浅谈语言教学中的文化教育

张　玫

【摘要】 语言教学与文化教学密不可分,本文从归纳文化在不同层面的多重定义入手,在深入探讨其对语言教学中听、说、读、译方面潜移默化的影响的基础上提出了语言教学中文化教育的几种有效方法,希望对其它英语教师有所裨益。

【关键词】语言教学、文化教育、教学策略

On Culture Teaching in English language Teaching (ELT)

ZhangMei

【Abstract】Language teaching is closely connected with culture teaching.The paper summarizes a cluster of definitions of culture from different perspectives first and after deeply discussing the subtle influence of culture on specific components of teaching/learning practice in terms of listening, speaking, reading, and translating it proposes a series of effective culture teaching techniques. Hopefully, it is helpful to other English teachers.

【Key words】ELT; culture teaching; teaching techniques

1.Introduction

There has never been any argument among language teachers about the important role that culture plays in language learning. However, 'Culture is a complex and elusive concept' (Bianco, 2003), thus, in ELT, the foremost thing is to make clear what culture is. Besides, the language teachers must be clear about reasons and the ways to teach culture. That is what will be discussed in the following section.

2.What is culture?

Culture may mean different things to different people, thus, there are almost 200 diversities in interpretation of the exact definition of the word 'culture' to emphasize its multifaceted and multi-layered nature (Dodd, 1998). The following will be a cluster of definitions of culture from different perspectives:

In an abstract sense, culture is recognized as "the ways of a people" (Lado, 1957); 'a system of integrated patterns' (Condon, 1973); 'everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society'(Ferraro, 1995); 'learned and shared human patterns or models for living' (Damen, 1987) ; 'the collective programming of the mind' (Hofstede, 1984); 'the shared knowledge and schemes' (Lederach, 1995).

From social scientists' views, culture consists 'primarily of the symbolic, ideational, and intangible aspects of human societies', as is noted by Banks, Banks & McGee (1989)

According to the anthropological and sociolinguistic points of view, culture can be divided into two layers: First, Culture with a capital C including artefacts and human tradition: the fine arts, music, drama, literature, and so on; second, there is culture with a small c: referring to a series of customs, traditions and 'historically transmitted patterns of meaning' (Wierzbicka, 1997)

The metaphors can also be used to powerfully address the complexity of culture. Gibson (2002) vividly pictures culture as 'an iceberg, for instance, with the tangible expressions of culture and behavior above the surface of the water, and the underlying attitudes, beliefs, values, and meanings below the surface'; others have compared culture to 'an onion' with its many layers: as one layer is peeled, another layer lies beneath, waiting to be discovered. (Hofstede, 1991).

Based on various versions of definitions, Moran (2001) points out that culture has five dimensions: products, practices, perspectives, communities and persons and defines culture in a more concrete way as follows:

'culture is the evolving way of life of a group of persons, consisting of a shared set of practices associated with a shared set of products, based upon a shared set of perspectives on the world, and set within specific social contexts.'

The above definitions of culture mainly focus on its inherent complexity at both a general and a specific level; however, the following two definitions will reflect the dynamic nature of culture:

Samovar & Porter (1991) explain culture as a medium that touches and alters all aspects of human life even one's personality.

Similarly, Robinson (1998) sees culture as a dynamic 'system of symbols and meanings' where 'past experience influences meaning, which in turn affects future experience, which in turn affects subsequent meaning, and so on'.

By analyzing the above definitions, it can be concluded that culture goes far beyond superficial things like the climate, food, and clothing of one's native country but a combination of material objects, belief systems and behavioral patterns. It is a way of life (Brown, 1994); it is the context within which we exist, think, feel and relate to others; it is the "glue" that binds a group of people together; it is both implicit and explicit; it is usually acquired unconsciously; it is a symbol of a particular group of people and thus is patterned and can be learned and shared by the members from the same community or society; it is changeable and can be transmitted from generation to generation.

3.Why teach culture?

Kramsch (1993) argues that every time we speak we perform a cultural act and this is a very useful way to consider the relationship between language and culture; 'Language does not exist apart from culture' (Sapir, 1921); 'culture is in language and language is loaded with culture' (Agar, 1994), however, sometimes, some teachers are hardly aware of the necessity of cultural orientation, thus, in this section, the focus will be on why culture teaching should be an integral part of the English language curriculum.

The ultimate goal of language teaching and learning is to be able to communicate in another language which is not just a question of grammar and vocabulary but also a question of culture (Crozet, 1996) because every message a person conveys through language is communicated in a cultural context.

Tseng (2002) also highlights the importance of culture in language teaching from 3 aspects: sociolinguists emphasize the appropriate use of language in specific cultural context; schema theorists propose culture as key to language and cultivation theorists think that the culture affects changes in individual perception and is vital to expand an individual's perspective of the world.

Intercultural language teaching is not just a theory but a practice in classroom; thus, in order to state the necessity of culture teaching in ELT, it is essential to seek for the subtle influence of culture on specific components of teaching/learning practice in terms of listening, speaking, reading, and translating.

First, culture has some influences on listening.

Most Chinese learners may have such experience even if there are a few new words, clear pronunciation and standard verbal rate in one's listening material, the learners still do poorly in listening comprehension. An important reason is that a lack of necessary cultural background knowledge of the language may hinder their thorough understanding. A good example is 'Edward Kennedy went downhill since Chappaquiddick'. It's not difficult to understand the structure of the sentence. But if the students don't know that "Chappaquiddick" is the name of a place in America, referring to the traffic accident E. Kennedy suffered in this sentence, they cannot understand the real meaning.

Second, culture has some influences on speaking.

The ability of speaking is not just a matter of pronunciation and intonation. Students also need to have cultural background knowledge of the target language or it may cause misunderstandings, eg. Once it was very cold outside, so one student said to his foreign teacher politely, 'Please wear more clothes'. He had thought the teacher should be grateful for him, however, the teacher got a little annoyed. The reason is that foreigners prefer to be independent and dressing is their own business in her cultural context. Thus, in the course of oral communication, speakers should pay much attention to the cultural context.

Third, culture has some influences on reading & translation.

Language is the vehicle of culture and vocabulary is the basic carrier of language.The cultural difference will inevitably be embodied by the vocabulary which greatly influences the understanding of reading & translating. Taking animals as examples, in Chinese, 'dragon' is the symbol of dignity, however, in western countries, the dragonrepresents the devil; another example is 'owl' which is ugly and bad in Chinese, but symbolizes wisdom in western countries. So while doing reading or translation, it is crucial to take cultural factors into account.

In short, from the above explanation we can see how important the role that culture plays in students' listening, speaking, reading & translation: it can either hinder the progress or help it. Because cultural knowledge is not something that learners can just pick up. We should and do teach our students the L2 or FL culture in our classes.

4.How to teach culture?

In the part above, it shows clearly how necessary culture teaching is included in ELT, the

following section will discuss how to do it.

According to Lange (1999) and Wright (2000), in ELT, most EFL teachers prefer to 'one-way transmission of facts'——narrowing culture teaching down to the information about people, products and customs of the target culture. The commonest approaches they employ are 'Four Fs approach': Food, Fashion, Festivals and Folklore (Banks, 2002; Sleeter & Grant), the Tour Guide approach (historical sites, major cities, etc.) and 'By- the- way' approach in which the teacher explains a point by sharing travel anecdotes (Phillips, 2001). The problem is the teacher's perspective of culture may limit the students' understanding of culture and thus form their own stereotypes. To work most effectively, EFL teachers need to allow opportunities for learners to reflect on their own language and culture.

Liddicoat (2004) points out an intercultural approach to language teaching and learning involves four main activities relating to culture: 1) acquisition about cultures; 2) comparing cultures; 3) exploring cultures; 4) finding one's own third place between cultures.

The use of role-plays in EFL classrooms can help students to overcome cultural

'fatigue' and promote the process of cross-cultural dialogues while at the same time it provides opportunities for oral communication. Numerous other techniques can be used for language teachers to assist them in the process of acculturation in the classroom, specifically: brainstorming, information model, films, questions and answers, simulation games, case Study (McGroarty & Galavan, 1985), mini-drama, culture capsule, comparison method, culture aside & culture island (Seelye, 1985; Hughes, 1986), critical incidents, cultural assimilators, ethnography, field experiences, etc. (Moran, 2001).

No matter how different these techniques are, the key is to help students notice and accept differences between the home and target culture and activate their schemata through exposure to the target culture with the aids of authentic materials and other visual aids.

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, as Liddicoat (2004) maintains, cultures shape the ways language is structured and the ways in which language is used and culture is learnt rather than biologically inherited (Wang, 2000), thus, in the field of ELT, a basic aspect is 'culture' itself and the relationship between target foreign language and its oriented-culture. Only with such basic cultural knowledge and proper culture teaching techniques can teachers be well-equipped to interpret puzzling or confusing intercultural behaviors for the students.

References

[1] Bianco, J. L. & Crozet, C (eds). (2003). Teaching Invisible Culture: classroom practice and theory [M]. Melbourne: Language Australia Ltd.

[2] Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind[M]. London: McGraw-Hill

[3]Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language education [M]. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[4] Liddicoat, A. J. (2004). Intercultural language teaching: principles for practice. The New Zealand Language Teacher[J], 30, 17-23.

[5]Moran, P.R. (2001). Teaching Culture: Perspectives in Practice[M]. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.

[6] Tseng, Y. H. (2002). A lesson in culture. ELT Journal [J] 56, 11-21.

[7]Wang, L. F. (2000). A survey of modern second language learning & teaching[M]. Shanghai: Shanghai educational press.

[8]Wright, D. A. (2000). Culture as information and culture as affective process: A comparative study. Foreign Language Annals [J], 33, 330-341.

收稿日期:2009-08-24