Cultural Introductions in a Language Class
KETNET Conference, June 2019, Pristina, Kosovo
Eda Cauli, Ph.D. Aileen Hale, EL Fellow, Ed. D.
UNIVERSITY of TIRANA, Albania U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE
“Language is the roadmap of culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.”
(By: Rita Mae Brown, American writer)
Introduction
The main topic of the English language conference was Enhancing Critical Thinking in the English Language Classroom, held in Pristina, Kosovo on 07-08 June 2019) and there was a plenary opening on how critical thinking should be implemented in our classes and how much do we as teachers and educations really put students into making reasoned judgments that are logical and well thought. This first step, starts by questioning the arguments and conclusions and wanting to see the evidence for that particular answer or conclusion. The plenary speakers who were English fellows from the US Embassy and were appointed to teach in different Universities of the countries in Balkan, shared different real cases and useful tips on using critical thinking in our classes and enhancing the students’ exposure towards it. This is the way to make our students get out of their comfort zone and challenge their perceptions or even misconceptions sometimes, depending on what they have previously learned about something and how, and let them create new, better and more informed ideas.
Concurrent Sessions of Workshops
A variety of sessions were offered simultaneously and the wonderful audience of educators, teachers, students in the last year of their Master studies and event organizers were choosing the workshop that was appealing to them. An eagerness to learn more new things and to share different professional experiences was read almost in everyone’s face. I was presenting together with my colleague from USA, Dr. Aileen Hale, an English language fellow from US embassy Tirana who was appointed to teach in the same University where I am based, respectively at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Tirana. After finding out that we had similar ideas on how to teach culture in a language class and how to incorporate the cultural elements while teaching English language to students and Dr. Aileen had also brilliant ideas on how to teach English language through music and songs and what techniques to use for such activities. So, after spending a couple of days on elaborating our thoughts and sharing professional knowledge we decided to run our presentation on how to teach culture through English language. Our ideas were more concrete by moderating the ways of how we great in each respective native language, the American way of saying hi to people and run for work because time is precious to them and the Albanian way of greeting someone by spending longer time and showing that we really care about the health and we really mean it when stopping to ask in more details. So here we came with some greeting ways in both languages as below:
Different ways of greeting which reflect different cultures behind, (English way versus Albanian way)
- Si kalove? – How’s it going?
- I mërzitur? – Are you upset?
- I lodhur? – Tired?
- Çfarë bën? – What’s up?
- A je mirë? – Are you Ok?
- Si ke kaluar? – How have you been?
- Si je? – How are you?
- Si jeni? – How are you?
Main Content of the Presentation
The presentation focus was mainly on WHY teach cultural elements as part of teaching language and through this we teach the essence of language: so in other words culture is the ‘spice/flavor’ of the language like the spices of the food which would taste bland without those. Another emphasis of culture is to avoid stereotypical understanding of cultures that the youth learns from TV movies or music which are superficial and they do not reflect the deeper part of the iceberg but only the outer part of it. We pointed out the focus to teach the use of the language versus teaching about the language and furthermore, to make clear that there is no language without cultural knowledge and vice versa here is no culture awareness without using authentic materials in the foreign language classroom. From this point of view, we see that language has a dual aim focus because it shapes culture through linguistic elements and real life situations brought into classroom projects and presentations.
How to Teach Culture?
Another focus was on some of the techniques of teaching culture in class and we came out with an idea that there are three ways language and culture are inseparably intertwined:
1- Language expresses cultural reality (with words people express facts and ideas but also reflect their attitudes)
2- Language embodies cultural reality (people give meanings to their experience through the means of communication)
3- Language symbolizes cultural reality (people view their language as a symbol of their social identity)
As language and culture are closely linked, the teaching of culture is seen as an integral component of language courses. On the other side, when languages are taught without introducing the culture of the community where they are used, they become ‘robotic’ and void of context, so if we teach language without teaching at the same time the culture in which it operates, we are teaching meaningless symbols to which the student attaches the wrong meaning. The use of authentic materials make students visualize the real set of that specific cultural element same like they are sitting in a café of that country and see that the a whole community of people speak the language they are learning in class, in their everyday basis and through that language they are distinguished in their lifestyle, culture, behavior and mindset. Also the use of posters, pictures, maps and signs help students develop mental images. Assigning students foreign names heightens student interest. By applying short cultural presentations on a topic of student interest, with appropriate pictures or slides add to this mental image helps them learn simultaneously the language and culture. All these help students to realize they already know many words in the target language (i.e. some of the foods they eat) are another example of the influence of foreign cultures.
Conclusion
The culture umbrella on the presentation day, KetNet Kosovo, June 2019
The concluded slide was focused on an empty umbrella that students had to come up with all they learned from this workshop and then we summarized it by agreeing that culture is definitely the fifth skill of English language and that language has a dual aimed focus because it shapes culture through its learning. It is a means of communication and a carrier of cultural identity because it shapes our perception of reality: we see the real world only in the categories of our language.
References
- Harrison, Brian. “Culture and the Language Classroom”, edited by Harrison Brian, British Council ELT documents, no 132.
- Spackman, Christopher L. “Culture and Second Language Acquisition”, Dominican University, Ohio, 2009.
- Gwiazda-Rzepecka, Brygida. “Cross-Cultural Communication”, General Tadeusz Kościuszko Military University of Land Forces, Poland, 2017.
Main source:
https://www.beta-iatefl.org/7653/blog-enewsletter/e-newsletter-issue-41-may-june-2019/