they learn certain cultural skills - precisely because they are living in the target country. Here, too, an ethnographic method could be extremely productive.
As a combination of the two examples: the stay abroad and second language teaching, it should be mentioned that an obvious source of inspiration for foreign language teaching will, to an increasing extent, be second language teaching in the target country, e.g. English as a second language in UK, German as a second language in Germany, etc.
Experiences with field work in connection with language studies are sure to become more comprehensive and varied over the next few years and - who knows - these experiences will perhaps push the discussion in the direction of the development of forms of testing that take account of the more practice-oriented treatment of all three aspects of cultural understanding.
Buttjes, Dieter and Michael Byram (eds.) : Mediating Languages and Cultures. Towards an Intercultural Theory of Foreign Language Education. Clevedon, Multilingual Matters, 1991. 333 pp.
Byram, Michael, Carol Morgan et al.: Teaching and Learning Language and Culture. Clevedon, Multilingual Matters, 1994. 219 pp.
Department of Education and Science and the Welsh Office. Modern Foreign Languages for ages 11 to 16. London, 1990. 132 pp.
Kramsch, Claire: Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1993. 295 pp.
Danish Ministry for Cultural Affairs. Directorate for Popular Education, Free Basic Schooling, etc.: Teaching Guidelines for English, German and French, 1990. 67 pp.
Risager, Karen: Nye veje i kulturformidlingen i Vesteuropa og USA [New paths in cultural mediation in West Europe and USA]. in: Tværsproglige Blade, vol. 8, 1988, no. 1. pp. 5-36.
Risager, Karen: Kulturformidlingen i begynderbøger i fremmedsprog. Nyere tendenser [Cultural mediation in beginners' books in foreign languages. Recent tendencies]. in: ROLIG-papir 45, 1989, Roskilde University Center. pp. 19-34.
Risager, Karen: Forskning i den kulturelle dimension af fremmedsprogsundervisningen [Research into the cultural dimension of foreign language teaching]. in : Sprog og Kulturmøde 6, 1994. Aalborg Univrsity Centre. pp. 75-83.
Risager, Karen: Language teaching and the process of European integration. in: Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective. Ed. by Michael Byram and Michael Fleming. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 242-54.
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