Teaching Culture PDF

Session 9: Teaching Culture 1. Concepts of Culture − culture as an iceberg: a model of intercultural didactics − three dimensions of culture (Roland Posner) o mental culture: codes (ideas, values, conventions) o social culture: code users (individuals, society, social gr...

Session 9: Teaching Culture 1. Concepts of Culture − culture as an iceberg: a model of intercultural didactics − three dimensions of culture (Roland Posner) o mental culture: codes (ideas, values, conventions) o social culture: code users (individuals, society, social groups, institutions) o material culture: texts (texts and other artefacts) 2. What is Culture? − then o culture as a trait (unchangeable) o culture as a nation (Germans, Americans, etc.) o culture with a ‘C’ (‘high culture’, products → shaped by education, academic positions, taste, etc.) o culture can be studied (recipes for dealing with people from certain cultures → people seen as a pars pro toto) − now o culture as a state (open, dynamic, fluid, hybrid) o culture is not bound to arbitrary national borders o culture with a ‘c’ (subcultures, youth culture, pop culture, values, symbol systems, perceptions, social institutions, etc.) o culture can be observed (people are still individuals → collective cultural identity and individual identity) − classroom importance: make cultures accessible to the students and make them understand that cultures are complex and heterogeneous 3. From Landeskunde to ICC 3.1. Discontent between the 1960s and 1970s − Culture: elitist and normative understanding of culture, the works of high art, music, literature − culture: daily life (culture as ‘signifying practices’), pop culture 3.2. Landeskunde/Regional Studies (late 19th Century) − nationalistic − cognitive, knowledge oriented − teaching ‘useful facts’ − knowledge about English-speaking countries (history, politics, geography, institutions, food, etc.) − studying a foreign culture from the point of ‘us’ and our culture (separation of us and them) 3.3. Shift from Landeskunde to Intercultural Learning (1980s) − communicative competence must be included as well → intercultural communicative competence − ability to communicate and interact with people who speak a different language and come from a different cultural background − Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICCC): intercultural competence and communicative competence o intercultural learning: the process towards mastering ICC o aim: the intercultural speaker (instead of a near-native speaker) 3.4. Intercultural Communicative Competence − prefix ‘inter’: between (separate) cultures − sharing information and negotiating meaning across different cultural and social groups − awareness of our own cultural imprint and of the foreign cultural imprint (dialectic between ‘self’ and ‘other’) − ability to interpret and understand other cultures in a process that is called de-centring (Byram) − engaging with ‘other cultures’ in respectful and empathetic ways (without fully abandoning or losing one’s own cultural imprint) 4. Intercultural Learning − understanding another culture involves understanding another belief system (not just another language) − Byram’s influential five-dimensional model of ICC o knowledge dimension ▪ knowledge about social groups and their cultures in one’s own country, and similar knowledge of the interlocutor’s country ▪ knowledge of the processes of interaction at individual and societal level ▪ conscious and emblematic knowledge (e.g. overt meanings such as dress or modes of greeting) ▪ factual knowledge of facts and figures (previously Landeskunde)  ▪ relativity of cultural knowledge: the same cultural event may be known differently in C1 and in C2 o skill dimensions ▪ interpreting and relating applied to documents in the widest possible sense: all sorts of text types, but also (in principle) to other signifying practices or events that can be ‘read’ and ‘interpreted’ relating a document from the target culture to a similar document from the source culture ▪ discovering and interacting involves concrete social interaction or staying or living in a foreign cultural context the skill of discovery is the ability to recognise significant phenomena in a foreign environment and to elicit their meanings and connotations establishing relationships, being a mediator between people of different origins and identities drawing on existing cultural and linguistic competences to keep a communicative interaction alive o attitudinal dimension ▪ attitudes of curiosity and openness, of readiness to suspend disbelief and judgement with respect to others’ meanings, beliefs and behaviours ▪ a willingness to suspend belief in one’s own meanings and behaviours, and to analyse them from the viewpoint of the others with whom one is engaging ▪ complex interplay: the ability to decentre, i.e. to challenge and relativise the norms one has been socialised into, and to open up to new cultural norms one encounters o culminating dimension: critical cultural awareness ▪ the sum of the other four dimensions ▪ to evaluate critically cultural products and practices ▪ the ability to stand back from our own cultural imprint and become aware of our own cultural values, beliefs and perceptions as culture-specific (rather than universally true) in view of ‘other’ cultural imprints and other cultural values, beliefs and perceptions ▪ requires to coordinate and change perspectives ▪ to overcome ethnocentrism (belief that the own cultural position is always considered superior, the other cultural position inferior) ▪ to be critical of cultural relativism (to not unconditionally accept the alleged righteousness of foreign cultural practices (e.g. unethical practices)  − aim: intercultural speaker o has acquired the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes which allow him or her to manage intercultural encounters or solve intercultural conflicts o has acquired ‘critical cultural awareness’ (generally aware of how an intercultural situation and the way participants communicate may be influenced by their cultural identities and backgrounds) 5. Methods of Teaching and Developing ICC − cultural readings of literature, film, images and non-fictional texts as carrier of cultural content or information − critical incidents o a critical incident is a presentation of a typical situation where representatives of different cultures interact with each other and misunderstandings, confusions or conflicts occur o aims: theoretical knowledge about different cultures, dismantling of stereotypes, cultural sensibility − role plays − simulation games − face-to-face or virtual/online encounters 6. Criticism of ICC − frame of reference/cultures and self are diverse, heteronomous, dynamic, fluid, etc. due to migration, cultural (ex)change, global exchange of information and goods, international cooperation − focus on ‘self’ and ‘other’ can lead to stereotypes − tension/discrepancy between individual and collective identities − intersectionality of markers of identity 7. Transculturality and Hybridity − transculturality describes cultural complexity, the dynamics of cultural change, internal differentiation and interconnectedness of cultures − cultures are heterogeneous and multicultural − cultures share certain characteristics (e.g. music, fashion, etc.) − multiplicity and diversity of lifestyles in a society lead to multiple identifications of individuals = transcultural identities (individual can identify with multiple cultural and collective groups that cut through traditional cultural boundaries), relevance of sub-cultures 8. Global Issues, Global Learning, Global Education − aims to promote students’ knowledge and awareness of world peoples, countries, cultures and issues − enabling young people to become responsible global citizens − actively take part in shaping a better future in the world − intercultural learning, peace studies, environmental education, human rights education − focus on international themes and global issues − examples o Where do my sneakers come from? o Where does the food in our supermarkets come from? o How are my decisions connected to mechanisms of global economy, working conditions (of textile workers in Asia), and environmental issues? 8.1. Global Education: Five-Dimensional Model of ICC Knowledge − world people, countries, cultures − world problems, causes, solutions Attitudes − worldmindedness − curiosity − cultural respect − empathy Skills − communication − critical thinking − problem solving − multiple perspectives Action − personal involvement for a better world 8.2. Education for Sustainable Development − knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that empower students o to contribute to sustainable development o to reflect on their own actions, considering their current and future social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts, from a local and a global perspective 9. 9 Principles of Cultural Learning 1. from knowledge transfer to acquiring cultural competence 2. from canonical knowledge to exemplary knowledge 3. from outside perspective to multi-perspectival approach 4. from culture to cultures 5. toward a holistic approach: integrating culture and language learning 6. representing cultures via various texts and media 7. considering balanced representations 8. from teacher orientation to student orientation: focus learning on learners as cultural agents who bring their voices to discourse and always co-create culture 9. from transmitting cultural knowledge to discovering, understanding, sharing culture