Practical
Techniques for Teaching Culture in the EFL Classroom
Brian Cullen
cullen [at] ks.kyy.nitech.ac.jp
Nagoya Institute of Technology (Nagoya, Japan)
Kazuyoshi
Sato
Nagoya College of Foreign Studies (Nagoya, Japan)
Teaching culture is
considered important by most teachers but it has remained "insubstantial
and sporadic in most language classrooms" (Omaggio, 1993, p. 357). Omaggio
gives several reasons for this including lack of time, uncertainty about which
aspects of culture to teach, and lack of practical techniques. In this paper,
we will present a range of practical techniques that we have found to be
successful in culture-based courses and some tips that can help to make the
teaching of culture a better experience for both you and your students.
Creating
Cultural Texture
Oxford (1994) has used the term 'cultural
texture' to describe the many aspects of culture that we need to teach to our
students. To achieve this texture, we need to vary three different parameters.
1.
Information Sources
2.
Activity-types
3.
Selling-points
In order to get a comprehensive picture of
the target culture from many angles, we need to present our students with
different kinds of information. The list below shows some possible sources of
information which can be used as materials for teaching culture. By using a
combination of visual, audio and tactile materials, we are also likely to
succeed in addressing the different learning styles of our students.
·
Video
·
CDs
·
TV
·
Readings
·
Internet
·
Stories
·
Students own information
·
Songs
·
Newspapers
·
Realia
·
Fieldwork
·
Interviews
·
Guest speakers
·
Anecdotes
·
Souvenirs
·
Photographs
·
Surveys
·
Illustrations
·
Literature
Many books which attempt to teach culture
offer only 'discussion' activities. Discussion is a valuable form of learning
in culture, but we cannot expect all students to be able to discuss complex
issues at a high level in a foreign language. Often, even high-level students
need some preparatory activities with clear goals before they can proceed to
discussion. Some of our favourite activities are discussed below.
We have found that quizzes are one of the
more successful activity types. Quizzes can be used to test materials that you
have previously taught, but they are also useful in learning new information.
For example, look at the simple true/false quiz about Ireland below.
With a partner, answer true or false to the following
questions.
1.
Ireland is totally
dark during the winter.
2.
There is little snow
except in the mountains.
3.
The population of
Ireland is less than that of Aichi Prefecture.
4.
Ireland is about the
same size as the island of Honshu.
5.
The United Kingdom
includes the Republic of Ireland.
6.
The Coors, the
Cranberries, U2, the Beatles and Enya are Irish musicians.
7.
Some Irish people
think the Shinkansen connects Tokyo to Hong Kong.
You should ask the students to answer true
or false to each of the questions in pairs or groups. They will share their
existing knowledge and common sense to give answers. It is not important
whether students get the right answer or not, but by predicting, students will
become more interested in finding out the right answer. The right answers can
be given by the teacher, through a reading, listening, or video. At this point,
extra information can be provided. For example, in answering question 7 above,
I tell the story of the Irish man sitting next to me on an airplane who gave me
this lovely nonsense.
Here is a different
type of quiz that can be useful for introducing the differences and
similarities across cultures.
Choose the odd one out of the following items:
- a)
Earthquakes b) Sushi restaurants c) Snow d) High level of education
The correct answer is 'earthquakes'
because you can find all the others both in Ireland and in Japan, but there are
no earthquakes in Ireland. Again, getting the correct answer is less important
than thinking about the two cultures.
You can also ask
students to quiz their partner about readings or other materials. Quizzes offer
a high-interest activity that keeps students involved and learning.
An action log is a notebook used for
written reflection on the activities done during class which also provides
useful feedback for the teacher. Students write it up after each class or at
the end of each class. By requiring students to evaluate each class activity
for interest usefulness, difficulty, and , they must reconsider what they have
learnt.Each student also records their target for speaking English, what they
think they actually achieve, the names of their discussion partners, and their
own comments on the activities. Some students get so interested in the target
culture that they write several pages in comments each week.
When students have read an activity or
listened to a story, you may like to use reformulation to allow them to check
what they have learned and to reinforce it by retelling it to a partner.
Reformulation simply means : 'Explain what you just learned to your partner in
your own words.' It is a very simple technique, but has proved very successful
for learning both culture and language. We often give readings for homework and
require students to take notes on the content. These notes can be in the form
of pictures, keywords, or mind-maps.
In the next class, we
ask the students to reformulate the content of the reading with a partner using
their notes without looking at the original paper. Reformulation is also
effective after watching a short video extract or listening to a story. Through
reformulation, students check what they have learnt, find out things that they
have missed from their partner, and improve their language by noticing gaps in
their own ability to explain.
As students watch a video or are engaged
with some other materials, you can ask them to 'notice' particular features.
For example, they could watch a video of a target-culture wedding and note all
the differences with their own culture. Asking students to 'notice' gives a
focus to the materials by making it into a task, rather than simply passive
viewing or listening.
As mentioned above, prediction can be a useful
tool in quizzes, but it can be equally useful in using almost any materials.
Like 'noticing', prediction can engage the students more actively. For example,
when you are telling a story, you can stop at a certain point and ask the
students to predict how it will continue. Or, when you are giving out a reading
for homework, first give the title of the reading and ask students to predict
what they will learn. This will force them to review their existing knowledge
of the topic and raise their curiousity about whether their prediction is
correct or not.
Student research is one of the most
powerful tools that we can use with college students because it combines their
interests with the classroom. For example, after the first class, we ask
students to search the internet or library and find information on any aspect
of the target-culture that interests them. In the following class, students
explain to their group what they have learned and answer any questions about
it. This can lead to poster-sessions or longer projects. For some students, it
can even lead to a long-term interest in the target-culture.
Some other types of
activity that we have found useful include the following but with a bit of
thought, most standard EFL activities can be easily adapted for use in the
culture classroom. The most important point is to ensure that the students are
actively engaged in the target culture and language.
·
Games
·
Role Play
·
Field trips
·
Reading activities
·
Listening activities
·
Writing activities
·
Discussion activities
·
Singing
In order to create cultural texture, we
must be careful not to portray the culture as monolithic, nor to only teach the
pleasant aspects. Activities and materials should portray different aspects of
the culture. In other words, we need to 'sell' different views of the culture
to our students. Introducing deliberate contrasts within a culture can be
useful. Some different 'selling points' are contrasted below.
·
Attractive vs. Shocking
·
Similarities vs. Differences
·
Dark aspects of culture vs. Bright
·
Facts vs. Behaviour
·
Historical vs. Modern
·
Old people vs. Young people
·
City life vs. Country life
·
Stated beliefs vs. Actual behaviour
Practical
Tips
Personalization
Only by personalizing activities and
content can we hope to lead students to better cultural understanding. We can
start off by talking about a distant country, but this will only result in
stereotyping if we do not allow students to relate the same issues to their own
lives. And as every language teacher knows, students love to talk about
themselves.
Activities,
not just 'Discussion'
I was reading a book on teaching culture
recently and had to laugh at one activity. 'Step 1 - introduce the material.
Step 2 - Lead a lively discussion.' This is probably possible with some
high-level students in some parts of the world, but for most foreign-language
students, instant lively discussion is an unlikely scenario. We have found that
activities with simple instructions and a clear goal such as quizzes or surveys
are very successful even with low-level learners. It is very easy to extend
such activities into open-ended discussions if the opportunity arises. On the
other hand, it is often impossible to transform open-ended 'discussion'
activities (usually with no clear goal) into activities which work effectively
with low-level learners.
Suitable
Level of Difficulty
Know your students. Even though you may
see yourself primarily as a teacher of culture, if you are working with EFL
students, you must constantly remember that they probably will not understand
everything that you say. It is not necessary that they understand every word
and indeed a challenge is wonderful for learning, but consistently using
material or a way of speaking that is too difficult is a sure way to make
students lose their interest in a target-culture.
Of course, the culture is interesting to
you, so you presume that it will be interesting for your students. However,
imagine sometimes that you are studying the culture of a foreign country, one
that you may have no intention of visiting. Pick out the interesting aspects of
a culture and present them in a way that will engage students. By using the
variety of approaches described above to create cultural texture and by
employing your own enthusiasm, you should also be able to create an exciting
class for your students.
Students learn more in groups. They have
more opportunities for using the target language, discussing the target
culture, and gaining additional perspectives on their own cultural.
Don't
Try to Cover Everything
You can't. A culture is enormous. It
consists of all the institutions, all the behaviour, in fact all the man-made
aspects of a very large group of non-homogeneous people. All that we can do is
provide some pathways to enter into learning more about the culture. After all,
we never know everything about our own culture. We should not be disappointed
that we cannot teach everything but rather be happy that we are able to raise
intercultural awareness at all.
Learn
Your Students' Language and Culture and Understand Your Own Cultural Baggage
One of the oddest things in the world must
be a language teacher who only speaks one language or a culture teacher who
only knows one culture. We are so immersed in our own culture that we can only
understand it by trying to see it from the outside. Imposing our own values
without making an attempt to understand our students' values is imperialistic
and arrogant. We must remember that intercultural understanding runs both ways.
1.
Omaggio-Hadley, A.(1993). Teaching language in context. Boston,
MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
2.
Oxford, R. L.(1994). Teaching culture in the language
classroom: Towards a new philosophy. In J. Alatis (ed.), Georgetown University
Round Table on Language and Linguistics 1994 (pp. 26-45). Washington DC:
Georgetown University Press.
3.
Seelye, H. N. (1993). Teaching culture: Strategies for
intercultural communication (2nd ed.). Lincolnwood, Ill: National Textbook
Company.
