Norwich Institute for Language Education

MLF 2001

NORWICH INSTITUTE FOR LANGUAGE EDUCATION

INSET

Elena Trincanato

ISG group

InTRoduction:

The need for this course

Why I chose to deal with this topic

RATIONALE:

Aims

Objectives

Approach

Target population

procedure:

Organisation and activities

"Students learn to use language for different communicative purposes, not just learn about it as a set of routines, similarly they learn how to encounter the culture of other languages as a set of practices not just as a series of objects to reflect on."

(A. Mountford and N. Wadham-Smith)

INTRODUCTION

I have chosen to deal with this topic as most foreign language teachers in Western European education systems receive an academic and pedagogical education, and often these studies regard the study of literature in the FL and exclude the study of the country and its institutions. There have been very few examples in published EFL materials that deal systematically with the ways in which linguistic choices are constrained by setting, situation, status and purpose.The consequences of this are that, for some teachers, the study of the language has dealt above all with the study of traditional grammar and traditional literature, but it has not given very much consideration to the study of the culture and society, which has been based largely on limited personal experience. As the language-culturerelationship has become more and more relevant and necessary in the language learning process, the new language-culture teachers need more complex training, which deals with foreign culture and society. The language-and-culture teachers will have to compare their own culture with the foreign one. They need to understand the implications of cognitive and affective cultural learning. The FL teacher has the responsibility of introducing his/her learners to the appreciation of another culture. Teachers attending in-service and INSET courses, and also their students, are aware that the topic area of British Studies is too vast to be covered in a few sessions. The role of the culture teacher is to assist his/her students in exploring culture and to teach them how to pursue their interest through books, multimedia or the Internet.

The link between language and culture concerns all the languages in the world. A lot of words, sentences, idioms, ways of swearing, of insulting someone, make sense only if associated to a certain culture. If, for example, an Italian person wants to offend a Swedish or a Norwegian man saying: "Cornuto" [horned = cuckold] and even accompanying the word with a gesture of his/her fingers , s/he will not get any reaction, for that person will not understand the cultural meaning of either the word or the gesture. Even if the literal meaning of the word is translated, even if the metaphorical meaning of the word is explained, he will still not understand and will remain calm. In his country betrayal is not considered the most offensive action that a man can receive. It would have been an insult if somebody had said to him: "Bastard!" or "Criminal!" or "Mafioso!" But the reaction would have been quite different if it had happened in Italy!

Pulverness ("English as a Foreign Culture? ELT and British Cultural Studies" in Mountford & Wadham-Smith), points out that:

"The attempt to divorce language from its cultural context is to ignore the social circumstances which give the cultural context resonance and meaning. (….) What enables us to function effectively in our speech communities is not simply the inventory of language items that we are able to draw upon, but the pragmatic knowledge which equips us to make appropriate selections from that inventory. This knowledge, if not culturally determined, is at least culturally conditioned. It includes such factors as forms of address, the expression of politeness, discourse, conventions and situational constraints on conversational behaviour.”

The ideal way to do this should be to attend an English language course in a UK setting. Lacking this opportunity, the textbook, together with the English-Culture teacher assumes an important role because it could give the students a great many insights into the sensibilities of the British and the life in contemporary Britain. In Italy British Studies has for years been mixed up with “Civiltà” (the traditional, fact-based “British Life and Institutions”). Now it must be understood that the need for a greater international understanding has directed interest towards a model of intercultural learning. The English language has for a long time been considered a lingua franca. It has been considered a language to communicate more with speakers of other languages than with native speakers of English. Therefore, the stress was only on the language, and not on the traditions of the places where the language was spoken. The link between language and culture is given by the fact that there is communication when we are not only able to say words and sentences, but when we make appropriate choices, when we know how and when we use the appropriate words. There is communication when we have a pragmatic knowledge of what we say or hear, when we know the situational and cultural context where the speech takes place. The worry that the learners would not be too happy to move from their culture to the context of L2 could be overcome using a contrastive approach between culture1 (C1) and culture 2 (C2). Taking into consideration the learners’ culture could help them to go beyond the context of classroom language use (L1) and to go towards the context of L2. In this way the learners will not be forced to conform to the native-speaker culture, but they will consider it as another culture to be accepted without denying or threatening their identity.

In conclusion, this brief course is relevant to the educationaland professional needs of the teachers, as it gives another role to the language teacher, who becomes not only a language teacher but also a teacher of culture. It will broaden the trainees’ – and consequently their students’ – cultural horizons, whilst maintaining the integrity of their own culture.

TARGET POPULATION:

20 Italian primary and secondary school in-service teachers of English.

The participants are a little bit sceptical about the topic of the course. They think they are going to attend the usual kind of course about “Civiltà” and they do not understand why they should waste their time on something that they could read in the “civiltà” textbooks.

SETTING

A classroom equipped with a video recorder, a blackboard, posters of life in Great Britain and in Italy, maps of the two countries, posters of idioms and proverbs

AIMS:

To combine the study of contemporary British culture with reflection on the pedagogy of language and culture.

To raise awareness that the description of communicative competence includes the knowledge of another culture and the ability to overcome cultural and affective-cognitive barriers in an intercultural dimension

To develop cognitive skills and increasing affective understanding

OBJECTIVES:

The Trainees will be expected to demonstrate:

An understanding of the link between language and culture

An awareness that communicative competence cannot exist without knowledge of the culture of the country where the language is spoken

A capacity to appreciate other people’s point of view at an emotional level

APPROACH:

As regards the approach, the Trainees will be invited to start from their own cultural reality before passing to the foreign reality. Besides, the Trainees will be invited to find out the cultural events of a text or of a scene of a film in order to develop strategies of analysis of the cultural context

TIMING:

1 session of four hours

SYLLABUS FIT:

British Studies is part of the Trainees’ curriculum studiorum as the close relationship between culture and language. This session is part of a two-week teacher training course on British Studies which deals with different cultural topics

PROCEDURE

ORGANISATION:

Introduction to British Studies

Investigation of some specific topics

Classroom Activities

Reflection and Conclusion

Introduction to British Studies

Brief introduction:

-the new meaning of British Studies today (no longer only "British Life and Institutions”!)

-the social and cultural topics involved in British Studies

-the close link between language and culture

-the new "language-and-culture" teacher

Investigation of some specific topics

Brainstorming of possible range of topics in British Studies

Classroom Activities

The activities will be clear and simple; they will involve trainees who will work in a co-operative atmosphere; they will match the trainees’ needs and interests; they will try to avoid boredom and repetitions. The types of activities will be: plenary activities, plenary discussions, individual and group work

Reflection and Conclusion

Final brief plenary session on reasons for using British Studies in an EFL lesson and handing out of a questionnaire containing some questions such as: “What have I learnt from these sessions?” “How could I use this in my practice?”

Warming up Activity:

Objectives

Getting to know each other

Icebreaking

Type of Activity: Plenary

TT starts with some icebreaking activities. S/he asks TS to say their names and the school they come from. Then s/he asks each Trainee the origin of their names and if they like their names or if they prefer being called by a different name. We know that in some countries, such as Italy, a lot of people bear their grandparents’ names. S/he will also introduce herself/himself in this way.

Outcome: Reflection on the fact that the use of certain names can also be linked to some cultural associations

Resources and materials: none

Time: 10 minutes

First activity

Objective: Eliciting awareness on the meaning of “British Studies”

Type of Activity: individual work

TT hands out a questionnaire and invites the Ts to answer and to reflect on the following questions:

Why did you want to come to a British Cultural Studies course?
What do you know about Britain and the British?
What is the image of Britain that your students have?
What is your cultural identity?
Which contribution can you give to this course?
Why should a language teacher also be a teacher of culture?
Can you explain the title of the course?

Outcome: Identifying trainees’ concept of culture

Finding out about their expectations of the course

Resources and materials: photocopies

Time: 20 minutes

Second activity

Objectives: Comparing definitions and contents related to the topic: British Studies

Type of Activity: Group Work

Trainer writes four items on the blackboard:

TT invites TS to play the "Consequences game”. In groups of four, Trainees start by writing the definition of one of the above words on a sheet of paper. Each Trainee writes the word at the top of the paper and then the definition of this word. Then s/he passes her/his paper to the next person, who writes the definition of the new word. The activity is over when each participant has written all the four definitions of the four words. Groups share their definitions and report back to the whole group. Trainer writes all the definitions next to each term on the BB and they discuss them.

Outcome: The Ts are expected to give different but related definitions of each word in order to compare them and to exchange different opinions and different ways of defining and understanding them

Resources and materials: Blank paper and pens

Time: 20 minutes

Third activity

Objectives: Brainstorming the vast area of British studies

Comparing one’s own cultural reality and the foreign one

Type of Activity: Plenary Session.

Trainer briefly introduces the concept of this course: What “British Studies” means today” (see Introduction).

The TT will do an activity of Brainstorming of the word “British Studies”. Trainer suggests some topics and asks Trainees to do the same. S/he writes them on the blackboard, using different colours to highlight them. (See figure 2). Then s/he will tell the Ts that only two topics will be examined more closely in this session (E.g. “Family” and “Employment”). TT will invite the TS to answer the following questions:

What is the reason for the title: “No more the House of Lords and House of Commons"?
Does this mean that we do not have to teach ‘Institutions’ any more?
Why is culture so important to understanding and speaking appropriately? What is the real meaning of context?
What is the new role of the language teacher?
Why should teachers of English language be teachers of culture?
Do you think there is a different way to deal with these topics according to different cultures?
Are there other ways these cultural differences could be incorporated into a lesson?

Outcomes:

Increasing the awareness that a Contrastive Approach has got the advantage of making the Student start from a known situation (e.g. that of his/her own culture) to get to a new situation (the foreign one) which will be examined first according to the similarities and then according to the differences with their own culture. All this to make the STS discover the cultural aspects and to comprehend them in a better way both from a cognitive and an affective point of view
Reflection on the new role of the teacher

Time: 30 minutes

Resources and materials: Blackboard, different coloured chalks

Fourth activity

Objectives:

Reflecting on the different meaning given to the words according to different

cultures

Type of activity: Pair work

TT writes on the bb the following list of words and asks the TS to work in pairs. They will have to find both the Italian equivalents and the hidden meaning (negative/positive prejudices regarding a certain word) that these words can carry according to the Italian and to the British culture.

Family versus household
Lone/single parent
Cohabitation
Illegitimate child
Singleton
Nuclear versus extended family
Single mother versus unmarried mother
Dinkies
Yuppies

Outcome. Reflection on the fact the some words carry not only the literal meaning, but a much deeper meaning, which is always linked to the culture where these words are used

Time: 20 minutes

Resources and Materials: Blackboard

Fifth Activity

Objectives: Reflecting on different cultures

Comparing different cultures

Type of activity: Individual and group work

TT hands out the photocopies of a short story “Frozen Pizza” (Antoinette Moses1998) and asks the Ts to read it individually.

Then the TT divides the Ts in four groups and asks them to reflect on the text and to answer some questions:

Does the reading of this text depend on particular cultural schemata?
Should the STS who read this text have any previous cultural knowledge in order to understand it?
What kind of support could the teacher give to the STS to help them better understand the text?
How could the STS read this long text?
Are there any particular words related to culture?
What do I want my STS to achieve in working with this text?
What text(s) could precede or follow it?
How can the text lead to cultural comparison and contrast? (E.g. Does everybody in Italy have dinner with their family? Do many people in Italy use a microwave at home?)

Outcome: Reflection on the approach to use if I want my activity to become a means of cultural learning rather than being just for reading comprehension

Time: 30 minutes

Resources and Materials: Photocopies of the short story “Frozen Pizza” (see Appendix); blackboard

Break: 25 minutes

Sixth Activity

Objective: reflecting on cultural diversity

Activity: individual and pair work

TT hands out photocopies of the text “The Trendy Father” (see appendix) and invites Ts to read it individually. Then s/he will ask the TS to reflect on the following issues:

Are there any cultural references?

How could we help STS to understand the text?

Which lexical terms have a cultural significance?

Are there any cultural differences between English and Italian fathers?

Outcomes. Reflection on cultural learning; on the link between language and culture, on different cultures

Time: 30 minutes

Resources and Materials: Photocopies of the text “The trendy father” (see Appendix); blackboard

Seventh Activity

Objectives: Raising awareness of different cultural events to understand British culture

Type of activity: Plenary and pair work

TT invites TS to watch some sequences of the film: “Brassed Off” by Mark Herman (Italian version: “Thank you, Mrs Thatcher”).

The first sequence deals with the houses of England: you can see two ladies talking over the fence of typical terraced houses and picking up the laundry and a man, in the nextdoor house, reading the newspaper while listening to the conversation.

After watching it the TT could ask the TS to reflect and to answer to some questions in pairs:

Looking at their houses: how do they differ from Italian houses? Could you explain the difference between “House” and “Home”? What cultural differences do these two words carry?

Looking at the ladies’ clothes and behaviour, what kind of social classes do the characters belong to?

The second sequence deals with social life. It takes place in a pub at about the end of the film when all the “guys” go to a pub to cheer one of the band up after his attempt of committing suicide.

After watching it the TT could ask the TS to reflect and to answer to some questions in pairs:

Which idea have you got of a ”pub”?

Where do you go for a beer in Italy’

Which cultural meaning bears the expression “Let’s go for a beer” in England?