To me, culture is the distinct and collective ideas, values, and
characteristics of a particular group in society. This can be broken down into
many categories that are typical of that particular culture, such as food,
religion, art, music, habits, etc. I believe that all cultures are also
followed by many assumptions or stereotypes that may or may not accurately reflect
the lifestyles and beliefs of the group. This is one of the more important
reasons that I think we should teach L2 culture; to get a better understanding
of the culture that is followed by a particular language which often times can
have its own given reputation before we have the chance to learn about it from
a legitimate source. Another reason why I believe we should teach L2 culture is
to better understand the language in general. More often than not, there are
words that cannot be translated from one language to another because they
specifically reflect a part of that culture that cannot be shared or properly
defined with another language. I think it’s important for children to learn
that the language that follows a culture is very important because it allows us
and others to express thoughts and ideas in ways that are unique to that group
of society. Therefore, the language and culture go hand-in-hand and both should
be taught equally in the classroom.
I think it’s possible to teach L2 culture in the
classroom setting – to a certain extent. There is a great deal of knowledge
about a culture that can be shared within a classroom environment that comes
from different sources such as textbooks, media portrayals, news reports, etc. However,
I feel that there is only so much that can be said about a culture and it would be much more beneficial to learn in that culture. Personally, being
immersed in the Spanish culture during my study abroad experience really
allowed me to see first-hand what true Spanish culture is and from that real
perspective I was able to form my own opinions about it. This same reflection
can be done after reading, for example a textbook article on a culture, but it
probably will not have the same effect on that person if they are not
experiencing the culture in real life. Cultural immersion seems to be a
long-lasting learning experience even after the individual has gone back home.
Will I forget what I learned about cultural aspects of Spain from a class
lecture? Yes, probably. But will I forget what I experienced while living in
Granada? Absolutely not. Not only is the experience unforgettable for most
people, it is much more interesting than watching a documentary on cultural
lifestyles. So, to answer this question, yes I believe that it is possible to
teach L2 culture in a classroom but personally I believe the real learning
happens on those cultures’ grounds. The classroom itself is really the only
limitation. Relating this back to the five C’s of language learning, it is
important to integrate Culture with Community, meaning that the learner needs
to get out of the classroom and into the real world to learn from experiences
and evaluate the different perspectives they may come across.
I agree with you that the classroom itself is the only limitation to teaching culture. It is very difficult to teach the target culture where the target culture does not exist. I do believe it is possible to introduce culture through the classroom, but immersion is the only real way to learn the culture of another country. I think that one of the closest things to immersion would be a vistit from a native speaker. This way students would hear first hand accounts and get to speak to someone who most likely has more knowledge than the teacher.
ReplyDeleteI like what you mentioned about your own study abroad experience: that you formed your own opinions. I think that that is what is really important about teaching students culture. I think that they need to form their own opinions on the culture before really hearing what the teachers opinions are. I think that our own culture and our own way of life and how we were brought up also affects how we individually perceive things.
ReplyDeleteI like how you mention that some words and phrases cannot be translated from one language to another. I think this idea is very difficult for many beginning language learners because you assume that there will be a direct translation for everything you want to say. I remember one of my Spanish teachers in high school saying on the first day of school, "Spanish is not translated English" and I've always really liked that he said that. At first I didn't really understand - shouldn't there be a Spanish word for every English word I want to use? Now, however, after many years of Spanish study, I understand that language is intertwined with culture and languages are not simply translations of each other.
ReplyDeleteYour point about how culture and language can be deeply linked really stuck with me. I think it is important to realize that what you said is true because some concepts or even concrete things that are deeply engrained in one culture do not translate or sometimes even exist in other cultures. I also like what Marie said (or rather her teacher) that "Spanish is not translated English." It is sometimes necessary to immerse in the target culture to gain a better understanding of it, and that means that sometimes certain other cultures are given the back seat.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely on this. Students can only listen to facts about a culture for so long before they begin to lose interest or not even process the information anymore. I know it's often impossible especially at the lower levels in middle school and high school to do study abroad programs to learn culture so it is a tricky subject - we want to bring as much culture as we can to our students but at the same time, we can only do so much. I think that while the teacher needs to do as much as possible to integrate the culture in the classroom, ultimately the students will only gain their cultural knowledge through immersion like you said
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