The use of the linguacultural texts in teaching undergraduate degrees
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Integration of culture in the curriculum. If we define culture as knowledge apart from the individual, it is easy to consider it as content, a body of knowledge that should be the focus of the curriculum. However, if culture or cultural differences are to be integral to the process of learning language, then the foundation of curriculum shifts from content to learning processes. A curriculum which views culture as a process rather than as a body of facts can be illustrated. These illustrations, however, will be clearer if the pedagogical premises are discussed in advance. If culture is viewed as a process of transaction, then students need opportunities to generate meaning in transaction. Therefore, classroom environments must allow and encourage students to their own culture, to transact with cultures (SC) outside their unique, individual cultures (IC), and to reflect on these transactions. The tension produced by the resultant anomalies can only be a useful learning tool if learners first recognize their own beliefs, conflicts, struggles, and difficulties. Recognition of this individual stance, however, is insufficient for growth; we must also encounter alternative perspectives by actively exploring meaning with others. In shared exploration , learners use others as vehicles to help them to generate new tension, for it is in talking with others that we begin to be able to hear ourselves and to consider other perspectives. Thus, sharing individual meaning constructs with others, and reflecting upon those episodes of sharing, helps students to clarify and interrogate the assumptions, which underlie those beliefs, while reflection allows them to rethink their meaning constructs. However, tension may occur during the process of rethinking because students may be critical of what they have to come to know. In addition, this reflection leads to decisions about whether and how we will revise those constructions. In such processes, we generate additional meaning and gain new perspectives that foster learning and change. A new perspective may allow us to arrive at a generalized understanding of our previous meaning or to take new action. In the face of such concepts we are required to define culture as an integral process of learning and thinking rather than as discrete facts.for teaching cultural awareness. There are numerous expert language teachers and teacher trainers who have written extensively about the many vehicles that have proven successful for the teaching of cultural awareness. Only a very brief sketch can be included here of those deemed most practical:method. The teacher begins each discussion period with a presentation of one or more items in the target culture that are distinctly different from the students culture. The discussion then centers on why these differences might cause problems.assimilators. Developed by social psychologists for facilitating adjustment to a foreign culture, the culture assimilator is a brief description of a critical incident of crosscultural interaction that would probably be misunderstood by the students. After the description of the incident, the students are presented with four possible explanations from which they are asked to select the correct one. If they make the wrong choice, they are asked to seek further information that would lead them to the correct conclusion.capsule. This technique is somewhat similar to culture assimilator, but cannot be assigned as a silent reading exercise. The teacher gives a brief presentation showing one essential difference between an American and a foreign custom. It is accompanied by visuals which illustrate the difference, and set of questions to stimulate class discussion.. This technique is especially useful for directly involving students in crosscultural misunderstandings by having selected members act out in a series of short scenes a misinterpretation of something that happens in the target culture. The cause of the problem is usually clarified in the final scene.unit or Total Physical Response. Primarily designed as a listening exercise, this method employs a carefully constructed list of oral commands to which students respond. The commands are arranged in an order that will cause students to act out a cultural experience.. Many aspects of culture that are not usually found in a textbook are present in the newspaper. The teacher asks students to compare a certain item in the foreign newspaper with its equivalent in their newspapers. Good cultural insights can readily be found in headlines, advertisements, editorials, sports pages, comics, even the weather report. The humour found on the comic page is especially revealing.media. Films, filmstrips and slides provide cultural insights as well as providing a welcome variety of classroom activities. Excellent filmstrips on culturally related subjects are available commercially, and slides that teachers have collected in their travels can be worked into short, first-hand cultural presentations.culture island. The teacher maintains a classroom ambiance that is essentially a culture island through the use of posters, pictures, a frequently changing bulletin board, all of which are designed with the purpose of attracting student attention, eliciting questions and comments.
Part II A practical analysis of using linguacultural texts in teaching
.1 Lesson plans on linguacultural texts
Dating customs: To compare relationships between men and women in the UK and the US with the relationships between men and women in Kazakhstanee culture.: A task sheet for each student, copies of texts.: Photocopying the task sheet overleaf. Making enough copies to give one to each student.: 45 minutesClass:to the class that they are going to compare relationships between men and women in two cultures.the class into pairs, and distributing the texts.students read the text divided in two parts: the student A reads the first part; the student B reads the second part. Then after reading in pairs each of them explains his or her part to the partner.the pair work, volunteers take turns to report their opinions.the discussion of the text, for consolidation giving task sheet with multiple choice questions.work in groups of 4-5, discussing the customs listed on the task sheet, and indicating whether each practice is the same or different in their culture.up with a whole-class discussion on the following questions:have you learned about relationships between men and women in the UK and the US from these activities?you make any generalizations about relationships between men and women in the UK and the US?what ways are the relationships different from the relationships in your culture?what ways are they similar?homework, you could ask the students to write a short composition, comparing and contrasting behaviour between men and women in the UK and US with behaviour between men and women in their culture.: To widen students knowledge of weddings in the country of the target culture.: Copies of texts: To do a Wedding presentation, it is important to find out what the students already know about the topic, and to get them involved from the start.: 45 minutesclass:
.Writing the topic in a circle in the center of the board.
. Asking the class to call out any words or phrases they know associated with the topic. They may volunteer things like proposal, bride, groom, ceremony, wedding dress, flowers, children, etc.
. Then, writing these associations in the spidergram.
. Making sure that everybody in the class understands all the words and phrases.
. Then giving the activity to compare and contrast the customs of wedding of English-speaking countries and their own culture. Finding the equivalents to beliefs and habits from their culture, asking to find equivalent to the saying: Something old, something new, something borrowed something blueтАж
. Drawing a line with a question mark on it between words or phrases that seem to contradict each other. For example:in Britain/USA _______?_____ Wedding in Kazakhstan: to give more information about the leisuring activities in the target language country.: News article about the Cricket, visual materials on the theme.: 50 minutes: Selecting a relatively short article about this kind of sport, to prepare enough copies of text to each student.class:
.Dividing the class into groups of two or three students. Distributing the copies of the news article.
.Explaining the task to the students. Half of the groups are to read the news article and then write a brief radio news report for their home culture, describing what has happened in the target culture. The other groups are to write a radio news report for the target culture.
. The students work in their groups, reading the news article and writing their radio news reports.
. One member of each group role-plays a radio news announcer and reads the groups news report.
. Next, conducting a whole-class discussion on the different perspectives presented by each group in its news report. The discussion should center on the following questions:did the news reports for the home culture differ from the news reports for the target culture?what ways, if any, were the reports similar?
Horse Racing: To provide students with newest information about the horse-racing in Britain/USA, to teach them to work efficiently with the text.: A text about the Horse racing in the target language country.: 45 minutes.: To choose the text about the horse-racing.class:ask students to sit in a circle in two separate groups. To give two different parts of the text in pieces cut beforehand. The students complete the text, then with the instruction of the teacher each group checks if they did it in the right order.next activity is