|
Date of Issue: November 4th, 2004 |
|
IATEFL Poland
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Culture in English Language Teaching |
|||
|
No. 3 |
|
|
|
|
Special Interest Group |
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
CELT
Newsletter
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
Dear
SIG Members, 13th
International IATEFL Poland Annual Conference, Radom, 17-19 September 2004 This CELT Newsletter is
long overdue but I do hope that you will show some understanding as the
reason for the delay was my involvement in the preparations for the annual
IATEFL conference. 
As
one of the Coordinators of the 13th International IATEFL Poland Annual Conference held in
Radom, on 17-19 September 2004 I have been working very hard indeed for the
past few months. I hope that the CELT SIG members who took part in the
Conference were able to attend many sessions dealing with culture and language
studies including such memorable contributions as: Jeremy Harmer’s “CULTURE
OR culture?, Anita Dębska’s “Open the door: poetic translation and
language learning”, David A. Hill’s “A three-part invention: three ways
of working with poetry” or Hanna Gozdawa-Gołębiowska’s “Towards
Intercultural Teaching in the FL Classroom”. Indeed, as one of the
conference organizers and CELT SIG Coordinator I tried my best to focus the
conference on some pertinent questions and issues in ELT world e.g. What is
culture? What is its role in the ELT
context? How can we help our learners’ communicate across cultural frontiers in
the fast changing modern world? What skills are needed for intercultural
communication in the global context? Although there was not enough time to
explore all the questions and issues connected with this particular theme of
the conference I do hope the presentations gave us some food for thought. As
Professor Jan Rusiecki, the IATEFL Honorary President, admitted in his letter
addressed to the Conference participants saying the word “culture” opened a can
of worms. He thus summarized the gist of the argument as follows: “Some people will argue that since English
has become a world language, we should not – some will say, must not, -
associate it with the culture of the Anglophone countries. Other people will go
even further and accuse of ‘cultural imperialist’. Some will say that since
English is nowadays used predominantly in communication between non-native
speakers, it no longer belongs to the English, the Americans, the Australians
and so on. Thus there is no need to introduce any cultural content into the
courses of English as a foreign language. And that goes for culture in all its
manifestations: not just greetings, but also other conventions of language use,
including verbal art – e.g. literature. In my
opinion teaching a foreign language is inevitably connected with teaching
culture: its implications, hidden meanings, shared understanding of some
cultural values, clichés and culturally loaded behaviour of the native
speakers. I hope
that the discussion as to how treat culture in language teaching will be
carried on during all CELT SIG events that I have planned together with the
Radom Region representative for this academic year. 
Ethnographic Study Tour of Wales,
July 16 – 28 2004 The tour of Wales was organized
as part of a pilot teacher development project called “Neighbours – getting to know your neighbours in the
EU” funded from
British Council Teacher Training College Development grant and IATEFL Poland.
The project participants included active members of CELT SIG from the Teacher
Training College in Radom and the
Kolegium Karkonoskie. The main objective was to develop teaching materials
based on the teachers’ personal exploration of Welsh culture. When the project
was planned it was hoped that it would:
I
am indeed very glad to say that all the project aims mentioned above were
successfully achieved. Apart from the very exciting and interesting time that
the project participants had in Wales they also worked very hard on the
collecting of the ethnographic materials. The teaching materials have already
been published on-line on the British Studies Web pages at: http://elt.britcoun.org.pl in the new
issue called “Europe”. The
authors welcome all your comments and queries. It is also hoped that the
project “Neighbours – getting to know your neighbours in the EU” will
inspire other CELT SIG members to organize similar study tours of the U.K. on a
larger scale. The participants are also planning to describe the project in
detail providing some practical advice as to the organization of the tour and
itinerary. The British Council and Hornby
Summer School in Gniezno, August 1–14, 2004
The
Summer School was a perfect opportunity both for Polish and international
participants to become web writers and get a valuable insight into the
practical aspects of intercultural studies. The
school participants spent two weeks at the European College in Gniezno working
very hard on intercultural teaching materials for the classrooms. This year’s
theme “Europe” proved to be not only inspiring but challenging as well.
The materials produced by the school participants coming from 9 different
countries have already been published on-line at http://elt.britcoun.org.pl in the new
issue of the British Studies Web Pages called “Europe”. You will find
there quizzes, articles, crossword puzzles, interviews, diary entries, photos
and impressions. As one of the tutors and organizers I was impressed by the
participants dedication and hard work. Future plans for the CELT SIG
I
would like to welcome all your suggestions and proposals as to events,
networking, and contributions that can be organized as part of the CELT SIG in
your regions. Remember that all things count: from a large scale national
conference to an informal meeting of friends discussing classroom problems. Małgorzata Zdybiewska, CELT SIG Coordinator November, 2004 |
|
|
|||
|
Produced
in Poland by IATEFL PL (c) 2004 |