Subsemnatul Conf. Dr. Gabriel Barbulet, coordonator științific al lucrării metodico științifice cu titlul: “Teaching culture and civilization to… [307506]

Subsemnatul Conf. Dr. [anonimizat]:

“Teaching culture and civilization to secondary school students”

“Predarea elementelor de cultura si civilizatie elevilor de gimnaziu”

elaborată de prof. [anonimizat]. –Universitatea “1 Decembrie 1918” Alba Iulia

Numele și semnătura:

________________________

________________________

Data: _____________

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UNIVERSITATEA 1 DECEMBRIE 1918 [anonimizat] I

[anonimizat]. Dr .GABRIEL BARBULET

Candidat: [anonimizat] 2018-2021

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Contents

INTRODUCTION 6

I. Problem to be investigated 8

1. Purpose of the study 9

2.Justification of the Study 9

3.Research questions and hypotheses 10

4.Definition of terms 11

5. Brief overview of study 12

II Background and review of related literature 13

1.Defining Culture 13

1.1 The Fourfold Typology of Chris Jenks 15

1.2 Some definitions and symbolic representations 16

1.2.1 Edward B. Tylor 16

2.1.2 Two famous symbolic representations 17

2.1.2.1 The cultural iceberg 17

2.1.2.2 The cultural onion 18

2.Language and Culture 21

2.1 Language symbolizes cultural reality 23

2.2 Language expresses cultural reality 24

2.2.1The theory of linguistic relativity 26

2.2.2 Prototypes, frames, metaphors, and linguistic relativity 29

2.2.2.1 Prototypes 29

2.2.2.2 Frames 30

2.2.2.3 Metaphors 31

2.3 Language embodies cultural reality 35

3.Teaching Culture in the Foreign Language Classroom 38

3.1 History of Culture and Language Teaching in the Western World 41

3.2 The Position of the Culture Element in the Language Classroom 44

3.2.1 Theories and Terms 44

3.2.1.1. Culture as the Fifth Skill 45

3.2.1.2 The Intercultural Dimension or Intercultural Language Learning 47

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3.2.2. Culture and Language Policy around the World 51

3.2.2.1 Australia and The United States of America 52

3.2.2.2 Language Policy in the European Union 55

3.3 [anonimizat] 60

3.3.1 Aims and Competences 61

3.3.2 Premises and Principles 68

3.3.3.Classroom Practice 71

3.3.3.1 What should we teach in the intercultural language classroom? 72

3.3.3.2 How should we teach in the intercultural classroom? 75

3.4 Assessing Intercultural Language Competence 79

3.5 Intercultural Language Learning and the 'Good Teacher' 88

3.5.1 Metaphors for language teacher 89

3.5.2 Expertise, knowledge, skills and attitudes of the language teacher 91

3.5.3. The Key to Becoming a 'Good Teacher' 94

III. Procedures 96

1.Description of the research design 96

2.Description of the sample 97

3.Description of the questionnaire 97

4.Explanation of the procedures followed 99

4.1 A more cultural approach of the textbook material and its extension activities 100

4.2 Exploring Culture 106

4.3 Seeking contact with members of the target culture(s) 113

IV. Description of the findings 114

V. Summary and conclusions 152

References: 155

APPENDICES 160

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Motto:

„I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”

Mahatma Ghandi

INTRODUCTION

This present paper investigates the relationship between culture and teaching it to secondary school students in order to find to find out more about how the cultural element can be effectively taught in the framework of an English classroom. The present investigation has been done with the help of a small scale action research.

The purpose and the justification of the study are presented in the first part and also the research question and hypotheses are stated. The main hypothesis of the research says that: Lessons about culture affect students’ cultural awareness. After the presentation of the above a definition of some terms commonly used in literature comes, in order to avoid confusion about their meanings or occasional misunderstandings .Also ,a brief overview of the paper concludes the first part.

The second part of the paper focuses on the theoretical background of the research. This first part is divided into three main chapters. The first chapter intends to describe the very versatile term of culture settling for the fourfold typology of Chris Jenks and the descriptions and models of anthropologists like Tyler, Hall and Hofstede. The second chapter investigates the complex problem of the relationship between language and culture as means of interpreting reality. To bring coherence and structure into the text, the idea of Claire Kramsch is employed. According to C. Kramsch there are three aspects of the relationship between language and culture: language expresses cultural reality, language embodies cultural reality and language symbolizes cultural reality. The presentation in the paper focuses on these aspects. The third chapter refers to the relationship between culture and language teaching and how students understand the idea of culture. It starts with a brief history and talks more

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about the paradigm shift apparent in language teaching theory and policy. It presents the different views on culture in the language classroom: culture as the fifth skill perspective and intercultural language learning. It discusses the presence of culture in language policy documents around the world. Some practical considerations then follow. The aims, competences, principles and classroom practice are discussed. Some problems about concerning assessment are also tackled and in the end, the ideal figure of the ‚good teacher’ is outlined.

The third part of the paper describes the research procedures which were followed. It talks about the research design, the research sample, the instruments used and the procedures followed. A short presentation of some activities is also included.

Part four contains a detailed description of the findings with diagrams and comments. These show that the hypothesis at the basis of the research proved to be true.

Part five gives a brief summary and concludes the paper.

The list of references and the appendices follow.

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I. Problem to be investigated

Teaching about culture has always been part of language teaching. Learning about historical facts, major symbols of the nation and most poignant geographical features of the target country was integral part of language lessons. So were the best known pieces of literature in the target language. These are all part of what is commonly called as the big C culture.

Of course culture, which is a term that cannot be easily defined is much more than just the accumulation of the major achievements of a nation throughout history. It has been frequently compared with an Iceberg with some visible parts on the surface like artefacts, customs, literature, folklore, dress, food, leisure and some invisible parts like ideas, values, beliefs that can only be imagined, suspected or intuited. The image of the iceberg clearly shows that the visible part of culture is just a tiny segment of a much bigger whole.

With the advance of technology our lifestyles have changed a lot. People of different cultures inetract frequently on a daily basis and this fact has imposed a new necessity and thus a new type of demand on language teaching. A language is not only a tool for communication but it also is a „system of representation for perception and thinking.”1 This means that proficiency in a language does not only consist in a high level of fluency and accuracy in the structures and vocabulary of a language but it also implies a different set of knowledge and skills. In order to communicate efficiently, without misunderstanding we also need to be aware of the many implications that the cultural background of our interlocutor poses on the conversation.

„It has been widely recognised in the language teaching profession that learners need not just knowledge and skill in the grammar of a language but also the ability to use the language in socially and culturally appropriate ways.”2

This new need led to a new aim of teaching a foreign language, that of the „Intercultural dimension.”3

Although the need is obvious and the aim is clear there is much debate among the leaders of the English teaching profession concerning the position of the cultural element in the foreign language classroom. There have been many terms coined and the problem has been

1Bennet, M. J. How not to be a Fluent Fool

Byram, M, Gribkova. B.,Starkey, H. (2002) pg 7.

Ibid.

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investigated from different angles and yet this relatively new aspect of the language teaching is still elusive. There are many unanswered questions popping up concerning both theory and classroom practice.

1. Purpose of the study

The present study is just a tiny investigation into the question of how the cultural element can be effectively taught in the framework of an English classroom. It intends to get a clearer insight into the rather complicated questions of cultural literacy.

It intends to present some personal experiences in order to see how different activities work on classroom level, how students react. It intends to find out what types of activities are more enjoyable for students and which seem to be more effective.

Teaching cultural factors should lead to a sharpened observation , it should encourage critical thinking and develop tolerance. Testing the degree of achievement of these aims is also part of the study.

2. Justification of the Study

As mentioned before, the necessity to encompass the cultural factor into language teaching can not be ignored if we want to help students to become really effective users of the target language. On the other hand teaching cultural aspects to secondary school students does not only aim at practical things such as efficiency and proficiency but it also has educational goals. Citizens of the future world should value and cherish their own cultures and understand and tolerate the cultures of the others. They should be open minded, tolerant a knowledgeable.

As Michael Byram and his co-authors put it in the EU document „Developing the

Intercultural Dimension in Language Teaching”:

The essence of the Cultural dimension of language teaching is:

„…to help language learners to interact with speakers of other languages on equal terms, and to be aware of their own identities and those of their interlocutors. It is the hope that language learners who thus become ‚intercultural speakers’ will be successful not only

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in communicating information but also in developing a human relationship with people of other languages and cultures.”4

Reflecting back on my years of teaching I have always been trying to evidence different cultural factors more or less consciously. Culture has always proved to be a useful, engaging and emotionally relevant content for language classes. Students always enjoy to reflect upon themselves and to find out interesting facts about the target language and culture. Comparing idioms in English ,Romanian and Hungarian, for example or trying to trace back the origin of proverbs give interesting insight into the values, beliefs and customs of a speech community. Discussions about stereotypes make them re-evaluate their thinking. Translating even the simplest texts can show how differently languages work. And these are just a few examples.

I strongly believe that our children, who will most probably interact with people with different cultural background on a daily basis need to possess the necessary knowledge and skills to help them avoid misunderstandings and cope with all the different problems that may arise. They also need to have the right attitude, to be open and willing to compromise when necessary.

I think that cultural competence and the need for it is ignored in our teaching and I think that this can be changed very easily with almost no extra effort. This is why I wanted to become aware of the issues of culture in the language classroom and wanted to become more systematic about raising cultural awareness in students. I believe that my teaching would benefit greatly.

3.Research questions and hypotheses

The question to ask is as follows:

How does a set of lessons designed around the five savoirs5 of the intercultural competence affect students' cultural awareness?

Ibid.

51. Savoirs (knowledge), 2. Savoir etre (attitudes),3. Savoir comprendre (skills of comparison, interpreting and relating),4. savoir apprendre/faire (skills of discovery and interaction),5. savoir s'engager (critical cultural awareness),

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Hypotheses:

Lessons about culture affect students' cultural awareness.

Knowledge about culture as a phenomenon helps students to a deeper insight.

Attitudes cannot be taught but they can be shaped through well designed interactions among students and between students and teacher.

4.Definition of terms

The following terms are currently used in specialized literature:

Cultural awareness: It refers to the ability of standing back from ourselves and becoming aware of our cultural values, beliefs and perceptions. Why do we do things in that way? How do we see the world? Why do we react in that particular way? It becomes central when we have to interact with people from other cultures.

Intercultural:1) It can refer to the meeting between people from different cultures and languages across the political boundaries of nation states. 2) It can refer to communication between people from different ethnic, social, gendered cultures within the boundaries of the same nation

Multicultural:1) It can be a political term used to characterize a society composed of people from different cultures. 2) It can refer to an individual who belongs to several cultures.

Pluricultural:It refers to the ideal of a person who can act and react from the perspective of multiple identification. In this case identity and identities are the byproduct of experiences in different cultures. As an effect multiple identifications create a unique personality.

Cultural diversity: 1) It is the quality of diverse or different cultures as opposed to monoculture. 2) It can refer to having different cultures, respect each other's difference.

Cross-cultural: It may refer to: 1)cross-cultural studies:a comparative tendency in many fields of cultural analysis OR 2) cross-cultural communication:a field of study that looks at how people from diferring cultural backgrounds communicate.

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Trans-cultural: 1) It means extending through all human cultures. 2)It is used in healthcare to describe the psychosocial aspect in which cultural differences between the doctor and the patient are taken into consideration regarding issues of privacy, as well as religious and ethnic preferences

Enculturation: It is the process by which a person learns the requirements of the culture by which he or she is surrounded, and acquires values that are appropriate or necessary in that culture. It basically describes the first culture learning process.

Acculturation:1)It refers to the cultural modification of an individual or a group of people by adapting or borrowing traits from another culture. 2) It can refer to a merging of cultures as a result of prolonged contact.

Socio-cultural context: It refers to the synchronic and diachronic context of language use.

Cultural literacy: It refers to the body of knowledge that is presumably shared by all members of a given culture.

Discourse community: A social group that has a broadly agreed set of common public goals and purposes in its use of spoken and written language.

5. Brief overview of study

As stated before, the present paper is concerned with the position of culture in the secondary school classroom. The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship of culture with language and language teaching. As a first step a working definition of culture is being looked for. This is important in order to be able to establish the cultural content a language class should employ. The complex relationship between language and culture is investigated in order to justify the presence of culture in the language classroom. In the last part of the theory section there is presented the shift of paradigm that has recently occurred concerning the relationship of culture and language teaching. It investigates the process of change that brought about new insights and new demands as far as language teaching is concerned. It also tries to tackle the practical sides of the matter and look at the possibilities and concerns regarding implementation and classroom practice.

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The presentation of the theoretical background based on extensive reading of the specialized literature is followed by the description of a small scale classroom research. The purpose, justification and the hypotheses of this research have been presented in the previous parts of the paper. The procedures and findings will be presented after the review of the related literature below. The implications of the findings will be discussed at the end of the thesis and there will be made suggestions for improvement. Finally some of the activities employed will be presented in the appendix, along with some of the reactions of the students.

II Background and review of related literature

Defining Culture

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary the world culture first entered the English language in the 15-th century. It was borrowed from the French language and meant: ’tilling the land.’ The world actually comes from the Latin stem colere meaning: tend, guard, cultivate, till. It was soon used in the figurative sense of "cultivation through education”. The meaning "the intellectual side of civilization" is from 1805; that of "collective customs and achievements of a people" is from 1867. Tracing back the origins of the world seems to be very easy but actually defining the concept as it is today is much harder than one might expect.

While browsing through the vast literature written on the topic in the different social sciences and humanities trying to find an all-encompassing definition of culture I had to finally realize how elusive the term actually is and how hard it yields itself to conceptualization. According to Chris Jenks there has been an upsurge in the use of the concept recently, the concept of culture becoming an “increasingly broad currency within the fashionable discourses of the modern academy.” And indeed for some reason or the other cultural theory has vigorously emerged and has remained on the top of the agenda for the last two decades.

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1.1 The Fourfold Typology of Chris Jenks

Jenks, whose work is a major reference for all those who are interested in the topic says that the concept of culture is” a concept with a history”(Jenks 1993/ 2005) rooted in the traditions of thought. He summarizes the genesis of the concept into a fourfold typology, his overtly declared aim being to offer some guidelines, signposts for those aiming to become knowledgeable in the field. His fourfold typology distinguishes the following aspects of the term:

Culture as a cognitive category. (This view of culture is highly individualistic, it describes a state of mind, a striving for perfection and is rooted in the Romantic literary cultural criticism, in the work of authors like Thomas Carlyle, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Matthew Arnolds. )

Culture as a more embodied and collective category. (According to this category the concept of culture invokes a state of intellectual and moral development in society. This meaning of culture is similar to that of civilization. It is rooted in the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin and his followers and laid the ideological basis for 19-th century imperialism.)

Culture as a descriptive and concrete category. (The term culture describes here the collective body of arts and intellectual work within any society. In its everyday use it connects to the terms exclusivity, elitism, particularity. It is the so called high culture, the collective symbolism of a given society.)

Culture as a social category. (Culture as a social category encompasses the whole way of life of the people. This is the most pluralist and potentially democratic sense of the concept. This meaning of culture is the zone of concern of sociology, anthropology or cultural studies.) (Jenks 1993)

The above typology is really helpful when one is trying to find her way among the definitions of culture and when trying to understand concepts like high and low culture, big C and little c culture or explain the difference between a static and dynamic view on culture. In what follows I would like to give a short presentation of some definitions and symbolic representations of the term.

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1.2 Some definitions and symbolic representations

1.2.1 Edward B. Taylor

Edward B. Taylor was an English anthropologist, the founding figure of the science of social anthropology. He was a cultural evolutionist and the first one to give a definition of culture as a collective category.

“Culture or civilization taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs and every other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” (Taylor: 1871, page 1)

Taylor, who was the first to study culture, introduced the basic categories, common concepts anthropologists and sociologists still apply to study the nature of man and society. These are as follows:

Tradition, which refers to the customs, rituals, belief, folklore, habits in a given ethnic group.

Folkways are the expected behavior being practiced in certain ethnic groups.

Beliefs are the ideas, viewpoints and attitudes of the particular group of society.

Values are the common ethical standards wherein group members have the ability to distinguish what is right or wrong.

Norms are the proper conduct of social behavior that should be followed in the society.

Language is a form of communication that represents the spoken and written words to convey information to an individual or group of people.

Mores are the long-established customs and traditions that have bearing in moral and ethical values of the society.

Laws are the rules, regulation and guiding policies of societal institutions.

(after The Basic Concepts of Culture in Sociology and Anthropology, Hub Pages, Internet)

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These concepts could prove to be highly useful also when attempting to plan a curriculum for teaching culture or just attempting to introduce some cultural elements in a language classroom.

We are able to identify the use of similar categories in the definitions and symbolic representations of culture in the more recent work of two important anthropologists Edward T Hall and Geert Hofstede.

2.1.2 Two famous symbolic representations

2.1.2.1 The cultural iceberg

Edward T. Hall, the American anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher developed in 1976 the iceberg analogy of culture. If the culture of a society was the iceberg there would be some visible elements on the surface but the major part of it would be hidden, under water. The visible elements would count for about 10% of the whole body of culture and would include easily observable traits like behaviors, traditions or customs. This he calls external or surface culture. The deep culture is hidden under the surface, in the unconscious of a nation and includes core values, beliefs, priorities, attitudes and assumptions. There are major distinguishing features between the surface culture and the deep culture. The surface culture is explicitly learned, conscious, easily changeable. It is an objective body of knowledge. The deep culture is implicitly learned, unconscious, difficult to change, a subjective body of knowledge.

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Cultural Iceberg

Source: http://opengecko.com/category/interculturalism/

The iceberg analogy whether entirely accurate or not, proved to be a very useful tool when analyzing culture and trying to improve cultural awareness for the scope of a smoother cross cultural communication.

2.1.2.2 The cultural onion

The Dutch scientist Geert Hofstede defines culture as :

”the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.” (Hofstede:1993)

This definition of culture, which he calls ‘culture two’ falls within the ‘culture as a social category’ of Jenks’s fourfold typology as opposed to what Hofstede calls ‘culture one’, the

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refinement of the mind through education, art and literature, which clearly enters under the label of ‘culture as a cognitive category’ of the same typology.

Culture is learned, not inherited and should be distinguished both from human nature and from the individual’s personality. Hofstede envisages the following model of the three levels of human mental programming.

According to this model the core features of every person can be attributed to human nature which is carried by the genes and distinguishes people from the other creatures of the world, these features are universal. Many characteristics of the human beings though are shaped by culture. Culture doesn’t have to do anything with the genes. It is a set of acquired and learned traits specific to a group or category of people thus distinguishing one group of people from another. At the top of Hofstede’s pyramid are the individual features which distinguish a person from any other being in the world and make him/her unique. Although this categorization seems quite logical, clear and easy to follow we still might sometimes find it hard to decide whether a certain feature of an individual belongs to this or that category.

Hofstede also introduced the term cultural relativism. This means that there are no high or low, better or worse cultures. No culture has the absolute standards against which we could judge or evaluate the dealings of a different culture.

According to Hofstede cultural differences manifest themselves in several ways. He distilled his ideas concerning the topic in the following diagram, which became well known among the knowledgeable as the onion diagram. The onion diagram tries to present the manifestation of cultural differences at different levels of depths.

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The onion diagram

The symbols are the words (language?), gestures, pictures, objects that carry a particular meaning for a certain group of people. The heroes are the persons alive or dead, real or imaginary, who serve as a model of behavior. Rituals are collective activities carried out for their own sake with no palpable result whatsoever but still considered very important. Symbols, heroes and rituals are gathered under the umbrella term of practices. These practices can change and actually do change over time, the more outside the layer the easier the change. At the core of every culture there are some values as Hofstede calls them..

In his view values are broad tendencies to prefer certain states of affair over others. They are always connected to feelings. Since values are acquired very early in childhood, they are not prone to change. According to Hofstede values deal with things and states of affairs using certain contrasting categories like: good vs. evil, dirty vs. clean, abnormal vs. normal, ugly vs. beautiful, paradoxical vs. logical, irrational vs. rational.

Both Edward T. Hall and Geert Hofstede contributed a great deal to the understanding and outlining of the phenomenon we call culture. I consider that their diagrams are a good starting point for everybody who wants to get a clearer insight into the very complicated nature of this elusive concept we still not have a firm grip on.

On the other hand as a language teacher I am very much interested in the role language plays in culture. All the definitions of culture presented above agree that language is one of the basic concepts one has to take in consideration when studying culture but none of them gives it any extra importance. Taylor lists it among the eight common concepts that need to be taken in consideration. On Hall’s Iceberg diagram language is located in the upper, visible part of the iceberg along with categories like food or music. It is considered external,

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easily observable, a cultural product is not less or more important than the others. Finally Hofstede puts words in the outside layer of his culture onion. Language is considered a practice, a symbol, one of those features of culture which are the easiest to change.

One has to admit that language is really visible and easily observable, too. Moreover there are cultures, even on national level, which share the same language. American culture, British culture and Australian culture display major differences, still all of them use English.

On the other hand though as a language teacher who is day by day faced with the issue of the differences in thinking inherent in languages and the vast amount of cultural information hidden among the words I am inclined to believe that there is much more to the relationship of language and culture than any of the above definitions and representations care for. This is why I have decided to make a more thorough investigation into the matter. I am also hoping to find ways to improve my teaching practices by encompassing this knowledge and exploiting more of the possibilities inherent in a language classroom.

2.Language and Culture

In the previous chapter I was trying to find a definition of the term culture that would be a suitable enough background for the following investigation. This second chapter, focusing on the relationship of language and culture turned out to be an even more ambitious project than the previous one.

Most times we tend to take language for granted, we are unaware of it, it stays in the background. We do not realize that language is not simply a system of codes reflecting reality, a neutral tool for communication but a “pervasive medium that directly influences every aspect of our lives.”6.

As Milton Bennett puts it:

“Language does serve as a tool for communication, but in addition it is a system of representation for perception and thinking. This function of language provides us with verbal categories and

6Alvino 1995

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prototypes that guide our formation of concepts and categorization of objects; it directs how we experience reality.” Bennet 1993, page 16

As a language teacher, languages have always been a challenging topic for me.

While reading about language and its relationship with culture,this proved to be a very interesting experience. Scientists who do their research in the fields of cognitive linguistics and applied linguistics have an entirely different outlook on the relationship between language and culture than anthropologists do. Some of my assumptions based on empirical knowledge proved to be right, some of my questions were answered. What follows is a weak attempt to render the basic ideas into a somewhat coherent discourse. In order to achieve the attempted coherence I have decided to use the classification employed by Kramsch7 in her book Language and Culture.

Claire Kramsch, the French born American scientist who has written several books and essays on the relationship of language, culture and language teaching claims the following in her widely cited book Language and Culture:

“Language is the principal means whereby we conduct our social lives. When it is used in contexts of communication it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways.” Kramsch 1998, page 3

She distinguishes three aspects of the relationship between language and culture:

Language expresses cultural reality- The words people utter refer to common experience, a stock of knowledge about the world. Words also reflect attitudes, beliefs, points of view shared by a certain discourse community.

Language embodies cultural reality- Users of the language do not only express experience but also create it through language and the medium they choose to employ. The way in which people use the spoken, written or visual medium itself creates meanings that are understandable to the group they belong to.

Language symbolizes cultural reality- language is a system of signs that is seen as having itself a cultural value. Speakers identify themselves and others through their use of language; they view their language as a symbol of their social identity. (based on Kramsch 1998)

The above classification really addresses the complexity of the issue. These categories, though not entirely clear-cut, can help in mapping the relationship between these two

7Claire Kramsch: Language and Culture 1998

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phenomena, language and culture, they give an outline and offer some signposts to relate back to.

Kramsch's categorization may prove to be a very useful tool for the language teacher attempting to extend and improve his/her practice and introduce culture into the language classroom.

2.1 Language symbolizes cultural reality

First I would like to tackle the third aspect of the relationship of language and culture , namely that of language as a symbol, a means of identification. This aspect is static and iconographic and carries a great emotional value. Although not all the discourse communities employ language as a major descriptor of their identity (see Afro-American culture, for example) this aspect of language is very important especially in Europe. Language is a major means of identifying people with their respective cultures. (Italians, French, Germans, Romanians, Hungarians, etc) This dates back to the emergence of nation states and the standardization of national languages after the French Revolution. France played a major role in spreading the ideology of one language one nation. European identities have traditionally been built around language and national citizenship and around folk models. Here cultural identity is strongly linked to membership of a speech and discourse community.

“From this membership individuals draw personal strength and pride, as well as a sense of social importance and historical continuity from using the same language as the group they belong to.” Kramsch 1998, page 66

As mentioned before this idea carries very strong emotional valence. Let me just quote an important “hero”8 of the Romanian nation praising the power of language and its importance for the identity of a nation.

“Limba este coloana vertebrală a națiunii.”(Language is the backbone of a nation) Mihai Eminescu, famous Romanian poet (1850-1889)

8Hofstede's term

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This aspect of the relation of language and culture should be kept in mind and never ignored. Respecting each other's major means of identification is of utmost importance when trying to establish communication.

Having said this I would like to go on to the other two much more dynamic and more challenging aspects of the language-culture relation namely: language as an expression of cultural reality and language as the embodiment of cultural reality, trying to present them in more detail.

2.2 Language expresses cultural reality

I would like to start with two quotations:

“Culture both liberates people from oblivion, anonymity and the randomness of nature, and constrains them by imposing on them a structure and principles of selection.”Kramsch 1998, page 6

“Language, in fact both reflects and affects one's world view, serving as a sort of road map to how one perceives, interprets and thinks about, and expresses one's views on the world.” Fantini 1995, page 4

The first quotation is about culture while the second one is about language but both reflect the relationship of these two phenomena with nature or (in other words) the world. Nature or the world in this sense is basically the outside, objective reality which surrounds us and which is too vast and complicated for us to understand without trying to make some sense of it by creating a certain order. This order underlines a certain type of selection, some things will necessarily be left out or overlooked, nevertheless it helps us create a certain map, with the help of which we can guide ourselves through reality. Both language and culture are thus vitally important means to help people relate to the world. They are basically tools for survival.

But language and culture do not reflect the world separately. They do it together in a symbiosis. Language is intimately linked with 'the culture that is', 'the culture that was' and 'the culture of imagination.'

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On the social (synchronic) plane of “the culture that is”, language reflects the “facts” of culture. How does a certain discourse community9 view the world, how do they reflect reality, what practices do they have.

On the historical (diachronic) plane of “the culture that was language” carries in itself the remnants of the past,the memory of how certain meanings were shaped.

On the imaginary plane of “the culture of imagination” language reflects the common dreams of those belonging to the same culture.

“These imaginings are mediated through the language, that over the life of the community reflects, shapes and is a metaphor for its cultural reality.” Kramsch 1998, page 8

Language is not a culture-free code. “Words can also serve as culturally informed icons for the concepts, objects or persons they signify.”10 This accounts for the semantic cohesion of the language of a discourse community. There are certain meanings which cannot be properly understood unless you are familiar with the “semantic pool” of a certain cultural community.

“…the semantic meanings of the code reflect the way in which the speech community views itself and the world. They are intimately linked to the group's experiences, feelings and thoughts. They are non-arbitrary expression of their desire to understand and act upon their world….Native speakers do not feel in their body that words are

arbitrary signs. For them words are part of the natural, physical fabric of their lives. Seen from the perspective of the user words and thoughts are one.” Kramsch 1998 pages 20, 21

In order to give an example let us take the words bug in English and bogár in Hungarian. Their basic meanig is the same in both languages namely a type of insect, a beetle. Though when an English person hears the world bug he/she will certainly associate negative connotations with it. A bug can also be a disease causing germ, a small, hidden microphone used to listen to somebody secretly, a fault in the computer system. Not to mention the possibility of a person bugging you which is highly unpleasant.

9Discourse community = a group of people who share the same language and culture thus sharing one interpretation/discourse of reality (The term is used with this meaning here)

10Kramsch 1998, page 18

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On the other hand, the Hungarian bogár always wakes pleasant associations in the mind of a Hungarian native. We think of the ladybird (katicabogár), a beautiful shade of brownish black colour (bogárszín) and our beloved whom we may call bogárkám.(dearie)

I presume no English person would appreciate if somebody called him or her : 'my bug.'

The above examples clearly show how culturally loaded the meaning of a world can be. Our cultural context, the “semantic pool” we scoop our meanings from influences the way we see the world around us.

“Despite the general translatability from one language to another, there will always be an incommensurable residue of untranslatable culture associated with the linguistic structures of any given language.” Kramsch 1998, page 12

Considering all the above the question necessarily arises:

Given the interdependence of language and thought, how far does language (as a culturally loaded code) influence our cognitive processes and thus our ability to interpret the world?

To what extent are the world views and mental activities of members of a social group shaped by or dependent on the language they use?

And this is how we get to the much debated theory of linguistic relativity.

2.2.1The theory of linguistic relativity

The theory of linguistic relativity is an influential hypothesis that concerns the relationship between the language we speak and the way we think and act. It is also commonly known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Edward Sapir and Lee Whorf being the scholars who developed the theory. According to Edward Sapir language determines the way we think. Our ideas of the world are shaped by the language habits of the group.

“Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activities ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society….The fact of the matter is that

the ‘real world is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group….The worlds in which different

societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached….We see, hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because of the language habits of our

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community predisposes certain choices of interpretation.”Sapir 1949, page 162

Benjamin Whorf has extensively studied the languages of the native Americans like the Hopi and came up with the following conclusions: language and thought reinforce each other, language not only reflects but also shapes reality, grammar is not universal but particular to each language. Here comes his most widely cited and contested argument:

“..the background linguistic system (in other words the grammar) of each language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather is itself the shaper of ideas, the program and guide for the individual’s mental activity, for his analysis of impressions, for his synthesis of his mental stock in trade….We dissect nature

along the lines laid down by our native languages. The categories and types that we isolate from the world of phenomena, we do not find there because they stare every observer in the face; on the contrary , the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds – and this means largely the linguistic systems in our minds. We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way- an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language. The agreement is, of course, an implicit and unstated one, but its terms are absolutely obligatory; we cannot talk at all except by subscribing to the organization and classification of data which the agreement decrees…..

From this fact proceeds what I have called ’linguistic relativity principle’ , which means in informal terms, that users of markedly different grammars are pointed by their grammars toward different types of observations and different evaluations of externally similar acts of observation, and hence are not equivalent as observers, but must arrive at somewhat different views of the world.” Whorf 1956 pages 212, 213, 221

According to this quotation the categories we operate with, our “mental stock in trade'” are strongly related to the language we use. Ideas are shaped by grammar itself.

This so-called strong version of the hypothesis states that:

The language we speak determines the way we think.

It says that basically we are prisoners of our own languages. If this was true it would be impossible for individuals to learn a foreign language and acquire near-native competence. If the language we speak determined the way we think in such a strong manner it would be impossible for us to translate one language to another. But languages are largely translatable.

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It is clear thus that our cognitive abilities are not limited in this strong sense by our native language.

However there is a weaker version to this hypothesis, namely that:

The language we speak influences the way we think.

This idea is embraced by many scholars and several experiments were made worldwide to prove this hypothesis true. According to the objectivist view on language the world is pre-structured and the conceptual system reflects the structure of the world. Language with its categories merely expresses or reflects the conceptual system. This view is deeply rooted in Enlightenment philosophy and does not give terrain to any variations due to language or culture. The experimentalist thinkers on the other hand have an entirely different view on the language- mind relationship. According to them the world comes largely unstructured, it is observers (humans) who do most of the structuring. A large part of this structuring is due to the linguistic system (which is a subsystem of culture). Language can shape, and according to the principle of linguistic relativity, does shape the way we think.

One example to demonstrate this would be the above presentation of the different connotations of the word bug respectively bogár in English and Hungarian. As a further example let me just mention here one of the findings of some experiments conducted by Lera Borodsky and her colleagues in 2003.11

The experiment wanted to investigate whether grammatical gender influences speaker's mental representations of objects. Speakers of German and Spanish were asked to assign attributes to nouns that had opposite genders in German and Spanish. The word that corresponds to the English key is masculine in German (der Schlüssel) and feminine in Spanish (la llave). Speakers of German were more likely to describe the key as hard, jagged, metal, heavy and useful, whereas speakers of Spanish were more likely to use words as golden, intricate, little, lovely, shiny and tiny in their descriptions. This finding shows that gender clearly influences the speaker's mental representations of objects, which is one form of thinking.

The Hungarian cognitive linguist Zoltán Kövecses in his highly interesting book: Language Mind and Culture outlines a theory of the relationships that hold between the above phenomena, namely language, mind and culture on the basis of some recent findings in

Described in Kovecses 2006, pages 84-85

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cognitive linguistics. In the following sub-chapter I will attempt to outline some of his basic ideas and findings.

2.2.2 Prototypes, frames, metaphors, and linguistic relativity

2.2.2.1 Prototypes

One of the essential abilities of the human beings is the ability to categorize the objects and events around us. By creating conceptual categories we make sense of the world. Categorization has survival value. The conceptual categories we establish are the backbone of language and thought. According to recent findings of cognitive linguistics what holds our categories together are not the essential features (as it was considered by the classical view on categorization) but rather “family resemblance relations”.12 The metaphor of family resemblance was used to suggest that membership in a family is not defined by a fix set of properties but rather a family is held together by sharing some properties with some members of the family and sharing other properties with other members. The classical view of categorization thus should be replaced by prototype categorization. In this new view categories are defined not in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions but with respect to prototypes and various family resemblance relations to these prototypes. Prototypical can mean culture dependent. While apple is a central member of the category fruit in Europe or the USA and date is not, we can experience the reverse in Tunisia or other North African Countries. The prototypes we have for categories are greatly determined by the context and goal of categorization. This has deep implications for intercultural understanding. If prototypes differ from culture to culture this will affect the way we understand other groups. Cultural differences in both concrete and abstract concepts may be a source of mutual misunderstanding. The awareness of this is obviously crucial for the effective use of a foreign language with native speakers. Here again we can relate back to the bug/ bogár example. I the unaware native Hungarian might gently call my English boyfriend “ my bug” and offend him. Of course, misunderstandings can occur on much larger levels and can even cause tensions between countries or nations.

Most of the prototypes we have are culturally determined prototypes. Our mental representations of categories are both cognitive and cultural in nature.

12Term used by Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953

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2.2.2.2 Frames

In the early 1970s three scientists working in different fields (Ervin Goffman, sociologist, Charles Fillmore, linguist and Marvin Minsky, expert in artificial intelligence) completely oblivious of each other have discovered the same thing, namely the fact that we organize our knowledge about the world in conceptual frames. Every word is defined in our brains relative to some frame. Frames are the representations of the large amount of underlying knowledge we have about a concept. 'A frame is a structured mental representation of a conceptual category.'13

Let us take for example the frame of RESTAURANT. This frame illustrates the kind of knowledge we have about restaurants. Within this frame are roles : waiter, customer, cook, etc., there are relationships between the roles and there is a script of the events that usually occur in a restaurant.

Meanings are related to frames so that the meaning of a word seems to depend on the kind of frame within which we conceptualize it. Let us take the word Friday. If we think of it as part of a SUPERSTITION frames is an unlucky day, as part of a WEEKEND frame it is the day before the weekend, while as part of a WORKWEEK frame it is the last day of the week.

An important property of frames is that they can be idealized in several ways. Often what the frame defines does not actually exist in the world. This feature of frames makes them open to cross-cultural variations. Some particular frames may only exist in one or a few cultures and not in others. For example, the notion of our kind of calendar cycle is a peculiarity of the western world. The frames that we use are not only cognitive in nature but also cultural constructs. In some literature they are also called cultural models. Frames represent a huge amount of shared knowledge that makes societies, subcultures and social groups of various cultural formations. We can think of culture as a complex network of frames.

13Kovecses 2006 page 64

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2.2.2.3 Metaphors

Language is not only included in semantic structures though but also in idiomatic expressions that both reflect and direct the way we think. Our most ordinary conceptual system is metaphorical in nature.

"The generalizations governing poetic metaphorical expressions are not in language, but in thought: They are general mappings across conceptual domains. Moreover, these general principles which take the form of conceptual mappings, apply not just to novel poetic expressions, but to much of ordinary everyday language. In short, the locus of metaphor is not in language at all, but in the way we conceptualize one mental domain in terms of another."

(George Lakoff, 1992)

George Lakoff 14 talks about primary or elementary metaphors which are imprinted in our brain by experience even before we learn to speak. These metaphors are largely universal. For example: more is up and less is down, warmth is closeness and cold is distance, love is nurture etc. in most languages.

Frame semantics talks about conceptual metaphors. A conceptual metaphor is actually a correspondence between frames. Kovecses presents such a correspondence:15

JOURNEY (source domain) LIFE (target domain)

traveler →person leading a life

journey/motion towards a destination →leading a life (with a purpose)

destination →purpose of life

Obstacles (in the way of motion) →difficulties (in life)

Distance covered →progress made

path/ way of the journey →the manner/ way of living

Life is seen as a journey in English but also in many other languages. Conceptual metaphors are largely universal.

Although the primary/conceptual metaphors are largely universal there are several cross cultural variations. Different languages predispose speakers to view reality in different ways

14Idea Framing, Metaphors and Your Brain, lecture on youtube

15Kovecses 2006, page 116

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by using different metaphors. I would like to present some cross cultural variations of metaphors based on the findings of a research made in 2001 at the Philips University in Marburg. They were investigating domain mappings across cultures. Let us take the same elementary metaphor: Life is a journey and get a more thorough view at one of its elements, namely: problems are obstacles in one's way. The metaphorical expressions for this concept in different languages are:

English: to be on a bumpy road

German: einen steinigen Weg for sich haben (to have a stony road ahead)

Turkish:to walk a thorny/ steep path

Swedish: a stony path

Arabic: The way to paradise is paved with cactuses.

Chinese: a path/ road bent like a curve16

We can see that although the main conceptual metaphor of life is a journey is present in all the above languages there are considerable variations as far as the realization of the metaphor in the separate languages is concerned.

Conceptual metaphors play a very important role in the cognitive processes. These cross cultural variations show that the speakers of the different languages invoke (in this case slightly) different images in their minds. The difference in the imagery is clearly due to cultural factors of diachronic nature.

Another major way in which cultures differ is the different source domains that are used to structure a particular target domain. I would like to illustrate this with a few examples from the same study.17

Target domain: problems/ difficulties/ danger

Arabic: the world is black in my eyes (to be pessimistic)

French:to see in all colours (to go through a difficult time)

16Callies and Zimmerman editors 2001/2002

17Callies and Zimmerman editors 2001/2002

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to walk through the desert (to go through a difficult time)

to have a knife on one's throat (to be in a desperate situation)

Japanese: to have a headache (to have problems)

to be locked from eight sides (to be in a desperate situation)

to have a stone in one's stomach (to be depressed)

Chinese: to let someone wear small shoes (to cause someone problems)

Greek: to walk uphill (to have many problems)

I have to jump over the cliff (to master a problem)

The differences in the source domains for similar target domains may lead to differences in certain cognitive tasks that involve the target. Difference in metaphorical language seems to shape the way people speaking different languages think about the same target domain. Language habits appear to shape the way we think.

If we think of culture as a set of frames, then it seems that a large part of culture is constituted by frames that are understood in terms of other frames. For example, the understanding of cultural symbols largely depends on the conceptual metaphors we bring to their understanding.

Cultures differ in and can be characterized by the conceptual metaphors that they make real on a large scale. Moreover, the metaphors may lead to ideologies that may become cultural practice.

This brief presentation of the ways in which language expresses cultural reality was in fact intended to raise awareness of the complexity of the issue. I think that these facts are important to be known by everybody who attempts to learn a language let alone teach it.

As Gumperz and Levinson put it:

“Every student of language or society should be familiar with the essential idea of linguistic relativity, the idea that culture, through language affects the way we think…” Gumperz and Levinson 1996, page 1

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The facts mentioned above may account for the phenomenology of struggling with the second language but the awareness of them might make language learning a much more challenging and educative experience for students and teachers alike.

Learning a foreign language thus inevitably encompasses a change in one's world view and this usually brings about tolerance, understanding and openness. As Fantini puts it:

(Becoming bilingual and bicultural) “ involves more than the mastery of language as a tool, but grasping how the components themselves are reconfigured. The result is a transformation that affects one's view of the world changing and expanding.” (1995, page 12)

A language teacher should be aware that by drawing the attention of the students on the 'peculiarities' of the target language as opposed to their own. By highlighting differences in vocabulary and grammar they actually teach culture. They open windows towards a new, larger understanding of the world. Here I would like again to quote Claire Kramsch:

“The Babel Threat is not the splintering off in mutually unintelligible languages, but the monopoly of one language over the others……Being human means working through the shoals of mutual

misunderstandings across incommensurable languages…each language provides a uniquely communal and uniquely individual means by which human beings apprehend the world and one another.” (1998, page 77)

This being said there is yet another aspect of the relationship of language and culture to be tackled. Till now we have been talking about meaning as sign. The next step is to show this sign at work and present meaning as action, the pragmatics of language and culture.

2.3 Language embodies cultural reality

The previous chapter was designed to illustrate the fact that language as a system of signs is loaded with cultural meaning. The relationship between language and culture though has yet another aspect. When put to action language becomes the embodiment of cultural reality reflecting the socio-cultural norms of a certain discourse community. One of the most typical assumptions by second language learners is that they can just transfer how they say and understand language functions from their native language to the target language. This assumption is on the basis of most of the difficulties in communication between members of different language and cultural communities.

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Let me just give one example: If I told an English speaking person: “You will borrow me your car tomorrow, won't you?” My sentence would be correct and my interlocutor would understand my intention perfectly but most probably he would be offended and would consider me rude. I have very scarce chances to get that car. My sentence was totally out of line. I transgressed the law of appropriateness. This is not how one should perform the speech act of a request in English. The choice of language is very important in social interaction. If the person was my close friend or family member I could have said: “Can you lend me your car, please?” If the person was not that close to me, just a good acquaintance then I probably should have said: “Would you lend me your car, please?”

Meaning does not only lie in the semantics of the words but also in the pragmatics, the action in context. And this context is not just context of situation but also context of culture, and very much so.

“Meaning is never achieved once and for all, it must be conquered anew in every utterance through the verbal actions and interactions of speakers and hearers, writers and readers….cultural meaning is

created through the actions and interactions of speakers in social contexts.”

“Meaning is created not only through what speakers say to one another, but through what they do with words in order to respond to the demands of their environment.”Kramsch 1998, page 26, 27

The transmission of meaning depends not only on the linguistic knowledge of the speaker/writer and listener/reader but also on the context. Successful communication entails knowledge about the socio-cultural norms, about the status of the involved, the inferred intent of the speaker, and also the ability to put this knowledge into practice.

Pragmatic awareness is one of the most challenging aspects of language learning. It does not only include awareness of the appropriate verbal signs for the different speech acts but also awareness of the para-verbal elements like stress, intonation, tempo, laughter, and the non-verbal ones: gaze, gesture, body posture, deixis, tone of voice. The above are all contextualization cues and evoke the cultural background and social expectations necessary to interpret speech.19 Between people from different cultural backgrounds the same contextualization cues may lead to different inferences and may cause serious

18Term used by Kramsch, 1998 It describes the expected forms of behaviour.

19See Kramsch 1998

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misunderstandings since they tend to be attributed to personal attitudes or character traits. Thus in order to achieve pragmatic appropriateness it is very important to be aware of the culturally shaped frames of expectation of the interlocutor. One has to be aware of things like: how to indicate status (social deixis), how to perceive one's role as a participant in an interaction (footing), how to avoid situations that might threaten his own and his interlocutors’ integrity and dignity (protecting face), what conversational style is appropriate in a given context.

“Language in use is a cultural act not only because it reflects the ways in which one individual acts on another individual through such speech acts as thanking, greeting, complimenting, that are variously accomplished in various cultures. Language use is a cultural act because its users co-construct the very social roles that define them as members of a discourse community.” Kramsch 1998, page 38

Finally, we do not only communicate in speech but we also do it in writing. Written communication is also an embodiment of the cultural reality. There are rules that govern the appropriateness of the written text and these are dependent on the socio-cultural background. According to Claire Kramsch:

literacy “has to do with the mastery of, or fluent control over social uses of print language…..it is the capacity to understand and

manipulate the social and cultural meaning of print language in thoughts, feelings and actions.” Kramsch 1998, page 56

She argues that although genre is often considered as universal typology it is in fact socially sanctioned and dependent on being perceived in a certain context of situation or culture.

“Genre plays a central role in the definition of culture….It is

society's way of defining and controlling meaning.” Kramsch 1998, page 63

She gives a very pregnant example of cultural misunderstanding based on the differences of how literary genre is perceived in different cultures.

“Narrative irony, as found in the Western novel, is not a familiar text feature in a culture that expects narrative truth to be identical to real-life truth. (Shi'a Islam). Those who use novelistic irony and fiction to criticize Islamic practices, like Salman Rushdie did, are read at face value and condemned by those who have the authority to be the textual gate-keepers of their culture.” Kramsch 1998, page 63

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The above make it clear that teaching the conventions of the written text in the target culture is also a very important aspect of language teaching if we want our students to achieve pragmatic coherence in their writing and to be able to interpret written texts against the cultural background of the target language community.

This second chapter attempted to deal with the very complex relationship of language and culture. In my view outlining some theoretical background on the topic was important in order to be able to single out the facts that justify the idea of teaching culture in a language classroom.

The logic of this presentation was based on the idea of Claire Kramsch, who talks about three aspects of the relationship of language and culture. I presented the issues connected to the three aspects separately.

The next chapter is meant to link theory to practice and it will deal with the issues of teaching culture in the language classroom.

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3.Teaching Culture in the Foreign Language Classroom

After trying to find a definition of the concept of culture and presenting the complexity of the relationship between language and culture earlier in this paper, this chapter will focus on the place of cultural studies in the language classroom. The previous chapter made it clear that given the strong interdependency of language and culture the presence of the latter in the process of language teaching is not just desirable but also unavoidable. Culture is always present when one comes into contact with a foreign language whether this presence is acknowledged and dealt with or not. Michael Byram calls this 'the hidden curriculum of foreign language teaching.'20

“ Foreign language study expands the linguistic area of experience by affording interesting linguistic comparisons. It also offers insight into another culture and as such is concerned with the human and social area of experience.” Byram 1989

However, as Claire Kramsch rightfully observes, there is a dichotomy of language and culture as part of the heritage of the language teaching profession.

“…culture is often seen as a mere information conveyed by the language, not as a feature of language itself.” Kramsch 1993 page8

Also, in her book called 'Teaching Language in Context Alice Omaggio gives a somewhat ridiculed set of approaches to the teaching of culture in the contemporary language classroom. According to her these are the ways language teachers try to deal with the issue:

The Frankenstein Approach: A taco from here, a flamenco dancer from there, a gaucho from here, a bullfight from there.

The 4-F Approach: Folk dances, festivals, fairs and food.

The Tour Guide Approach: The identification of monuments, rivers and cities.

The "By-the-Way" Approach: Sporadic lectures or bits of behavior selected indiscriminately to emphasize sharp differences.21

As funny as these categories might seem they do truthfully describe most of what is happening in language classes nowadays.

20Byram 1989 pg 1

21Omaggio 2001

Again Claire Kramsch, who is one of the international gurus in this field, emphasizes the importance of the strong link between language and culture and advocates the necessity of a better awareness of its true nature among the language teaching professionals.

“One of the major ways in which culture manifests itself is through language…Culture in the final analysis is always linguistically mediated membership into a discourse community, that is both real and imagined…This view of the social construction of culture through language has been researched by sociolinguists and by scholars in the general field of cultural studies. However, it is not a view that is familiar to language teachers, who tend to consider culture as composed of attitudes and ideas existing somewhere out there independent of language.” Kramsch 1995

Although language teachers might not yet be entirely aware of the new role they are expected to fit, this role is busily being designed for them by both applied linguists and policy makers. The necessity to an awareness of the presence of the cultural element in the language classroom and the conscious incorporation of it is determined by both internal and external factors.

On one hand it has become increasingly obvious that genuinely successful communication cannot occur without being aware of the sociocultural background of the interlocutor. People from different cultural backgrounds have different frames of expectation. It has also become clear that there is educational value intrinsic to the teaching of a foreign language. As Byram puts it:

…”Such experience constitutes a step towards acquiring the flexibility of mind, the independence of attachment to a single language…This bilingual vision potentially enables pupils to acquire a greater depth of vision of the world, another dimension of experience, which seeing through two languages appears to create. “ Byram 1989 page 14

He claims that there are three strands in foreign language teaching: language in use, awareness of the nature of language understanding of both the foreign and the native culture

“Each of these (are) integral to the contribution of language teaching to learner's general education and each is interdependent with the others. For example learner's awareness of the nature of language is heightened by the experience of using a foreign language, just as understanding

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of foreign and native culture facilitates efficient and sensitive use of the foreign language” Byram 1989 page 23

On the other hand with the advance of technology and the globalization of the world many things have changed and this will increasingly affect the language teaching profession. There is a need for a new type of person who is able to find his/her way against the background of a global market within multilingual, multicultural, multiracial societies. Although the image of this person is not clear cut yet, everybody agrees that the language teaching profession has to play a major role in shaping it. We are expected to do much more than just form proficient language users. It is considered that the nature of our profession enables us to become agents of social change. It will be mostly our duty to become catalysts for cultural competence. We will have to educate people who are aware, open, tolerant and able to negotiate against different cultural backgrounds.

Having said this I would like to present the brief history of teaching culture in the language classroom before going into more detail as far as current theories, policies and practical considerations are concerned.

3.1 History of Culture and Language Teaching in the Western World

Languages have always been part of general education. In the classical period of the 17th 18th and the beginning of the 19th century classical Greek and Latin were taught in order to enable the social elite to get to know the classical Greek and Roman cultures on which western civilization was built. By learning these languages they got a passport to universal culture, as it was considered at the time. Since the main focus was the ability to read classical philosophy and literature the method employed in the teaching and learning process was fit to reach this aim. It was the classical grammar translation method, which emphasized grammatical rules, reading and writing. Later on, in the early days of 'modern language' teaching the aim was the same. Languages were learned with the purpose to get direct access to the 'high culture', to great literature written in the target language. The method stayed the same as well.

The needs soon changed though. With the advance of technology and the increasing opportunities to travel at the end of the 19th century the emphasis had switched towards acquiring the spoken language for purposes of communication with the native speakers.

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There was a split between the teaching of language and the teaching of literate culture. Language learning became an acquisition of skills. It was not perceived as having any cultural value in itself. Language was simply seen as a system of linguistic codes which needs to be mastered. It became obvious though that the classical grammar translation method did not work well enough to serve this purpose. Language teaching became dominated by a constant search for methods. The growth of linguistics as a field in its own right helped this quest by providing the theoretical background for the different experiments. The direct method, the audio-lingual method the different humanistic approaches to language teaching and learning precipitated one after the other. Learning a language became to be perceived as a surprisingly difficult task. The complexity and difficulty of acquiring the spoken language became clear. The sole focus of language teaching became language itself. The cultural element was completely considered less important. Language teaching got separated from the teaching of literature and from the teaching of culture as well. Subjects like French 'civilization', German 'Landeskunde', English 'background studies' have developed separately from language instruction. These subjects did not only deal with the big C, the so-called high culture (the sum total of a people’s achievements and contributions to civilization: art, music, literature, architecture, technology, scientific discoveries, and philosophy) but they also tackled the elements of the small c culture, which include the behavioural patterns and lifestyles of the people: when and what they eat, how they make a living, the way they organize their society, the attitudes they express toward friends and members of their families, how they act in different situations, the traditions they must observe. In one word, all the basic categories and common concepts mentioned by Tylor.22

Although some random elements of culture have appeared inside the language classroom as well from time to time, the focus stayed on the four language skills speaking, writing, listening and reading along with grammar, which was considered to be a very important background element present in all the four skills.

A change towards a communicative approach to language teaching was underlined by the work of Hymes23 anthropologist and ethnographer. He was the first one to point out that Noam Chomsky's24 theory of linguistic competence lacks the consideration of the

22See chapter one, defining culture

23Hymes 1972

24Chomsky 1965: Aspects of the Theory of Syntax

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most important linguistic abilities. Chomsky makes the distinction between grammatical competence (innate universal grammar) and performance (actual use of language in concrete situations) but (according to Hymes) the ability of being able to produce and comprehend utterances, appropriate to the context in which they are made is also very important and should not be neglected. Hymes considered Chomsky’s monolithic, idealized notion of linguistic competence inadequate and he introduced the broader, more elaborate and extensive concept of communicative competence. Communicative competence includes both linguistic competence or implicit and explicit knowledge of the rules of grammar, and contextual or sociolinguistic knowledge of the rules of language use in context.25 The necessity of teaching language in context was realized by applied linguists as well. The idea of the importance of the context of use of a language (and not just the system of codes as such) has inevitably brought some elements of the socio-cultural background of the foreign language users to the foreground and led to the development of pragmatics both as a field of study and as a backbone on which to build language teaching. The use of pragmatics is especially developed in specialized language teaching like the language of business or that of nursing. It is obvious that appropriateness in language use is crucial both for businessmen negotiating a deal with a foreign business partner or for nurses attending people from different cultural backgrounds.

“…language teaching has been influenced by internal factors above all in the search for methods of teaching, the linguistic dimension, and more by external factors as far as the cultural dimension or cultural awareness is concerned.” Byram &Risager 1999

The advent of the communicative practices in language teaching and the 'communicative competence' as the new goal to achieve were an important first step towards an entirely new view on the place of culture in the language classroom. It is true though that in spite of the many-fold and complex relationship of language and culture (investigated and proven by recent scientific research)26, the major catalysts of the current changes in language teaching policy around the world are of economic and political nature. They are the demands of a globalised world in search for a new equilibrium.

25Yasukata 2003

26See Kovecses 2006

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The next sub chapter will deal with some of the new theories and policies on the position of culture in the language classroom.

3.2 The Position of the Cultural Element in the Language Classroom

As it was mentioned earlier in this paper language theorists and policy makers have already envisaged the role culture should pay in the contemporary and future language classrooms. Their ideas and solutions come from two different directions internal and external but the aim is basically one: successful communication. Communication is a core issue in the present high-tech culture where information is the most valuable asset along with the 'human capital' able to deal with it.

This paper does not intend to tackle the whole range of the issues involved. There is a distinction made in specialized literature between foreign language learning and second language acquisition. The latter refers to the multicultural classroom of immigrant children who live in a host country environment. Clearly the needs and possibilities of such a language class are very much different from that of a foreign language class we experience. In our classes students are of similar culture and language backgrounds and they do not experience the foreign language and culture as an everyday reality, they are not immersed into it. In what follows I am going to simplify things and only refer to this latter type of classroom. For obvious reason this is the type of language classroom I am mostly concerned with.

3.2.1 Theories and Terms

This chapter intends to explore some of the views concerning the place of the cultural element in the foreign language classroom. All of them are based on the same principle, namely that culture and language are inseparable so there is no language teaching without culture teaching. Cultural studies should be integral and well structured part of language teaching and not just some random elements of high or low culture presented and dealt with in an inconsistent way.

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3.2.1.1. Culture as the Fifth Skill

Following the mindset formed by usual language teaching terminology many theorists prefer to use the term 'fifth skill' when referring to culture in the language classroom. Barry Tomalin27, for example, explains that although the term culture covers all the elements listed by Hofstede28 (and the knowledge of these is very useful and often included in textbooks), the concept of culture as a fifth skill in the language classroom covers a wider and somewhat different meaning.

“However, there is also another level of understanding, of culture. This is how you develop cultural sensitivity and cultural skill. This cowers how you build cultural awareness, what qualities you need to deal successfully with other cultures, and how to operate successfully with people from other cultures.” (Tomalin 2008)

He mentions that these skills are especially important for business people but might as well benefit refugee kids and students going abroad for a gap year or on study grants. According to him teaching culture in the classroom should include:

“Cultural knowledge

Knowledge of the culture's institutions, the Big C (history, geography, institutions, literature, art, music, the way of life)

Cultural values

The 'psyche' of the country, what people think is important, it includes things like family, hospitality, patriotism, fairness etc

Cultural behavior

The knowledge of daily routines and behavior, the little c (This includes culturally influenced beliefs and perceptions, especially as expressed through language, but also through cultural behaviors that affect acceptability in the host community.)

Cultural skills

The development of intercultural sensitivity and awareness, uses the English language as a medium of interaction. (after Tomalin 2008 and Tomalin and Stempleski 1995)

Interestingly enough, as it can be noticed from the cultural skills part of this list of elements English is considered as a lingua franca, which should help mediate differences between cultures. Cross-cultural interactions, which do not include English are not considered. Of course this is just Barry Tomalin's approach and does not include

27Culture-fifth-language-skill, September 2008

28See chapter two on defining the term culture

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any person who uses the term fifth skill for the cultural awareness element in the classroom. The term fifth skill pre-determines the concept it covers. Teaching culture may be seen and considered a skill like the other four: reading, listening, speaking and writing. It is compared with the knowledge of grammar, which in its turn is also considered by some a skill which intersects and overlaps with the other four. As Vernier says:

“…course planning and course design should integrate the language skills within a context of meaningful cultural learning when teaching within a communicative network.” (Vernier and all, page6)

Thus the fifth skill will become part of an integrated skills approach adding a particular dimension to each of the other four skills. The main goal is a very practical and pragmatic one. Students should be able to operate and negotiate efficiently in different cultural contexts. The educational value of the process is not considered. There are no educational goals set.

This type of presence of the cultural element in the language classroom is a giant leap ahead if we consider what the classical view entailed. The important role culture plays in successful communication has finally been recognized. The approach has its limitations though. These limitations are inherent in the terminology used. Cultural awareness is considered a skill, a tool for enhanced abilities in communication. The cognitive and educational values of the presence of culture in the classroom receive no focus. Moreover there is yet another aspect which is completely neglected. This approach pays no attention on the complex relationship between language and culture. Culture is seen as information conveyed by the language and not a feature of language itself. Barry Tomalin's idea of the English language as the lingua franca to transmit all the cultural information from all the different cultures fits in this mindset perfectly.

In what follows a somewhat different view will be explored.

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3.2.1.2 The Intercultural Dimension or Intercultural Language Learning

The terms 'intercultural dimension' or intercultural language learning' are used both by the European specialist and language policy designer Michael Byram and by Anthony Liddicoat and his co-workers who have envisaged and designed the Australian language policy documents. Both terms describe the same conception on the importance and role of culture in the language classroom. It is an interdisciplinary effort on the part of scholars in the sciences of education to link language education to the cultural literacy. The theoretical background for this approach was shaped by the current reality of a globalised world and by the work of scientists like Claire Kramsch, Michael Byram, Anthony Liddicoat and others.

In her book called: Context and Culture in Language Teaching Claire Kramsch revisits the idea of culture as a fifth skill in the language classroom and says:

“…culture is difference, variability and always a potential source of conflict when one culture enters into contact with another. Culture in language learning is not an expendable fifth skill, tacked on , so to speak to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading and writing. It 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 communication competence, challenging their ability to make sense of the world around them….understanding and shared meaning when it occurs, is a

small miracle, brought about by the leap of faith that we call communication across cultures.” Kramsh 1993, pages 1,2

She also proposes a different view on the relationship between language and culture inside the language classroom.

“…If, however language is seen as social practice, culture becomes the very core of language teaching. Cultural awareness must then be viewed both as enabling language proficiency and as being the outcome of reflection on language proficiency.”Kramsch 1993, page 8

In her view teaching a language becomes a challenge, this challenge being a call for dialogue between the speakers of different languages who struggle to keep the channels of communication open in spite or because of the ideological differences they recognize and maintain between them.

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“an act of faith in the willingness and ability of people to bring about change through dialogue.” Attinosi and Friedrich in Kramsch 1993 page 2

Intercultural language learning or the intercultural dimension of language learning is about language mind and culture. It considers culture as an entity intrinsic to language and considers language learning a mind changing process. There is an important educational value in language teaching.

“…words in the foreign language refer to meanings in a particular culture creating a semantic relationship which the learner needs to comprehend (… )cultural learning as a result of language learning broadens the horizons.” Byram 1989 page 4

“Tolerance of other cultures will grow more readily if pupils experience, however briefly and fragmentarily their own culture as strange and other and not necessarily the norm.”Byram 1989, page 20

Language learning should raise pupil's interest and curiosity about 'otherness'. They should see the relationship between their own and other cultures and acquire an awareness of themselves and their own cultures seen from other people's perspectives.

“the goal of learning is to decentre learners from their own culture based assumptions and to develop an intercultural identity as a result of an engagement with an additional culture. Here the borders between self and other are explored, problematised and redrawn.” Liddicoat 2005

Adopting the norms of the target culture is not the aim of intercultural language learning. Learners should not be assimilated to the target culture but rather develop an intercultural position that moves beyond their own culture but is not always like the target culture. This position is often called 'the third place' (Kramsch 1993, Crozet et al.1999)

“The third place is a position between the two cultures from which one can interact comfortably with people from the other culture while maintaining one’s own identity. It is more than merely learning about a culture and comparing it to one’s own. It is the ongoing development of skills to effectively negotiate the differences and enhance mutual understanding between the first and the target languages and cultures and a reflective capacity to deal with cultural difference and to modify behaviour when needed. “(ALPLP document, page 17)

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This 'third place' also called 'third culture' is negotiated through the give and take of classroom dialogue. It is the role of the language teacher to mediate between the learner's culture and the target culture and help the students to become mediators themselves.

“ The intercultural dimension in language teaching aims to develop learners as intercultural speakers or mediators who are able to engage with complexity and multiple identities and to avoid the stereotyping which accompanies perceiving someone through a single identity. It is based on percieving the interlocutor as an individulal whose qualities are to be discovered, rather than as a representative of an externally ascribed identity. Intercultural communication is communication on the basis of respect for individuals and equality of human rights as the democratic basis for social interaction.” (Byram et al 2002 page 11)

The intercultural dimension does not only see culture on the one nation one culture level. It takes into consideration the fact that culture is much more diverse and that individuals belong to different discourse communities even within the same national culture.

Moreover, since English is so widely spoken it has acquired a special status as a lingua franca. Thus although the special connection of language and culture is known and should be respected and exploited during the English lessons one should not underestimate the great amount of possibilities lying in the special status of the language. There is loads of information in English and there many people from all the different cultures who speak it. English lessons thus can be easily used to stimulate students’ interest in other cultures in general.. As Michael Byram puts it:

“ Particularly where the language they teach is used as a lingua franca, or where it is the language of several different countries, teacher's concern for the cultural dimension may be translated into encouraging learners to explore communication and understanding in many different ways, not just through one language and communication with one group of native speakers.” Byram and Risager 1999 page 4

The Australian government language policy document29 expresses a similar idea:

“Learners engaged in intercultural language learning develop a reflective stance towards language and culture, (…)

29Liddicoat et al. 2003

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specifically as instances of first, second, and additional languages and cultures, and generally as understandings of the variable ways in which language and culture exist in the world.” (page 33)

This is the main goal intercultural language learning is aiming at. This reflective stance towards language and culture should become part of the student's way of thinking, of perceiving the world around. It should enable them to be open and acquire new information. The ability to learn beyond the classroom is probably more important than any particular information that students may learn about another culture during their school years. Learning how to learn about culture means that, as people engage with new aspects of culture, they develop their knowledge and awareness and find ways of acting according to their new learning.

It becomes clear from the above that the intercultural dimension of language learning transcends the classical view on language teaching. The purpose of it is much larger than just forming proficient users of different languages. Culture is not only present in order to enhance communication but it is also meant to bring about positive change in student's ways of thinking and personality. A person who possesses intercultural competence has accepted that one's own and other's behavior is culturally determined and there is no right way to do things. This person is able to value both his culture and that of others. He can use language to explore culture and to find personal solutions in intercultural interaction. He uses his native culture as a resource to learn about other cultures and is able to develop an intercultural style and identity of his own.30

Both views on the presence of the cultural element in the language classroom clearly reflect the fact that there has been a shift of paradigm as far as the relationship of culture and the language classroom is concerned. Considered as marginal and additional for quite a long time culture now has come to be seen as a core element in language teaching, be it for language proficiency reasons or higher, educational goals. While the concept of culture as a fifth skill emphasizes the importance of the knowledge of the cultural background for real language proficiency and effective communication the concept of intercultural language learning links language teaching and cultural literacy in order to shape a new mindset necessary for a changed world.

In the following sub-chapter of this paper I will present some of the language policy documents that reflect this change of paradigm, these new ideas.

30Description of intercultural competence based on Liddicoat 2005

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3.2.2. Culture and Language Policy around the World

Educational policy always reflects the changes within society. Schools are meant to shape children the way society needs them and wants them. While the industrial world concentrates on technology, the post-industrial world praises human capital. 'Investing in people' became a major slogan. We can also increasingly hear the terms 'global citizens' and 'critical, independent lifelong learners'.

The 21-st century needs a new type of person, somebody, who is able to cope with the challenges of globalization. The term globalization was defined by the sociologist Anthony Giddens as follows

‘the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa’ Giddens 199031

Indeed the spread and connectedness of production, communication and technologies across the world is amazingly powerful. The rapid technological changes which have taken place in the latter part of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century have been central to the process of globalization. Radio, television and telephone are standard devices in many homes around the world. Fibre-optic and satellite telecommunications facilitate the relaying of information across the globe in a matter of seconds; video-conferencing and teleconferencing, the advent of the internet and new software technologies, and business and tourism travel all bring into contact on a daily basis people from a diverse range of languages and cultures. These developments have also been accompanied by movements in populations unprecedented in world history as people relocated for social, political and economic reasons. This movement of populations is significantly altering the social and linguistic mix of the destination countries, which are becoming increasingly multilingual and multicultural. This trend towards globalization is making new demands on the nature of interactions that take place. The skills required in these more and more complex interactions are completely new as well. It is clear though that language is playing a central role since it is through language that people interact and construct meaning.

31The Consequences of Modernity, Standford University Press, Cited online at: http://www.infed.org/biblio/globalization.htm INFED (Informal Education Homepage, George Williams College London, accessed on 05.08. 2012)

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No wonder that global changes have brought about change in the language teaching policies worldwide. Even in the big countries like The United States and Australia, where English is the first language of the country (interestingly enough the US does not have an official language) educational policy makers have realized the importance of learning languages. Not to talk about Europe where the European Union formed from nation states with different national and regional languages brought about the need for plurilingualism as a means for achieving the super-national identity of European Citizenship.

3.2.2.1 Australia and The United States of America

In Australia Intercultural Language Learning is really big on agenda. It has been largely theorized and has been introduced in the curriculum. In July 2003 there was filed a Report on Intercultural Language Learning prepared by the Research Centre for Languages and Cultures Education at the University of South Australia and the School of Languages and Linguistics at Griffith University.32 This report tackles the concept in very much detail quoting a large list of background literature. They also propose practical solutions for the language curriculum as far as the principles, aims, teaching methods and assessment are concerned. They state the following:

“In intercultural language learning, language, culture, and learning are fundamentally interrelated concepts. Intercultural language learning involves developing with learners an understanding of their own language(s) and culture(s) in relation to an additional language and culture. It is a dialogue that allows for reaching a common ground for negotiation to take place, and where variable points of view are recognised, mediated, and accepted. … An individual’s multiple sociocultural and linguistic memberships, specifically and generally in this world, provide a variable perspective on identity with multiple possibilities for bridging across and interrelating with other variably constructed identities. The teaching of language and culture is, then, an intra- and inter-personal process that leads to an understanding of the variable ways language and culture affect how we see the world, how we communicate about the world, and how we reflect upon

32Online at: http://www1.curriculum.edu.au/nalsas/pdf/intercultural.pdf Australian Government, Department of Education, Science and Training, National Asian Language and Studies in Australian Schools Strategy, accessed on: 01.08.2019

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seeing and communicating. “(Report on intercultural language learning, Australian Government document 2003, page 46)

Australians put special emphasis on Asia literacy. Mostly due to geographical reasons. Asian countries are the ones Australia mainly comes in contact with both as far as economics and socio-cultural encounters are concerned. quotes the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (2008) states the following:

Global integration and international mobility have increased rapidly in the past decade. As a consequence, new and exciting opportunities for Australians are emerging… India, China and other Asian nations are growing and their influence on the world is increasing. Australians need to become ‘Asia literate’, engaging and building strong relationships with Asia.” 33

Asia literacy and intercultural language learning are strongly linked in Australia. This fact is illustrated among others by the document called 'Getting Started with Intercultural Language Learning'34, which is a resource document for schools based on theory linked to description of classroom practice in Asian language classes.

Australian documents connected to Intercultural Language Learning often quote Major General Peter Cosgrove, an important Australian public figure who said:

“Language skills and cultural sensitivity will be the currency of the [new] world order.”35

In The United States language teaching and culture teaching are interlinked as well. Although English, that is considered the lingua franca of our days, is the main language of the country educational policy makers have realized the importance of learning languages in the shaping of a future generation. The National Standards in Foreign Language Education, Preparing for the 21-st Century36 drafted in the year 1996 has the following Statement of Philosophy:

33Cited in The National Statement on Asia Literacy in Australia 2011-2012, online at:

http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/teachingandlearning/files/pages/Studies%20of

%20Asia/AEF_NationalStatement_20Se.pdf Government of South Australia, Department for Education

and Child Development, accessed on 03.04.2012

34See bibliography

35Getting Started with Intercultural L.L. Page 9

36See bibliography

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“Language and communication are at the heart of the human experience. The United States must educate students who are linguistically and culturally equipped to communicate successfully in a pluralistic American society and abroad. This imperative envisions a future in which ALL students will develop and maintain proficiency in English and at least one other language, modern or classical. Children who come to school from non-English backgrounds should also have opportunities to develop further proficiencies in their first language.”

Statement of Philosophy,Standards for Foreign Language Learning

This statement of philosophy clearly shows the idea that language and culture are interlinked. It also emphasizes the fact that language knowledge and cultural literacy are needed for successful communication both in the multilingual and multicultural society that the US is and abroad. The document identifies five goal areas which they call the “Five C's of Foreign Language education.” These five C's are as follows:

Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, Communities. They have also designed a logo showing five .interlinked circles.

Communication is at the heart of second language study, whether the communication takes place face-to-face, in writing, or across centuries through the reading of literature. Through the study of other languages, students gain a knowledge and understanding of the cultures that use that language and, in fact, cannot truly master the language until they have also mastered the cultural contexts in which the language occurs. Learning languages provides connections to additional bodies of knowledge that may be unavailable to the monolingual English speaker. Through comparisons and contrasts with the language being studied, students develop insight into the nature of language and the concept of culture and realize that there are multiple ways of viewing the world. Together, these elements enable the student of languages to participate in multilingual communities at home and around the world in a variety of contexts and in culturally appropriate ways.” Standards for Foreign Language learning USA 1996/1999 page 3

Later in the document these goals are broken down to standards and progress indicators for the different levels of schooling.

The passage quoted from this policy document clearly shows similar views on the nature of the relationship between language and culture and the role of culture in the 51

language class as the Australian policy document mentioned earlier. Learning a language provides the learner with a special insight into the nature of languages and cultures and helps him to a heightened understanding of the world around. The main aim is thus both a change in attitude and the skill to communicate appropriately and efficiently in different cultural contexts.

As we could see both in Australia and in the United States language learning started to gain its rightful place in the education of the future generations. They see this curriculum area as a possibility to further develop the cognitive skills of their students and to broaden their view on the world. The strong interference between language and culture is clear to those in charge of language policy and becomes one of the main reasons for teaching foreign languages.

Given all these facts one has to recognize though that language learning though increasingly important is not a very high priority issue in either Australia or the United States. Citizens of both of these countries mostly have English as their first language. English being the language most widely used around the world enables them to get almost any information and to communicate with people anywhere around the world.

The situation is entirely different though in the European Union where language learning has become one of the highest priority curriculum issues.

3.2.2.2 Language Policy in the European Union

The European Union is a supranational entity comprising 27 nation states as member states. Given the diversity of languages inside the European Union it is no wonder that teaching and learning languages is of paramount importance. In the European Union plurilingualism is the aim for the future. Mother tongue and at least two other community languages for every citizen of Europe is the norm. The very first White Paper on Education and Training issued in 1995 (Teaching and Learning Towards the Learning Society) has already given special emphasis to the need of foreign language skills, which were considered to encompass cultural skills as well.

Proficiency in several Community languages has become a precondition if citizens of the European Union are to benefit from the occupational and personal opportunities open to them in the border-free Single Market. This language proficiency

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must be backed up by the ability to adapt to working and living environments characterised by different cultures. Languages are also the key to knowing other people. Proficiency in languages helps to build up the feeling of being European with all its cultural wealth and diversity and of understanding between the citizens of Europe…. Contact with another

language is not only compatible with becoming proficient in one's mother tongue, it also makes it easier. It opens the mind,stimulates intellectual agility and, of course, expands people's cultural horizon. Multilingualism is part and parcel of both European identity/citizenship a learning society. (White paper page 51)

Language and culture are shown as strongly connected here. Language learning is seen as a tool to enable people to communicate efficiently in different cultural contexts but also as a means to widen their horizon and turning them into European citizens. European citizenship as it is conceived includes the ability to understand and appreciate the wealth of cultural diversity of the Old Continent and the skills to operate successfully within this diversity.

Later the Council of Europe's 'Common European Framework of Reference' emphasizes the importance of 'intercultural awareness', 'intercultural skills' and 'existential competence' thus introducing the 'Intercultural Dimension' into the aims of language teaching.

Intercultural awareness

Knowledge, awareness and understanding of the relation (similarities and distinctive differences) between the 'world of origin' and the 'world of the target community' produce an intercultural awareness. It is, of course, important to note that intercultural awareness includes an awareness of the regional and social diversity of both worlds. It is also enriched by awareness of a wider range of cultures than those carried by the learner's L1 and L2. This wider awareness helps to place both in context. In addition to objective knowledge,intercultural awareness covers awareness of how each community appears from the perspective of the other, often in the form of national stereotypes.

Intercultural skills and know-how include:

the ability to bring the culture of origin and the foreign culture into relation with each other;

cultural sensitivity and the ability to identify and use a variety of strategies for contact with those from other cultures;

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the capacity to fulfil the role of cultural intermediary between one's own culture and the foreign culture and to deal effectively with intercultural misunderstanding and conflict situations;

the ability to overcome stereotyped relationships.

'Existential' competence (savoir être)

The communicative activity of users/learners is affected not only by their knowledge, understanding and skills, but also by selfhood factors connected with their individual personalities, characterised by the attitudes, motivations, values, beliefs, cognitive styles and personality types which contribute to their personal identity. (…..) attitudes, such as the user/learner’s degree of:

openness towards, and interest in, new experiences, other persons, ideas,

peoples, societies and cultures;

willingness to relativise one’s own cultural viewpoint and cultural value-system;

willingness and ability to distance oneself from conventional attitudes to cultural difference.

Attitudes and personality factors greatly affect not only the language users'/learners' roles in communicative acts but also their ability to learn. The development of an 'intercultural personality' involving both attitudes and awareness is seen by many as an important educational goal in its own right. 37

The above extract basically mentions the three areas of intercultural competence: knowledge, skills and attitudes.38 Intercultural awareness is the knowledge about the existence of difference between one's own culture and the target culture on national level but also awareness of the regional and social diversity within. It also includes awareness of the way one's culture is seen from the outside,awareness of the stereotypes connected to one's own culture. The intercultural skills mentioned above are basically the ability to connect and mediate between and among cultures and communicate efficiently and appropriately with people coming from different cultural backgrounds. The term 'existential competence ' here covers the positive attitude towards cultures different from one's own, attitude like tolerance, openness, willingness

Extracts from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment. Published by: Cambridge University Press and Council of Europe, Cambridge, 2001.

On-line at the Council of Europe Modern Languages Division website: http://culture.coe.fr/lang 38Byram et al. 2002

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to adjust one's views for the sake of mutual understanding and genuine human communication.

These areas of the intercultural competence (knowledge, skills and attitudes) are later described in more detail in a following European language policy document drafted by Michael Byram, Bella Gribkova and Hugh Starkey in the year 2002. This document is called: Developing the Intercultural Dimension in Language Teaching and it was aimed

as a practical introduction for teachers. It is structured as answers to FAQ (frequently asked questions) and tries to become a full guide on this topic. The authors of this document define the Intercultural Dimension as follows:

“… developing the intercultural dimension in language teaching involves recognising that the aims are: to give learners intercultural competence as well as linguistic competence; to prepare them for interaction with people of other cultures; to enable them to understand and accept people from other cultures as individuals with other distinctive perspectives, values and behaviours; and to help them to see that such interaction is an enriching experience.” (page 10)

This above document will be dealt with in more detail in subsequent chapters of this paper when discussing the aims, methods and assessment of teaching the cultural element in the language classroom and features of the good teacher as far as teaching language and culture are concerned.

In a different European Council language policy document drafted in 200239, Michael Byram and Jean-Claude Beacco talk about plurilingualism and describe intercultural competence and its role as follows:

“Intercultural competence and the capacity for intercultural mediation are thus one of the potential goals of language teaching, enabling plurilingual individuals to acquire a capacity for living in the multilingual environment which is contemporary Europe. It is fundamental for interacting with people of other languages and cultures in the context of mutually supportive activities within and across political boundaries, and which constitute activities of democratic citizenship. The acquisition of a plurilingual repertoire throughout life is thus associated with the development of an awareness of the cultural complexity of the environment, particularly evident in and among European countries. This awareness can also be associated with changes in cultural

39Guide for the Development of Language Education Policies in Europe from Linguistic Diversity to Plurilingual Education

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competence and identification. Individuals may become able to live with others in new linguistic surroundings, and may be able to identify with the values, beliefs and behaviours of other groups as a consequence. Where such changes take place, individuals have an understanding and experience of at least some aspects of the lives of people of other languages and other cultures. This also means that they have the capacity to interpret another way of life and to explain it to those who live another. This intercultural competence is crucial in the development of mutual understanding of different groups, and is the role of intercultural mediators of all kinds, from travel guides, to teachers, to diplomats and so on.

Language education policies are intimately connected with education in the values of democratic citizenship because their purposes are complementary: language teaching, the ideal locus for intercultural contact, is a sector in which education for democratic life in its intercultural dimensions can be included in education systems.” (page 39)

In the above extract the writers list again some of the basic qualities of an inter-culturally competent person like: being able to decenter from their own culture, contrast, compare, mediate and interact successfully in a complex cultural context. Moreover they give language teaching yet another role in the education of the future generations. As the 'ideal locus' for intercultural contact language classes should educate students in the values of democratic citizenship. These values are extremely important for the successful functioning of a united Europe.

This brief overview of how culture is present in the language policy documents around the world should have made clear how important a role culture is considered to play in language teaching. Moreover the language classroom has become to be seen as one of the most important loci for the education of the future generation. Seen from the point of view of the language teacher this perspective is both flattering and scary. On one hand it is an honour that one's work is considered to have such an important impact but on the other there is the concern that one might not be able to live up to the expectations.

In order to be able to translate policy to the everyday of the language classroom one has to consider some more practical things that help implement theory into practice.

In the next chapter of this paper I am going to discuss the goals of intercultural language teaching and the competences learners engaged in this process are expected to gain.

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Other practical issues like teaching principles, the possible content and materials the methods and the assessment will also be discussed.

3.3 Teaching the Culture Element in the Language Classrooms- From Theory to Practice

I would like to start this part of the paper by quoting a fellow teacher:

“ (…) there is an increasing realization among researchers and education policy makers that the cultural and social realities of a foreign language should become an integral part of language curricula and syllabi but not in isolation from or to the detriment of the learners’ own established system of the perceptions of reality. Despite the considerable number of studies carried out with this orientation in mind, it is felt that a lot of work needs to be done in the area of teaching material and task design.(Veljanovszki 2003)

In the field of theory and language policy there has clearly been an important shift as far as the relationship of language teaching and culture is concerned. Culture has moved from the margins to the centre. Now it is considered by many to be a core element of language teaching. However justified and important this may seem though one has to admit that there is a long way from theory to everyday classroom practice. In order to implement new theories into everyday teaching one has to consider first the aims which are implied and has to be clear about the competences which need to be developed.

Michael Byram states that:

“(…) an Intercultural dimension does not mean yet another method of language teaching but rather a natural extension of what most teachers recognise as important without reading lots of theory.”(Byram 2002, page7),

Although this might be entirely true, if the teacher is not well informed about the goals and the targeted competences it is impossible for him/her to systematically introduce this new element into his/her teaching. The teacher also has to know about the teaching principles in order to be able to decide on approaches, activities, materials and ways of assessment.

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In the next sub-chapter I will present a short overview of the aims of cultural instruction and the competences which are the building blocks of the intercultural language competence.

3.3.1 Aims and Competences

According to Michael Byram the the 'Intercultural dimension' is one of the main aims of language teaching.

“Its essence is to help language learners to interact with speakers of other languages on equal terms, and to be aware of their identities and those of their interlocutors. It is the hope that language learners who thus become 'intercultural speakers' will be successful not only in communicating information but also in developing human relationship with people of other languages and cultures.” Byram 2002, page 7

This all encompassing general aim needs to be deconstructed though in order to become applicable. The table above shows three sets of aims/goals as envisaged by some of the major names in the field.

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Table 1: The aims of intercultural Language Teaching

The cultural dimension/ intercultural language learning or cultural awareness raising are all terms to denote basically the same concept. They describe the changed view on the presence of the culture element in the language classroom. The concept of cultural

40After Byram 2002 page 10

Intercultural sensitivity means here the 'third space'

Liddicoat, A.J., Scarino, A., Papademetre, L. & Kohler, M. 2003 pg 46

43Ned Seeley (1988) cited in Tomalin and Stempleski

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awareness is missing one element though as opposed to intercultural language learning or intercultural dimension. It does not include performance aspects relating to communication in a foreign language in intercultural situations.

The goals or aims presented above are largely similar and can be translated into one another. All of them have much more to do with education than with language teaching per se. The culture aspect of language teaching thus becomes an aspect of values education.

It has the objective to educate:

“(…) human beings who think democratically and are respectful of all human beings who understand the complexity of the world, the subjectivity of human perspectives, the continuous development and diversity of societies and who can act in one or more foreign language(s) accordingly.” Sercu in Paran and Sercu eds. 201044

Compiling the sets of goals from the table above one can conclude that the aims of culture studies in the language classroom are:

To make students aware of the fact that the way one speaks and behaves is influenced if not determined by the cultural background one has.

To make students aware of the strong interdependence between language and culture.

To make students realize that there is no all encompassing norm which everybody relates to, make them accept that there is no one right way to do things and think about things.

To make them understand that it is important to know and value their own culture.

To make them value and appreciate otherness, other cultures.

To make students aware of the regional and social diversity of culture.

To help them to be able to express their own cultural standpoint but also be open to accept other people's standpoints.

44Assessing Intercultural Competence: More Questions than Answers

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To enable students to decenter from their culture and find the third space of negotiation between their own culture and the culture of other people.

To help students become intellectually curious and motivated to find out more about culture.

To provide them with the necessary skills to be able to interact appropriately in different cultural contexts.

To provide them with the necessary skills and strategies to be able to start their journey towards the development of a personal intercultural style and identity.

In order to achieve these goals the teacher has to think about the competences he/ she needs to develop.

The Council of Europe Common European Framework for Reference (CEFR) has no separate section for culture but has several cultural references as it was presented in one of the previous chapters of this paper.45 The document mentions some components of the intercultural language competence but it does not organize them into a well structured whole. In a later Council of Europe Language Policy document though called 'Developing the Intercultural Dimension in Language Teaching' Michael Byram and his colleagues identify the components of intercultural competence rendering them into a coherent structure. According to them intercultural competence is composed of the following: knowledge, skills and attitudes complemented by the values one holds. This specification of intercultural competence is considered to be the most detailed and coherent one. The five savoirs (savoir, savoir etre, savoir comprendre, savoir, apprendre, savoir faire) indicate the student's ability to reach Kramsch's 'third place', the vantage point from which the learner can understand and mediate between home culture and target culture (savoir engager). The following table is an overview of these components:

45Sub-chapter 3.2.2.2

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Table 2. The Components of Intercultural Competence46

The foundation of intercultural competence is considered to be in the attitude of the 'intercultural speaker and mediator'.47 Without openness and curiosity intercultural learning cannot take place. This would mean that the first step towards an intercultural language teaching and learning should be that of making students curious about otherness and open them up for the challenge that is involved. A positive attitude is an absolute must as far as this type of learning is concerned. Fortunately enough though young people like adventure and challenge and react positively to unexpected approaches to things.

A second important component is knowledge. Knowledge here is twofold. One part of it includes the knowledge of the elements of the easily observable surface culture that are above water level in Hall's Cultural Iceberg model.48 This means elements of both

46After Byram et al. 2002 pages 12-13

47Term from Byram et al.2002, page 12

48See chapter one on defining culture

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high and low culture like music, literature, festivals and artifacts. The second part includes knowledge about the deeper aspects of culture the underlying core values, attitudes, assumptions. This also includes knowledge about how people with other cultural backgrounds are likely to perceive you. Of course this knowledge does not only include the target language culture. The knowledge of one's own culture gives a starting point a system to refer back to. Intercultural learning is impossible if not against the background of a ,mother culture'. Language learning and culture learning clearly demonstrate an analogy in this respect. The better you know your mother tongue, the better your language skills and larger your vocabulary, the easier it is for you to learn yet another language. Along the same line, the deeper your knowledge of your own culture the easier it will be for you to understand another.

Considering the two aspects of the knowledge component from the perspective of the classroom it is obvious which part is easier to teach. It is much easier to talk about or maybe even re-enact a festival typical to the target language community than to consider the attitudes and values behind it. Although the latter might prove much more challenging and interesting.

It is not explicitly mentioned in the document but I would include awareness of the cultural valence of language (language relativity) as an important part of the knowledge component. I believe that language carries many deep rooted beliefs and values that can be 'read' by the experienced 'intercultural mediator.'49

Besides the right attitude and knowledge skills are also important components of intercultural competence. The skills of comparing interpreting and relating are crucial. By putting ideas, events, documents by two or more different cultures side by side and being able to see how each might look from the other perspective it becomes possible to foresee or understand misunderstandings might occur or have occurred.

Moreover, since no one can anticipate all the knowledge that might be needed for successful intercultural communication it is very important for students to be able to find the knowledge they need and integrate it. Thus the skills of discovery are very important. At the same time they have to be able to operate knowledge attitudes and skills under the constraints of real-time communication and interaction. They need to master the skills necessary for interaction.

49Term by Byram

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The final component the 'critical cultural awareness' is closely connected to values. Values are a very important part of one's culture. They are situated in the underwater part of Hall's cultural iceberg and at the very core of Hofstede's onion diagram. According to the latter values are very deeply embedded into a person's way of thinking. Values are closely connected to feelings, are acquired at an early age and are very hard if not impossible to change. Michael Byram and his colleagues are highly conscious of this fact. That is why they have introduced critical cultural awareness as one of the core components of the intercultural competence.

“Finally, however open towards, curious about and tolerant of other people's beliefs, values and behaviours learners are, their own beliefs, values and behaviours are deeply embedded and can create reaction and rejection. Because of this unavoidable response, intercultural speakers/ mediators need to become aware of their own values and how these influence their views of other people's values.” Byram et al. 2002 page 13

The document emphasizes that trying to change learner's values is not the purpose of teaching. On the other hand the writers of it believe that there is a fundamental values position which all language teaching should promote:

“(… ) a position which acknowledges respect for human dignity and equality of human rights as the democratic basis for social interaction.” Ibid. page 13

The above presented components of intercultural competence make a new demand of the language classroom. Besides developing a knowledge of a particular culture or country language classes should also develop skills, attitudes and awareness of values. As John Corbett puts it:

“This set of savoirs incorporates and transforms the goals of communicative curricula, even those in which culture found some kind of place. In an intercultural curriculum, the learner is still expected to accumulate facts about the target culture, and know something of how people from the target culture might be expected to behave. To these stipulations are added an ethnographic perspective (in so far as students are expected to demonstrate 'discovery skills), a critical stance (knowledge of the behaviours of the target culture should prompt comparison and reflection rather than automatic imitation), and a liberal morality(learners should demonstrate the skills of decentering and valuing, or at least tolerating other cultures.)” Corbett 2003, page 32

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The above presentation of the aims of intercultural language teaching and the components of intercultural competence is a valuable first step towards implementation.

The next sub-chapter is going to take a closer look at some of the premises and teaching principles that might help the work of the teacher.

3.3.2 Premises and Principles

The language teacher who intends to venture on the field of intercultural education needs some guidelines along which he/she can organize her work. I consider that the following four premises and five principles might be of help. They are embedded in the theory of intercultural language teaching and offer practical advice.

Claire Kramsch in her book Context and Culture in Language Teaching talks about four main premises of culture which are to be considered in education.

Establishing a sphere of interculturality: to relate first culture to foreign culture and to reflect on conceptions of first culture and foreign culture.

Teaching culture as an interpersonal process: to present not only cultural facts in a structural way, but to present understanding processes, values, beliefs, or attitudes.

Teaching culture as difference: culture is not only national traits, but race, gender, social class, etc.

Cossing disciplinary boundaries: in order to carry out this approach, teachers need to have wider knowledge on subjects related to culture such as ethnography, psychology, sociology, or sociolinguistics. (Kramsch 1993, pages

205-206)

First of all,the language classroom should become a locus where cultures meet and are compared, contrasted and interpreted. The first culture should be as present as the target culture. Secondly the target culture should be brought closer by being made more personal. Students are interested in other students, they do want to know about their hobbies, habits, way of life. They are curious about what they think about different matters. They want to see the similarities and are not only interested in the differences. The interpersonal factor is maybe the most motivating one for them.

Moreover students should become aware of the diversity of culture even within national boundaries. Culture is difference that has to be accepted and dealt with.

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Finally in order to become good culture teachers, language teachers have to acquire a wider outlook and have to be able to incorporate knowledge from other subjects into everyday classroom practice. Also students have to be encouraged to use the previous knowledge they have in all the different subjects and be able to relate back to it and use it when necessary. The above premises constitute a very good starting point against the background of which lesson planning can be started.

If these premises lay the foundation of the intercultural language class, the teaching learning activity itself can be put in motion along the principles designed by Anthony Liddicoat and his colleagues in the 2003 Australian language policy document: Report on Intercultural Language Learning.50 They have singled out five principles of Intercultural Language Learning namely: active construction, making connections, social interaction , reflection and responsibility.

The next table is meant to present them in more detail and show how they can be applied in language learning.

50Liddicoat, Scarino, Papademetre, Kohler: Report on Intercultural Language Learning

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Table 3: Principles of Intercultural Language Teaching (Liddicoat et al.)

The intercultural language learning process requires that teachers and learners should work together to actively construct knowledge through doing, thinking, noticing, comparing and reflecting. The latter being the key processes the learners of such a language class are involved in.51

51ALPLP document page 17

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Teachers help students to make connections to previous knowledge and integrate new information in students' systems of knowledge. This leads sometimes to the reorganization of existing frameworks of knowledge and belief.

Students should engage in interactive talk and questioning with the teacher and others, see their own and others' cultures in a comparative light and recognize that social interaction is central to communication.

Teachers should encourage reflection on language, culture, knowledge and learning. Students thus develop the capability to reflect on and engage with difference. They become capable of monitoring their own production and its effects on others. They come to question stereotypes and develop a metalanguage for discussing the relationship between language and culture.

Taking responsibility for one's own learning is a key factor in any type of learning process regardless of the subject area. In the case of intercultural language learning this responsibility involves willingness to interact with people from diverse languages and cultures. Students should understand the naturalness of multiple perspectives and recognize the need to decentre from their cultural perspective.

After tackling the aims, expected competences, educational premises and principles of intercultural language learning we have finally arrived to classroom practice. The next sub-chapter will discuss the content and materials (What?), the approaches and activities (How?) that can be employed in this type of language learning process.

3.3.3.Classroom Practice

As mentioned before in this paper, Michael Byram states that the Intercultural Dimension does not mean yet another method of language teaching.52 At the same time Colin Sowden talks about a post-method situation. According to him this is one of the factors that lead to an increasing sensitivity to the issue of culture. He further argues that:

“In the absence of objective guidelines about what to do in the classroom, the teacher has returned to centre stage, but as a

52Byram et al. 2002

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more informed, articulate and empowered professional.”(Sowden 2007 page 304)

It is a fact that although the theory of intercultural language learning is now well developed, when it comes to practice many theorists seem to lose ground. There is no clear cut vision of what intercultural language teaching should look like in the everyday practice of the language classroom. Here the teacher is left mainly on his/her own. Much trust is based in the teacher as a highly competent professional who can envision, plan, scope out, decide on spot and shift perspective when and where it is necessary, adjusting her teaching to the needs of a particular classroom at a particular time. According to Claire Kramsch:

“Teachers know well the variability inherent in the educational context and the impossibility of capturing this variability in any methodical way…classroom teaching is a juggling act that requires instant-by -instant decisions based on both local and global knowledge and on an intuitive grasp of the situation.” (Kramsch 1993, page2,3)

There are though some basic guidelines given here and there as far as choice of material and teaching approach is concerned. There also are some resource books, collections of activities and ideas to be used in an intercultural language teaching context. On the other hand it has been argued for several occasions that the right approach and the right material for culture teaching is also culture based, so things that work in one cultural environment might prove useless in another.

This chapter will present the teaching guidelines that can be found in the related literature. It will be divided in two sub-chapters. The first one is going to shortly talk about content and materials while the second one tackles teaching approach and activities.

3.3.3.1 What should we teach in the intercultural language classroom?

When talking about the content of the intercultural language lessons I would like to refer back to the first chapter of this paper. When trying to give a definition of culture I have presented the fourfold typology of Chris Jenks and argued that this is of great help to everyone who would like to find his/ her way among the many definitions and denotations of the word culture. The content of the intercultural language lesson should

include the culture seen as a descriptive category, which is high culture, the 69

representative artifacts of a cultural community. It should also include culture as a collective category. In this denotation culture is synonymous with civilization. It includes elements of both big C and little c cultures. And finally it should include culture as a social category that encompasses the whole way of life of people in the different communities. In fact culture as a social category corresponds with the dynamic view on culture propagated by Liddicoat53 as opposed to the static view. According to him Intercultural Language Learning examines culture as a highly variable and constantly changing phenomenon.

“Culture is seen as a set of variable practices in which people engage in order to live their lives and are continually created and re-created by participants in interaction. These cultural practices represent a contextual framework that people use to understand and structure their social world and communicate with other people….Cultural knowledge is therefore not a case

of knowing information about the culture; it is about knowing how to engage with the culture.”( ALPLP page 16)

According to this above description of the dynamic view on culture, knowledge about culture is just the first step towards intercultural competence. It is also important to know how this knowledge comes to life in the everyday of the community. This is what is needed if one wants to engage with culture. It brings back to our mind the second aspect of the relationship between language and culture as seen by Claire Kramsch namely that : language embodies cultural reality. (Users of the language do not only express experience but also create it through language and the medium they choose to employ.)

Having stated these it is obvious that the content of the intercultural lesson can be very varied, representing all the components on Taylor's list (tradition, folkways, belief, values, norms, language, mores, laws), both surface, conscious and deep, unconscious elements on Hall's iceberg and the symbols, heroes, rituals and even the values of Hofstede's culture onion. 54

The second element in this 'what' section is connected to the teaching materials that can or should be employed. First of all there is the textbook. Every textbook has cultural information that has to be exploited to fit our aims of intercultural teaching. Moreover the cultural element can be very easily introduced into the lessons with the usual topics

53ALPLP document, (among others) page 16

54See them all in chapter 1, Defining culture

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as food, family,traditions, sports etc. Even grammar exercises can be useful for pointing out cultural stereotypes and challenging the learners. Let us take the following sentences: 'Mom is doing the dishes. Dad is watching television.' Students can be drawn into the discussion about stereotyped roles in the family. They should talk about whether they think these stereotypes are universal. Whether they think this aspect is changing. Finally they can be challenged to rewrite the exercise.Differences in language structure between the mother tongue and the target language make students aware of the language. At the same time small investigation into the etymology of some words and contrasting idioms in the target language to similar ones in the mother tongue are all part of intercultural learning. Our conception on teaching can render almost any type of textbook material to serve the purpose.

Authentic materials are second on the list. These can be spoken or written texts for discussion (a literary text for example), visual images for interpretation and evaluation, a media text for analysis videos, songs, audio recordings, maps, diagrams, cartoons etc. Finding authentic material is much easier now than it would have been ten years ago. The internet is a vast source of them. Authentic materials are, not necessarily used in an 'authentic way', the same way people from the target culture would use them. They are there as an evidence of how culture operates. For example a newspaper article could be read as a reading comprehension exercise first and later compared and contrasted with other newspaper articles on the same topic in the first culture or even a third one. The approach to the materials is always critical. Learners need to be challenged by being presented materials which show contrasting views. They have to acquire concepts for analysis texts more than factual information. When analyzing 'authentic material' it is always important to be aware of the context and the intention as well.

Not all input has to be authentic. Materials constructed by the teacher himself/ herself can also be used. This can be a set of outlines for conducting and reporting on an interview or an ethnographic observation, a proposition for debate, a diagram, a slideshow, etc.

Among the very useful materials we could also mention films. Films mirror society. From them we can get glimpses at culture from different times, places, perspectives. Scenes, dialogues, background images can be selected, analyzed, interpreted, reflected on. They give the learners an insight into how a different culture works. Who are its

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heroes, what are its symbols. Sometimes, in the case of good movies, even the deep rooted values reveal themselves.

Last I would like to mention realias. Little objects from the target culture which students cannot just see but even smell and touch are very motivating. An underground ticket from London, the small replica of Big Ben bought in a souvenir shop, local brochures and maps, a newspaper, can prove very fascinating and motivating for students. These objects usually have a story of their own that learners love to hear. These “souvenirs” can be used in many different ways to serve the purposes of the intercultural language classroom. A tourist brochure can be examined closely and compared to a different one in the home country. The handful replica of the Big Ben can be used to prompt a discussion about the different sights and symbols of London and compare them with those of an important city in the home country. The significance of symbols for a culture can also be discussed. Finally students could be challenged to single out the symbol which bears significance for them and think about why they are attached to it. They could think of a symbol for the class….And the possibilities are almost endless.

Summing this up it can be claimed that from the point of view of intercultural language teaching approach is even more important than materials. Whatever the material the teacher uses it can be shaped to serve the purpose of interculturality.

Thus having answered the question of what to teach in an intercultural classroom we get to the second question which leads us to a closer inspection of the teaching approach and the types of activity that should serve best the goals of the intercultural dimension.

3.3.3.2 How should we teach in the intercultural classroom?

As I have already mentioned before when getting to the issues of Intercultural Language Teaching Methodology nobody seems to have the perfect solution to the problem. Barry Tomalin and Susan Stempleski propagate the “Task Based Approach” in their 1993 teaching resource book 'Cultural awareness' The activities in this book involve co-operative learning. Students work together in pairs or in small groups to gather precise segments of information, they share and discuss what they have discovered, in order to

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form a more complete picture. They interpret the information within the context of the target culture and in comparison with their own culture.

In a 2008 document though 'Making Culture happen in the English Language Classroom' which appeared on the teacher's forum of the BBC website the same Barry Tomalin challenges fellow teachers by putting the very same questions any teacher might ask when faced with the issue of how to teach the cultural dimension.

“Should we have lectures and presentations where we tell our students what they need to know? Should we be using task-based learning and discovery techniques to help our students learn for themselves? Are some methods more appropriate than others for teachers who are non-native speakers (and may be less familiar with the culture) or have large classes of sixty or more students?” Tomalin 2008

The native-non native speaker controversy is also an issue debated by many. Some even think that being non-native is an advantage when intercultural learning is concerned.

“It is obvious that a broadening input in the intercultural classroom to include L1 material has implications for the teacher- bilingual teachers will be at an advantage over their monolingual colleagues.” Corbett 2003, page 43

A non-native might have the disadvantage of being less familiar with the target culture but he/ she is familiar with the first culture of the students and moreover might have already achieved some proficiency in intercultural mediation. Intercultural competence is the final aim after all.

Getting back to the question of the right approach, as I have already mentioned earlier in this paper some consider that even the right approach to culture teaching may be culture based. There are cultures where students might prefer lectures and individual work to group work and pairwork, for example.

All these having been said, putting away theory, I believe that most of the activities specific to the communicative approach to language teaching can be efficiently employed in an intercultural classroom and so are task-based, problem-solving activities. Moreover, I consider that 'old-fashioned' activities like translation can also be very useful and if presented in the right way children can enjoy it greatly.

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If the teacher identifies with the aims of intercultural language teaching he/she can adjust and adapt almost any type of activity to serve the purpose. John Corbett joins Michael Byram's opinion who claimed that the intercultural dimension was not yet another method when he says:

“(…) developing intercultural competence does not mean doing away with the information gap and related activities but developing them so that (1) culture becomes a regular focus of the information exchanged, and (2) learners have the opportunity to reflect upon how the information is exchanged, and the cultural factors impinging upon the exchange”page 32

Later in the same book he adds:

“A full range of communicative activities can also be used to serve the goals of an intercultural task. Students may collect and share information through class presentation or group work, and they may evaluate and discuss their different observations and findings. Having observed cultural behaviours in action, they may be asked to reconstruct that behaviour in role plays or simulations, or by writing parallel texts.” (Corbett 2003, page 43)

An intercultural language lesson thus can employ any kind of communicative or task based activity. Other types of activities like translation or mini lecture can also be present. The strategies employed can be varied, the range of possible activities is wide. It includes both spoken and written activities, short activities like a simple brainstorm or longer ones like project work. Computers and the internet can play a major role but simple things like crafts can also be used.

There will be some activities presented in detail later in this paper.

It has to be mentioned though that there are some activities which were specifically designed for culture teaching. I will present some of them based on the description I have found on Nada Salem's website55:

Culture capsules: Culture capsules are one of the best–established and best–known methods for teaching culture. Essentially a culture capsule is a brief description of some aspect of the target language culture(e.g., what is customarily eaten for meals and when those meals are eaten, marriage customs, etc.) followed by, or incorporated with contrasting information from the students' native language culture. The contrasting information can be provided by the teacher, but it is usually more effective to have the students themselves point out the contrasts.

55http://www.nadasisland.com/culture/ Teaching Culture, Strategies and Techniques by Nada Salem, accessed on 01.08.2012

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Culture clusters: A culture cluster is simply a group of three or more illustrated culture capsules on related themes/topics about the target life + one 30 minute classroom simulation/skit that integrates the information contained in the capsules. The teacher acts as narrator to guide the students. For example, a culture cluster about grades and their significance to university students could contain the capsule about how a grade point average is figured plus another about what kind of decisions (such as being accepted in graduate study, receiving scholarships, getting a better job, etc.) are affected by a person's grade point average.

Critical incidents/Problem solving: Critical incidents are descriptions of incidents or situations which demand that a participant in the interaction make some kind of decision Generally, the procedure with a critical incident is to have students read the incident independently and make individual decisions about what they would do. Then the students are grouped into small groups to discuss their decisions and why they made them they way they did. Then all the groups discuss their decisions and the reasons behind them. Finally, students have to be given the opportunity to see how their decision and reasoning compare and contrast with the decisions and reasoning of native members of the target culture. Reports on the reasoning and the differences can be made in a following class session. Sometimes advice columns like the "Dear Abby" or "Ann Landers" columns, can provide teachers both with critical incidents or problems to be solved and with information about what native speakers would do and why. Critical incidents are very good for arousing affect (emotional feelings) about the cultural issue. Discussion or surveys about what native English speakers would do also promote intellectual understanding of the issues and give learners basic knowledge about the target culture.

Culture assimilators: Culture assimilators consist of short (usually written) descriptions of an incident or situation where interaction takes place between at least one person from the target culture and persons from other cultures (usually the native culture of the students being taught). The description is followed by four possible choices about the meaning of the behavior, action, or words of the participants in the interaction with emphasis on the behavior, actions, or words of the target language individual(s). Students read the description in the assimilator and then choose which of the four options they feel is the correct interpretation of interaction. Once all students have made their individual choices, the teacher leads a discussion about why particular options are correct or incorrect in interpretation. Written copies of the discussion issues can be handed out to students although they do not have to be. It is imperative that the teacher plan what issues the discussion of each option should cover. Culture assimilators are good methods of giving students understanding about cultural information and they may even promote emotional empathy or affect if students have strong feelings about one or more of the options.

Mini dramas: Mini–dramas consist of three to five brief episodes in which misunderstandings are portrayed, in which there are examples of miscommunication. Additional information is made available with each episode, but the precise cause of the misunderstanding does not become apparent until the last scene. Each episode is followed by an open-ended question discussion led by the teacher. The episodes are generally written to foster sympathy for the non–native of the culture the "wrong" that is done to him or her by a member The culture assimilator provides the student with 75 to 100 episodes of target cultural behavior. of the target culture. At the end of the mini– drama, some "knowing" figure explains what is really happening and why the target culture member was really not doing wrong. With mini–dramas, scripts are handed out

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and people are assigned to act out the parts. After each act, the teacher asks students (not necessarily the ones performing in the drama) what the actions and words of the characters in the drama mean and leads them to make judgments about the characters in the play. After all of the scenes have been portrayed and the "knowing" figure has made his or her speech, students are asked to reinterpret what they have seen in view of the information which the knowing figure provided. The first time mini–drama is used in an ESL classroom, it should promote quite a lot of emotional feeling of the kind that really happens in intercultural misunderstandings. Mini–dramas always promote knowledge and understanding, but the great emotional impact usually only happens the first time. Mini–dramas work best if they deal, therefore, with highly charged emotional issues

Celebrating festivals: Celebrating foreign festivals is a favorite activity of many students. Even though this activity takes a lot of planning, it works well as a culminating activity. The class can prepare for the festival by drawing posters, decorating the room, and preparing some traditional food. They can learn some folk songs and folk dances. This kind of activity enables student to actively participate in the cultural heritage of the people they are studying.

Kinetics and Body Language: Culture is a network of verbal and non-verbal communication. If our goal as foreign language teachers is to teach communication, we must not neglect the most obvious form of non-verbal communication which is gesture. Gesture, although learned, is largely an unconscious cultural phenomenon. Gesture conveys the “feel” of the language to the student and when accompanied by verbal communication, injects greater authenticity into the classroom and makes language study more interesting. Teachers can use foreign culture gestures when presenting dialogues, cuing students’ responses, and assisting students to recall dialogue lines (Examples of dialogues and appropriate gestures are given in the book). Teachers can also show foreign films to students just to have them focus on body movements.

The present chapter was meant to give an overview of some practical questions concerning the process of intercultural language learning. It tackled the teaching content, the materials, the approaches/ strategies and some activities characteristic to the intercultural dimension. The last but not least important issue of an educational process is assessment. The following chapter will try to investigate whether and how intercultural competence can be measured and assessed.

3.4 Assessing Intercultural Language Competence

'If it isn't tested it is not taught' is the motto of Michael Byram when starting to tackle the question of the assessment of the intercultural competence in language teaching.56

Fred Dervin states the same when he says:

56Byram 2000

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“Intercultural competence, which is the expected outcome of the insertion of interculturality in language learning and teaching, is a vital competence in our contemporary world, (…)If one introduces this competence in one's teaching, one needs to develop ways of making sure that it is developed.” Dervin 2002, page 2

In the same article that was mentioned at the beginning of this chapter Michael Byram argues that nowadays there is an ever increasing emphasis on objective assessment and examination results. He describes the efforts of the Council of Europe who in its Common European Framework managed to identify and describe the competences a language learner should attempt to acquire, and also proposes a framework for assessment in the form of a number of levels defining linguistic competence. Although the framework recognises the importance of 'general competences', which comprises elements of the intercultural communicative competence it fails to make proposals for levels of assessment for this aspect. Byram argues that:

”Examinations and certification are of course highly sensitive issues to which politicians, parents and learners pay much attention. As a consequence, the examination of learners' competence has to be very careful and as 'objective'- meaning valid and reliable- as possible. This was the problem faced by the Council of Europe experts in the common European framework, and a problem that they decided they could not solve at the time.” Byram 2000, page 9

The absence of the intercultural aspect of language competence from the assessment levels of the European framework is probably the most feasible explanation of the visible discrepancy between the ever increasing demand on language education to promote the acquisition of intercultural competence and the weak and incomprehensive presence of this aspect in language curricula. This leads of course directly to a weak and incomprehensive presence of the intercultural element in the language classrooms. Teachers have experienced frustration and uncertainties about the expected standards, outcomes, assessment formats and rating scales.

Assessment is the least well developed dimension of intercultural language teaching and learning.(Angela Scarino)

“(…)the assessment of intercultural competence in foreign language education is anything but straightforward.” “There are more questions than answers.”(Lies Secu)57

57In Testing the Untestable in Language Education, pg 17/ page 52

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The latter further argues that assessing intercultural competence in education would be very important because:

it provides feedback to adjust teaching

learners tend to overlook what is not assessed

parents want to see their children's progress documented

society holds teachers accountable and wants to see the effects of teaching efforts

assessment has a 'backwash effect' on teaching, aspects that are known to be assessed at the end of the teaching process tend to occupy a more important role.58

There is no question about the fact that assessment is needed. The question is whether it is possible, or to be more accurate, how far it is possible. How far can the four criteria of reliability, validity, fairness and consistency be achieved in the assessment of intercultural communicative competence?

Trying to explain why the Council of Europe failed to develop a framework for assessment of the intercultural language competence Michael Byram says:

“The problem lies (…)in the fact that knowledge and factual recall are only one dimension of the competence which the common European Framework calls 'socio-cultural' but which others would define differently and call 'intercultural competence.

Assessing knowledge is thus only a small part of what is involved and what needs to be assessed is learner's ability to step outside, to make the strange familiar and the familiar strange, and to act on that change of perspective” Byram 2000, pp 9, 10

Byram also considers that while assessing factual knowledge about culture might be relatively easy to do the most difficult thing to asses is whether students have changed their attitudes, become more tolerant of difference and the unfamiliar.

“This is affective and moral development and it can be argued that even if we can assess it, we should not be trying to quantify tolerance.” Byram 2000, page 10

58Adapted from Lies Sercu:Assessing Intercultural Competence: more questions than answers, 2010

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Lies Secu dealing the with the same problem states the following:

“(…) objectivity is not possible when dealing with culture because culture is always subjectively experienced and constructed.” Secu 2010, page 27

She also raises the moral dilemma whether it is desirable that learners be assessed with respect to particular attitudes or personality traits.

“Does education want to be prescriptive about the intercultural attitude learners should develop and can learners be punished for not having particular desired personality traits?” Ibid.. Ibid.em

It is obvious from the above that when coming to the question of the assessment of the intercultural element in language teaching theorists, policy makers and teachers are between Scylla and Charybdis or in a different formulation between the devil and the deep blue sea.

While dilemmas and questions persist in language education training for interculture in business contexts has already made quite a large number of attempts to scale trainees and measure progress in intercultural competence by describing progress in terms of levels. The most elaborate attempt towards designing such an assessment tool was the INCA project (Intercultural Competence Assessment). They distinguish six areas of assessment, namely: 1)tolerance for ambiguity, 2) behavioral flexibility, 3)communicative awareness, 4) knowledge discovery, 5)respect for otherness and 6) empathy. They identify three levels of competence: A) motivation, B) Skill/ Knowledge, C)Behavior. Although this assessment tool is very detailed and elaborate it also shows the difficulty of identifying levels of competence sufficiently distinct from one another and sufficiently well designed to ensure that assessors can relatively straightforwardly assign test takers to a particular level. Intercultural learning should be viewed as a deepening of insights and as indefinite. It is impossible to define where level 1 stops and level 2 begins.

Even if we put moral dilemmas aside and not consider its weaknesses, the INCA project assessment tool cannot be employed in education since its particular rating scale depends highly on actual experience in intercultural situations. It does not fit well into school education and even suggests that school learning without direct contact with other cultures cannot lead to the development of intercultural competence.

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Going back to educational context let us consider the difficulties inherent in the idea of the assessment of intercultural communicative competence.

According to Angela Scarino59 intercultural competence in the context of language education imposes a number of challenges for assessment. In her view the complexity in assessing within an intercultural perspective results from the following factors:

It does not simply involve an individual personal quality or skill or item of knowledge that can be learned, developed and assessed. Rather it is a social phenomenon that necessarily requires interaction. Interaction involves other people and this raises the question of the way in which the involvement of others influences the performance.

There are diverse ways in which intercultural language learning is understood. The way the construct is described determines what is to be assessed.

It is difficult to take variable linguistic and socio-cultural contexts into account.

The traditional views of assessment are constraining.

Addressing this last aspect she talks about two distinct assessment paradigms. She claims that:

“The assessment process in education is located in a tension between two contrasting epistemological cultures that influence views of learning on the one hand , and views of assessment on the other.” Scarino 2009, page 71

These two paradigms are presented in the following table:

Table 4 Assessment paradigms, after Scarino 200

59Scarino 2009

80

The assessment of intercultural competence is set within these contrasting paradigms.

The challenge is to reconcile the two perspectives in practice.

Assessment is a cyclical process. The components of the cycle are:

→CONCEPTUALISING (Define intended learning outcomes) → ELICITING (Assess intended learning outcomes)→ JUDGING (Review and discuss results) →VALIDATING (Implement changes based on results)→

(The assessment cycle)

After having given an overview of the questions, problems and dilemmas in the assessment of the cultural component in language teaching let us take a closer look at the different stages of the assessment cycle and see what questions pop up at each stage.

Conceptualising

Any assessment cycle begins by defining the construct that is to be assessed. There are many different concepts of intercultural capability but most experts agree that the most elaborated model of intercultural competence is the savoirs model constructed by Michael Byram.60 Although it is criticized and considered incomplete by many nobody could come up with an independent new model on intercultural competence. One of the presumed problems with the model is that it represents an anthropological view (language in culture) and does not specifically deal with the interrelationship with these savoirs and linguistic competence. Actually Byram makes a distinction between the intercultural competence described by the savoirs and intercultural COMMUNICATIVE competence. The latter being a larger concept which also includes linguistic competence, sociolinguistic competence and discourse competence. Many have highlighted that the relationship of linguistic competence and intercultural competence is problematic as far as assessment is concerned. It is not a symmetrical relation.

60See chapter 3.3.1

81

Lies Sercu proposes an extension to the above model. She considers that a meta-cognitive dimension should be added. Students need self-regulating mechanisms that enable them to plan, monitor and evaluate their own learning processes. This is of course very important since intercultural learning is one of the 'best incarnations' of the EU concept of lifelong learning.61 Students need to learn how to take responsibility for their own learning process.

A different problem that is mentioned in specialized literature concerns the discrepancy between the componential conceptualization and that of holistic understanding of the concept.

There is though no instrument for testing intercultural competence holistically. In the absence of such an instrument the separate components are tested and then attempts are made to integrate the results in the judging process.

Eliciting

After defining the knowledge and ability that needs to be assessed in the first stage of the assessment process, in this second stage tasks and procedures need to be elaborated in order to define the first stage.. While the knowledge part of the component seems to yield easily to assessment the assessment of the affective dimensions of the intercultural competence poses several practical problems, besides the moral dilemmas already mentioned earlier in this paper. Eliciting the skills described in Byram's model is not less difficult either since in order to do it some type of interaction is needed, which implies extra participants.

Assessing intercultural competence within the parameters of the traditional psychometric paradigm is impossible.

61Dervin's expression (2010)

82

The tools proposed in the different literature include: multiple choice questions (for factual knowledge), diagnostic scales (for affective dimensions). For the elicitation of the intercultural skills three models were proposed:(1) Attitudinal tests,

(2)Culture assimilator tests, (3) Cultural awareness tests. Some teaching techniques used in the intercultural class can also be employed as assessment techniques: cultural minidramas, critical incident, culture assimilators and simulation games62 combined with oral or written reflection work and documentation in the foreign language. Other ways of assessment include: case studies, interviews, analysis of narrative diaries, self-report instruments, observations by others, surveys, evaluation forms, reflective diary entries, critical incident reports, examining cultural significance of underlined words or phrases, describing a photo or a drawing of a culture specific situations etc.

Michael Byram proposes a portofolio that he calls “autobiography of intercultural experiences”. This portofolio is based on self assessment and should be part of the Language Portofolio proposed by the European Council. The Intercultural competence portofolio is designed to have two parts:

A record of my Intercultural Experience.→ It should include description of:A)feelings, B)knowledge, C)actions

A self-assessment of my Intercultural Experience→ It should include the description of the following:A)Interest in other people's way of life, B)Ability to change perspective, C)Ability to cope with living in a different culture, D)Knowledge about another country and culture, E)Knowledge about intercultural communication

This type of assessment does not produce any feedback though. It is rather a tool for organising one's own learning process and enhancing awareness of it. It is more like taking charge, becoming autonomous learners.

“The role of assessment is therefore to encourage learner's awareness of their own abilities in intercultural competence, and to help them realise that these abilities are acquired in many different circumstances inside and outside the classroom.” Byram 2002, page 32

Judging

The third phase of the assessment cycle is about establishing the criteria for judging performance. If composing and eliciting posed serious problems when getting to the phase of judging intercultural competence we are definitely at an impasse. Can learning

62See chapter 3.3.3.2

83

of interculture be viewed as a qualifiable step-by-step process from one level to the next like communicative competence? Probably not. Although attempts have been made.63 The complexity of making judgements about intercultural capabilities is immense and hasn't been captured by anyone as yet.

Some attempts have been made to quantify the components of the competence separately using the psychometric approach. Cultural knowledge can be judged using norm referencing or criterion referencing tools. This component of the intercultural language competence can be objectively measured. There have been attempts to represent the attitude factor with the help of continuous attitudinal scales. This of course is, very subjective even if there are set criteria for assessment. Not to talk about the complete lack of conception about how to integrate these separately measured components into a whole and give an evaluation of the intercultural competence based on them.

If we consider to employ the qualitative, sociocultural approaches when judging the intercultural competence we do not find ourselves in a better situation. Here criteria and standards are understood as constructs that are not formulated through definition but through interpretation and meaning making in multi-criterion qualitative judgements. This meaning making process besides being very complex it also needs a larger frame of reference or fore- understanding that educators necessarily bring to making judgement. As for now this frame seems to be absent.64 In order to construct these frames much more insight is needed into the different aspects of intercultural learning.

Validating

Assessment of intercultural language learning has not reached the stage of validating yet. Since the criteria for judgment are lacking, the attempts of assessment have got stuck at the third stage of the cycle struggling to find their way out.

There are many questions to be answered concerning all the four interrelated processes of the assessment cycle.

We are far from being able to give parents and society valuable feedback on the progress made by the children on this field.

See INCA project

64See Scarino 2009, page 77

84

Theorists all agree that further research is needed in order to clarify the questions and find sustainable solutions.

“Much more research is needed towards understanding the intercultural capability in learning and using languages in diversity. The role of assessment is important both because it sharpens the conceptual focus on the nature of learning and using languages within an intercultural orientation and because it provides valuable information about students' actual learning. It is also important because assessment has the power to shape what language learning is; who the learners are and their understanding of what it is that is important to learn. The challenge is not to look for easy ways to assess but to expand the repertoire of assessment to accommodate a more complex view of languages learning that includes the development of intercultural capability.” Scarino 2009, pg 78

Finally, in order to conclude this chapter on assessment I can't do anything but return to the original motto mentioned at the very beginning of this chapter: “If it is not tested it is not taught.” In order to be able to implement intercultural learning successfully we need much more than just being clear about the needs education is expected to answer and the aims that we intend to pursue. Being clear about what we want to achieve is a very good first step. Next we need to figure out the ways how to achieve it. Assessment is a very important component of this 'how'. It cannot be neglected.

On the other hand though we might also come to term with the fact that some things:

“(…)must be taught but cannot be tested.” Kramsch 2004 pg 46

Of course the idea of intercultural learning is quite new. The attempts to put it into practice are even newer. Time and experience is needed to find all the answers. In order to find them though we have to stay open-minded and flexible.

3.5 Intercultural Language Learning and the 'Good Teacher'

During my reading into the field it has become obvious that the presented paradigm shift in language teaching is causing major changes to the role language teachers are expected to play. The following quotations all talk about this.

“In a world of increased multilingualism and multiculturalism, foreign language teachers seem to be challenged to be less authoritative transmitters of linguistic or paradigmatic

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knowledge, than mediators between various identities, discourses and worldviews.” Kramsch 2004, page 37

“For the first time, a field that didn't use to think of itself at the vanguard of political engagement is thrust into the limelight: in Europe, it is called upon to forge multilingual Europe; in the US it is enjoined to serve the needs of economic competitiveness and national security.” Ibid., page 38

“(…)language teachers, by virtue of their experiences with various languages and various language areas have special opportunities to contribute to developing the global vision and involvement of their students.” Risager 2000, page 16

This new role attributed to the language teachers is both very difficult and responsible and nobody knows for sure yet what exactly it entails. It can be considered both as a privilege and a heavy burden to carry. On one hand we are honored that our work is considered to have gained such an importance but on the other it is rather intimidating to deal with such high expectations. How can we cope?

In this chapter I should like to present in brief the metaphors for the new role of the language teacher I have encountered throughout my readings, along with their implications. I would like to talk about the knowledge, skills and attitudes teachers are expected to possess. Finally I would like to reveal the element that is considered by many as the key for becoming a 'good teacher' among these entirely new circumstances.

3.5.1 Metaphors for language teacher

There were many metaphors I have encountered for language teacher throughout my readings into the specialized literature. Some of them were explicit, others implicit. Below I would like to list a few in order to outline the role language teachers are considered to be playing now or are expected to play in the future.

The language teacher is reality teacher65→ If language largely determines the way in which we understand our reality the instruction that language teachers provide in linguistic construction necessarily includes guidelines on how to experience reality in a different way.

The language teacher is catalyst of individual change66→”Intercultural competence offers the possibility of transcending the limitations of one's singular world view.(…)Contact with other world views can result in a shift of

65Bennett 1993

66Fantini 1995, pg 13

86

perspective, along with a concomitant appreciation for the diversity and richness of human beings.. As language educators, we may indeed have a significant role in that revolution.”

The language teacher is an adventurer67→Language teachers together with their students engage critically with foreign language material and are ready to discover new potential meanings as they go along. “It is this voyage of discovery that makes language teaching the exciting and ever renewed endevour that it is.”

The language teacher is teacher in charge68→”Now, in the absence of clear methodological guidelines, and with an understanding of culture too broad to be of real pedagogical assistance, the teacher as a person is coming to be recognised as the determining factor in the teaching process,…”

The teacher as culture broker69→ESL/ bilingual professionals can help mainstream staff members better interpret the cultures of the diverse student population (In the case of a multicultural classroom environment.)

The language teacher is an expert speaker of cultures70→He/she understands culture as discourse, as social semiotic and is able to use the language both like a native and like a non-native speaker, as both insider and outsider.

The language teacher is a go-between71→He/she is a professional mediator. The task of the language teacher is to mediate between cultures, between methodologies, between the educational institution and the world of peers, parents and employers.

The language teacher is an agent of social change72→The language teacher is not only the impresario of a certain linguistic performance but also the catalyst for an ever-widening critical cultural competence. His/her work should lead to a social change. “For in the final analysis, the process of 'reinscription and relocation emerging out of cultural difference' is not intended to maintain the status quo.”

The role of the language teacher is quite complex, as the above metaphors describe it. He/she has to wake students to a new kind of reality. He/she should take charge and lead them out from their safety zone into an adventure where old meanings are re-written and new meanings re-discovered. At the end of the journey students should be able to see the world with different eyes and should be capable and willing to better it with the help of and together with Others.

67Kramsch 2004, page 58

68Sowden 2007, pp 308, 307

69Judie Haynes online at www.everythingesl.net

70Ochs cited in Kramsch 2004, pg 45

71Kramsch 2004

72Kramsch 1995, page 92

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But what expertise, knowledge, skills and attitude does a teacher need to have to be able to accomplish all these goals?

3.5.2 Expertise, knowledge, skills and attitudes of the language teacher

This subchapter is going to present a sketch of the competences language teachers are expected to have by outlining the ideas of Claire Kramsch (2004) and Alice van Kalsbeek (2008). Claire Kramsch says that the competences of language teachers should be looked at from two different perspectives: (1)that of the expertise they have to display and (2) that of the knowledge they have to posess.

Expert professionals of the

institution they serve.3. an interpretive and relational

competence or savoir

comprendre

4. a methodological competence or

savoir enseigner

5. intercultural attitudes and

beliefs or savoir être

6. a critical cultural stance or

savoir s'engager

Table 5 Expertise and knowledge of the language teacher after Kramsch 2004

The idea and elements of the savoirs of course are based on Mychael Byram and Genevive Zarate's (1994) terminology and categorization of the components of intercultural competence.

Kramsch further argues that the above six savoirs should be declined across the three roles that teachers play as expert speakers, expert methodologists and expert

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professionals and based on the metaphor of the language teacher as a mediator or go-between comes up with the following list that according to her:

„represents a synthesis of what could constitute a critical foreign language awareness program for language teachers”.(Kramsch 2004 page 45)

1.The language teacher as an expert speaker or cultural go-between:

Understands language and culture, not as static information but as discourse, as social semiotic.

Is able to use the language both like a native and like a non-native speaker, as both insider and outsider.

Is able to distinguish the ideational, interpersonal and textual meaning of texts and conversations.

Is able to see oneself in one’s historic contingency, as one among many.

Is prepared to ask big questions and to appreciate the politi-cal dimensions of language teaching.

2.The language teacher as an expert methodologist or methodological go-between:

Remains flexible with regard to methodology, and is aware that there is no right and wrong, only appropriate, methodologies.

Involves students in the choice of teaching and testing methods.

Mediates between students’ paradoxical need to identify with the foreign Other and to escape its linguistic and cultural norms.

Mediates between what can be taught and tested, and what must be taught but cannot be tested.

Keeps a log for self-reflexion.

Understands why one has become a teacher of this particular language rather than another.

3.The language teacher as an expert professional or professional go-between:

Knows one’s room for intellectual and political maneuver.

Mediates between institutional constraint and educational value;between disciplines.

Mediates between commercial interests of textbook publishers and students’ needs.

Seeks opportunities for professional development and life-long learning.73 Kramsch says that language teachers are constantly drawing on their competencies in

each of the areas.

“This movement between and across areas of expertise helps to capture the complexities of language teaching.” Kramsch 2004, page 46

After Kramsch's savoirs and expertise model I would like to briefly present the model designed by Alice van Kalsbeek. She again builds the model of the competences a teacher should possess on the same savoirs model designed by Byram and Zarate.

73After Kramsch 2004, pp45-46

89

Table 6 Skills, knowledge and attitudes of a language teaching professional74

She further divides these components into sub-components and tries to create standpoints to a self-evaluation portofolio for language teaching professionals.

Interestingly enough both Kramsch and Kalsbeek use the same word when looking back at the categorization they have made:

“The savoirs charted above have fluid boundaries.” (Kramsch 2004, page 46)

“Nothing is so fluid as the discussion on language and culture and intercultural communications.” Kalsbeek 2008, page3

If one was hoping to get straightforward guidelines on what skills knowledge and attitude to possess he/she has to give up on the idea. Nothing is set in stone in the intercultural language teaching process. Everything is flexible and open to change in the long process of action, interaction and reflection as insights grow through experience.

74Kalsbeek 2008

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What is then the key to becoming a 'good teacher' in the intercultural language classroom?

3.5.3. The Key to Becoming a 'Good Teacher'

What is then the key to becoming a good teacher in the changed circumstances portrayed in the preceding chapters? Interestingly enough the answer I have found comes from a businessman and not an applied linguist or teacher trainer. The person I am going to quote is Gucharan Das, an Indian businessman who managed to help build in India one of the largest businesses in the world for Vicks Vaporub, a global brand sold in 147 countries. In his writing with the title “Local Memoirs of a Global Manager”, which appeared in a 2000 reader about globalization the businessman talks about his experience while doing the business. He talks about the strategies that proved to be successful and thinks back at how his insights have changed throughout the process.

“There was a time when I used to believe with Diogenes the Cynic that “I am a citizen of the world,” and I used to strut about feeling that a :blade of grass is always a blade of grass, whether in one country or another.” Now I feel that each blade of grass has its spot on earth from where it draws its life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from where he draws his faith, together with his life.(…)

'Think global and act local', goes the saying, but that's only half a truth. International managers must also think local and then apply their local insights on a global scale.

The fact is that truths in this world are unique, individual and highly parochial…In committing to our work we commit to here and now, to a particular place and time; but what we learn from acting locally is often universal in nature. This is how globalization takes place. Globalization does not mean imposing homogeneous solutions in a pluralistic world. It means having a global vision and strategy, but it also means cultivating roots and individual identities. It means nourishing local insights, but it also means re-employing communicable ideas in new geographies around the world.

The more human beings belong to their own time and place, the more they belong to all times and places. Today's best global managers know this truth. They nourish each “blade of grass”(Page 309)

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Translated to the context of language education this basically means that one has to understand that there are and there will be no well established 'recepies' on how to teach in order to become 'successful' in reaching one's goals, in this case that of educating intercultural mediators who in their turn will be successful in guiding the world towards a better future. These recepies are impossible to write because the available ingredients differ in every single language classroom. Thus the key to becoming a good teacher basically lies in taking charge of our teaching. We have to both think global and act local and think local and apply our local insights to a global scale. Our strategies and

methods will always have to be adapted to the necessities of the classroom we teach. Our insights will grow through the process of teaching. We have to get to know the way our students think about the world in order to help them develop a broader view. We have to build on the strength and weaknesses they have. We have to be able to build on our own strength and weaknesses. We have to expect the unexpected and accept difference. We have to be aware of the fact that many of the issues of culture are strongly affective. We have to be tactful and tolerant in order not to offend. We have to be determined to cope with the fluidity of the process. We have to be able to make decisions but also have to have the strength to change our decisions and strategies when they prove to be not working. We have to learn how to belong here in our local time and space in order to build a solid background for pursuing universal goals for the future.

Quoting Colin Sowden:

“If we accept that our profession is an art rather than a science, and if we recognize that our personal qualities, attitudes, and experience are what finally count, providing that these are informed by acquaintance with best current practice and research, then we language teachers can free ourselves from the kind of mechanistic expectations that have dogged us for so long. If we can accept this argument, we become genuinely free agents, able to decide for ourselves not only how best to carry out our jobs but also how to direct our future professional development.” (page 310)

Summing up we could say that the following motto applies for the 'good language

teacher' of our times: Be yourself, be informed and be in charge! This is the key to

becoming a good professional.

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III. Procedures

1.Description of the research design

Learning a language means getting into a closer contact with the target culture. It is very important for the language user to know about the fact that there are cultural differences. The bare knowledge of grammar and vocabulary without any awareness of the cultural element may transform the foreign language speaker into a „fluent fool” as Milton J. Bennet puts it.75

„A fluent fool is someone who speaks a foreign language well but doesn’t understand the social or philosophical content of that language….Eventually, fluent

fools may develop negative opinions of the native speakers whose language they understand but whose basic attitudes and values continue to elude them.”

This research intends to make an investigation into the teaching of the cultural element. The basic concept is to make culture the content of a series of English classes for a group of students and see what effect this has on the students. Based on my readings into the literature of this area of language teaching I decided to focus on three main areas which need to be developed. These are: knowledge, attitude and skills76.

Knowledge includes factual knowledge about the target culture(s) and that of the student's own culture, awareness of the meaning of the term culture, awareness of the implications of one's cultural background and awareness of the nature of the strong links between language and culture.

As far as attitude is concerned I decided to focus on respect, openness and tolerance towards cultural difference.

The skills area includes the ability to look for and find the necessary information in order to be able to function well in a new cultural context and that to adjust efficiently when misunderstandings based on cultural difference might occur.

The students are administered a questionnaire at the beginning of the process and at the end. The questions focus on the three areas mentioned above. There also is a control group. The results are matched and measured.

Bennet J., M. (1993) How Not to Be a Fluent Fool: Understanding the Cultural Dimension of Language , The Language Teacher, 27 (9)

76see Byram and Zarate's model on intercultural competence

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2.Description of the sample

I chose to work with a group of 7th graders. They basically have two English lessons per week and I am their only English teacher. There are 12 students in one class at Secondary School Sona and 9 students in the control group from Secondary School Sanmiclaus-Hungarian section, and their level is intermediate. This seemed as a good opportunity because of the varied type of lessons and the possibility of a control group at hand.

. The relatively low number of students offered the possibility of a more intimate atmosphere for discussions. This was very important because some of the topics discussed may be unsettling. We had the time to listen to everybody's insights and opinions.

3.Description of the questionnaire

The questionnaire77 I have designed was meant to check students' progress in the three above mentioned areas of intercultural competence78 namely knowledge, attitude and skills. It is divided into three parts accordingly. The questionnaire is based on the psychometric paradigm rather than the interpretive one. Factual knowledge is tested by multiple choice and multiple matching tasks, true/false exercises, tasks that require completion or identification. There is however an open question as well which is meant to test students' insight in the nature of culture. The first eleven questions focus on symbols and heroes of the British and American culture. It includes synchronic, diachronic and imaginary aspects, elements of high culture and popular culture. Questions 12-15 test knowledge of some. aspects of belief in the target language culture. Question 16 is the open question mentioned before. It wants to identify the elements of culture that students consider different between their first culture and British culture. The answers to this question also gives us a glimpse at the depths of insight students posess as far as the nature of culture is concerned. Question 17 and 18 are based on Hofstede's perception on the three levels of human mental

77See appendices 1,2

78See Description of research design

94

programming: personal, cultural and universal.79 It tests the depth of student's understanding of the culture phenomenon by asking them to identify some aspects of human behavior according to the three levels listed above. Two questions which concern knowledge appear in the second, attitude part of the questionnaire. This is due to the tool they are tested by. Language and culture are tested with the help of diagnostic scales in the first two question of the attitudes part of the questionnaire.

The second part of the questionnaire is meant to test students' attitude to their first culture and their attitude to cultural difference. It is meant to investigate whether they know and cherish their own culture, which is at the base of any cultural learning and whether they are open to accept and deal with cultural diversity. This aspect is investigated with the help of diagnostic scales. Students have to express their degree of agreement respectively disagreement with certain statements.

Question 14 of this second part of the questionnaire is an open ended question. Its main aim is to see whether interest in the target culture is among the motivations of language learning and whether this aspect shows any change due to implicit and explicit study of the cultural element.

The questions for the third part of the questionnaire are entirely cut out from the Intercultural Competence Assessment Test80, designed in 2004 as a Leonardo da Vinci project of the European Union. The test was designed for the business world and as I mentioned before it does not entirely fit the educational context. The reason I chose to employ it was basically due to my reluctance to venture on the unknown field of contextual assessment of the interpretative paradigm. Since I did not feel knowledgeable and experienced enough to establish the frame of reference against which I would be able to judge students' performances I decided I needed to borrow some standpoints. The part of the INCA test I used was designed to investigate the skill of knowledge discovery. It tests the ability to acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices. It basically is the simulation of a possible situation. The original test also includes an interactive part where students have to roleplay a situation similar to the ones presented in the questionnaire. This part is not included in the present

79See the chapter on defining culture

80INCA project 2004, www.incaproject.org, last accessed 14.08.2012

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questionnaire though. The assessment sheet for this exercise81 distinguishes three levels of competence: basic, intermediate and full. It groups the answers in three groups tackling questions 1 and 2 as one entity. It gives some descriptors which can be used as signposts when deciding on the different levels of the knowledge discovery skill. Although these levels are not sufficiently distinct from one another and not sufficiently well designed they still proved to be helpful to get some relevant information as far as the ability of students to find necessary cultural information is concerned. It seems to be a useful tool regardless of its lack of precision.

The questionnaire is not designed to test the level of intercultural competence. The chapter on assessment of the present paper gives details on why this competence cannot be properly assessed at the present moment. It would be a self sufficient fallacy to claim that I have found the solution. The questionnaire was designed to try to prove the main hypothesis of the paper, namely that: Lessons about culture affect student's cultural awareness. I believe that it fits this aim.

4.Explanation of the procedures followed

After stating the hypotheses of the action research I chose the group of students I was going to work with and I also chose the control group. I designed the questionnaire as the tool which was meant to check whether the hypotheses proved to be true. I gave the questionnaire to both groups of students to complete.

In order to achieve the aim, namely to increase the cultural awareness of my students I decided to follow two courses of action:

A more cultural approach of the textbook material and its extension activities.

A set of lessons on exploring culture as a phenomenon

The above courses of action were performed during the school year. Students were asked for oral or written feedback several times during the process. This helped me to adjust the activities in the hope of an increased efficiency.

81See appendix 3

96

At the end of the process I administered the same questionnaires again in order to be able to spot the possible changes as far as the students' knowledge, attitude and skills are concerned.

In what follows I would like to present some of the activities employed in each course of action.

4.1 A more cultural approach of the textbook material and its extension activities.

This group of students is learning from the Intermediate textbook written by Virginia Evans and Jenny Dooley, published by Express Publishing. The activities presented below are linked to the topic areas of house respectively travel, to some grammar items respectively the present simple and the first conditional, to vocabulary and to writing.

Activity 1 Housing types in Britain and at home (Connection to the textbook: Unit 1, topic: Dwellings)

Aims:

-To practice new vocabulary on houses

-To compare housing types in Britain and at home

Culture+

-Students will become aware of the difference between dwellings in Britain and at home -Students will see and retain images of typical British houses

Time: 50 minutes

Resources: Presentation on Housing types in Britain82

Steps of the activity:

-The teacher presents the slideshow which contains the description of the different housing types: (flats, bungalows, oast houses, detached houses, semi-detached houses, terraced houses). The slideshow also presents a circle diagram with the percentage of the different housing types in Britain according to the last census. We find out about the buy or rent preferences of the British and the average prices.

-While showing the slides the teacher and the students discuss them one by one making comparison to the situation at home.

-Students are working in groups of three. They have to answer the following questions:

Do people prefer to buy or to rent their homes in our country? Comment on your

answer.

Draw a circle diagram illustrating the housing situation in our town.

Compare prices in Britain to the ones at home.

What other differences can you highlight?

Reflection and evaluation:

This activity was enjoyed by students. They were interested in the information and it was challenging for them to think about the housing situation here at home. They enjoy working in groups.

82See attached DVD

97

The activity was useful because it both introduced some cultural information about Britain and helped students to practice new vocabulary on houses.

Activity 2 Real Estate Hunters83

(Connection to the textbook: Unit 1, topic: Dwellings)

Aim:

-To practice the language and genre of real estate ads -To get a deeper insight into housing in our town

Culture+

-Students get familiar with the language and genre of real estate ads in Britain

-Students get to know their town better being made to see it from a different angle

-Students are made to have a closer look at the types of dwellings people have in our area

Time: 10 minutes from one lesson and 50 of a second one plus students' own time

Resources:

-Each group of students needs a device to make pictures with.

Steps of the activity:

-Students are divided in groups of three and are told the task: They are real estate agents on the hunt for real estate to sell. They should find five dwelling places in town, make photos of them and put those on the offer of their agencies. -Students get at least a week to work on this project.

-There is a real estate fair where each agency gets to present what they have on offer.84 -feedback

Reflection and evaluation

This is not the first time I have tried this activity. It is very enjoyable for students. They practice the language for houses the genre of real estate ads and also have a fun time together. They get to see the town with a different eye while hunting for the house that would sell well. At the end all of them have to speak while presenting the houses/ flats on offer.

Activity 3 The holiday fair

(Connection to the textbook: Unit 3, topic:travel, holidays, festivals)

Aim:

-To make students interact in a simulated situation

-To practice language connected to travel and holidays

-To make students research food, traditions, habits and customs of different countries -To make students aware of what type of information they might need when travelling to a foreign country.

Culture+

-Students are made to interact in the target language in a real life like situation

-Students find out more about some elements of culture and become more aware of cultural diversity

-Students practice the skill of knowledge discovery by having to think about the

possible information they might need when travelling to a foreign country

Time: 30 minutes from one lesson, student's own time, 50 minutes from the second

lesson

Resources:

-computer, internet and printer for students at home

83Idea from my colleague Sándor Mária along with the original idea of the travel project coming up

84See Houseprojects on attached DVD

98

-role cards: 2x agent, agency 1/ 2x agent agency 2/ 2x agent agency 3/ 2x rich young bachellor looking for adventure holiday with friend/ 2x old lady looking for the holiday of her lifetime along with her friend/ 2x part of a young married couple/ 3x part of a family with young child

Steps of the activity:

-Students are already familiar with travel and holidays vocabulary and types of interaction at the travel agent's

-The teacher tells students about the activity:

Each of the students are going to get a role. Some of them are going to be travel agents others are going to be different types of tourists looking for a holiday. There will be three travel agencies with two agents each. Each agency has three holidays on offer. They have to prepare they offer thoroughly. Besides the usual things it has to include the typical food of the region, short description of local festivities, some important information on the local people, famous sights. The tourists have to prepare their role carefully. They have to think of the ideal holiday for the type of person they are. They have to fix their priorities and have to think about what type of information they might need when travelling to a foreign country. They have to prepare their questions. -Students prepare at home

-The simulation of the holiday fair. Tourists go from agency to agency until they find a holiday that suits them.85

-Round up: The agencies the holidays they managed to sell. The tourist tell the class whether they have found the holiday they were dreaming of.

Reflection and evaluation

Students took their task seriously. They came up with original ideas. All of them managed to lead more or less fluent conversations. They gathered information on different places and people. We all had fun. They gave me positive feedback at the end.

Activity 4 Scary Tales

(Connection to the textbook: Unit 2, Writing:narratives)

Aim

-Learn how to write a narrative text

-Practice writing and telling narratives

-Learn about the origins of Halloween

-Find out about Halloween customs in the US and get acquainted with Halloween folklore

-Get immersed in the Halloween custom by simulating a scary stories Halloween session

Culture+

-Students get in close touch with one of the major American Festivals

-They become aware of the fact that different cultures have different festivals and celebrations

-They become aware of the fact that traditional festivals usually have ancient origins and talk about old beliefs

Time: 2×50 minutes

Resources:

-The American folk tale Hairy Toe86

-Story map

-Sensory chart

85See travelproject on attached DVD

86See appendices 4, 5, 6

99

Steps of the activity:

-The teacher elicits previous information about Halloween -The teacher completes the elicited information

-The teacher talks about the American custom of telling scary tales at Halloween evening

-She tries to tell the tale Hairy Toe as vividly as possible trying to invoke a thrilling atmosphere

-Teacher and students discuss the tale, the teacher tries to elicit a story map and a sensory chart based on the tale, she writes on the blackboard

-Students are given a story map and a sensory chart and are asked to plan their own scary story

-During the next lesson blinds are down in the classroom, a candle is flickering and the scary story session can start

-Round up: Students vote for the scariest tale. The story teller gets a candy.

Reflection and evaluation:

It is not an easy activity for the students especially the part when they have to tell their own scary stories. They enjoyed it very much nevertheless. For a reason yet unknown to me kids nowadays are drawn to thrilling things and horror. In this group there are some students who have a great talent in acting. It was very much fun to listen to them. The activity reached its aim. Kids learnt about Halloween and they found out about how to write a good narrative. They had the opportunity to use their imagination and their experience on horror films.

Activity 5 A usual school day

(Connection to textbook Unit 1, Grammar: Present simple tense)

Aim:

-To practice the present simple

-To find out more about British schools and the life of teenagers in Britain

-To become aware of some of the differences between British and Romanian schools and lifestyle

Culture+

-The frame87 of school does not include the same elements here and in Britain. Students can be made aware of this fact. (What things come to your mind when I say school? What does this kid, Erik think of?)

-Students can get a deeper insight into how words cover different sets of meanings in different languages depending on the cultural and social background. This is one small step towards decentering.

Time: 50 minutes

Resources:

-The description of a school day given by a young Briton.88

Steps of the activity:

-The word SCHOOL is written on the blackboard and words connected to it are brainstormed (elements of the school frame are elicited)

-A short discussion about the structure of schools and school life follows -Children get the handout about a typical school day in Britain

-What is similar? What is different? What images come to Erik's mind when school is mentioned that do not match your images in a similar situation.

87Framing, frame semantics see the chapter on Language and Culture

88See appendix 7

100

-Write a similar presentation of your typical school day. Use the present simple. (Why do we need to use the present simple?)

Reflection and evaluation:

Students got to deal with the present simple tense and understand the rules of its use more thoroughly almost without mentioning the name of the tense. It proved to be an interesting activity for students. There was much new information. They were amazed by the fact that the first thing Erik had to do at school was to collect his table PC. They were amused by the registration etc.

The discussion about frames gave them new insight and they considered it very eye opening. I think the lesson was successful from all points of view.

Activity 6 Mind your superstitions

(Connection to the textbook Unit 3 Grammar: Conditional Type 1)

Aim:

-To practice the structure and meaning of the first conditional -To learn about British superstitions

-To compare superstitions in Britain with superstitions of our own

Culture+

-It is interesting to see how some superstitions are similar and some differ.

-Superstitions have to do with people's beliefs. If we manage to trace their etymology we might find some interesting things.

-Students become aware of the fact that people from different cultures have different superstitions and this might lead to different actions and are a possibility for misunderstanding.

Time: 50 minutes

Resources:

-A handout with British superstitions89

Steps of the activity:

-Teacher and students have a short discussion on superstitions, they single out some superstitions from their culture and formulate them in English using first conditionals. (If you see a black cat, you will be unlucky./ If you break a mirror you will not get married for seven years etc.)

-Students are given the handout with British superstitions. They have to read them and

put them in three categories: 1) Superstitions that exist in our culture as well in the same

form, 2)Superstitions that are similar to ones in our culture but not the same 3)

Superstitions they have never heard of

-A feedback discussion follows

-Students are asked to rewrite ten superstitions using the Type 1 Conditional and add five more superstitions from their own culture.

Reflection and evaluation:

It proved to be an interesting lesson. The grammar item was practised almost invisibly. The biggest surprise for students was the fact that the black cay was lucky in England. I think that this type of culture- grammar lesson is thoroughly enjoyable for both students and teacher. It is a pity that it can't be introduced for all grammar items. As far as I could see students are very much interested in this type of cultural information where the everyday lives and beliefs of people from the target culture are involved.

89See appendix 8

101

Activity 7 Life is a journey- Conceptual metaphors

(Connection to the textbook: Unit 2/3 Vocabulary: life and travel)90

Aim:

-To enrich students' vocabulary with idiomatic expressions

-To compare these English expressions to the ones existing in the mother tongue, spot similarities and differences

-To present the idea of conceptual metaphors (basic level)

Culture+

-This exercise should increase the language awareness of the students. They get an insight on how languages work.

-They become aware of some of the idiomatic expressions that guide our thinking. -They become aware of the fact that the root of some idiomatic expressions are universal but their manifestations are determined by culture

Time:50 minutes

Resources:

-The handouts of the original exercise91

-Similar expressions from other languages92

Steps of the activity:

-The students are announced that they are going to do some picture dictation and are given the first handout, knowledge of the necessary words is checked -Picture dictation and feedback

-Students are given the second handout. They are looking for expressions connected to journey

-The conceptual metaphor 'Life is a Journey' is elicited

-Group work, Students are discussing the questions on handout 3, and feedback

-Idea of conceptual metaphor is presented and discussed, some more examples from mother tongue are elicited, some examples from other languages presented.(universal and cultural)

-Students write sentences with the expressions newly acquired

Reflection and evaluation:

This activity is very well designed and helpful. The culture plus I gave to it does nothing more than increase awareness and insight. Students don't just understand and learn new words and expressions but they get an increased understanding of how languages work. They also become more sensitive to observing the strong interlink between culture and language.

Students enjoyed the exercise. They are open and eager to reach an enhanced understanding of the world around.

Activity8: My idiom dictionary

(Connection to the textbook, Idioms and fixed phrases from all units, Vocabulary)

Aim:

-Enrich students' vocabulary

-Make idioms more accessible especially for visual learners

-Make them aware of the differences of idiomatic expressions in different languages

Culture+

This exercise is based on a lesson by Lindsay Clanfield downloaded from the onestopenglish website, see appendices 11, 12, 13, 14

91Appendices 11, 12, 13

92See sub chapter on metaphors of the present paper (Language and Culture)

102

-Students realise differences and similarities of the idioms in different languages

-Students realise that speakers of different languages may connect different images to the same meanings

-Students realise one more aspect of the strong interlink between culture and language Time: 30 minutes classroom time, students' own time

Resources:

-Handout with images and translation of idioms93

Steps of the activity:

-Students are told that they have the task to make an idiom dictionary which they are going to enrich throughout the school year

-The handout is presented and the idea explained: Students need to make a drawing of the idiom and try to find expressions that mean the same in their mother tongue and other languages they know. They also have to look for use of the idioms in context. (The latter can be easily done using the internet.)

-The students make the the first two pages of their dictionary.)

Reflection and evaluation:

The task itself is interesting and enjoyable for students. It is also very useful in both teaching them vocabulary and raising their language awareness and cultural awareness. Besides the aims and the culture+ mentioned above it also has an important educational value: It should teach student independent and systematic work. This is one of the most problematic aspects today. Young people do not seem to want to take responsibility for their own learning. Experience shows that if this task is not made compulsory there are only a few students, who actually have a full idioms dictionary at the end of the school year although the workload is not that big.

After having presented the exercises above as samples of how the content of a textbook can be enhanced to carry more intercultural value I would like to describe some of the activities that are not connected to the textbook and were especially designed for teaching culture.

4.2 Exploring Culture

The activities presented below were specially designed to teach culture and intercultural communication. Some are based on original ideas others on my readings into the field. I also had three resource books at hand:

Corbett, John 2009:Intercultural Language Activities, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press

Tomalin, Barry and Stempleski, Susan 1993: Cultural Awareness, Oxford, Oxford University Press

Culture Matters, The Peace Corps Cross-cultural Workbook, Washington, US Government Printing Office

93Appendix 15

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The internet proved to be a very useful and handy resource and tool as well. I am going to present a selection of the activities employed.

Activity 1 The apple of my eye94

Aim:

-To introduce the ideas of uniqueness and difference

-To create a favorable mindset for future activities connected to culture

-To introduce the idea that we only really care for things we know

-To introduce the idea of openness and patience towards the unknown

-To teach vocabulary on parts of the apple

-To train students to work in groups

-To practice writing descriptions and biographies Time:50 minutes

Resources:

-15 apples

-handout with the vocabulary95

-handout with excerpt from the Little Prince from Saint Éxupery (The dialogue with the fox on the importance of openness and patience if you want to get to know something or somebody.)96

Steps of the activity:

-The apples are displayed on the teacher's desk and students are pre-taught the vocabulary on the parts of the apple with the help of the handouts. -Students are divided in five groups of three

-Each group is asked to take an apple from the teacher's desk.

-They are instructed to describe the apple in as much detail as possible -Feedback, descriptions are presented

-Students are asked to give a suitable name for their apples and imagine they have a life of their own, they are asked to write the story of their respective apples.97 -The names and stories are presented as well

-The teacher collects the apples and mixes them with the rest of the apples lying on her desk all this time

-A representative of each group comes out and tries to find the 'apple of the group -Students and teacher discuss the activity

-The teacher reads the excerpt from The Little Prince and gives it to students as a handout

-The teacher talks about how this activity was meant as an introduction to activities on culture

-Each student gets an apple

Reflection and evaluation:

The activity was much more successful than I had expected. It was amazing how instantly the students could single out THE apple after having focusing on it for almost the entire lesson.

After this activity I asked for written feedback from the students.98 They were all very positive about the activity itself and most of them have shown that the message they

94The original idea comes from a workshop of the Interlingua Project 2008-2010, organised by Kultur Kontakt Austria in collaboration with the British Council

95See appendix 16

96See appendix 17

97See appendix 18

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should have deciphered has actually reached them. The positive mindset towards tackling culture has been established.

Activity 2 Defining Culture99

Aim:

-To give students a closer insight into the term 'culture'

-To make students write a definition of culture and think of a metaphor they think fits the concept

-To make students think about the importance and possibilities of intercultural dialogue and define the term

Time:a 2×50 minutes session

Resources:100

-handout with definitions of culture coming from young people all around the world -handout with metaphors of culture

-handout with elements to put into the iceberg (Hall's model of culture)

Steps of the activity:

-Students are asked to define the world culture

-They are grouped in groups of three and asked to read the individual definitions

together and improve them

-Feedback on the definitions

-Students get the handout with the definitions of culture, decide which of them they agree with most and explain why- feedback

-Students get the handouts with metaphors for culture, they have the task to choose the one which is best according to them and explain why- feedback

-Students have to find a metaphor for culture and explain why they consider it fitting,

feedback and discussions

-BREAKTIME

-Students are given the handout with the elements of Hall's iceberg model, they discuss the elements with the teacher, teacher checks whether students know all the vocabulary -Students are explained the idea of the iceberg model and are asked to draw an iceberg and put the listed elements where they belong, students work in the same groups as established before

-The choices are discussed and students' attention is drawn to the fact that the invisible elements affect the visible ones.

-Students are asked to look for the connections

-Students and teacher round up together talking about whether and how students insights into the concept of culture has changed

-Finally students are asked to try to define the term intercultural dialogue- feedback

Reflection and evaluation:

This set of activities on defining culture is long but it is a possibility to lead students to a deeper understanding of the term 'culture'. There is much interaction among students and between teacher and students and requires imagination on the part of the students. The teacher needs to be flexible and knowledgeable enough to give answers to the questions that might pop up and need to be discussed throughout the process.

It was not easy for either students or teacher but gave good insights and proved to be interesting and useful.

98See appendix 19

99Inspired from Culture Matters and from www.connectingcultures.co.uk-education

100See appendices 20, 21,22

105

Activity 3- Culture shock

Aim:

-To make students aware of the phenomenon of culture shock

-To make them feel the unease one might experience in such a situations

-To make steps towards decentering by experiencing the unfamiliar

-Enriching vocabulary with some new words connected culture shock

-To practice reading and writing skills

Time:50 minutes

Resources:101

-Handout on the stages of culture shock

-Handout from the Inside Out textbook resource material

Steps of the activity:

-The teacher enters the classroom and starts giving instructions like: Boys and girls are not allowed to sit together! Boys in the front, girls go to the back! Separate your desks! Put your feet on the top of the desk!Put your textbook on your head! What are you thinking?

Stay on one foot when you are talking to me!!!

-Teacher elicits the answer to the question above. Students and teacher discuss what happened and how students felt about it.

-Teacher starts talking about culture shock and illustrates it with story from her own experience

-Students are given the handout with the stages of culture shock, they read it and discuss it with the teacher

-Students are given the reading about the Korean girl who suffered culture shock in the US, they read the text and discuss it with the teacher along the reading comprehension questions

-Students solve the vocabulary exercises

-Students are asked to write about their own culture shock experience102

Reflection and evaluations:

This proved to be a very enjoyable and interesting lesson. It was very funny to see the student's faces when they were given the instructions at the beginning of the lesson. At first they tried to protest than when I got even more determined they were petrified.

When I told them to put their feet on the desk they sensed that the situation was not serious and started to relax. To the question: 'What are you thinking?' they all said that they were wondering why this was happening. They did not know what was going on and this unsettled them. The atmosphere thus created is perfect for the introduction of the term 'culture shock'. Students were very interested and open to deal with the topic. My culture shock story made them even more interested.

I am sure students will not forget this lesson as easily as they tend to forget others. It affected them deeply.

101See appendices 24, 25

102See appendix 26

106

Activity 4 The Mind of the Beholder 103

Aim:

-To make students aware that a given behaviour has no built in meaning, it means whatever the observer decides it means

-To make students see the same behaviour from different angles -To make students de centre from their preconceptions -Practice Type 2 Conditionals

Time:50 minutes

Resources:

-Handout with the samples of behaviour

-Handout with the same samples of behaviour but with specifications as far as the observer is concerned

Steps of the activity:

-The teacher introduces the topic by giving a situation and asking students to react to it: If your classmate was five minutes late every morning what would you think? What would you tell him/her?

-The teacher gives the first handout to the pairs of students, checks whether there are any unknown words and asks students to react to the presented items of behaviour. -Feedback- Students and teacher discuss the reactions

-The teacher gives the second handout to the students and tells them to read the samples of behaviour again but this time also consider the circumstances presented and react accordingly. She also advises students to use the second conditional. (If I were from a country where being half an hour late is customary I would not be offended.)

Reflection and evaluation:

This exercise is very useful in order to make students aware of the fact that people from different culture might judge the same forms of behaviour very much differently. It also can open their eyes to the fact that this can be the source of serious misunderstanding since culture-determined patterns of behaviour might be seen as personality traits. It makes students aware of the fact that it is important to know basic rules of behaviour before visiting a foreign country.

It is also useful to de-centre students from their own point of view and see things from a different angle. This might help them become more tolerant and understanding. Not to talk about the fact that this activity is perfectly fit for practising the Type 2 Conditional structure. Students liked the activity.

Activity 5 Family values- Debate

Aim:

-To interact in English

-To use family and family life vocabulary

-To use language for expressing opinion

-To learn get a deeper insight into views different than your own by having to argue for them

Time: 50 minutes

Resources:

-Statements expressing family values like:

Children should never be hit for any reason.

Parents have to make sure that their children do not miss anything

Parents should stay together for the sake of their children even if they cannot stand each other.

The family should always be together for Christmas dinner.

103This activity is entirely based on the Culture Matters Workbook of the Peace Corps

107

Parents should let their teenage children stay out at night as long as they wish. etc.

These statements can be negotiated beforehand during previous lessons.

Steps of the activity:

-The teacher announces the activity: There will be a debate on family values.

-Students are divided in three groups of five, in each group there will be two FOR and two AGAINST people and a judge. A draw will decide who is who in each group. -Each group gets a different statement they will have to debate. People who have to defend the statement gather arguments for it. Those who are to attack it prepare arguments against regardless of their opinion. The judge has to brainstorm both for and against arguments.

-After 15-20 minutes preparation each group presents their debate in front of the classroom. The judge has to decide who was more convincing based on the arguments they gave and not on his or her opinion. He/she has to justify the choice.

Reflection and evaluation:

The success of the activity depends greatly on the statements the students have to argue about. If they are affected or interested in the topic of the debate they easily transcend the clumsiness of their lack of adequate language. It is usually hard for them at first to argue for statements they do not agree with. It is hard for them to de-centre, but the second or third time such a debate is organised this aspect improves. Much depends on practice.

The teacher has to guard over the whole process so that no one gets offended or hurt by overheated arguments.

Activity 6 Mind your Manners!

Aim:

-To make students acquainted with some of the rules of social behaviour in England -To make students compare our rules of social behaviour with those of the English -To imagine and roleplay possible situations where misunderstandings might occur Time:50 minutes

Resources:

-Three handouts on different rules of social behaviour in England104

Steps of the activity:

-Students and teacher discuss the rules of greeting people in the home community, Teacher tries to elicit whether students are familiar with rules of greeting in any of the target language communities

-Students are divided in five groups of three. Each group member receives a different handout. They have to read and then share with the rest of the group

-Students have to find together some differences between social rules in England and their first culture- feedback

-Students have to imagine in their group a social situation where misunderstanding might occur and prepare a mini drama to act out in class

-as homework they have to write a list of Do's and Dont's for the home community

Reflection and evaluation:

Students have been aware by know that it is important to be familiar with same basic rules of behaviour in order to be able to communicate efficiently and without misunderstanding with members of the target language community. This activity was enjoyable for them. Some of the mini dramas they performed were much fun. It is good to give students initiative. Sometimes they surprize you with the fresh imagination and wit they have.

104See appendices 28a, 28b, 28c

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Activity 7 Gestures

Aim:

-To make students aware of the fact that different cultures have different sets of gestures

-To practice the imperative and learn some new words that describe gestures -To get familiar with some gestures and their meanings -To watch video on how to teach gestures

-To make a similar video teaching gestures of the home culture and thus getting a deeper insight into this area

Time:50 minutes and 30 minutes classroom time, students' own time

Resources:

-Handout: Judie Haynes's 2002 lesson on gestures from everything.ESL.net

-Computer with internet connection to be able to watch the Japanese Body Language instructions on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShpttiWcAQY

Steps of the activity:

-Teacher introduces the lesson by showing some gestures and eliciting their meanings in first culture

-Teacher tries to elicit gestures from other cultures students might knowledgeable -Teacher checks and prepares necessary vocabulary

-Students are divided in five groups of three and are given the handouts, their task is to act out the gestures described and attribute a meaning to them

-Feedback – Teacher gives the necessary corrections and the meaning of the gestures as explained by Haynes

-Students and teacher watch three of the short films on Body Language instruction on Youtube

-Teacher and students de-construct these short educational videos and establish the component parts and the language used in each

-Students get the task to make similar videos familiarizing people with gestures from their own cultures

-Students get a week to do the task

-Students present their work105

-Teacher and students discuss the videos and they give feedback to each other about the activity

Reflection and evaluation:

This activity was out of the ordinary and proved to be highly enjoyable for students. They usually enjoy group work and having to use technology is just like a bonus for them. The videos they made talk for themselves. They got a deeper insight into the world of gestures but also practised the language connected to this topic. The benefits are manifold.

The above activities are based on exploring culture and the idea for many of them I have found in resource books aiming to teach culture and not language. As it can be seen from the description of the above exercises I took advantage of many of the possibilities to employ the activities as language activities as well. Thus, these activities besides helping to raise awareness of different cultural instances and trying to shape student's openness and flexibility also help shape and improve their language skills.

105See attached DVD

109

This seems to be proof of the idea that culture can be introduced as enjoyable content for language activities.

The third course of action I decided to follow was seeking contact with members of the target culture in order to make genuine interaction available for students.

4.3 Seeking contact with members of the target culture(s)

In order to make genuine interaction with members of the target language community available for students I have joined ePals (www.epals.com), which is a site specialized on classroom interaction and projects based on cooperation among classess around the world.

I wrote a class profile, looking for people interested to get in contact with us.106 I managed to find a teacher and a group of students in the US who were very prompt in responding to our profile posted on the epals site.107 My students were very enthusiastic about the prospects of this collaboration. We learned how to write introductory emails and how to start an online conversation.108 The kids started to exchange emails. Unfortunately we only got to two exchanges. It turned out that the students in the US were not genuinely interested in the project. They kept writing to my students that actually their teacher made them write and they were not interested. We were disappointed. The project was abandoned, which was a shame because I am positive that an exchange like this might be very useful in cultural studies. Of course things like this happen. I did not entirely abandon the idea of this type of interaction and information exchange though. My students were very enthusiastic and motivated. We have also prepared a 'culture box' with information about Easter Festivities in our area.109 There is a draft of it in Appendix 35.

With the same idea of genuine interaction in mind I invited an American friend, former Peace Corps volunteer at our school, who now lives in our country to talk to the students.

106See appendix 30

107See appendix 31

108See appendices 32,33,34

109See appendix 35

110

My students had to prepare interview questions beforehand and we came up with a nice list of questions in the end. After the conversation students had to note down what new and surprising things they have heard about the US. This activity was very positive. Everybody enjoyed it greatly.

After having described the procedures, the courses of action, and the some of the activities employed, it is time now to describe the findings. These will be presented based on the answers to the questionnaires I administered both before and after the process.

IV. Description of the findings

As it was described before the questionnaire was administered to two groups of students, the group I was working with and a control group. Both groups answered the questionnaire two times, before and after the process described in the previous chapter. Thus there are four sets of data to analyze and compare. The questionnaires were processed with the help of the SPSS computer programme. The diagrams were made using Microsoft Office Excel. The report on the processed data is going to be made along the more pregnant findings. Every important aspect will be mentioned and discussed. The diagrams and findings that are not used in this presentation can be examined in digital version on the attached DVD next to the database of the whole investigation.

Since the questionnaire tried to examine three of the components of intercultural competence as described by Michael Byram, the presentation of the findings will follow the same logic. The findings about the knowledge component will be talked about first, followed by the attitude and skills components.

1. Cultural Knowledge

The first eleven questions were all concerned with factual knowledge about the geography, history, famous people and popular icons of two of the target language cultures, namely Britain and the United States of America. As it was expected improvements in this aspect were clear and visible not just for the group but for the

111

control group as well. Of course the improvement in the level of factual cultural knowledge in the assessed aspects showed better results in the group than in the control group, which is no wonder since we had been systematically working on improving this aspect.

The first question was about the component countries of Great Britain.

The answers of the group show significant changes between the first and second time. While the first time the answers were varied and only 27% answered correctly, the second time everybody gave the right answer, namely that the component countries of Great Britain were: England, Scotland and Wales. All members of the control group gave the same wrong answer both the first and the second time confusing Great Britain and the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). This is quite a common confusion to make but it can be easily remediated.

The second question was asking pupils to match some of the famous sights of London with their descriptions. The sights included: The London Eye,

St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, The Tower of London, and

Buckingham Palace. The results are as follows:

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At the first questioning 20% of the group did not know that the London Eye was the largest observation wheel in the world, while the second time everybody knew the right answer. The control group’s performance has also improved considerably from 67% to 87%.

The second time there were more people in the group who knew that St Paul’s Cathedral was built by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London, although the increase should have been more significant. The control group registered here a worse performance the second time than originally.

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In the case of Westminster Abbey the control group does not show much change, while the group’s knowledge improves significantly, from 60% to 93%.

As far as the Tower of London is concerned there is a quite significant increase towards right answers, this time in both groups.

The Big Ben and Buckingham Palace seem to be the two most popular sights of the British Capital, at least among the students who answered this questionnaire.

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Most of the kids knew from the very beginning that Big Ben was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, who was in charge of the building works at Westminster. And also the majority of them were aware of the fact that Buckingham Palace was the dwelling place of the Queen. At the second questioning, though everybody in the group gave the right answer. The percentage of good answers has increased in the control group as well.

Question number three asked the students to match some British icons, three well-

known writers and the best known pop group the Beatles to their places of origin.

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Although there was much hesitation at the first time, by the end of the schoolyear, when the second questioning took place everybody knew the answer from both group and control group: The Beatles are from Liverpool, Thomas Hardy is from Dorset, William Shakespeare is from Stradford Upon Avon while William Wordsworth can be connected to the Lake District.

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In the case of the famous scientists though, the situation was somewhat different. Many students had known at the very beginning that it was Alexander Beell, who invented the telephone and even more students were conscious of it the second time in both groups although the group shows better results.

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By the time of the second questioning everybody in the group knew that Isaac Newton was the one who discovered gravity.

Very few people knew at the beginning that Alexander Fleming discovered penicilin. The second time though 87% of the students from the group have become aware of this fact while there was only small change as far as the control group was concerned.

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John Baird was the Scottish engineer who invented the world’s first working television system. Most of the students of the group knew about this by the second questioning.

As far as popular faces of contemporary Britain are concerned the results of the questioning were as follows:

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Most of the students knew from the start that Elton John was a musician and the percentage increased in both groups.

In the case of David Beckham there are no comments to be made. Everybody knows David Beckham.

If at the beginning there was some hesitation about the famous author of the Harry Potter books by the second questioning everybody could identify her as a writer in both groups. The initial hesitation shows that the Harry Potter books are not as popular among the young generation as they used to be ten years ago. Of course there are still many who read them.

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As far as the identity of the actress Emma Thompson is concerned the change in the group is obvious. The percentage of the good answers has increased in the control group as well though.

The TV chef Jamie Oliver was practically unknown among students. The change in the group is again obvious. The majority of the group knows now who Jamie Oliver is while the members of the control group are still in the dark as far as his identity is concerned.

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The next group of questions (12, 13, 14, 15 ) were designed to elicit student’s knowledge of some aspects of social behaviour and belief in the target language communities.

As far as social behaviour is concerned the results are as follows:

While most students of the group considered at first that leaving right after dinner cannot be well mannered in the US, by the second questioning many have changed their opinions and gave the right answer. In the US you are not considered rude or impolite if you leave right after dinner. In our community it would be a very rude thing to do though.

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There is a slight change in the control group as well although more of them have given the right answer at first than from the group.

At the second questioning more members of the group knew that the right thing to say in the above situation was: „I’m sorry.” The percentages in the control group do not show much change.

Concerning values and beliefs we have the following results:

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Most students seem to have understood that the British value compromise, although the group shows better progress here than the control group.

The question whether they thought that seeing a black cat was lucky in Britain was chosen especially because of the fact that in the student’s first culture superstition says that a black cat crossing your way is an extremely unlucky sign, while in Britain a similar thing would be considered lucky. It was interesting to see here that although we have talked about superstitions in the group, there were still people in the end who did not give the right answer to this question.

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It is interesting to see that the percentage of good answers in the control group has improved the second time to reach the original data of the group.

Question 16 was an open ended question. Students had to name three differences between their culture and British culture. The question did not only intend to test factual knowledge about differences between the two cultures mentioned but it also wanted to investigate whether the insight into the phenomenon of culture shows any changes the second time.

The first diagram shows the number of answers given by the students of the groups at both questionings. If we take a closer look we can find that while the first time only

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53% of the group managed to find three differences, the second time 93% of them gave three answers.

In the control group the number of people who gave at least one answer grew but there were fewer to give three answers the second time.

The group managed to come up with the following answers at the first and second times:

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It is clearly visible that the range of the differences mentioned the second time is much wider. While at first everyone seemed to stick to the difference in tradition and the stereotype of the British as a tea loving nation the second time their insight has grown. They were able to identify aspects like behaviour, gestures, habits. This clearly talks about the fact that the students got a somewhat deeper insight in what culture actually is about.

The control group shows a certain kind of randomness in their choices. At the first questioning some of them showed a surprisingly good insight. Much of this seems to have vanished though by the second questioning.

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Questions 17 and 18 are based on Hofstede’s model of the three levels of human mental programming. Question 17 wants to elicit the knowledge of the fact that a smile can mean different things in different cultures. Question 18 asks students to identify and label some instances of behaviour as universal, cultural or personal.

While at the beginning most of the students from both groups said that a smile was universal, having the same meaning everywhere around the world, at the second time the answers were more nuanced. Most of the group have understood that the meaning behind a smile can be different in different cultures.

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It was also interesting to see how students’ insights on behaviour have changed.

Sleeping with the bedroom window open is clearly personal and it was seen as such by everybody at the first questioning. The second time though some students in the control group seem to have lost confidence in their own abilities to judge this and labelled it as cultural, respectively universal.

Running from a dangerous animal is universal behaviour. Only about half of the

students from the group thought of it as such at the beginning. The percentage of right

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answers at this time was much higher in the control group. In the end though most of the group were aware of the fact that everybody on earth would run away from a dangerous animal regardless of his or her culture while many members of the control group have changed their minds saying that this type of behaviour was personal.

Considering snakes to be evil is culture- dependent. The control group gave better answers here both times but the group shows a considerable percent of growth in right answers the second time.

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Men do not open doors for women in every culture but there are cultures where it is customary to do so. Both groups show a better understanding of this fact the second time, although here the group shows a better percentage of good answers in both instances. Interestingly enough though the second time there is a 7% who think that this behaviour is personal.

Respecting older people is a culture based behaviour but at the first questioning most of the students thought that it was universal. This is a good sign actually, showing how deeply embedded this behaviour is in their first culture and how well they have interiorised it. At the second questioning though many students of the group have realised that respecting older people is not a universal characteristic of every culture.

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Finally, liking spicy food is again a personal characteristic and not universal or cultural although there are differences among cultures concerning the use of spices. Students from both groups show a better understanding of this fact the second time although a higher percentage of the group have given the right answers.

There are two more questions which concern cultural knowledge even though they were labeled as attitudes in the questionnaire. This is due to the fact that the answers given to them are measured using attitude scales. Questions 1 and 2 from the second part of the questionnaire investigates the level of student’s awareness of the strong interlink between language and culture as tools people use to interpret reality.

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The group shows much diversity the first time, almost half of them disagree or strongly disagree. The second time everyone agrees though with 20% of them showing strong agreement with the fact that everybody understands the world through the lenses of his/ her culture and language. This means that they have come to understand what role language and culture play in making meaning of the world around us. In the control group most had this insight the first time. There aren’t very important changes.

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As it is visible from the diagram above the group shows important changes towards the intended goal. At the first questioning there were 53% who disagreed and 27% who strongly disagreed with the affirmation that successful communication only requires language fluency. There were though 13% who agreed and 7% who strongly agreed that being fluent in the language is enough to save you from any misunderstandings and no knowledge of culture is needed. The second time there were only 7% who agreed with this latter idea and the percentage of both those who disagreed and strongly disagreed has increased. The control group though shows a reverse movement. While at the first questioning there was nobody who would disagree with the idea of the necessity of cultural knowledge in order to avoid misunderstandings in communication, the second time there were 13% who thought that good language skills would suffice.

Summing up the first part of the investigation, namely the change in the level of cultural knowledge of the students it can be claimed that the group has shown a consequent and steady movement towards the aims that were envisaged. They have more factual knowledge about artifacts, heroes and history of the target cultures, they know more about the rules of social behaviour, beliefs and values in the target culture. The students also have a deeper insight into the concept of culture. They have a better judgment of what behaviours can be considered universal, cultural or personal and are aware of the strong interlink between language and culture. The majority of them have also understood that without an insight into the rules of behaviour and cultural background of the target community successful communication might face unexpected hindrances.

The changes in the answers of the control group are less consequent and steady.

2.Attitudes

As mentioned before in this paper attitudes cannot be taught. It was my hope that they could be shaped though by well designed interactions between students and the teacher and among students themselves. This is not about imposing attitudes on people and sanctioning ’wrong’attitude. The idea would be to lead students towards openness, tolerance and flexibility, the willingness to adjust when circumstances require. These qualities are needed for successful intercultural communication. This does not mean

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abandonment of one’s own culture, on the contrary. Everybody’s first culture is the basis for intercultural learning. This is why the first two questions concerning attitude refer to the first culture of the students.

There is a positive change in the group as far as this aspect is concerned. At the beginning not everybody thought that they were interested in learning more about their culture while at the end everyone thought that this was important or very important. The control group shows a reverse movement. Although most of the students in the group continued to believe that learning to know their culture better was important the conviction of some lost in strength and some gave up the idea entirely.

The next question wanted to elicit how important it was for students to cherish and protect their cultural heritage. The answers are below:

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I consider that the change in attitude in the group is positive here as well. Although there are 7% less who stronly agree with the statement the second time but on the other hand there is no one who disagrees. Interestingly, in the control group the percentage of strong agreement has grown significantly while the percentage of disagreement stayed the same but became stronger.

There is one question which intends to test students’ insight into the importance of decentering, of being able to view one’s culture with a different eye in order to get to know it better. The statement says: ‘If you only know one culture you don’t really know that culture.’

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The group shows a growth of insight. Although the percentage of those who strongly agreed with the statement has slightly decreased there was a considerable increase in the percentage of those who agreed with it, the percentage of disagreement dropping from 54 to 26 percent. There was nobody who strongly disagreed.

The answers of the control group on the other hand were rather inconsistent.

The rest of the questions concerning attitude investigate students’ openness, tolerance and willingness to adjust.

There were three statements that stated intolerance or insecurity when faced with other cultures. The first one that is to be presented here states insecurity when out of the confort zone of the home culture. This can be a personality trait since not everybody is self assured and assertive. I believe though that the original feeling of insecurity can be overcome after sufficient reassurance and positive experience. A better command of the language is also very helpful, it gives self assurence.

In the group originally 47% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement. At the second instance this dropped to 20%. In the control group there were even more students who

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initially agreed that they felt awkward when having to talk with people from other cultures. This has changed considerably by the second time.

The next statement talks about gross intolerance. „Everybody should stick to their own culture and leave everybody else alone.” –it says.

The group shows a positive course of change. Nobody agrees with the statement the second time. The control group on the other hand shows a slight movement backwards more people agreeing at the time of second questioning. If we consider the percentages though we can state that the majority of our students do not think this way.

The last statement with a negative message says that: “Other cultures are strange and odd.” This statement shows lack of flexibility and openness. This can be changed though by knowledge.

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The group has shown positive change here as well. Although there still is that same odd 7% who agrees with the statement, percentage of those who strongly disagree instead of just disagreeing has increased. Changes in the control group are again inconsistent. Although the percentage of those who strongly disagree has almost doubled, the percentage of agreement with the statement has doubled as well.

The next question, based on an English proverb wanted to check student’s willingness to adjust their behaviour when visiting or living in a foreign country. It tests flexibility and willingness to decentre.

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Both in the group and the control group people are willing to adjust. In the group there are more people who strongly agree the second time and strong disagreement mildened into just disagreement. This is again positive movement. In the control group nothing much has changed.

The rest of the questions all investigate the degree of openness and willingness to come into contact to people from other cultures.

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All these positive statements above have received mainly positive reactions from students. Moreover there is a growth towards an even more positive consideration of these aspects. At one instance though, a slight backward movement can be sensed from the part of the group. There are less people the second time who consider going away to a foreign country and experiencing other people’s lives as a major dream for the future. The percentage of disagreement with this statement has grown from 13% to 20%.

Most people seek contact with with people coming from other cultures, would like to experience living in a different country, and would be glad to have a British or American visitor. Everybody in the group believes that “Other cultures are interesting and fascinating.” All these clearly show a high degree of openness and a willingness to learn and communicate.

In the above instances attitude was measured with the help of attitude scales.

There is an open question as well though in this second part of the questionnaire. This refers to the students’ motivation for learning English. There are changes in both groups as far as this aspect is concerned.

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When the questionnaire was administered the first time most of the students from the group mainly wanted to learn English because they considered it useful. The second and third places, way behind the first one on the students’ list of motivations were occupied by wanting to communicate with more people and being interested in languages. By the second time the motivations got much more diversified. Usefulness and wanting to communicate with more people occupy now the same position on the list. Many want to learn English because it is the most widely spoken language in the world and because they are interested in the culture. Getting access to cultural artifacts like books, films, lyrics of songs etc of the English speaking world has also come up on the list. More people consider that they will need the language for traveling or living abroad. Being interested in languages as such has slightly decreased though.

On the whole I consider that this change in motivation is beneficial and shows a movement towards the goals of intercultural communication language teaching should be aiming at. The very utilitarian motive of usefulness has lost ground in favour of more human reasons. There is much more emphasis on willingness to communicate with people from all over the world and there is also much more interest in culture.

The motivation of the students in the control group has changed as well.

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Usefulness although on the first place did not play as an important role as for the group. Wanting to communicate with more people and being interested in languages came second on the list. The fact that English was so widely spoken also seemed to be of importance. At the second time students became more interested in languages, this becoming number one motivation for them. The fact that English is the most widely spoken language came second on the list. The third position is occupied by being interested in the culture and the usefulness of English both counting for 16% of the answers.

Summing up this section on attitudes I would like to conclude that most of the students have shown a very positive attitude from the very beginning.

The changes in the attitudes expressed by group are again consistently showing in the same direction. Most of them seemed to have increased their, openness, tolerance and flexibility. Changes of attitude in the control group are more inconsistent and random.

3.Skills

The third part of the questionnaire was investigating skills. To be more precise it wanted to elicit information about the knowledge discovery skill of the students as

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described by the INCA project assessment tool. They established three levels of competence, namely: basic, intermediate and full. The first diagram refers to the ability of students to identify and gather the information needed before departing to an international study program.

Those students who have no idea what information they would need and are not concerned about becoming more or less informed before departure are basic level. Intermediate level of this skill entails wanting information about housing, climate, currency, travel and some other general information about the place of study. Their sources of information would be people who have already been there, the internet or guidebooks.

Those who are considered to be fully mastering this skill are people who are aware that they should learn or revise their language skills, need to know more about people’s customs, behaviour and cultural background. They would consult guides with in-depth information, seek specific information on the study place from others and will contact official sources.

Students of the group show clear advancement as far as this area is concerned. By the second questioning 67% are fully aware of what information they might need and how they could get it. The control group’s reverse though is inexplicable unless we consider a lack of willingness to perform the task properly.

The next aspect of the knowledge discovery skill concerned the ways students would consider to get more information about the school and the course of studies once they 145

have arrived there. At basic level they would only communicate with fellow nationals and wait until they are told what to do. At intermediate level besides having the sources of information mentioned above they would also obtain translation of essential information, observe the behaviour of others and behave in a friendly way towards new colleagues. Those who are full masters of this skill would be involved in the social side of school life, would find a contact person who could explain things to them, communicate with new colleagues, understand the precise meaning of the written instructions and compare school life with that of the home country.

There is progress in both groups. Some members of the group even managing to reach to the full level of this skill.

The last aspect was referring to the activities students would engage in during their spare time while participating in an international study program. At basic level they would only meet fellow nationals or participate at programs that were organised especially for them. At intermediate level they would use local tourist information services, visit places of interest, go to local bars and restaurants and talk to locals who can use students’ mother tongue. At full level students would join a local club for leisure and sporting purposes, talk to locals in their own language, ask colleagues to act as local guides, use local sources of information not designed to tourists, read local newspapers attend concerts, plays, films.

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The group shows growth in this respect as well. 40% shows the full level of skills. They would mingle with locals and find the ways of leisure specific to the area. More than half of the students would visit the places of interest, talk to some locals and go to tourist offices for information. There are only 7% who would have hardships to adjust and would only talk to fellow nationals and attend leisure time activities specially organized for them.

The control group again show randomness in their answers.

In the comment area many students of the group and some of the control group have expressed their enthusiasm about the prospect of being able to take part in an international study program.

The findings of this last part of the questionnaire can be summed up similarly to the others. Students of the group have shown steady and consistent progress as far as the skill of knowledge discovery is concerned. Now they have a deeper insight of what type of information they might need in the eventuality of a study program abroad. They are more or less clear about the ways they might gather information on the spot and have a clear idea of how to spend their leisure time in such a way that they should get closer to local customs, habits and lifestyle. It needs to be mentioned that these aspects were never explicitly dealt with during the lessons though. This deeper insight has developed implicitly during the many types of culture-connected activities during the school year.

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All the findings listed and analyzed above show that all the hypotheses stated at the beginning of the description of this action research have proved true. The main hypothesis stated that: Lessons about culture affect students’ cultural awareness. The changes presented all highlight the truth of the statement. All three components of the intercultural competence investigated above showed steady and consistent change towards the intended aims. Students have got better factual knowledge and a deeper insight into the phenomenon that is culture. They are more aware of the strong interlink between language and culture and they have more insight into how we make meaning of the world around with their help. Their attitudes have also shown positive change. They are more open, flexible and tolerant, they are more willing to adjust and decenter when needed.

The skill investigated also shows improvement in all its aspects. Students are now more knowledgeable of what to do when planning to go abroad for a study program and how to act when they are on the spot.

Considering all the above I can re-affirm that lessons about culture affect student’s cultural awareness.

The second hypothesis said that: Knowledge of culture as a phenomenon helps students to a deeper insight.

The lessons about culture as a phenomenon and the tackling of the different aspects of culture really helped students to a deeper insight. They can now better label types of behaviour as personal, universal or cultural, they understand the link between language and culture. They are more aware of the aspects of cultural difference, their motivations for learning English became more diversified. They also seem to have a more familiar attitude towards the prospect of a study program abroad. They are much more aware of what type of information they need and how they can get it. Knowledge of culture as a phenomenon definitely helps students to a deeper insight and a heightened awareness of the world around.

The last hypothesis stated that: Attitudes cannot be taught but they can be shaped through well designed interactions among students and between the students and the teacher.

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Proof of this statement can also been found in the analysis above. All the attitudes investigated have shown a systematic change towards the envisaged aim in the group which undertook the cultural learning process. Students have become less insecure when facing otherness, they have become more open, more tolerant and more willing to adjust and decenter. I consider that the attitude aspect of intercultural learning is the most vulnerable one and ’progress’ in this area is the most difficult to achieve and measure. This last hypothesis is the one I was the most unsure about. I am glad that it proved to be true. Attitudes although cannot be taught they can be shaped through well designed interactions among students and between the students and the teacher.

V. Summary and conclusions

The present paper intended to investigate the problem of culture teaching in the language classroom. It wanted to know the place of culture in the language classroom and see whether cultural awareness could be raised through teaching a language. The first step in order to do this was to design an action research. The main hypotheses of the research stated that 'Lessons about culture affect students' cultural awareness.' Next I started my readings into specialised literature and came up with the questionnaire based on the components of intercultural competence as modelled by Michael Byram and Genevive Zarate. This model seemed to be the best choice since more of the literature pointed out that it was the most well elaborated model existing at the present moment. This model also made me formulate two additional, secondary hypotheses namely that: 'Knowledge of culture as a phenomenon helps students to a deeper insight' and that 'Attitudes cannot be taught but they can be shaped through well designed interactions among students and between the students and the teacher.'

I decided on the group of students I wanted to work with and chose a control group. I also designed the process I intended to follow. I decided to take three courses of action in order to achieve the aim of raising the cultural awareness of my students. I gave a more cultural content to many of the textbook items, I planned and taught lessons about culture and I tried to help my students to make contact to members of the target language communities. At the beginning and at the end of the process I administered the questionnaire.

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The findings have shown that all my hypotheses were true. This means that cultural awareness can be raised through teaching a foreign language if the right approach is taken and the right activities employed.

My investigations into the literature about the relationship between culture and language teaching has shown though that there is much more to this problem than it meets the eye the first time. I became conscious of many things I. have been unaware of.

Due to the rapid movements towards globalisation throughout the world there has been a paradigm shift as far the relationship of culture and language teaching is concerned. Language teaching has increasingly become to be considered as the major area of studies that can help shape the future generation who have to find their way in a globalised world by being able to communicate interculturally. Due to the strong interlink between language and culture, language lessons have always unavoidably been a locus for decentering and helping students to see the world with different eyes. Nowadays, with the world getting smaller and more and more people having to communicate across cultures it became obvious that there are major impediments in mutual understanding because of the differences of cultural backgrounds. Theorists and policy makers of the teaching profession have envisaged the ideal of an individual who is an apt intercultural communicator, a mediator among cultures. This individual, besides having good language skills, possesses a deep understanding of the phenomenon of culture and a heightened awareness of the fact that people are influenced by the language they speak and the culture they belong to. He can decenter from his own culture and successfully negotiate new meanings for the sake of mutual understanding. Intercultural language competence as a goal is present in policy documents across the globe. Although the educational need has been identified and formulated there are still many aspects that need more insight and experience before intercultural language teaching can be implemented. The aims are clear but the elaboration of the methods of teaching and assessment will have to wait until more investigations come up with viable solutions. Until then language teachers can take charge and if they are willing they can contribute to the global pursuit towards a more efficient language teaching and learning that encompasses culture learning and meets the demands of the future world.

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My action research had many limitations. The number of students involved were low, the activities I have employed followed my own logic and structuring that might not have been the most efficient one. One of the core courses of action I was planning to take failed to realise. The methods of assessment were limited: I decided to stick to the psychometric paradigm and tested content through objective procedures. A more contextualised and personalised view on assessment might have been more appropriate in this case.

In spite of all these I consider that the present paper has reached the aim it was intending to reach and proved the point that it wanted to prove: A more cultural approach to language teaching increases the cultural awareness of the students.

Actually I believe that it does much more than that: it widens their horizon enabling them to see the world from different angles and it helps them become better people.

It is not just the students who benefit from the process though. The knowledge and insnight of the teacher can grow considerably as well.

I believe that my investigations into intercultural language teaching have not ended with the present paper. There is much more to explore, there are many activities to try out and many new ideas to be employed and tested. I believe that both my students and myself can only benefit.

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156

APPENDICES

157

APPENDIX 1

Cultural Awareness Test

I. Knowledge

1.Great Britain is:

England

England and Scotland

England, Scotland and Wales

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

2.Match the description with the sight.

The London Eye

St Paul’s Cathedral

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

The Tower of London

6.Buckingham Palace

3.Match the places with the people

A, The Beatles

B, Thomas Hardy

C, William Shakespeare

D, William Wordsworth

A.It has been many things: a palace, a fortress, a prison, a palace of execution and even a zoo.

B.It was built after the Great Fire of 1666 by Sir Christopher Wren. It took him 35 years to finish it.

C. It was called because of Sir Benjamin Hall, who was in charge of the building works at Westminster and whose nickname was “Big Ben”.

D.Many British monarchs, writers, poets, musicians and scientists are buried here

E.It is the tallest observation wheel in the world. It is 135 meters high.

This is where Queen Elizabeth II lives much of the time. There are 600 rooms, 780 bathrooms, a cinema, a post-office and a swimming pool.

1 Dorset

2Stradford Upon Avon

3The Lake District

4 Liverpool

2000 years ago the British Isles were home for Celtic people. The language they spoke can be related to:

1, modern English 3, modern French

2, modern Welsh 4, none of them

158

5. 1066 is one of the most important dates in British history. This was the year of:

1, The Great Fire of London 3, the first Constitution

2,the forming of the Parliament 4, The Norman Conquest

6.The following are all famous British scientists. What are they famous for?

Alexander Bell

Isaac Newton

Alexander Fleming

John Baird

How many queens of England have been named Elizabeth?

A.2 B.3 C.4

8.How many US presidents have been assassinated?

A.2 B.4 C.6

9.Complete the couples.

A, Fred & C, Laurel& E, Tom&

B, Bonny & D, Romeo& F, Mickey&

10. Complete the titles of these novels:

A, Wuthering C, Dombey and

B, Pride and D, The Old Man and the

What do these famous Britons do?

Elton John

David Beckham

J.K. Rowling

Emma Thompson

Jamie Oliver

In the UK, to compromise is seen as a positive sign of both parties winning.

True False

13. Leaving right after dinner in Central America is considered well-mannered as it means you’ve been well fed.

True False

14. Seeing a black cat is lucky in Britain.

True False

159

You are in a crowded bus in the UK. and by accident step on somebody’s toes. What do you say?

Please excuse me.

Oh, God!

I’m Sorry.

I must apologize.

16.Can you name at least three differences between your culture and British culture?

17.A smile has the same meaning everywhere in the world.

True False

18.Look at this list of behaviours. Put a U if you think the behaviour is universal a C

if you consider it Culture based and a P if you think it is a personal behaviour.[1]

Sleeping with the bedroom window open

Running from a dangerous animal

Considering snakes to be evil

Men opening doors for women

Respecting older people

Liking spicy food

160

II. Attitudes

Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly

agree Disagree

1.Everybody interprets the world through the

lenses of his/her own language and culture.

If you are fluent in a language you do not need any knowledge about culture in order to communicate without misunderstanding.

3.I am trying to learn as much as possible about my own culture.

4.I think it is very important to cherish and

protect your own cultural heritage.

5.If you only know one culture you don’t really know that culture.

Everyone should stick to their own culture and leave everybody else alone.

“When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” You have to try to adjust to the culture of the country you are visiting.

I often seek contact with other people in order to learn as much as possible about their culture.

Going away to a foreign country and experiencing how other people live and think is one of my dreams.

If a British or American person would visit my family tomorrow I would be thrilled.

I feel awkward when I have to talk to people coming from a different culture.

12.Other cultures are strange and odd.

13.Other cultures are interesting and fascinating.

161

14. What is your motivation for learning English?

III. Skills [2]

You have been selected to take part in an international study program. This means that you will spend three months in a country you have never visited before. (Although you might have studied the language at school.)

Please answer the following questions:

What kind of information do you think you would need before departure?

How would you obtain that information?

During the placement what would you do to find out more information about the school and the course of studies?

During your spare time, if you wanted to find out more about the country what would you do?

5.Any Comments?

Culture Matters The peace Corps Cross Cultural Work[2] based on INCA project 2004 online at www.incaproject.org

162

APPENDIX 2

Cultural Awareness Test- key

I. Knowledge

1.England, Scotland, Wales

2.1.- E, 2.- B, 3.- D, 4.- C, 5.- A, 6.- F

3.The Beatles- Liverpool, Thomas Hardy- Dorset, William Shakespeare-Stratford Upon Avon, William Wordsworth- The Lake District

4.modern Welsh

5.The Norman Conquest

6.Alexander Bell- telephone, Isaac Newton- the law of gravity, Alexander Fleming- penicillin, John Baird- television

7.A.2

8.B. 4 (Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley. John F.

Kennedy)

9.A. Fred and Ginger. B. Bonny and Clyde, C. Laurel and Hardy, D. Romeo and Juliet, E. Tom and Jerry, F. Mickey and Minnie

10.A. Wuthering Heights, B. Pride and Prejudice, C. Dombey and Son, D.

The Old Man and the Sea

11.Elton John- pop singer

David Beckham- footballer

J.K. Rowling- the author of the Harry Potter books

Emma Thompson- actor

Jamie Oliver- TV chef

true

true

true

I’m sorry. 16.student’s choice

17.false

personal, 2. universal, 3. cultural, 4. cultural, 5. cultural, 6 personal

Attitudes

Student’s own answers

III. Skills

This part of the test was entirely taken from the Intercultural encounters part of the INCA 2004 test booklet (Intercultural Competence Assessment Project) and will be evaluated according the standards of the test.

163

APPENDIX 3

Cultural Awareness Test- bibliography

Byram, M.(1997) Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters

the INCA 2004 project of the UE Intercultural Competence Assessment, online at www.incaproject.org

Byram, M., Gribkova, B., Starkey, H. (2002) Developing the Intercultural Dimension in Language Teaching, A Practical Introduction for Teachers, Language Policy Division, Council of Europe, Strasbourg

Bennett, Milton J. "Towards a Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity" in R. Michael Paige, ed. Education for the Intercultural Experience. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 1993.

Trivial Pursuit www.teachers-corner.co.uk

Culture Matters, The Peace Corps Cross Cultural Workbook, peace Corps Information, Collection and Exchange, T0087, US Government Printing Office

Tomalin, B, Stemplesli, S (1993), Cultural Awareness, OUP

Common Europen Framework Reference for Languages, online at http://culture.coe.int/lang

164

APPENDIX 4

Instructions: Intercultural

encounters

SCENARIO 1: FINDING INFORMATION

You have been selected to take part in an international work project with an associate European company. This will involve you spending 3–4 months in a country which you have not visited before (although it is possible that you learnt some of the language at school). Answers to the following questions will help us to judge how quickly you might come to understand your new environment, its culture and its people.

Please answer the following questions:

What kind of information do you think you would need before departure?

How would you obtain that information?

During the placement what would you do to find out information in the workplace?

During your spare time, if you wanted to find out more about the country, what would you

do?

Any other comments:

165

APPENDIX 5

Assessment sheet: intercultural encounters Scenario: Finding Information

Competence tested: Knowledge Discovery

166

167

APPENDIX 6

Hairy Toe

excerpted from Spooky Maryland

retold by S.E. Schlosser

Once there was an old woman who went out in the woods to dig up some roots to cook for dinner. She spotted something funny sticking out of the leaves and dug around until she uncovered a great big hairy toe. There was some good meat on that toe which would make a real tasty dinner, so the old woman put it in her basket and took it home.

When she got back to her cottage, the old woman boiled up a kettle-full of hairy toe soup, which she ate for dinner that night. It was the best meal she'd had in weeks! The old woman went to bed that night with a full stomach and a big smile.

Along about midnight, a cold wind started blowing in the tops of the trees around the old woman's house. A large black cloud crept over the moon and from the woods a hollow voice rumbled: "Hairy toe! Hairy toe! I want my hairy toe!" Inside the house, the old woman stirred uneasily in her bed and nervously pulled the covers up over her ears.

From the woods there came a stomp-stomp-stomping noise as the wind whistled and jerked at the treetops. In the clearing at the edge of the forest, a hollow voice said: "Hairy toe! Hairy toe! I want my hairy toe!" Inside the house, the old woman shuddered and turned over in her sleep.

A stomp, stomp, stomping sound came from the garden path outside the cottage. The night creatures shivered in their burrows as a hollow voice howled: "Hairy toe! Hairy toe! I want my hairy toe!" Inside the house, the old woman snapped awake. Her whole body shook with fright as she listened to the angry howling in her garden. Jumping out of bed, she ran to the door and barred it. Once the cottage was secure, she lay back down to sleep.

Suddenly, the front door of the cottage burst open with a bang, snapping the bar in two and sending it flying into the corners of the room. There came the stomp, stomp, stomping noise of giant feet walking up the stairs. Peeping out from under the covers, the old woman saw a massive figure filling her doorway. It said: "Hairy toe! Hairy toe! I want my hairy toe!"

The old woman sat bolt upright in terror and shouted: "I ATE your hairy toe!"

"Yes, you did," the giant figure said very gently as it advanced into the room.

No one living in the region ever saw the old woman again. The only clue to her disappearance was a giant footprint a neighbor found pressed deep into the loose soil of the meadow beside the house. The footprint was missing the left big toe.

168

APPENDIX 7

Story Map

A story map can help you plot out just what happens in a story.

Title

Main

Charact

ers

Other

Charact

ers

Conflict

Setting

Rising Action

Event 1

Event 2

Event 3

Climax

Resolution

169

APPENDIX 8

Sensory Chart

A sensory chart can help you think about details that can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or felt

See

Hear

Smell

Taste

Feel

170

APPENDIX 9

School Life for a 13 year old British Boy (Erik)

My School is a mixed 11-18 school. There about 1,150 students in my school, including 200 in the sixth form. It is called a Technology College and specialises in Computers and Maths. My school has over 1200 computers (including over 400 tablet PC's)I am in Year 8 and at the end of Key Stage 3 (a year earlier than normal). I am presently having to decide what GCSEs I would like to start working towards. I sit my GCSE exams next year instead of the year after when most other people of my age will be doing them. Some subjects are compulsory like Maths, English, Science and a foreign language. I am not sure what other GSCEs I will be taking. I will have to decide soon.

My School Day I leave home at 6:45 and walk 20 minutes to catch a bus to school. The bus is a special one just for kids going to my school. The journey on the bus takes an hour because it has to keep stopping to pick up other students along the way.

When I arrive at school, I collect my Tablet PC from the Flexi (Flexiable Learning Centre). Then I go to my Tutor Room for Registration at 8:30.

What is registration?

The attendance of every child attending school each morning and afternoon is recorded in a special book.The teacher reads out each child’s name in turn. On hearing his/her name, the child replies 'yes Mrs. (teacher's name)' and the teacher notes down in the book whether the child is in school or not.

We listen to announcements to see what special things are happening at school today or this week.

At about 8:50 we leave Tutor Room to go to our First Period. Every day I have a different Lesson the first period. Normally it is Humanities but I also have Maths, Drama and Music, and French on the other days. Each period lasts an hour.

All my lessons are in different rooms and places around the school. Each Room either has a three digit number or a name. The numbers are very hard to remember!. I have different teachers for each lesson. I have a locker where I can store some of my stuff but otherwise I have to carry it all around with my in my bags.

Time Table

9:00 1st Period

10:00 2nd Period

11:00 – 11:20 Break

During break, I have a snack and play and chat with my friends. Usually we play 'IT' a chasing game.

Snow ball fight when it snows is dead fun.

11:20 3rd Period

12:30 4th Period

1:30 – 2:10 Lunch

I bring a packed lunch to school but occasionally I have school dinners in the School Canteen. 2:10 5th Period

3:10 End of School

Sometimes I stay after school for clubs.

Canteen

The Canteen is open at Lunch Time and Break Time. Most hot food is served only at lunch time. Chips are only available on Mondays and Fridays.

Tablet PC

We don't use our Tablet PCs in all lessons because some rooms do not have enough power sockets. We use the Tablets to do our work on and to search the Internet. Our Tablet PCs are connected to a Network so we can send our work straight to our teachers. and they can send them back with their comments.

171

APPENDIX 10

Superstitions in Britain

Good Luck

Lucky to meet a black cat. Black Cats are featured on many good luck greetings cards and birthday cards in England.

Lucky to touch wood. We touch; knock on wood, to make something come true.

Lucky to find a clover plant with four leaves.

White heather is lucky.

A horseshoe over the door brings good luck. But the horseshoe needs to be the right way up. The luck runs out of the horseshoe if it is upside down.

Horseshoes are generally a sign of good luck and feature on many good luck cards.

On the first day of the month it is lucky to say “white rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits," before uttering your first word of the day.

Catch falling leaves in Autumn and you will have good luck. Every leaf means a lucky month next year.

Cut your hair when the moon is waxing and you will have good luck.

Putting money in the pocket of new clothes brings good luck.

Bad Luck

Unlucky to walk underneath a ladder.

Seven years bad luck to break a mirror. The superstition is supposed to have originated in ancient times, when mirrors were considered to be tools of the gods.

Unlucky to see one magpie, lucky to see two.

Unlucky to spill salt. If you do, you must throw it over your shoulder to counteract the bad luck.

Unlucky to open an umbrella in doors.

Unlucky to put new shoes on the table.

Unlucky to pass someone on the stairs.

172

APPENDIX 11

LIFE IS A JOURNEY

VOCABULARY

Do you know the meaning of all these words? Check with a partner. If there are some that you don’t know, check in a dictionary. You will need to understand these words for the next activity.

PATH FOREST CHURCH CROSSROADS LAKE BRIDGE

A picture dictation

Listen to the teacher and draw the route.

A

173

APPENDIX 12

Life is a journey

In English, there are many words and phrases connected to life that use the metaphor of a journey. Life is like a journey, and your experiences are like different parts of a journey. Look at these spoken expressions. All of them use the key idea of journey while talking about life. First, underline the words which convey the key idea of travelling (an example has been done for you). Which expressions did you hear in the picture dictation?

The baby arrived at

6 o’clock this

morning!

You can’t just go

through life with

your eyes closed!

You want to know where we are going to be this Christmas? We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it; it’s only July now!

You have to move on

and forget about

what has happened.

I don’t know where I’m

heading. My life has no

direction at the

moment.

I set out to be a

doctor, but I liked

English so much that I

became an English

teacher!

After university

I was at a

crossroads, and I

didn’t know which

way to go.

My father passed

away last night. He

went in his sleep.

His life took an

unexpected

direction after he

met her.

Her parents don’t

understand her at

all. They’re over

the hill!

174

APPENDIX 13

What do you think?

Work with a partner or a small group of people. Choose a question and explain your answer to the others.

WHAT AGE IS “OVER THE HILL” FOR YOU?

DO YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO GOES THROUGH LIFE WITH THEIR EYES CLOSED?

HAS YOUR LIFE EVER TAKEN AN UNEXPECTED DIRECTION?

IS IT BETTER TO PLAN AHEAD IN LIFE OR TO CROSS BRIDGES WHEN YOU COME TO THEM?

HAVE YOU EVER FELT YOU WERE AT A CROSSROADS IN LIFE?

HAVE YOU EVER SET OUT TO DO SOMETHING IN LIFE, BUT THEN DONE SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT?

HAVE YOU EVER FELT THAT YOUR LIFE WAS GOING NOWHERE?

DO ANY OF THESE METAPHORS FOR LIFE EXIST IN YOUR LANGUAGE?

© onestopenglish 2002 This page may be photocopied for use in class

APPENDIX 14

LIFE IS A JOURNEY teaching notes

By Lindsay Clandfield

This is a vocabulary and idiom lesson for pre-intermediate students and above. The aim is to highlight the metaphorical meanings of several words and phrases describing life experiences. The emphasis is on meaning, with an activity to incorporate these expressions into use.

VOCABULARY

This activity is to pre-teach the vocabulary the students will need to understand to do the picture dictation. You may decide it is not necessary to spend a lot of time on this, but it is worthwhile to cover it quickly even with higher intermediate classes.

PICTURE DICTATION

Tell the students they are going to draw the map of a journey that you will dictate to them. They must continue drawing the path and add any other features of the landscape that you say. Read the dictation out slowly.

Set out from point A and take the path north. Go through the forest, and follow the path as it changes direction east. On your right you see a church, move on past it. You come to a crossroads. Head south. You come to a bridge. Cross it. You will go through a small village. After the village you pass a small lake on your left. On your way past the lake, the path goes uphill. Follow the path until you are over the hill. You come to another crossroads. Go west a little. Make a point “B” where you have arrived.

Tell students to compare with a partner. Are there many differences in their maps? Ask them to tell you the route they drew.

LIFE IS A JOURNEY

The introduction to this part of the activity highlights the metaphorical roots of many expressions about life. Go over this with the students. Then look at the speech bubbles. First ask students to go through them all quickly. Do they recognise any expressions from the picture dictation (e.g. over the hill, cross the bridge, at a crossroads)? Tell students to underline all the expressions that have a connection to the idea of travelling. The first one has been done for them. Working with another partner, ask them to speculate on what each could mean. Check back with the class. If you have a monolingual class, you could ask them to translate some of these expressions into their own language and compare translations (use the ones in boldface from the answer key below for this as these are particularly idiomatic)

ANSWERS: where I’m heading; has no direction; go through life; set out to be a doctor; cross that bridge when we come to it; I was at a crossroads; you have to move on; took an unexpected direction; passed away/ went in his sleep; over the hill.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Students can work on these questions in pairs or groups of three. An alternative procedure is to cut them up and give each group a set. Each student takes it turn to take a paper at random and asks the question to someone else in the group.

APPENDIX 16

cuts, bruises, hole, spot, scar,hollow,/dip, scratch, /scrape, bulge/swell kiemelkedés smooth, rough surface, speck(folt romló gyümölcsön) apple worm

APPENDIX 17

Saint Éxupery: The Little Prince

"No," said the little prince. "I am looking for friends. What does that mean–'tame'?"

"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. It means to establish ties."

"'To establish ties'?"

"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . ."

"I am beginning to understand," said the little prince. "There is a flower . . . I think that she has tamed me . . ."

"It is possible," said the fox. "On the Earth one sees all sorts of things." ………..

"One only understands the things that one tames,"

APPENDIX 18

The Apple of My Eyes

Group descriptions and Biographies of THE apple

Group 1

Description of the apple

This apple is medium sized and it is red. There are two yellow spots on its skin. It has a small brown stem. The calyx is pushed inside ant there is a hole. Half of the apple is wrinkled. It smells like an apple.

The story of the apple

Once upon a time there was a little apple. Her name was Susan. She was an excellent student. When she grew up she wanted to move house so she jumped down the tree. She was sad because she realized she couldn't move. One day an old woman found her and put her in her pocket. The old woman was poor, so she wanted to sell her. When the old woman went to the fun park to sell her Susan jumped to a balloon. There was a nice green apple there. They fell in love and lived happily ever after.

Group 2

Description of the apple

This apple has a whole in the skin. It has wrinkles. It has a geoid shape. Its colour is yellow orange and red. It has a rough surface. There are many yellow dots on its surface.

The story of the apple

His name is Multicoloured Joe. He is a fresh and fit American fruit. He has a big family. He lives on the same tree with his wife, who is a pear. They have 26 children. They children are mutant fruits called pearples. In his teens he used to be a soldier. In 1969 he was fighting a war against Mexican potatoes. That's when he got a hole in his flash. This war had a terrible end. He was the only one to survive.

Group 3

Description of the apple

Our apple is red but it has got a yellow dot on it. It has a short stem and a calyx. It is wrinkled but it is smooth where the yellow dot is. On the right of the dot there is a bruise. Its skin is covered with small white points. It is called Red Pig.

The story of the apple

He was born on an apple tree in Hollywood and he did not fall far from his tree. He was exceptional so a director found him to be perfect for a part in his new film: Adam and Eve. Red Pig won the Best Fruit Actor Prize in 2012. Now he is retired on the island of Hawaii but he is waiting for another offer from the show business. At the moment he is here in our class so we can ask him for signature and photos.

Group 4

Description of the apple

Our apple is middle-sized, red with yellow spots and white dots. Its skin is not smooth, it has wrinkles. There is a bruise and a cut on it. It has a long stem.

Story of the apple

Steve was the346th child in the family, so his mother did not really take care of him. He decided to run away. He got down from his mother tree and went to Fruit York and founded a company called HUMAN that sold laptops, telephones and other staff. He became rich and now he is retired.

Group 5

Description of the apple:

Our apple is middle sized. It is red and orange at the other side. It has got a long stem without leaves. The calyx of the apple is short. Near the calyx there is a small black wound. The apple is full of dots. It has got wrinkles and a big bruise. The surface of it is not smooth. It has got no apple worm. It is called IV Halfblood Wrinkled Josephine

Story of the Apple

Josephine used to be a princess long ago, living in a royal garden. Once happened that Josy wanted to go for a ride on a horse and hunt apple worms. Unfortunately she fell off the horse and broke her stem. She could never get over it.

APPENDIX 19

How did it feel to do this activity?

I felt very good.

I was happy.

It was very good and interesting.

I felt excited as always when we work in teams. My favorite is to team up with friends and work together.

I think it was very good.

During this activity I felt happy because it was fun.

The activity was fun and good. I felt really excited.

It was very good and I felt sooo good!

I was excited and surprised.

This activity was very funny and peculiar. I felt very happy and overjoyed. It appealed to me.

I liked this activity. I would like to do more activities like that.

I felt excited and surprised.

Did you like it? Why? Why not?

I loved it because I have learned new words and we worked in a group I think it was cool, enjoyable and out of the ordinary. I liked it.

I liked it because it was funny and also interesting. I have never done something like this before.

I liked it because it was interesting and I have received an apple to eat and an apple to tame.

I liked it very much. The best part was when we had to write a story.

I liked it because we had to create a funny fantasy story and because we were working in groups.

The best part was when we had to write the story of our apple.

I liked it because the exercises were very interesting.

I loved it because I have learned new things and this activity is funny.

I liked it very much. I enjoyed this situation that I could give a soul to an apple. I think it was a really creative activity. I have enjoyed to meet Red Pig.

I liked it because it showed me how everyday things can become special.

I loved it because it was funny and playful and we had to use our imagination.

What are the things you have learnt?

I learned to work in a group and I learned new words.

I have learned that everything is unique even if at the first sight they look the same.

I have learned that if I spend time to look at even the simplest thing I will get to know it better.

I have learned that everything is the same until you tame something. I learned the vocabulary for the parts of the apple but I forgot half of them. Too bad. I have learned how to describe an apple.

I learned some new words.

I have learned that I can get to know an apple.

I learned about apples.

Vocabulary for apples.

I learned that even simple things like an apple can be very interesting, and thinking about its life can give you great surprise.

I have learned that we need to respect everything around us.

I have learned several words and I have realized that I had to tame somethig.

APPENDIX 20

Definitions of culture

Susi Teutsch (Austria):

“Culture to me is like part of the backpack everyone is carrying. Sometimes it can be heavy and stops you from doing certain things but it also carries the necessary stuff you need for living.”

Hafren Jones (Wales):

“Culture is what makes a masai who wears black and red kangas and drinks cows’ blood with milk different from a Bedouin who wears a burka and eats dates.”

Noor Al-Wahaibi (Oman):

“Culture is the basic thing in every country. It means everything…history, past, present, future, traditions, beliefs, religion, etc.“

Irene De La Fuente (Spain):

“Culture among countries is the most interesting thing that we have. We have different ideas, thinking, religions etc. We are human beings and we can understand each other if we have a free soul and an open mind.”

Mona Mughram Al-Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia):

“Culture to me is the traditions, values and beliefs of a group of people that travels through generations.”

Corinne Timmis (UK):

“Although culture can sometimes be the cause of separation, it should be cherished and bring individuals together.”

Rachida Abdellaoui (Netherlands):

“Unfortunately, culture is that one thing that divides us instead of uniting us into being a little part of mankind.”

Kate (UK):

“Your culture is the way you are raised. It can be different between people of the same nationality.”

Aisha Al-Kharusi (Oman):

“Culture is shaped by our tradition, history and religion. You carry it with you to influence others and for it to be influenced by other cultures.”

Fatema Abuidrees (Saudi Arabia):

“It is the building block of our personality.”

Alia Al-Lawati (Oman):

“Culture is based on our history and ancestors. It creates our initial personalities but does not necessarily need to act as our finale.”

source:Connecting Cultures UK website: http://www.connectingcultures-

education.co.uk/Default.aspx

APPENDIX 21

Metaphors for culture

Culture is a backpack. It is hard to carry but it provides necessary things.

Culture is a butterfly. It is a fragile thing of great beauty.

Culture is a pair of handcuffs. It takes away your freedom and traps you.

Culture is a pair of glasses. It helps you to see the world clearly.

Culture is water. It can keep you alive or kill you.

Culture is a mask. It hides a person’s true identity.

APPENDIX 22

Where on the iceberg?

Draw an iceberg. A smaller part should be above water, a larger one below.

The numbered items that appear below are all features of culture. In the drawing of the iceberg write above the waterline the numbers for those features you consider observable behavior;write the remaining numbers beneath the line.

1. facial expressions

2. religious beliefs

3. religious rituals

4. importance of time

5. paintings

6. values

7. literature

8. child raising beliefs

9. concept of leadership

10. gestures

11. holiday customs

12. concept of fairness

13. nature of friendship

14. notions of modesty

15. foods

16. eating habits

17. understanding of the natural world

18. concept of self

19. work ethic

20. concept of beauty

21. music

22. styles of dress

23. general world view

24. concept of personal space

25. rules of social etiquette

You can see that there is a relationship between those items that appear above the waterline and those that appear below it. In most cases, the invisible aspects of culture influence or cause the visible ones. Religious beliefs, for example, are clearly manifest in certain holiday customs, and notions of modesty affect styles of dress.Can you point out any other relationships?

APPENDIX 23

DEFINITIONS OF CULTURE

Group 1

Metaphor for culture:

Culture is FIRE. It gives heat and light but you can burn yourself.

Definition of culture:

Culture is all the traditions and habits that describe a nation.

Definition of intercultural dialogue:

People from different nations talk about their culture.

Feedback:

We learnt that it was wrong to give an even number of flowers to a Russian person.It is the first time we have given a definition to a word.

Group 2

Metaphor for culture:

Culture is a MIRROR. If you look into it you can see where you came from and who you are.

Definition of culture:

All the things like habits, traditions and lifestyle that describe a nation.

Definition of intercultural dialog:

People with different cultural backgrounds understand each other.

Feedback:

It was very interesting and hard to find a metaphor for culture. It was interesting to discuss about what we agree with and what we do not agree with concerning intercultural dialogue.

Group 3

Metaphor for culture:

Culture is WATER. It can keep you alive or kill you.

Definition of culture:

All the things that describe a nation.

Definition of intercultural dialogue:

People talking with people from a different culture.

Feedback:

We have learned many practical things, like we need to pay attention at the customs and habits in other countries.

Group 4

Metaphor for culture:

Culture is a PUZZLE. If you put the pieces together it will become a whole.

Best metaphor: Culture is a pair of glasses. It helps you to see the world clearly.= We think that the more cultures you know the better you understand the world.

Definition of culture:

The culture is made out of a nation's habits lifestyle and traditions. This tradition can be religious. Culture contains everything of a country or nation.

Definition of intercultural dialogue:

People from different cultures talk about their culture.

Feedback:

It is good to know other cultures because there are many interesting customs. We also learnt about intercultural dialogue and we think that it is an important thing.

Group 5

Metaphor for culture

Culture is a MELTING CHEWING GUM. You must not swallow it. Even if it tastes good it will melt. You must respect it. You should not think that yours is the one and only. Definition of culture:

Culture is formed by all the traditions of a nation and all the habits. It includes religion, cuisine, the way of thinking, the nation’s holidays and everyday traditions.

Definition of intercultural dialogue:

Communication between different people from different countries/ cultures.

Feedback:

We have learnt many practical things like that we need to behave differently in different cultures.

Group 6

Metaphor for culture

Culture is a HORSE. It can be ridden but it knows its way.

Definition of culture

The culture is a characteristic of people who have similar habits, lifestyle and traditions.

Definition of intercultural dialogue:

A conversation between people who are from different cultures.

Feedback:

We learnt to respect our culture and that of others. We learnt to respect people's habits and customs. We found out interesting information about other cultures.

APPENDIX 24

Culture Shock

What is Culture Shock?

The term culture shock is used to describe the emotional and physical discomfort a person suffers when moving to a completely new environment. Individuals often experience a lack of direction, a feeling of not knowing what to do or how to handle things, how to react and of not knowing what is (in-) appropriate. Culture shock is a natural and human response to new cultural experiences. Culture shock is precipitated by the anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social interaction. When a person enters a strange culture, familiar cues are removed. Without these unwritten rules regarding appropriate behaviour, people may experience frustration and anxiety.

Stages of Culture Shock

The honeymoon stage When you first arrive in a new culture, differences are intriguing and you may feel excited, stimulated and curious. At this stage you are still protected by the close memory of your home culture.

The distress (disintegration) stage A little later, differences create an impact and you may feel confused, isolated or inadequate as cultural differences intrude and familiar supports (e.g. family or friends) are not immediately available.

Re-integration stage Next you may reject the differences you encounter. You may feel angry or frustrated, or hostile to the new culture. At this stage you may be conscious mainly of how much you dislike it compared to home. Don't worry, as this is quite a healthy reaction. You are reconnecting with what you value about yourself and your own culture.

Autonomy stageDifferences and similarities are accepted. You may feel relaxed, confident, more like an "old hand" as you become more familiar with situations and feel well able to cope with new situations based on your growing experience.

Independence-stageDifferences and similarities are valued and important. You may feel full of potential and able to trust yourself in all kinds of situations. Most situations become enjoyable and you are able to make choices according to your preferences and values.(adapted from Robert L. Kohls:

Survival Kit for Overseas Living)

APPENDIXAAPPPP

APPENDIX 25a

Do the right thing

1 Reading

Read the text about a Korean girl, Kim Su-Jung, who went to live in the USA. Which is more familiar to you: American or Korean culture? Have you ever experienced culture shock?

I moved from Korea to the USA when I was 14 years old. The first few weeks were great –

everything was

exciting and different. Going to the supermarkets was an adventure: the foods were all new to me and everything was so big!

The biggest culture shock for me was going to high school. First of all, I looked different. All the other girls looked so much older than me. They wore make-up and coloured their hair. And I never went to a school with boys before.

So the first thing I did to try to fit in was have a perm. I also started wearing make-up, but I wasn’t very good at putting it on. My eye-liner

always seemed to smudge and my lipstick was always the wrong colour. I loved nail polish though. I used to wear different colours on each finger. I also got my ears pierced.

I found Americans a lot more open than Koreans. When I ate my dinner in the cafeteria, I always tried to ignore the boys and girls kissing each other over the table. People don’t do that in Korea. I found it hard to eat my dinner! The other thing I found hard was holding hands (or not holding hands). In Korea girls hold hands with girls, but in America people think that’s really weird. Instead girls hold hands with their boyfriends. I thought that was really weird!

I wasn’t cool either. In Korea it’s good to be clever and do well at school, but in America I was a nerd for liking study (and I wore glasses, which made it worse).

I found making friends really hard. My English wasn’t great, which made me shy of speaking, but also I didn’t understand the rules of conversation. When people made me compliments like ‘that’s a nice sweater’, I said ‘thanks’, but I didn’t know what to say next. I didn’t understand that they were just trying to start a conversation with me. So, I didn’t have many friends at school. ș

Do the right thing

3 Vocabulary

Complete the sentences with these words.

culture shock pay someone a compliment perm nerd cafeteria weird

If you have a …, it makes your hair go curly.

You experience … when you go to a new country.

If something is …, it is strange or unusual.

A … is like a restaurant, but there are no waitresses and you have to serve yourself.

A … is someone who likes to study hard. They are not cool.

If you …, it means you say something nice to them.

APPENDIX 25b

4 Writing

Have you ever been to a foreign country and found it strange in any way? Have you ever lived in a foreign country? Write about the differences between your country and the country you visited or lived in.

If you haven’t been to a foreign country, write about what life is like in your school. Do you think Su-Jung would find it difficult in your school too?

APPENDIX 26

Culture shock stories

When I was I Switzerland, me and a group of Hungarian people were at a camp. There was a big canteen where most of the kids were eating. They were eating silently, they did not talk at all. When our group was there we were talking and laughing quite loudly. During the meals only our voices could be heard. But then when we went out everybody else was very loud as well. I think that there must have been a rule that you were not supposed to talk while eating.

My first real culture shock was last summer when I was in an English camp. I met a few Scottish people there and they were very friendly and talkative. After we were introduced they came to sit next to us and started to talk about everything and asked us personal things. They ate prickles with the soup. That seemed strange as well.

In the past years when I spent some weeks in Hungary I have experienced how friendly and hospitable Hungarians were. Shopkeepers were friendly and helpful everywhere. Not like here at home. Here most of them are rude, tense and impolite. There are though some exceptions.

There are expressions that are clear to everybody where I live and I realize that people living in other regions do not understand them. I reaised that religious habits are more important in different regions than at home. Old people in western Europe are much fitter and more energetic than old people here.

When I was in Greece I had a culture shock at the restaurant. We got a menu card when we went there. The menu was in very many different languages. The waiter immediately asked us what language we spoke and started to take the orders in our mother tongue.

This summer I was at an English camp and I met some British people. They were very friendly and they liked to talk about their lives.

I know an old couple who are from Aurora in the USA. They are very friendly and youthful, not like old people here in Romania.

Lat summer some people from The Netherlands visited us. The young girls who were only eleven and twelve years old wore makeup and dyed their hair. They were very open. They told me things about themselves that I would never tell to anybody. The children told me about things I did not even know about when I was their age. That was a real culture shock for me.

When I was in India I realised that the biggest part of the population was very very poor. They had old dirty clothes, bad shoes. That was very sad, but the culture shock came when we saw a very nice jewellery place in that poor dirty street. When we entered the shop the shop assistant was nicely dressed in new clothes and his glasses had gold rims. You would think that everyone in India was very rich judging from that shop. But in fact they were all very poor.

My dad told me that when he was in China the weather was very hot. It shocked me that the Chinese drink hot green tea in hot weather. I have tasted green tea, but I do not like it.

When I was in Hungary at a family I noticed that the children put much food on their plates but they did not eat it. They were pampered and could not do anything without their parents. The parents were very busy and could not be with their kids. The children only met their friends at school. The adults did not visit their neighbours. This family had a really boring life.

APPENDIX 27a

In the Mind of the Beholder

We all believe that we observe reality, things as they are, but what actually happens is that the mind interprets what the eyes see and gives it meaning; it is only at this point, when meaning is assigned, that we can truly say we have seen something. In other words, what we see is as much in the mind as it is in reality. If you consider that the mind of a person from one culture is going to be different in many ways from the mind of a person from another culture, then you have the explanation for that most fundamental of all cross-cultural problems: the fact that two people look upon the same reality, the same example of behavior, and see two entirely different things.Any behavior observed across the cultural divide, therefore, has to be interpreted in two ways:

the meaning given to it by the person who does the action, and the meaning given to it by the person who observes the action

Only when these two meanings are the same do we have successful communication, successful in the sense that the meaning that was intended by the doer is the one that was understood by the observer.

Part one:

In the first part of this exercise, read the description of the eight instances of behavior given below and write down your immediate response to or interpretation of that behavior in terms of your own cultural values, beliefs, or perception.

A person comes to a meeting half an hour after the stated starting time. Your interpretation: _________________________________________

Someone kicks a dog.

Your interpretation: ______________________________________

At the end of a meal, people belch audibly. Your interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

Someone makes the OK gesture at you.

Your interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

A woman carries a heavy pile of wood on her back while her husband walks in front of her carrying nothing.

Your interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

A male guest helps a hostess carry dirty dishes into the kitchen.Your interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

A young man and a young woman are kissing each other while seated on a park bench.

Your interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

While taking an exam, a student copies from the paper of another student.

Your interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

APPENDIX 27b

The Mind of the Beholder

Part two

In the second part of this activity, you are asked to imagine how these same eight behaviors would be perceived or interpreted by someone from a culture different than your own. The particular cultural difference is described in each case. Read each behavior and the description of the culture, and then write in the space provided how you think a person from such a culture would interpret that behavior.

A person comes to a meeting half an hour after the stated starting time. How would this act be interpreted:

by someone from a culture where people always arrive half an hour after the stated starting time

Interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

by someone from a culture where meetings never start until at least an hour after the stated time

Interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

Someone kicks a dog. How would this act be interpreted:

by someone from a country where dogs always carry disease

Interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

by someone from a country where most dogs are wild and vicious

Interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

At the end of a meal, people belch audibly. How would this be interpreted:

by someone from a culture where belching is the normal way to compliment the food

Interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

Someone makes the OK gesture at you. How would this be interpreted: by someone in whose culture this gesture is obscene

Interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

by someone in whose culture this gesture has romantic connotations

Interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

A woman carries a heavy pile of wood on her back while her usband walks in front of her carrying nothing. How would thisbe interpreted:

by someone from a culture where women are proud of their strength and ability to work hard Interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

A male guest helps a hostess carry dirty dishes into the kitchen. How would this act be interpreted: by men from a culture where men never clean up after a meal

Interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

by the hostess from that same culture Interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

A young man and a young woman are kissing each other while seated on a park bench. How would this act be interpreted:

by someone from a culture where men and women never touch in

public

Interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

While taking an exam, a student copies from the paper of another student. How would this act be interpreted:

by someone from a culture where exams are not fair and are designed to eliminate students at various stages of the education system

Interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

by someone from a culture where it is shameful not to help your friend if you are able to Interpretation:

____________________________________________________________________________

source: Culture Matters, pages 20-24

APPENDIX 28a

The English are said to be reserved in manners, dress and speech. We are famous for our politeness, self-discipline and especially for our sense of humour. Basic politeness (please, thank you, excuse me) is expected.

Time

British people place considerable value on punctuality. If you agree to meet friends at three o'clock, you can bet that they'll be there just after three. Since Britons are so time conscious, the pace of life may seem very rushed. In Britain, people make great effort to arrive on time. It is often considered impolite to arrive even a few minutes late. If you are unable to keep an appointment, it is expected that you call the person you are meeting. Some general tips follow.

You should arrive:

At the exact time specified – for dinner, lunch, or appointments with professors, doctors, and other professionals.

Any time during the hours specified for teas, receptions, and cocktail parties.

A few minutes early: for public meetings, plays, concerts, movies, sporting events, classes, church services, and weddings.

If you are invited to someone's house for dinner at half past seven, they will expect you to be there on the dot. An invitation might state "7.30 for 8", in which case you should arrive no later than 7.50. However, if an invitation says "sharp", you must arrive in plenty of time.

Invitations

“ Drop in anytime” and “come see me soon” are idioms often used in social settings but seldom meant to be taken literally. It is wise to telephone before visiting someone at home. If you receive a written invitation to an event that says “RSVP”, you should respond to let the person who sent the invitation know whether or not you plan to attend.

Never accept an invitation unless you really plan to go. You may refuse by saying, “Thank you for inviting me, but I will not be able to come.” If, after accepting, you are unable to attend, be sure to tell those expecting you as far in advance as possible that you will not be there.

Although it is not necessarily expected that you give a gift to your host, it is considered polite to do so, especially if you have been invited for a meal. Flowers, chocolate, or a small gift are all appropriate. A thank-you note or telephone call after the visit is also considered polite and is an appropriate means to express your appreciation for the invitation.

APPENDIX 28b

Introduction and Greeting

It is proper to shake hands with everyone to whom you are introduced, both men and women. An appropriate response to an introduction is "Pleased to meet you". If you want to introduce yourself to someone, extend you hand for a handshake and say "Hello, I am….". Hugging is only for friends.

The Handshake

A handshake is the most common form of greeting among the English and British people and is customary when you are introduced to somebody new.

The Kiss

It is only when you meet friends, whom you haven't seen for a long time, that you would kiss the cheek of the opposite sex. In Britain one kiss is generally enough.

Formal greetings

The usual formal greeting is a 'How do you do?' and a firm handshake, but with a lighter touch between

men and women.

‘How do you do?’ is a greeting not a question and the correct response is to repeat ‘How do you do?' You say this when shaking hands with someone.

First person "How do you do?"

Second person " How do you do?"

'How are you?' is a question and the most common and polite response is "I am fine thank you and you?"

First person "How are you?"

Second person "I am fine thank you and you?"

Nice to meet you – Nice to meet you too. (Often said whilst shaking hands)

Delighted to meet you– Delighted to meet you too.

Pleased to meet you – Pleased to meet you too. .

Glad to meet you – Glad to meet you too

Good Morning / Good Afternoon / Good Evening

Informal greetings

Hi – Hi or hello

Morning / Afternoon / Evening ( We drop the word 'Good' in informal situations).

How's you? – Fine thanks. You?

Thank you / thanks / cheers

We sometime say 'cheers' instead of thank you. You may hear 'cheers' said instead of 'good bye', what we are really saying is 'thanks and bye'.

Visiting people in their houses

When being entertained at someone's home it is nice to take a gift for the host and hostess. A bottle of wine, bunch of flowers or chocolates are all acceptable. Sending a thank you note is also considered appropriate.

APPENDIX 28c

DOs and DON'TS (Taboos) in England

DO

Do stand in line. In England we like to form orderly queues and wait patiently for our turn e.g. boarding a bus. It is usual to queue when required, and expected that you will take your correct turn and not push in front. 'Queue jumping' is frowned upon.

Do take your hat off when you go indoors(men only). It is impolite for men to wear hats indoors especially in churches.Nowadays, it is becoming more common to see men wearing hats indoors. However, this is still seen as being impolite, especially to the older generations.

Do say "Excuse Me" If someone is blocking your way and you would like them to move, say excuse me and they will move out of your way.

Do Pay as you Go:Pay for drinks as you order them in pubs and other types of bars.

Do say "Please" and "Thank you":It is very good manners to say "please" and "thank you". It is considered rude if you don't. You will notice in England that we say 'thank you' a lot.

Do cover your Mouth:When yawning or coughing always cover your mouth with your hand.

Do Shake Hands:When you are first introduced to someone, shake their right hand with your own right hand.

Do say sorry:If you accidentally bump into someone, say 'sorry'. They probably will too, even if it was your fault!

This is a habit and can be seen as very amusing by an 'outsider'.

Do SmileA smiling face is a welcoming face.

Do open doors for other people

Men and women both hold open the door for each other. It depends on who goes through the door first. DO NOT

Do not greet people with a kiss:We only kiss people who are close friends and relatives.

Avoid talking loudly in public

It is impolite to stare at anyone in public.Privacy is highly regarded.

Do not ask a lady her age. It is considered impolite to ask a lady her age.

Do not pick your nose in public. We are disgusted by this. If your nostrils need de-bugging, use a handkerchief.

Avoid doing gestures such as backslapping and hugging. This is only done among close friends.

Do not spit. Spitting in the street is considered to be very bad mannered.

Do not burp in public. You may feel better by burping loudly after eating or drinking, but other people will not! If you can not stop a burp from bursting out, then cover your mouth with your hand and say 'excuse me' afterwards. Do not speak with your mouth full of food. It is impolite speak with your mouth full of food.

Do not ask personal or intimate questions. We like our privacy. Please do not ask questions such as "How much money do you earn?" "How much do you weigh?" or "Why aren't you married?" Never eat off a knife when having a meal.

Source: Mandy Barrowhttp://projectbritain.com/

Project Britain British Life and Culture

APPENDIX 29a

What’s in a gesture?

Have participants number their papers from 1 to 10. Make each gesture and ask them to write down what they think it means. Participants should also indicate if they think the gesture is considered rude in the United States? Have group discuss how body language influences communication between cultures.

1 Beckon with index finger.

2 Point at something in the room.

Make a “V” sign.

4 Smile.

5 Sit with sole of feet or shoe showing.

6 Form a circle with fingers to indicate “O.K.”

Hold up the right “pointer” finger with hand folded and facing away from body.

8 Pass an item to someone with one hand.

Wave hand with palm facing outward to greet someone. 10 Nod head up and down to say “Yes.”

Judie Haynes, 2002, everything ESL.net

APPENDIX 29b

What’s in a Gesture-Answer Key

Beckon with index finger. This means “Come here” in the U.S.To use the finger(s) to call someone is insulting in many cultures. Expect a reaction when you beckon to a student from the Middle or Far East; Portugal, Spain, Latin America, Japan, Indonesia and Hong Kong. It is more acceptable to beckon with the palm down, with fingers or whole hand waving.

Point at something in the room. It is impolite to point with the index finger in the Middle and Far East. Use an open hand or your thumb (in Indonesia)

Make a "V" sign. This means "Victory" in most of Europe when you make this sign with your palm facing away from you. If you face your palm in, the same gesture means "Shove it."

10 Smile. This gesture is universally understood. However, it various cultures there are different reasons for smiling. The Japanese may smile when they are confused or angry. In other parts of Asia, people may smile when they are embarrassed. People in other cultures may not smile at everyone to indicate “Hello.” A smile may be reserved for friends.

Sit with soles shoes showing. In many cultures this sends a rude message. In Thailand, Japan and France as well as countries of the Middle and Near East showing the soles of the feet demonstrates disrespect. You are exposing the lowest and dirtiest part of your body so this is insulting.

Form a circle with fingers to indicate “O.K.” Although this means “O.K.” in the U.S. and in many countries around the world, there are some notable exceptions:

• In Brazil and Germany, this gesture is obscene.

• In Japan, this means “money.”

• In France, it has the additional meaning of “zero” or “worthless.”

Hold up the right “pointer” finger with hand folded and facing away from

body.

In non-British countries of Europe, it can mean two of something. They start counting with the thumb. In Japan it would mean “four,” as the Japanese start counting with the pinkie.

Pass an item to someone with one hand. – In Japan this is very rude. Even a very small item such as a pencil must be passed with two hands. In many Middle and Far Eastern countries it is rude to pass something with your left hand which is considered “unclean.”

Wave hand with the palm facing outward to greet someone. In Europe, waving

the hand back and forth can mean “No.” To wave “good-bye,” raise the palm outward and wag the fingers in unison, This is also a serious insult in Nigeria if the hand is too close to another person’s face.

Nod head up and down to say “Yes.” In Bulgaria and Greece, this gesture means “No.”

Judie Haynes, 2002, everything ESL.net

APPENDIX 30

Our ePals profile

Anna Krisztina Berecz – Romania –

From: Tamasi Aron High School | Posted On: January 22, 2012 | Member Since: August 5, 2011

Project Description

My students are in the 9-th grade. They are in an intensive English class with 5 English lessons per week. Their mother tongue is Hungarian but they also speak Romanian, the official language of the country. English is their third language but they can communicate fairly well and they are open and really eager to acquire more and more. This year we are having a chain of lessons aimed at raising cultural awareness and enhancing cross cultural communication skills. We are looking for ePals anywhere in the world. We would like to know what is it like living in other countries. What is similar what is different? How is everyday life? What are some of the most important customs, habits, beliefs, values, traditions? We would like to collaborate with classes interested in the different aspects of culture and work together on a project about cultural awareness. We prefer to correspond by email and write once a week or every second week. It would be really interesting to work together with people who are willing to listen and share. Both parts would benefit greatly. We look forward to hearing from you.

APPENDIX 31

From: John Karavage <karavage@epals.com> Click here to view this profile

To: Anna Krisztina Berecz cimike@epals.com

Date: 2012-Jan-24 17:11:33

Subject: Class Exchange

Hello Anna,

My name is John Karavage and I teach 9th Grade World History in Palmyra, Pennsylvania in the United States of America. I would love to take part in a semester long project where I could assign students a "pen pal" where they would need to contact weekly to learn about their culture, life, and everything else historically significant. I would require them to find out different things and just understand the differences and similarities in culture between the two of them. Understand common and un common traits and gain a cultural awarness of how life is different around the world.

I have 15 students that are 14-15 years old who speak English. I would love to coordinate something with your class in order for us to both gain from an engaging experience. I would love to start as soon as possible. Today is the first day or our second semester of the school year. Please let me know if you are interested in doing something like this.

Thanks so much,

John Karavage

______________________________

From: John Karavage <karavage@epals.com> Click here to view this profile

To: Anna Krisztina Berecz cimike@epals.com

Date: 2012-Feb-03 15:51:47

Subject: Re: Class Exchange

Hey Krisztina,

I just recieved all of the letters today. I also am not sure about the online discussion thing on here. I am going to assign each of my students one of your students letters and have them draft a reply so we can start communications back and forth. I look forward to working with you.

John Karavage

i

APPENDIX 32

Box 1.1a: Setting up an online intercultural exchange

Discussion thread: Sample exchange

From: Ciorsdan

Salut, hallo, hej, hola, oi

My name is Ciorsdan (which is Scottish Gaelic and pronounced ëKirstení). Iím from the north of Scotland, in between Inverness and Aberdeen – I basically live in a fi eld near a town called Huntly.

Bye for now

Ciorsdan

P.S. If anyone wants to teach me their language (other than English) Iím willing to learn!!

From: Alfredo

Hi Ciorsdan, what a beautiful name!

Iíve always wondered what it is like to live in a fi eld. Whatís the weather like there? Iíll propose something to all of you. Why donít you tell us what it is like where you live and what you like to do.

It would be fun for us to know how people from different places actually live every day and how they see their world, wouldnít it?

Eso es todo por el momento.*

Alfredo (from Argentina)

BTW if anyone needs a little help with their Spanish Iíll be here and Iím sure my Argentinian friends will too.

= That’s all for the moment. BTW = by the way

APPENDIX 33

Hi!

My name is Hunor, and I live near a small town, named Szekelyudvarhely.This is a school town and I love it very much.

My hobbies are the basketball,tennis, watching films and listening to music…

4 words to describe me:

ambitious

sociable

friendly and little bit quiet^^

Bye,

Hunor

Hello Joshua!

Nice to meet you! I love to ride a bike too. I don't have any ipod or skateboard but i would love to have one of those. I'm the total opposite of you in size (I'm actually 192cm tall, that's 6.23 feet if I calculated correctly) but I have little friends like you :D! I like to watch movies, my favourite series is Supernatural! I like horror and comedy, and that's an awesome combination of those

styles. What about your favourite movie/series? Bye for now!

Huni

Hi John!

My name is Aranka (it means Goldie). I'm from Romania, Transylvania. I live in Szekelyudvarhely, which is a quite small and calm town. Four words to describe me are:

inquisitive

friendly

reliable

open-minded

I'm interested in drawing, reading, watching movies and listening to music. I also like Formula 1.

Bye,

Aranka

P.S.: If you want to talk about movies or music, I'm your man!

Hi, Fabian! 🙂

My name is Tamás, and I live in Székeluudvarhely (which is a small town in Transylvania).

I'm sociable, open-mined, optimistic, friendly.

I'm interested in reading, playing computer games, watching movies, riding a bicycle, or just hanging out with friends.

Bye, Tamás

P.S. I'm waiting for your letter, so don't let me kick my heels 🙂

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APPENDIX 34

Online discussion starters

1.

Hi!

Do you have favourite movies? I'm curious about your five favourite movies. Why do you like them? Are they dramas, comedies, thrillers, horrors, sci-fi or action movies? Which is your favourite? I really like the dramas, the thrillers and the action movies.

Please recommend some good films to me. I am a real film fan. When I have a little

spare time I watch films. Last weekend I saw 'August Rush', which is an absolutely

amazing ans special film, with expressive music. I also like 'The Pianist', 'The Black

Swan', 'Bloody Diamond', 'Perfume' which is a very artistic and awesome movie. I do

not like horror very much, but I have to confess that I am obsessed by the 'A Nightmare

on Elm Street'. Have you ever seen any of these films? So, that was my list. I look

forward to hearing from you!

Aranka

2.

Hi everyone!

Does anyone like Formula1? Is the Formula1 popular in your country? Herein Transilvania Formula 1 is not as popular as soccer but there are lots of people who like it and watch it on TV. Have you got a favourite Formula 1 driver or team?

I like Formula 1 very much, and my favourite driver is Lewis Hamilton. I have been watching Formula 1 since 2008. I support Hamilton and the McLaren Mercedes team since then.

I can't wait for the start of the new season!!!

Orsi

3.

This might seem like a bit odd question but I want to know your opinions about aliens. Do you believe in their presence? I believe in them. Once it happened to me that I was in the front of our flat talking with a friend of mine. It was late at night. We were talking about stars when suddenly a green light appeared at the top of our flat. We were shocked and we had no clue what we had seen. This thing ran along the roof and then disappeared. I was always interested in aliens but since that day I have believed in them. What is your opinion about this? I am really interested in your thoughts. Anna

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APPENDIX 35

CULTURE BOX

EASTER in our region

Symbols of Easter

Easter is the most important Christian holiday. It has got several symbols, each has its own meaning. In our country the most important symbols are:

The egg: During history the egg has been dyed, painted, adorned and embellished in the celebration of continuing life. It was considered nature's perfect gift and continues to stand for beauty and perfection year after year. During medieval times the egg was exchanged to celebrate the seasonal rebirth spring bestows.

Sprinkling:It is a popular tradition here. Boys start their round in the morning and they sprinkle all the girls they know with water. Girls symbolize the flowers of spring that need to be watered so they become fresh healthy and beautiful. In the past this was done with cold water. Now they usually use perfume.

Easter bunny:The bunny was the symbol of abundant new life in ancient times. It reminds us of spring and new life. In our tradition the Easter bunny brings chocolate and eggs to the children on Easter day.

The chick: The chick hatching out of the egg symbolizes new life and rebirth.

Wine:Red wine is drunk to remember Jesus shedding his blood for humans.

Candles:Symbolize Jesus, the Light of the World.

The Tradition of Sprinkling

The tradition of sprinkling originates from a legend. This legend says that when Jesus ressurrected the soldiers sprinkled the overjoyed women with cold water in order to calm them down. The legend of the red egg says that when Jesus was on the cross a woman prayed in front of him. She had a basket of eggs While she was praying a drop of Jesus's blood fell on the eggs dying them red.

Both the sprinkling tradition and the red egg symbolize fertility.

In the past On the second day of Easter the boys visited the girls and wished a good holiday for them and their families. In the old times the boys and girls wore traditional clothes on this day. The boys visited the girls in groups of three or six. When they arrivedto the house they were looking for a pitcher which they felt with water from a well. They invited the girls out. When the girls were aout they asked them: Can we sprinkle you? But they did not wait for the answer. The girls got wet and they giggled and screamed. After that the boys were invited inside the house and were offered cookies cakes and brandy or wine. The girls changed their clothes and chatted with the boys for a while. When the boys left the girls started to prepare for the arrival of the next group.

Now Recently this tradition is more modern. Boys go to the girls with perfume. They go to the girls' houses and recite a poem. At the end of the poem they ask: 'Can I sprinkle you?'. Usually the girl says yes, but f she says no, the boy will sprinkle her anyway. Finally the girl gives a dyed egg to the boy and offers him cookie and juice.

Easter Rhymes:

Red are the eggs and white is the rabbit.

On Easter day they cannot miss

If I sprinkle you after the old habit

I will get a kiss.

Piros tojás, fehér nyuszi

Pee(rush) (toy) (ash) fe(hear) (new)(see)

Locsolásért jár egy puszi.

Lotsch(all)(ash) (earth)(year)(edge)(pussy)

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DECLARAȚIE DE AUTENTICITATE PE PROPRIE RĂSPUNDERE

Subsemnata ANNA KRISZTINA BERECZ, înscrisă la examenul pentru obținerea Gradului didactic I, seria 2010-2012, specializarea Limba Engleză, prin prezenta, certific că lucrarea metodico-științifică cu titlul:

Raising Cultural Awareness through Teaching English (Educație Interculturală prin predarea limbii engleze)

conducător științific Conf. Dr. ADRIAN RADU

este rezultatul propriilor mele activități de investigare teoretică și aplicativă și prezintă rezultatele personale obținute în activitatea mea didactică.

În realizarea lucrării am studiat doar surse bibliografice consemnate în lista bibliografică, iar preluările din diferitele surse, inclusiv din alte lucrări personale, au fost citate în lucrare.

Prezenta lucrare nu a mai fost utilizată în alte contexte evaluative – examene sau concursuri.

Data: _____________ Semnătura:

_______________________

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