Teaching Culture Online

This chapter explores the ways in which the language educator can be successful teaching culture together with language specifically in an asynchronous online environment. It provides examples of content, activities, and assessments that are meaningful, collaborative, and learner-centered, and that employ mobile technology familiar to the average instructor. In addition, it discusses the new role of the language professor in facilitating an integrated language and culture curriculum in a fully online setting. Through shifting the responsibilities and roles of the instructor, emphasizing social and teacher presence, and employing flexible learner-centered content and activities, previously face-to-face language classes can be successfully transformed to foster cultural competency asynchronously.

Teaching Culture through Reading Literature in English Language Teaching

English as a lingua franca (ELF) has become a standardized mode of communication between diverse sociocultural groups. Besides linguistic competence, English language learners should possess adequate intercultural competence to establish successful social relations worldwide. Therefore, one of the main objectives of English language teaching (ELT) has become the development of intercultural speakers (Byram 1997; Kramsch 1998). One way of achieving this is by using literature in the classroom because learners interpret literary texts from their personal experience and are thus engaged both at a cognitive and an emotional level. Their individual interpretations can nevertheless also lead to generalizations and enforcement of stereotypes about foreign cultures. Hanauer (2001) has developed a method called focus-on-cultural understanding to expose learners to different interpretations. The study explores whether his method can be successfully applied in the context of Croatian university education. The method has proven to be effective for raising learners’ cultural awareness, which could lead to further development of their intercultural competence.

Teaching Culture through Language

One socio-cultural aspect of the Korean language that foreign learners may encounter early is the extensive use of kinship terms in communicative situations. Korean kinship terms are carriers of important cultural information, thus misunderstandings or even breakdowns in communication are likely to happen if one lacks exposure to the cultural conceptualizations of these terms. Following the paradigm shift towards emphasizing intercultural communicative competence development in foreign language classrooms, the present study explores why teaching kinship terms in a Korean language classroom is important. The study presents an overview of the kinship terminological system and its relation to the cultural concepts and value system of Koreans, examines the current teaching situation of kinship terms primarily through language textbooks, and considers specific aspects that may affect the teaching of these terms. The study finds that insufficient attention is given to kinship terms, even though they are one of the most frequently used terms of address and reference. It is proposed that greater emphasis should be given to teaching kinship terms; furthermore, it is suggested that teachers should actively guide students to acquire the essential cultural knowledge about kinship terms.

Promoting common ground building in L2 cross-cultural conversations

Teaching culture out of context may not be the optimal approach, yet it could be achieved by immersive technologies. This study uses an immersive theme-based environment and focuses on cross-cultural interactions between learners of different cultures in goal-oriented scenarios. We collected interactions among learners with different cultural backgrounds and annotated common ground formation and conversation breakdowns in those interactions. Next, we recreated the scenarios in a 3D immersive environment using an in-house situation creation toolkit to enable experiencing the situation by using choices to navigate the conversation and observing the consequences. In case the conversation derails, we provide timely scaffolding by offering appropriate communication strategies to rebuild common ground. Learners can be the actors of the scenarios but can also be the observers by switching between roles and points of view. Preliminary experiments with 20 L2 learners of English from different cultures showed that practicing with immersive conversational game-play is effective for raising cultural awareness and learning to choose appropriate strategies for smooth interactions.

Innovative Dynamic Matrix-Type Learning Environment Based on the Example of the St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation, Herzen University, Russia

The paper examines an innovative cluster-type matrix model for training interpreters and translators, based on recent developments in text and pragmatics theory, as well as on the scenario approach in education. The aim is to create a single, multifaceted space for open interpreter and translator training with an anthropological focus, drawing on the achievements in Russian teaching culture and best world practices, including a system of feedback from employers, to enable a flexible response to the needs of the society. To achieve the aim, an innovative interactive system of intensive interpreter and translator training has been developed based on a cluster principle and continuous education quality monitoring. At the heart of the system are a scenario strategy and a text typology approach. What is unique about the St Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation (SCIT)’s project is the fact that it is not just an educational programme or a system or an algorithm, but a dynamic matrix-type learning environment.It is a flexible model for professional retraining that presupposes a range of basic skills and can fill any gaps in the general translators’ competence and current performance by applying the professional environment matrix. The cluster approach provides a combination of in-person, distant and independent learning components, as well as increased transparency of the educational and professional spaces, opening up future employment prospects.The ‘diffuse matrix’ version of the innovative matrix principle in education underlies the diversity of methods employed by SCIT: methodological pluralism, dominant in the process of training, implies a combination of diverse techniques developed by different authors for the matrix, making it most flexible and the whole approach – customer tailored. It should be pointed out that the external diversity is strictly regulated and targeted by the project’s creators by means of a monitoring mechanism.The future of the model is seen in its use in Russia and other countries to train highly professional interpreters and translators in other spheres (for example, audiovisual translation). It could also be used at the final stage of higher vocational training; as a standard mechanism for improving professional skills and retraining; as well as a social harmonising element (creating new links among academic, educational, and professional activities).

Investigation of Iranian and Turkish English language teachers’ views, perspectives and experiences of teaching cultural content in English courses

Nowadays, English has been considered as an International language or a Lingua Franca as a result of its widespread use among non-native speakers. English now is spoken by various people with different languages and diverse cultures. Thus, learners need to know the culture of different people of various countries. As stated by Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L. (1999). Cultural mirrors: Materials and methods in the EFL classroom. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Culture in second language teaching (pp. 196–219). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, learners should have knowledge about source culture, target culture, and international culture. In this regard, teachers have a great responsibility in including cultural content in their English language classes. Therefore, the main purpose of this pilot study during Azimzadeh’s PhD journey (Azimzadeh, M. (Unpublished). Representation of cultural elements in EFL textbooks used in Iranian EFL high schools [PhD dissertation]. Adana, Turkey: Cukurova University) is to investigate Iranian and Turkish English language teachers’ views, perspectives, and experiences of teaching cultural content in their English language classes. This study was conducted as a mixed-method design. The data collection was done by using a questionnaire and an interview. The questionnaire which was used in this study adopted from CULTNET project (a network of researchers of inter-culture in foreign language education), Byram and Risager’s projects, and Cortazzi and Jin’s (1999) three cultural sources. Participants of this study were 16 teachers who were teaching English language in high schools in Iran and Turkey. The data collected from questionnaires and interviews were analysed by using a series of descriptive statistics and interviews were analysed by using thematic analysis (Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches. London: Sage Publications, Inc). The findings of this study have indicated that both Iranian and Turkish teachers were aware of the importance of teaching culture in their English language classes. They generally claimed that culture was important in language classes and the cultural subjects should be taught in English language classes.

ANALYSIS OF CULTURAL CONFLICTS IN CHINESE STUDENTS OF RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

The most important thing in teaching a language is teaching culture. Language teaching and culture are inextricably linked. Although differences between cultures are a prerequisite and basis for cultural exchange, they also cause conflicts and communication barriers when different cultures come into contact with each other. It is an intercultural language teaching activity. Students should not only learn the Russian language itself, but also face various cultural factors in the context of the Russian language, therefore, resolving cultural conflicts is an urgent task for teaching languages. This article summarizes previous research, takes linguistic and cultural studies as a theoretical basis, analyzes cultural conflicts in language teaching, considers cultural conflicts as a research subject, and analyzes and analyzes the causes of conflicts in order to find suitable ways to reduce conflicts and promote healthy development of Russian teaching. language.

TEACHING INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE

The article еnlightens some problems in the field of teaching culture withinthe frames of foreign language studies curricula. It is also stated that in accordance with the standards of basic foreign language competences this aspect is still neglected to some extent in the classroom. The article provides a concept of intercultural communicative competence though some researchers find it too vague. In addition, some discrepancies between the new approach to teaching culture and traditional methods, beliefs and discourses related to teaching culture have been analyzed and discussed. The authors have carried out a critical analysis of results of numerous studies of the cultural component of in the field of culture teaching so as to reveal their drawbacks and advantages and to propose possible ways of solving this issue. As some researchers claim in order to develop intercultural competence amidst students of foreign languages departments teachers are to broaden their knowledge of language and culture interaction to avoid stereotyped approaches. Because of new tendencies in teaching culture not only besides philological or literatural issues, they have to deal with such disciplines as semiotics, anthropology, history, sociology and other sciences in the process of discussing culture to master their skills and respond to new challenges.

Cultivating an Institutional Culture that Values Teaching Developing a Repository of Effective Practices

Educational researchers developed an online repository of effective practices contributing to or enhancing the teaching culture at multiple higher education institutions as part of a larger project exploring institutional teaching culture. The repository was designed to be a companion document to the Institutional Teaching Culture Perception Surveys (ITCPS), a resource for administrators, educational developers, and Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTL) striving to cultivate institutional cultures that support the development of teaching and learning. This paper outlines the methods for developing this repository, summarizes findings, identifies some of the practices included and highlights areas for future development.