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Culture as the Foundation of Communication
By weaving together the five goal areas and structuring learning
within a communicative context, foreign language teachers
no longer fall short of the mark when it comes to equipping
students with the cognitive skills they need in a second-culture
environment (Straub, 1999). Culture-specific meanings now
become clearer, language learning becomes more significant,
and culture is set as the foundation of communication. As a
result, grounding language learning in cultural understanding
can enhance the social process of language learning for our
increasingly diverse student population, who enter schools with
a wealth of cultural understandings and knowledge, historically
accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge,
and skills essential for household or individual functioning and
well-being (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005).
The FLES Model
The Foreign Language in Elementary Schools (FLES) program
model is designed to provide a sequential language- learning
experience to all students. In order to provide a high quality
FLES experience, language instruction must be grounded in
cultural understanding in order to promote more meaningful
and useful language learning. With the emphasis now placed
on linguistic and cultural competence, students have the
opportunity to explore language in contextual breadth and
depth.
Bibliography
Allen, W. (1985). “Toward Cultural Proficiency.” In A. C. Omaggio (Ed.),
Proficiency, Curriculum, Articulation: The Ties That Bind
(
pp. 137–166). Middlebury, VT: Northeast Conference.
Brooks, N. (1968). “Teaching Culture in the Foreign Language
Classroom.”
Foreign Language Annals, 1
, 204–217.
Buttjes, D. (1990). “Teaching Foreign Language and Culture: Social
Impact and Political Significance.”
Language Learning Journal, 2
, 53–57.
González, N., Moll, L., & Amanti, C., eds. (2005).
Funds of Knowledge:
Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms
.
New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Kramsch, C. 1993.
Context and Culture in Language Teaching
.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lessard-Clouston, M. (1997). “Towards an Understanding of Culture in
L2/FL Education.” In K. G. Ronko (Ed.),
Studies in English, 25
(
pp. 131–150) Japan: Kwansei Gakuin University Press.
National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project. (2006).
Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century.
Lawrence, KS: Allen Press, Inc.
Straub, H. (1999). “Designing a Cross-Cultural Course.”
English Forum,
37
(3), 2–9.
Thanasoulas, D. (2001). “The Importance of Teaching Culture in the
Foreign Language Classroom.” Available from
http://radicalpedagogy
.
icaap.org/content/issue3_3/7-thanasoulas.html
Dr. Peter B. Swanson
Georgia State University
For years it has been noted that language teaching and learning
are social processes, and that the teaching of language is the
teaching of culture. Thanasoulas (2001) suggests that culture
and communication are inseparable because “culture not
only dictates who talks to whom, about what, and how the
communication proceeds, it also helps to determine how people
encode messages, the meanings they have for messages, and the
conditions and circumstances under which various messages
may or may not be sent, noticed, or interpreted.”
Language and Culture
Daily language contains unconscious cultural cues and insights.
Language and culture cannot be separated; language is one’s
means of social understanding. As noted by Kramsch (1993),
the learning of culture is not an expendable fifth skill, attached
to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
Thus language teachers must progress beyond simply
monitoring linguistic production in the classroom and become
more aware of the complex and numerous processes of
intercultural mediation that any foreign language learner
undergoes (Buttjes, 1990).
The Five Cs
Historically, prior to the 1960s the lines between language
and culture were carefully drawn because the purpose of
second-language study was to provide “access to the great
literary masterpieces of civilization” (Allen, 1985). In the 1960s,
however, advocates of the audiolingual method of language
teaching noted the importance of culture not for the study of
literature but for language learning (Brooks, 1968). As emphasis
on sociolinguistics resulted in greater emphasis on the context
and situation in which the target language would be used,
the role of teaching culture began to flourish (Lessard-
Clouston, 1997). The
National Standards in Foreign Language
Education Project
(2006)
reflects this notion by advancing
the idea that foreign language instruction should include
more than communicative and grammatical competence. By
conceptualizing language learning in terms of five goal areas—
Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and
Communities—the
National Standards in Foreign Language
Education Project
promotes linguistic and cultural competence.
Additionally, National Standards Project has redefined language
learning, moving from a focus on the four skills (reading,
writing, listening, and speaking) to a more communicative
framework, stressing the three modes of communication
ʊ
Interpersonal, Interpretive, and Presentational.
The Importance of Embedding Culture
into the Teaching of Foreign Languages
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