Culture in language teaching Multi – Pluri – Inter The Prefixes of Culture

Culture in language teaching “Although some L2/FL teachers seem to think that the presence of culture in current writings is relatively recent, a review of the L2/FL literature shows that this is clearly not the case” (Lessard- Clouston, M. 1997). Culture and Language come together in LT, culture appearing and disappearing from theoretical approaches regularly. Now it is enjoying a revival.

Culture: the prefixes If at first the terms “contrastive” and “cross-cultural” were the key terms in cultural studies, the incorporation of multicultural and intercultural approaches widened our perspective. The scope of cultural studies nowadays includes the self, the group and the communicative situation.

The prefixes Interculturality Pluriculturality Multiculturality

Definitions: two approaches Static definition –“Inter-”: definition of a communicative situation –“Pluri-”: definition of the identity of a person –“Multi-”: definition of the social context Dynamic definition –“Inter-”: active and critical participation in communication –“Pluri-”: perception and construction of the multiple identifications of a person –“Multi-”: ackowledgement and appreciation of the coexistence of a number of cultures in the social context

Multiculturalism (I) Multiculturalism describes a general situation (region, country, community) of “culture contact”. Normally, the term comprises three visions of diversity: –culture as state-nation (multicultural = different nationalities) –culture as religion (multicultural = different religions) –culture as ethnic groups (multicultural = different ethnic groups).

Multiculturalism (II) However, none of these metaphoric definitions of culture are satisfactory –it could be argued that other “cultures” could be added: “culture as age”, “culture as gender”, “culture as profession”, “culture as ability/disability”,... Consequently, any country, region, community or group is multicultural by definition, as different cultures interact simultaneously at any level. So, we would keep multiculturalism for the description of contexts where cultures are in contact, not restricted to nations, religions or ethnic groups.

Pluriculturalism Identity is the by-product of experiences in different cultures. Thus, multiple identifications create our unique personality more than a static “identity”. Pluriculturalism implies an approach to the self and the other as complex, rich beings which act and react from the perspective of those multiple identifications.

Interculturality Interculturality is, undoubtedly, one of the key notions in language teaching at the moment. ECML projects: –Candelier, Oomen-Welke and Perregaux (2004) –Dupuis et al. (2003) –Huber-Kriegler, Lázár and Strange (2003) –Aleksandrowicz-Pędich, Draghicescu, Issaiass and Šabec (2003), Skopinskaja (2003) and Facciol and Kjartansson (2003) –Zarate, Gohard-Radenkovic, Lussier and Penz (2003) –Grima Camilleri (2002)

Interculturality Interculturality is, for our perspective, intimately related to communication: it is the link between language and culture. Being intercultural is a way of participating in communication in which interlocutors –Are aware of the relevance of culture in communication. –Participate actively in communication. –React critically to communication.

Awareness of culture The language learner must be aware of three layers of culture: multi-cultural, pluri-cultural and inter-cultural. First, the language learner must be aware of –diversity in society and –how social groups, including nations, create, use and manage cultures, which are intermingled in a complex matrix of social contact. We will refer to it as awareness of culture from a multicultural perspective.

Awareness of culture Secondly, awareness of culture from a pluricultural perspective implies –to define identity as a complex, flexible, dynamic composite which, in any situation, can adopt an apparently definite layout for a certain purpose with a particular interlocutor. culture as product – which is static – culture as process – which is dynamic.

Awareness of culture From an intercultural perspective, awareness must be displayed in two directions. –First, the learner must be aware of the pluricultural identity of his or her interlocutor as defined above. –Second, the language learner must be aware of the cultural conventions of the language(s) they may use. Language is a culture-bound phenomenon and there are conventions ruling any communicative act, written or spoken. Awareness of these cultural conventions can smooth communication At the same time, a positive, cooperative attitude on the part of the listener/reader can help overcome ignoring, forgetting or flouting these conventions.

The LEA Project To raise awareness of diversity as a key element of society. To enrich language teacher education with the potential to exploit cultural diversity at individual and social levels To facilitate curricular changes aimed at incorporating a pluricultural dimension into language classes.