Culture: The Fifth Skill 9/11/20151 Kamaleddine Tabine GMU Linguistics Department

Overview Foreign language learning Cultural competence What is culture learning? Culture in teaching methodology Pedagogical implication for foreign language classroom The main five obstacles in teaching the fifth skill Proposed solutions Questions 9/11/20152

Foreign Language Learning 39/11/2015 Grammatical competence Language proficiency Communicative competence

Foreign Language Learning 49/11/2015 Cultural competence Language proficiency communicative competence linguistic competence

What is Culture? “ Culture … is always in the background, right from day one, ready to unsettle the good language learners when they expect it least, making evident the limitations of their hard- won communicative competence, challenging their ability to make sense of the world around them” (Kramsch, 1993: 1) 9/11/20155

Culture Competence It will be demonstrated that teaching a foreign language is not tantamount to giving a homily on syntactic structures or learning new vocabulary and expressions, but mainly incorporating a change in attitudes towards one’s own or another culture 9/11/20156

Culture within Caricatures I

Culture within Caricatures II

Culture within Caricatures III ما مشكلتك؟

Cultural Competence & Proficiency Motivation Attitudes Confidence Self-Reflection and Self-Renewal Proficiency Development 9/11/201510

Michael Paige defines Culture learning as:” The process of acquiring the culture-specific and the culture-general knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for effective communication and interaction with individuals from other cultures. It is a dynamic developmental and ongoing process which engages the learner cognitively, behaviorally and affectively” (P.177) What is Culture Learning? 9/11/201511

Paige’s Conceptual Model of Culture Learning Cultural-general learning Cultural-specific learning Knowledge Skills Attitude Behavior 9/11/201512

Culture-General Learning Intercultural skills culture learning strategies coping and stress management strategies. Intercultural communicative Competence. Intercultural perspective-taking skills cultural adaptability transcultural competence 9/11/201513

Culture-Learning Specific Targets Culture Skills “little c” culture – appropriate everyday behavior Positive attitude toward target culture persons Movement from knowledge to behavior and from simple learning to high order learning 9/11/201514

Culture in Teaching Methodology The learner discovers relation between language, culture and communication. The learner starts analyzing and comparing his culture with the ones surrounding him. The learner explores his own culture Michael Paige put this in his way: “ Meta-awareness and cross-cultural comparison lie at the heart of such culture pedagogy. This implies providing opportunities for interaction such that ‘members of the host culture can impart their own epistemology, their own way of seeing things on the learner” (P 179) 9/11/201515

Pedagogical Implication for Second Language Classroom Teachers need to help their students to be more aware of their culture. Teachers need to provide students with strategy that would help learners to be effective culture learners. Teachers need to address all three levels of learning when design lessons: i.e. not simply build cultural knowledge but also to equip learners with cultural skills, and seek to foster positive attitudes towards learning culture. 9/11/201516

5 Problems Involved in Teaching the Fifth Skill 1.Overcrowded curriculum. 2.Fear of not knowing enough. 3.Dealing with students’ negative attitudes. 4.Lack of adequate training. 5.Lack of how to measure cross-cultural awareness and change in attitudes. 9/11/201517

5 Suggested Solutions!!! 1.Instead of teaching language and culture in a Serial fashion, Teachers should teach culture in an integrative fashion. 2.Even if teachers’ own knowledge is quite limited, their proper role is not to impart facts, but to help students attain the skills that are necessary to make sense out of the facts they themselves discover in their study of the target culture. 3.As Teachers need to help students revise their "linguistic patterns," they also need to help them revise their "cultural patterns. 9/11/201518

5 Suggested Solutions!!! (Cont.) 4 – Teachers need to seek for training and workshops related to culture learning 5- Teachers need to be familiarized with Hanvey’s (1979) concepts on Measuring Cross-Cultural Awareness 9/11/201519

DLI GLOSS Samples on Culture 01/default.html 01/default.html 21/default.html 21/default.html 16/default.html 16/default.html

In a Nutshell!! “Culture must be fully incorporated as a vital component of language learning. Second language teachers should identify key cultural items in every aspect of the language that they teach. Students can be successful in speaking a second language only if cultural issues are an inherent part of the curriculum” (cal.org) 9/11/201521

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References Lange, D. L. & Paige, R. M. (Eds.) (2003). Culture as the core: Perspectives in second language education. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing /11/201523

謝謝 9/11/201524