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| A Topic-based Approach to Teaching Culture
Dorota Wiśniewska-Brogowska, NKJO Zamość | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Introduction
American Culture and
Institutions is one of the academic courses in Zamość Teacher Training College
and its syllabus comprises elements of general culture as well as political and
social institutions in the USA. Teacher trainers designing their teaching
programmes are expected to take into consideration a few aspects. Apart from
relying on their students’ needs, available resources and their own
preferences, they need to take into account Ramowy program nauczania
w Nauczycielskim Kolegium Języków Obcych issued by the Ministry of
Education. Moreover, they should not disregard the list of requirements and
expectations provided by Lublin University, which administers the licencjat exam taken by college graduates. The list contains racial issues and
therefore teacher trainers include them in the syllabus. Since the issues seem
to be so distant to Polish students, who do not encounter such problems in
their lives, traditional ways of conducting classes devoted to racial issues
fail to raise students’ curiosity and motivation. Therefore it has been decided
to choose ‘Neighbours’, as a topic which can
be related to racism and may show the applications of the topic-based approach
in a culture class. First the
relationship between a language and culture is discussed in the diploma, which
is followed by the analysis how teaching a foreign language and the culture of
the people who speak the language are inseparable. The fact that the language
cannot be taught without culture is supported by the results of a questionnaire
conducted among college trainees. The next
part introduces the concept of the topic-based approach to teaching in a
context which is not culturally bound and is often used in primary education
both in Poland and western countries. This is followed by a presentation of an
example which can be used in schools in any culture class with less advanced
students. The
practical part comprises a description of a sequence of American culture
classes during which the topic-based approach is used in reference to racial
issues, and the topic is put into the form of a question ‘Neighbours’ This part
ends with the conclusions and some hints on how the approach can be used with
less advanced students in primary and secondary education. Language and culture
Questionnaire In order to
find out how students perceive the significance of culture in the process of
learning a foreign language, I distributed a survey in the form of
questionnaire among 67 college students in Rzeszów and Zamość They were asked
to decide on the choice of topics which they wished to concentrate on while
learning the language (Appendix 1). The results of the survey
reveal that out of 67 students, 51 find learning only the language
insufficient. Entertainment, education, the media, places to go in the UK/USA,
English/American literature and social problems are the topics which an
overwhelming majority of the students are interested in. The least popular
topics science and technology, which probably results from the fact that the
surveyed students are learning the language so as to work in schools, not in
companies as translators. They do not need to know a lot about technology to
make good teachers, while topics such as entertainment or British/American
schools interest most Polish pupils who often ask their teachers about them. While deciding on the choice of topics to focus on,
they might have been influenced by the list of requirements and expectations
concerning the licencjat exam college
graduates take at Lublin University since there is quite a big overlap between
the two lists. On the other hand, although current political issues can be
found on the list of requirements, a lack of interest in political problems can
be observed among the surveyed students. The reason for this phenomenon may be
the students’ desire to ‘escape’ from Polish politics which is highly charged. There might be another
explanation of such a choice of topics. From the point of view of language
instruction, culture can be divided into formal culture and “culture with small
c”. Formal culture, often referred to as ‘culture with capital C’ includes art,
literature, architecture, science or technology. The students may realise that
with this way of looking at culture, we often lose sight of the individual.
‘Culture with small c’ focuses on lifestyles of the people: when and what they
eat, how they make a living, the attitudes they express towards friends and
members of their families and other social issues. Therefore, it may seem that
the most profitable way of looking at culture is to see how it is manifested in
everyday life. The students probably realise that if they are provided only
with a list of facts of history or geography and a list of lexical items, they
have not been supplied with a complete view of what life is really like in the
target language. Therefore, the students show keen interest in British and
American culture in the most general sense and consider it an important part of
learning the language. A
Topic-based approach to teaching culture Introducing the topic-based approach
Since
introducing culture into language teaching seems to be beyond question, the
teacher needs to decide which approach towards teaching culture to take.
Galloway (1985) presents four common approaches and the areas they focus on: ·
The Frankenstein Approach: a taco from here, a flamenco dancer from
there, a Gaucho from here and a bullfight from there ·
The 4-F Approach: folk dances, festivals, fairs and food ·
Tour Guide Approach: monuments, rivers, cities etc. ·
“By-the-way” Approach: sporadic lectures or bits of selected behaviour However,
such incidental approaches are not adequate. Just as teachers need to be
intentional in terms of teaching for instance grammatical structures, they
should be systematic about culture teaching. The learners benefit most when
culture lessons are well planned and developed, and when evaluation of their
culture learning provides them with important feedback. While
planning a culture course, in order to answer the question how to best teach
the course content, the teacher needs to decide what methods and techniques
work best, with whom, and what aspects of the target culture to comprise in the
course. Traditional methods of teaching culture in the foreign language
classroom have been focused on formal culture and themes such as education,
geography or government and institutions. A
complementary approach to teaching culture is the topic-based approach. What
distinguishes it mainly from the traditional theme-based approach is the fact
that it concentrates on more general and cross-sectional topics which involve
various cultural issues. It makes students realise that what they are learning
about is not only institutions and systems but real people, their beliefs and
problems. According
to Alan McLean (1994), whose article was a direct inspiration for the diploma,
“A topic-based approach can provide an oblique yet original encounter with
British life and culture. It deals with key elements of current British life,
such as class, privatisation, education, health, not in isolation but within a
series of unifying contexts.” In his article he examines the topic “ The
growth of supermarkets in Britain” by analysing it from different perspectives
to give the reader a complex view of the phenomena. The author refers to
changing British cuisine and eating habits, relationships between education and
private sector, class-system, housing, growing independence of young people,
family life, religion, art and finally politics. Thanks to the topic one can
find out a great deal about the people, their way of life and thinking, not
necessarily supermarkets themselves.
The topic-based approach in a context not bound
culturally In order to
explain how it works in a context which is not culturally bound, let us see how
this method is employed in primary education in Poland after the reform of the
educational system and other European countries. One of the aims is to present
the holistic view of the world in which disciplines, knowledge and skills are
integrated. Let us focus on the topic ‘The Sun’. A teacher discussing such a
topic will have to deal with the whole range of subjects or themes, starting
with chemistry and ending with arts and culture. Topic: The Sun chemistry - composition physics - reactions, greenhouse effect geography - climate biology -
life of earth, photosynthesis medicine - skin cancer, rickets agriculture - crops economics - tourism the arts -
types of music, painting styles culture -
different lifestyles These are
only examples of the themes and issues which may be discussed. The choice of
disciplines and aspects, as well as the depth of the analysis, depend on the
grade and age of the students. Still, such an approach provides them with a
complex explanation of this particular phenomenon and makes them feel that
school does not require them to learn only about separate subjects such as
chemistry, geography or maths, but helps them understand the world as a whole. Example of a culture-related topic ‘The
street’ is a topic which refers to culture and involves various walks of life
from transport, through advertising to social problems as it illustrates
phenomena such as the number of cars driven, the numerous advertisements or
begging in the streets and the homeless. Topic: ‘The street’ transport - lots of private cars ( people live in the
suburbs and the country), red double-deckers,
black taxis eating - variety of restaurants, huge supermarkets history - historical buildings, a lot of museums housing -
shops and offices in city centres, residential areas in the suburbs advertising -
people are inundated with ads population -
racial diversity politics -
demonstrations social problems - begging, playing music to earn money, the homeless These are
only some suggestions how the topic can be approached, and depending on the
materials the teacher chooses, he or she may concentrate only on some specific
aspects of the topic. The topic may be analysed in the classroom with both
beginners and intermediate language learners. The former could concentrate on
such evident and typical things as double-deckers, driving on the left or
semi-detached houses, whereas the latter might look for less obvious clues to
the character of Britain and its citizens. Furthermore, students will certainly
find it more stimulating and appealing if the teacher illustrates the topic
with a poster, some photographs or videos. Advantages of the topic-based approach Traditional
the theme-based approach to teaching culture provides the student with a
segmented view of the target culture. However, it is difficult for a student to
see individual people and understand social processes and values from this
perspective. The topic-based approach to teaching culture which brings life to
class and thanks to which the student develops a more holistic and integrated
view of the target culture. Knowing about the people who use the language,
understanding their behaviours, beliefs and customs increases cultural
awareness and promotes greater personal interest both in the language and the
culture. It is often the case that students learning about the
target culture in the traditional theme-approach way arrive at various
stereotypes. The traditional teaching focuses on ‘life and institutions’, that
is facts and generalisations, which leads to shallow understanding of what
students can see in the target culture and coming to the conclusion that, for
example, Southerners in the USA are prejudiced against minorities or the
British love gardening. In the topic-based approach looking at an issue from
different perspectives offers a more complex and deeper comprehension of that
which is observed. Moreover, teachers applying the theme-approach often
concentrate of lectures and reading texts, which can make the classes dry and
boring and eventually discourage the learners. The point is not to give up
fact-based sessions completely, but whenever possible, such an approach should
be integrated with other work. A skilful, creative teacher should have a range
of tasks which can enliven the classes. Simulations, discussions, debates or
project work are the techniques which can easily be used with the topic-based
approach. Learning
activities which focus on active rather than passive learning are best. When
students are deeply involved in the process of acquiring information, they
enjoy learning and consequently memorise the material better. Problem-solving
and task-based teaching, easily applied in the topic-based approach, will give
learners an opportunity to discover various aspects of the target culture for
themselves and build up their motivation to enquire more about them outside the
classroom. Topic-based approach in an American culture class
Context
The classes
which are discussed in the diploma were conducted with a group of third-year
students in Zamość Teacher Training College as a part of their American Culture
course. The course comprises 60 contact hours and ends with a final examination
which is taken in June. Some of the questions at the exam refer to racial
issues, and therefore four teaching hours are usually devoted to the topic. The
project, however, lasted for three weeks and comprised six teaching hours but
some of the time was spent on methodology of teaching culture. Opening class
The first activity, which
was employed to introduce the topic of the class, was brainstorming. The
students were given two pictures of two families in their kitchens. One of them
showed a black mother with two poorly clad children in a tiny room where
cardboard replaced glass in the window, and the only convenience was a
dilapidating cooker. The other one depicted a well-dressed white family in a
spacious modern kitchen. The father and son were watching the mother and
daughter preparing a meal and smudging their faces with flour. They were all
having a lot of fun and enjoying themselves. The pictures were put next to each
other and entitled “Neighbours?” The students were asked
to look at the pictures and mention all the possible aspects of life which
could be considered. At this stage, they were expected to do the task
individually without communicating with the other students and a time limit of
5 minutes was imposed on them. The lists they came up with varied in layout and
length and included issues such as education, employment, family patterns,
housing, social stereotypes, social care, health care, cuisine, sexism,
politics, racial discrimination or ways of spending free time. Next,
the students were informed that they were going to take part in a debate and
they would receive slips of paper with the description of the context: “You
live in Glen Park, a quiet white neighbourhood in the suburbs. The community is
well organised and the citizens meet regularly to discuss current issues and
problems arising in the neighbourhood. You have found out that two black
families are going to move into the area and you are afraid that it might
decrease the value of your properties and threaten your way of life. At one of
the meetings, a few members of the community suggest a collective offer on
behalf of all the citizens to buy the property of the black families (but to
their profit). It has been decided that before voting takes place, each of you
will gather information on issues referring to black minority. During the
debate you will share your findings with the others and try to answer the
question why a black family would want to move into a white neighbourhood. You
will also need to decide if the two families might be a potential threat to
your community.” Once the students were
aware of the task, they were asked to come up with the list of issues they
found relevant. This was done in two steps. Firstly, the class was divided into
two groups and each group prepared its own list choosing from the issues they
had already suggested in the brainstorming stage. Then the two groups worked
together negotiating the issues which would make up one common list for the
whole class. The final list contains the following issues and the problems the
students considered worth investigating. Topic:
Neighbours crime - drug trafficking, exposure to danger,
juvenile crime, crime rate,
drunkenness employment - rate of unemployment, pay, promotion, insurance,
“black and white jobs” education
- drop-out rate, unequal chances, achievements, higher
education family pattern - single mothers, taking care of children, family violence,
working mothers social
attitudes - striking contrasts, hostility,
social gap, stereotypes, isolation religion
- moral values, religious
freedom politics
- voting, civil rights, discrimination,
political awareness Finally the students needed to decide which issue each of
them would like to focus on, and since there were fourteen students in the
class and their list comprises seven items, they needed to find a partner and
concentrate on one issue together. Their
home assignment was to gather information on the chosen aspect of the problem
and prepare a ten-minute speech, and all the students were expected to take
active part in the meeting. Apart from presenting the findings of their
research, they were asked to indicate where they stood on the idea of buying
the houses from the black neighbours to be. They were encouraged to look for
materials from a variety of sources. Main class
At the beginning of the
class, the teacher recalled the context of the debate. The students were
reminded that they gathered at the meeting of Glen Park community to decide
whether they should try to buy the properties of the black families which were
going to move into their neighbourhood. First they needed to analyse the
problem and try to answer the question whether the black families were likely
to constitute a threat to their community and if the community had sound
reasons to be afraid to accept them as their neighbours. The questions were put
on the blackboard.
The chair was chosen in order
to control the proceedings and watch the time. S/he was to remind the
participants why they had gathered by reading the questions from the
blackboard. The participants agreed on the order in which they were going to
deliver their speeches and present their points of view. Each pair was allowed
to take the floor for up to ten minutes, including the presentation of their
attitude towards the problem. The presentations went
fairly smoothly, and in most of the cases, one of the partners from each pair
discussed the findings of their research while the other expressed their
attitude toward the problem. When all the speakers had delivered their
speeches, the chairperson asked the participants to take a vote and decide
whether the community should make an offer to the black families to buy their
properties. The results of the voting and the ideas presented in the debate
revealed that members of the community had come to the conclusion that although
there were some reasons to expect problems, they would try to accept their new
neighbours. At the end of the class,
the teacher asked the students to compile the materials they had gathered in
files which could be used as a source of information helpful in getting
prepared for their final exam as well as the licencjat exam. They were informed that since the files would be
kept in the college library and would be available for all the students
interested, they needed to be accompanied by the list of contents and
bibliography. Closing class
The last class devoted to
the project started with collecting the files and making sure the materials had
been compiled in the right way. The students shared their experience on how and
where they had gathered information and exchanged useful Internet addresses The next step started
with the teacher’s introduction of the idea of the topic-based approach to
teaching culture, and then the article “A topic based-based approach to British
studies” by Alan McLean was distributed. When the students got acquainted with
the content of the article, a discussion was held, during which they presented
their views. The discussion was
followed by the task whose aim was to make sure the students knew how to use
this approach in their teaching practice. They were asked to make pairs and
design their own topics and activities which could be employed in primary or
secondary school classes. After ten minutes the topics were analysed by the
whole group of students. Finally, a questionnaire was distributed in
order to find out about their opinions on the American culture classes during
which the topic-based approach was applied (Appendix 5). The results of the
questionnaire are referred to in the next chapter. Conclusions and further applications
The
sequence of culture classes during which the topic-based approach was applied
revealed that the approach involves both advantages and some drawbacks. Let us
concentrate on the advantages first. Thanks to the topic-based approach the
students could see the problem of racial minorities as a complex issue
involving all walks of social and political life. In order to get a
comprehensive picture of the issue they looked at it from many angles, and
gathered different kinds of information. Since the students were allowed to
relate to the aspects of the problem they found interesting or relevant they
were engaged in the tasks personally. By personalising the activities and
content students were lead to better cultural understanding and deeper
involvement in the learning process.
As the
students were exposed to some photographs they needed to concentrate on
particular features. Asking them to ‘notice’ something specific gave a focus to
the material by making it into a task, rather than simply passive looking. The
teacher used some photographs in the project, but other materials such as video
clips, films, literature, CDs, songs or newspaper articles could be presented.
In fact, by using a combination of visual and audio materials, the teacher is
more likely to succeed in addressing different learning styles of the
students. One of the possible ways of conducting culture classes
using the topic-based approach is to lead a discussion. However, in many cases
a lively discussion is an unlikely scenario. In the classes discussed above,
the teacher decided to get the students involved in a debate, and the activity
with simple instructions and such a clear goal turned out to be more successful
by making the learning process more enjoyable and by engaging the students in
the task personally. Additionally, the fact that the students had to deliver a
speech in front of the group and keep within a certain time limit gave them
good practice in public speaking, and as the results of the survey show, they
find such a skill for teachers-to-be very useful. Before the students took part in the debate they needed
to do some research. Students’ opinions presented in the questionnaire showed
that the research turned out to be a very powerful tool. The students found it
stimulating, enjoyable and challenging. They searched the Internet and
libraries looking for information which gave them a good practice in getting
the original materials from various sources and in sifting useful and reliable
pieces of information from the worthless ones. The students shared the findings
of their research with the whole group, but they also felt the need to compile
the materials into fact files which can be consulted when preparing for the licencjat exam. As the results of the
questionnaire showed, for some students, the research led to a long-term
interest in the issue and the target culture. Another aspect of the culture classes using the
topic-based approach which the students found advantageous was the fact that
the classes provided them not only with knowledge, but also with the
methodology and tasks which can be used in their teaching practice and future
work in primary and secondary schools. Some of them can serve as models, but
others motivate them to design their own tasks. Apart from the advantages of the topic-based approach
applied in the discussed classes and positive feedback on the part of the
class, some drawbacks can be observed. The biggest problem turned out to be
time, both for the teacher and the students. Doing the research, looking for
relevant information and compiling it into fact files turned out to be
extremely time-consuming. Therefore the students should have been given more
than a week to collect the materials. Moreover, since the college library is
rather poorly equipped, they had problems with the access to recently published
books and most of the information they gathered comes from the Internet. Although the presentation phase went fairly smoothly, the
students found it frustrating that they had only ten minutes to share their
findings and opinions with the rest of the class. They appreciated the fact
that they needed to keep within the time limit, but it seems that ten minutes
was not enough. They devoted a lot of time looking for the materials and
organising them and therefore they were disappointed by the fact that so much
interesting information could not be included in the presentation because of
the time limit. On the other hand, if the students had been allowed to speak
for a longer period of time the class could have turned out to be too
monotonous and boring, and all the students in the group would not have had a
chance to speak during the same class.
The classes discussed in this project were conducted with
the third year college trainees who are concerned about their final exams and
gathering materials useful for getting prepared for these exams. However, in
other classes with different groups of learners in primary or secondary
schools, instead of the debate and compiling materials in fact files, other
tasks can be used. At a lower
level, learners may be asked to make up a ‘description’ of the families
depicted on the bases of the visual prompt. The description may include their
names, age, education, family background, profession, income or ambitions. With
the more advanced students, instead of conducting the debate and preparing fact
files the students may be asked to write an article or a letter to a newspaper
presenting their opinions. In primary and secondary schools, the teacher does not
have to make the entire class culture oriented, and the focus of the lesson may
be on some syntactic or grammatical features. Still, s/he has to draw the
learners’ attention to cultural elements and applying a topic-based approach
can be also very useful. In order to make college students go beyond a shallow
understanding of what they can see in a target culture and make them enquire
about the complexities of it, more factual knowledge is desirable. The teacher
cannot give up fact-based sessions completely, but whenever possible, such an
approach should be integrated with other work. The topic-based approach
provides the students with a complex view of the world and makes them realise
that what they are learning about is not only institutions and systems but real
people, their beliefs and problems The topic ‘Neighbours?’ is only an example
how the topic-based approach could be applied in a culture class with college
students. Bibliography
Byram, M. (Ed.). (1994). Culture and
language learning in higher education. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual
Matters Crowther, J. (Ed.).(1993). Oxford
advanced learner’s encyclopaedic dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press Galloway, D. (1985). Motivating
the difficult to teach. Addison-Wesley Publication Kramsch, C. (1991). Context and
culture in language teaching. Oxford: OUP Mc Lean, A. (1994). A topic-based
approach to British studies. ELT News, February Sapir, E. (1961). The status of
linguistics as a science. In D.G. Mandelbaum (Ed.), Culture, language, and personality. Berkley:
University of California Press Scarcella, R., & Oxford, R.
(1992). The tapestry of language learning: The individual in the communicative classroom. Boston:
Heinle & Heinle Seelye, H. (1993). Teaching
culture: Strategies for inter-cultural communication. Third ed. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook
Company. Appendix 1
What do you think the subject matter of your English classes
should be?
The number of surveyed students: 67
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