How to deal with culture in English as an additional language classroom. Inteculturality. Intecultural activities in the classroom.

1. What does it mean to teach culture in the classroom?
Dilemmas and possibilities
Gloria Gil
UFSC
!
XX Convention
APIRS Greatest Hits:
English Teaching Then & Now

2. Discussing the intercultural approach to
English as an additional language from a
'practical' perspective
๏ First, I will briefly present the different meanings that culture has in
language teaching.
๏ Then, I will make a parallel between the communicative approach
and the intercultural approach, pointing out their main differences.
๏ After that, to illustrate interculturality, I will talk about the
characteristics of an intercultural communicator.
๏ Then, I will provide some examples of some intercultural tasks.
๏ Finally, I will show some of main problems and limitations that
teachers have to be 'intercultural' and offer some ways to overcome
these drawbacks.

3. Teacher’s dilemmas
What does teaching culture
in the classroom mean?
What comes to our mind? !
Food, customs, historical facts, geographical facts,
festivals, paintings, music, ways of saying goodbye,
values, ideologies.

4. Teacher’s dilemmas
How do I teach culture in
the classroom?
๏ By talking about the culture of the other?
๏ Do I feel safe or comfortable?
๏ Do I know enough?
๏ Is this appropriate?
๏ By talking about our own culture?
๏ How can I do this?

5. Teacher’s dilemmas
How can I deal with
stereotypes?
๏ Do I have stereotypes?
๏ What about students’ stereotypes?

6. What does it mean to
teach culture in the
classroom?
Very difficult to answer. !
Most empirical research show that teachers when
asked this question say that they do not teach
culture.

7. Different meanings
that culture has in
additional language
teaching

8. Culture as information
or a set of facts
๏ Culture as an object or set to facts to be learned about
“cultures”.
๏ Culture as information – About the other – About oneself.
๏ Usually brought by the course-books.
๏ Big C Culture vs. small c culture.
๏ Culture is separated from language.

9. Culture as pragmatic behaviour
๏ Culture is embedded in the pragmatic dimension of
language, that is, what we do with words.
๏ Culture as pragmatic behavior: ways of apologizing,
ways of initiating a conversation, turn-taking rules.
๏ Also it usually included in course-books.

10. Culture as language
๏ Some authors emphasize that by using and talking
about some linguistic aspects such idioms, slang,
metaphors, proverbs, we are dealing with culture as
language.
๏ These are examples of how communities have different
ways of inscribing realities.

11. Culture as pedagogy
Pedagogy = the way we teach:!
๏ teacher-centered, student-centered;
๏ using authentic materials, using contrived materials;
๏ fostering student-student interaction;
๏ being language structure-oriented or communication oriented
(or in between).

12. Culture as awareness
(attitudes) that:
๏ culture is a process;
๏ culture means dialogue and understanding;
๏ cultural issues can be seen from multiple perspectives
which lead to the complex understanding of difference
(Byram, 1997; Kramsch, 2005).

13. Culture as
classroom
interaction
Culture as
attitudes &
awareness
Culture as
pedagogy
Culture as
information
Culture as
language
Culture as
pragmatic
behavior

14. Culture as classroom interaction
Culture as
interaction
Teacher
MaterialsLearners

15. How can we teach culture?
๏ We do not teach culture, culture is inside the classroom
whether we like it or not.
!
๏ A better question then is:
!
How do we deal
with culture?

16. !
THE INTERCULTURAL
APPROACH

17. COMPARISON
Communicative
Approach
Intercultural
Approach

18. In what way does
communicative language
teaching deal with language
and culture

19. Some Communicative Language
Teaching - CLT - characteristics:
A STANDARD CULTURE
A STANDARD LANGUAGE
A PROCESSUAL OBJECTIVE
USA or BRITISH
CULTURE
USA or BRITISH
LANGUAGE
TO BECOME A
NATIVE SPEAKER

20. !A Standard
Culture
USA or British
Culture
๏ CLT deals with cultures as national cultures.
๏ CLT avoids dealing with culture as difference and
stresses monolithic or essentialist views of cultures.
๏ CLT disregards cultural factors related to age, gender,
social class, race, profession, etc. and presents a
homogenous view of society.

21. !A Standard
Language
USA or British
Language
๏ CLT deals with languages as national languages.
๏ CLT avoids dealing with other varieties of English.
๏ CLT emphasizes the informational dimension of
language

22. The main cultural function
of language is the
transactional function
Exchange of
information
function
CULTURAL INFORMATION IS USUALLY USED
AS A PRETEXT FOR SPEAKING/WRITING.

23. !A PROCESSUAL OBJECTIVE:
TO BECOME A NATIVE SPEAKER
๏ The native speaker is the ideal objective.
๏ Standard grammar, pronunciation and accent are
valued.

24. How can the intercultural
approach fix those
drawbacks?

25. By re-interpreting the main objectives of the
communicative approach
How can the intercultural
approach fix those
drawbacks?

26. OBJECTIVES OF THE
INTERCULTURAL APPROACH
TO BE FLEXIBLE REGARDING LANGUAGE AND
CULTURE PATTERNS
LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL
VARIETY AND DIFFERENCE

27. OBJECTIVES OF THE
INTERCULTURAL APPROACH
INCLUSION OF THE IDENTITY FUNCTION OF
LANGUAGE
TRANSACTIONAL + IDENTITY
FUNCTIONS
to establish and maintain contact
between people, being strongly
connected to a person’s or group
identities

28. Identity function: negotiating who we are.
Every time language learners speak, they are not only
exchanging information with their interlocutors; they
are organizing and reorganizing a sense of who they
are and how they relate to the social world. They are, in
other words, engaged in identity construction and
negotiation.
(Norton 1997: 410)

29. OBJECTIVES OF THE
INTERCULTURAL APPROACH
NATIVE SPEAKER
INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATOR

30. !
What is the intercultural
communicator like?

31. !
HIS/HER OWN
CULTURE
STARTING POINT

32. Culture as information
She/He needs to know how to deal with culture(s) as
information: his own and other cultures

33. She/He should be aware although culture is in the
understandings and practices that are shared within
groups of people (Phillips, 2003), these “shared”
understandings and practices are loosely bounded,
constantly changing, and subjectively experienced.
(Menard-Warwick, 2009, p. 30)
The ever-changing
nature of culture

34. She/He needs to have a critical stance in relation to
the issues of power related to the languages and
cultures at play.
Power relations

35. She/he needs to understand how participating in a
community and sharing a language determines
his/her perceptions of the world
Linguistically and culturally determined
modes to see the world
There are complex linguistically
and culturally determined
modes to see the world

36. She/he needs to be confident to use language and
other semiotic resources (images, sound, music, etc.)
in a creative way and understand their creative power.
This is essential for the language learners who live in
the current era, when creativity is one of the keys for
successful communication.
(New London Group, 1996)
Creativity

37. How can interculturality
be dealt with the
classroom

38. !
!
๏ Through spontaneous intercultural dialogue.!
!
๏ Through planned intercultural tasks.
Two main ways

39. Example of
intercultural dialogue

40. 1. S1: Recently I broke my earphone, so when I am in the bus I have to listen to another
ones’ stories. So I was going to Canasvieiras and we have like this couple of
Argentinos, oh it’s so boring, the voice, the tone of the voice, the fast they speak. It’s,
it’s, make me uncomfortable, but I’ll not tell them that. I was like, oh my God.
2. T: But they were speaking in Spanish?
3. S1: Yeah.
4. T: In the bus?
5. S1: Yes.
6. S2: I think that’s wrong.
7. T: Wrong?
8. S2: Only if they don’t know to speak Portuguese, but they know.
9. T: Yeah, but they were in a group of (interrupted).
10. S1: Couple, two.
11. T: They are probably friends.
12. S1: Yeah, probably.
13. T: That’s why they were speaking.
14. S1: Oh, they were screaming.
15. T: So you didn’t like because they were loud?
16. S1: Too (laughs).
17. S3: It seems that their voice, it’s kind of annoying.
18. S1: Yes.
19. S3: The sounds it’s annoying, it seems there (inaudible).
20. T: And do you think that they think Brazilians can be annoying too?
21. S1: I think everything is possible.
22. T: Everything is possible? Because sometimes we say people from other places are
annoying but we never thought that might be, they might think that we are also
annoying, right?
Spontaneous Dialogue

41. Example of (planned)
intercultural tasks

42. Jokes &
Stereotypes

43. In heaven, the cops are British, the lovers are
French, the food is Italian, the cars are German,
and the whole thing is run by the Swiss.
!
In hell, the cops are German, the lovers are Swiss,
the food is British, the cars are French, and the
whole thing is run by the Italians.

44. ๏ Read individually the following jokes.
๏ Get in small groups and discuss:
Jokes & Stereotypes
- What elements bring the comic effect in each of them?
- Try to find the mechanism of the joke.
- Do they make use of stereotypical information?
- Do you believe that they are politically correct?

45. Q: A rich Mexican, a poor Mexican, Santa, and the Easter bunny areeach in a corner of a room, and a dollar is in the middle. Who gets it? A: The poor Mexican, the other three don't exist.
Jokes & Stereotypes

46. Intercultural tasks prompt
learners to engage more deeply
with the cultural assumptions
implicit in texts and images.

47. ๏ Students read an analyze some
chapters of the book How to be an
alien by George Mikes.
๏ Students decide on a topic to
create a ppt presentation using
text and images.
๏ Students develop the ppt with help of the teacher.
๏ Students present the ppt to the other students and generate
a dialogue.
How to be an alien

48. Howtobeagaúcho
inFlorianópolis

49. Therearemanycuriositiesabout therelationshipbetween
gaúchos,andcatarinenses.Jokesareverycommon.
So,youneed toknow that whenyoucomeliveinFlorianópolis.

50. Youwillonlyfindcompanyforit if youknowanothergaúcho
orif gowest.InFloripa,just gaúchosdrinkchimarrão.
But don’t forget thistradition.
Somepeopleareveryfamous,
travelaroundtheworld,andstill
drinkthis.

51. -If yougoinabakerydon’t askfora“cacetinho”.
-Yes,yes, theyknowwhat youareasking,but theywillalways
seem“misunderstanding”.
-So,neveraskfora“cacetinho”.Just say:Please,
canyougivemesomesaltybread!
Cacetinho?!
Well,Idon’t knowwhy
gaúchoscallsaltybread
“cacetinho”.

52. Foryou,gaúcho, thisisa“estojo”,
right???Forget!
InFlorianópolis,just say“penal”.
Otherdifferent words
If youhave thewish toeat
somethingsweet.
Remember:don’t say
“negrinho”.Say“brigadeiro”
P.S: When I was looking for
this picture, I put on Google
“estojo”, and found it. But,
when I put “penal” I found
just criminal subjects.

53. But, takecare.Just talkabout
footballwith thispeople.Theotherscannot understand.
Otherdifferent words
Don’t besurprisedif youpassbyasport storewindowand
findInterandGrêmiosoccer teamshirts.Manypeoplehere
aresupportersof thegaúcho teams.
So,in thisway,youwillfeelat home.

54. Infact,allthisisafunnyjoke.
Wearecompatriot,and
collaboratewitheachotherfor
ourdevelopment.

55. Main components of
intercultural tasks
Ethnografic
Multi-modal Critic and
creative

56. Multimodal texts (verbal, auditory and/or visual)
which involve the imagination of the reader/viewer:
comics and graphic novels, jokes, advertisements,
graffiti, song lyrics, films, video clips and blogs. In
those texts, cultural content is often metaphorically
expressed.
Multi-modal

57. ๏ limited time and resources,
๏ textbooks without proposals for inter-cultural
activities,
๏ Syllabuses that emphasize linguistic goals
๏ and lack of teacher knowledge about how to deal
with (s) culture (s) involved, which creates
uncertainty and fear of the reactions of the
students.
Some reasons for the difficulties to
implement an intercultural approach

58. ๏ The last reason, in turn, related to additional
language teacher education, is that the
relationship between language(s) and culture(s) is
not usually included in the curriculum, i.e.
language and culture issues are not dealt with
and problematized at college.
In teacher education

59. !
THANK YOU!

60. 60
References

61. 61
References

62. 62
References

63. 63
References

64. 64
References