Introduction

British Studies (BS) forms one of the three specialisations on the postgraduate diploma programme. It aims to introduce contemporary approaches to culture in foreign language teaching (FLT), to develop the participants’ cultural awareness and skills, provide practical ideas for the classroom and give a framework for diploma projects. A course outline is given in the appendix.

The perspective taken looks out from the school language classroom to see what BS (and ‘culture’ and the UK as well) have to offer. BS and the UK are, in fact, simply used as points of access to the culturally-saturated ‘real-world’ usage of language, and on the specialisation attention is centred on its inseparability from culture. The approach is not through language to culture, but through culture to language.

‘Culture’ itself is a very variable term which in FLT is often used very loosely and usually as a synonym for general knowledge. This approach is not followed, neither is one based on ‘area studies’ that gives priority to a particular geographical/ political region over and above other cultural influences, nor one based on one of the many available definitions of culture.

In addition to its inescapable link to language, culture is here taken as:

• a living process - producing the ideas, artefacts, forms of behaviour etc considered

cultural.

• inclusive - (a) of every aspect of life (you cannot be at anytime outside culture)

(b) involving all parts of society.

• contemporary - therefore with the unfolding future (not focused on the past).
• multiple - (a) thus not solely from a national perspective. All influencing factors are to be

considered: generation, occupation, stage of life etc with nationality as one

among the others.

(b) in that we all occupy several of these cultures simultaneously.

Rationale

Contemporary cultural change forms the basis for the rationale, both in the outside world:

• globalisation/ fragmentation - the economic, social and political processes which are

moving the national away from being the dominant reference point for culture.

• the growth of English as a second language, a lingua franca and a world language - particularly as that of western globalisation (Crystal 1997).
• changes in approaches to the social sciences, now more analytical and critical, and the growth of British Studies as a discipline.

and in the classroom where:

• the new generation of school students whose formative years have followed the changes of 1989, have their differing values and attitudes.
• English is aimed to be the mass FL in Polish schools.
• the futures of most students will thus not be connected directly with English philology and those other professional contexts need to be allowed for.
• the future use of English for many students will be mostly with other non-natives, mostly not in an English-speaking country and quite possibly only in Poland.
• there is a much greater emphasis on the skills needed for effective communication and the methodological consequences that follow from this.

the principles of the reforma in the Polish education system and the demands of the new matura (Komorowska 1999) are being currently felt.

These new contexts, themselves with a strong cultural component, demand an appropriate and complementary approach to culture in FLT.

Culture methodology on the postgraduate diploma course

The approach is broadly in line with the work of Michael Byram (see Roberts et. al. 2001) and Claire Kramsch (1993) with its goal the development of intercultural competence in learners (and therefore firstly of teachers). This means an awareness of the issues involved in (mis)communication between cultures and/ or societies, and the skills required in managing them successfully - it does not mean primarily a knowledge of other societies.

As a result of this, and the rationale above, a skill- (and awareness-)centred approach is emphasised on the BS specialisation rather than a ‘traditional’ content-centred one (‘awareness’ being the ability to judge a situation, while skills are the ability to respond to it). It is, in effect, a cultural counterpart to the communicative approach, whereas a content-centred one is that of former language teaching methodologies.

A skill-centred approach (in contrast to a content-centred one) values and emphasises:

• awareness and skills as much as content (and the content not ‘canonical’).
• the present and the future as much as the past (as in a ‘heritage’ approach).
• BS, culture and the UK as methods of study rather than objects.
• similarities in cultures as much as differences.

Methodologically this means:

• the raising and exploring of open questions, rather than the answering of closed ones.
• what can be done at the end of a lesson is as important as what is known.
• the process of an activity is as important as the product.
• cultural input is insufficient, cultural outcomes are essential (see below).
• the learners' involvement as active cultural beings is as important as the material the teacher provides.
• investigatory attitudes to develop the skills of finding, evaluating, analysing and finally communicating aspects of culture.
• teachers and learners working alongside one another to common goals.
• language is central and foregrounded - an equal partner to culture through communicative problem-solving activities - not an incidental consequence of teaching general knowledge through the medium of English.

Whether an approach is content- or skill-centred does not necessarily reveal itself in the methods used (both could proceed via project work) but through what the teacher values most in a student and through what is ultimately being assessed. A further approach is attitude-centred where primary value is placed on the student’s affective growth and raised awareness. Such an approach forms a significant component, for example, of the Council of Europe's sociocultural competences (Van Ek, J. & Trim, J. 1991).

To call any of these an ‘approach’ however suggests a coherence not necessarily present, each is rather a collection of emphases. Attitudes, content and skills are present in all and it is rather on which is the highest value to be placed. Both content- and attitude-centred approaches can be taught elsewhere in the curriculum (and perhaps more efficiently in the native tongue) whereas a skill-centred approach can bring out FLT's unique contribution by emphasising the central role of language.

Such an approach lends itself strongly to certain directions in mainstream FLT methodology: task-based and project work, learner autonomy, learner-based and learner-centred work (often individualised) and so on. In particular it provides an opportunity for longer-term reflective activities of the kind often avoided in coursebooks.

Some specific aspects of a skill-centred approach

Cultural awareness and skills

These are what all of the other aspects of this approach work towards developing in the student. They are:

• culture reception - of societies and cultures other than one’s own.
• culture production - (primarily) how to express one’s own.
• intercultural - how to take a principled and detached view across cultures/ societies.
• investigatory - how to find, evaluate, analyse and communicate (or present) cultural

information (a standard skill, of course, in many disciplines).

In a communicative approach to culture, primarily an issue of cultural relation and exchange, culture reception and culture production skills are of equal importance. All skills in fact have equal value, and any programme of cultural activities in the FLT classroom should develop each of them in some way.

Cultural outcomes

The practice in coursebooks of using cultural input simply as a pretext for language output is inadequate; cultural outcomes must be present. It is in the struggle to express oneself and comprehend others as accurately as possible that cultural skills are actually learnt and tested. Cultural outcomes give an increased understanding and knowledge of:

• the target society (S2) - (or societies) including being aware of the extent of cross-societal

similarities and within differences.

• the home society (S1) - set alongside S2, and evaluated equally.
• the cultural theme itself - including levels other than the national e.g. globalisation and

fragmentation.

• the cultural positions of the learner - giving opportunity for expression and comprehension

of individual (and social) differences and similarities.

Again all have equal value (if not perhaps emphasis) and should be provided for.

The cross-societal method and intercultural principles

The measure of one’s comprehension of another culture or society is the awareness of its similarities and differences to one’s own. The expression of one’s own society (and personal differences from it) requires such awareness and also of the possible language difficulties involved.

The cross-societal method is of course an area-based way of investigating culture, but it is not the only one possible in FLT (e.g. gender- or class-based methods) as outlined in the introduction. Although all influences on culture are taken into account, on the BS specialisation national societies do become the primary reference point. Cross-societal contrast is not necessarily intercultural unless the principles of intercultural analysis are taken into account (e.g. comparing like with like, using equivalent sources and so on) but such principles apply of course to all methods of investigating culture.

Original sources

As far as possible original sources (from both S2 and S1) should be involved e.g. natives, useful realia, literature, magazines and so on. They can bring a sense of reality and perhaps ‘voices’ into the classroom and include such (unexpected) sources as experience and knowledge of S1 from both the teachers and learners themselves. Direct contact with such sources and the critical skills required for dealing with them is essential for independent investigation. Original sources in addition provide an awareness of language as it is used in real-world contexts, a feel of its potential and/ or limitations as a vehicle for full cross-cultural communication.

Footnotes

(1)A version of this paper forms the introduction to the British Studies section of a collection of postgraduate diploma projects to be published by the University of Łódź (working title: Teachers on Language Teaching eds. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B, Berestowska, A and Rasinski, R - forthcoming). A fuller development of the arguments presented here can be found in an article by the author in Houten, M. & Pulverness, A. (eds.) 2001.

(2)The Studium Podyplomowe Kształcenia i Doskonalenia Nauczycieli Języka Angielskiego is run from the University of Łódź, and sponsored by CODN and the British Council through Program INSETT. It can be contacted via:

            Wydzial Filologiczny

            Uniwersytet Łódzki

            Al. Kościuszki 65

            90-514 Łódź

            e-mail: studium@krysia.uni.lodz.pl

Bibliography

Crystal, D. 1997. English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Canto.

Houten, M. & Pulverness, A. (eds.) 2001. New Directions. New Opportunities. Proceedings of the British Studies Conference in Puławy 9-12 March 2000. Bydgoszcz: Homini.

Komorowska, H. 1999. "Successful teaching: how to achieve it, how to assess it". Network 2/2: 3-9.

Kramsch, C. 1993. Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford: OUP.

Roberts, C. et.al. 2001. Language learners as Ethnographers. Oxford: OUP.

Van Ek, J. & Trim, J. 1991, (rev. 1998). Threshold Levels 1990. (See ch. 11 "Sociocultural Competences") Strasbourg: Council for Europe.

Appendix – course outline

The BS specialisation is based on the methodology outlined here and illustrated from everyday themes involving the whole of society, such as housing, education, the family and the countryside. Mini-investigations are undertaken and the cultural information discovered through them is converted into a wide variety of classroom materials and activities. Particular attention is paid to critical source awareness while reflection on the issues raised is an important consideration.

The trainer and participants work alongside one another in investigatory activities while at other times the participants take part as their students might (a ‘cascading’ model). An ‘interethnographic’ approach is followed exploiting the two societies present as a method in itself, with participants contributing from their own cultural experience and knowledge. Opportunities for individualising work, according to specific situation and interests, is a central element.

Here is a summary of the advice given to participants for their diploma projects. All are expected to be, in effect, a kind of action research and should be 20-25 pages long.

• It should be centred on your students, your school and your own interests.
• Do something which will be of direct use to you in the future.
• Almost certainly it will develop a part of language methodology using ‘culture’ as its theme (e.g. task-based teaching or learner autonomy).
• It will take into account current methodological developments in culture-in-language teaching.
• Each diploma must be investigative in some way (not descriptive), intercultural and where possible make use of original sources.
• The process of doing the project should provide a large part of your learning.
• There is an implied audience of practising teachers. Keep them in mind.

Some of the most successful diploma works are to be published by the University of Łódź (working title: Teachers on Language Teaching eds. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B, Berestowska, A and Rasiński, R - forthcoming). Their titles are:

• Living in London: the use of contemporary literature to investigate culture – Anna Czyszczoń
• Learner Autonomy through Structured Projects: an intercultural investigation of eating customs – Marzena Kasperska
• The Internet and Culture: the example of folk-tales – Agnieszka Modeńska