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Identity and culture in teaching english as an international language: A possible model for a 'third place'

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This paper surveys the research methods and approaches used in the multidisciplinary field of applied language studies or language education over the last fourty years. Drawing on insights gained in psycho- and sociolinguistics, educational linguistics and linguistic anthropology with regard to language and culture, it is organized around five major questions that concern language educators. The first is: How is cultural meaning encoded in the linguistic sign? It discusses how the use of a symbolic system affects thought, how speakers of different languages think differently when speaking, and how speakers of different discourses (across language or in the same language) have different cultural worldviews. The second question is: How is cultural meaning expressed pragmatically through verbal action? It discusses the realization of speech acts across cultures, culturally-inflected conversation analysis, and the use of cultural frames. The third question is: How is culture co-constructed by participants in interaction? It discusses how applied linguistics has moved from a structuralist to a constructivist view of language and culture, from performance to performativity, and from a focus on culture to a focus on historicity and subjectivity. The fourth question is: How is research on language and culture affected by language technologies? The print culture of the book, the virtual culture of the Internet, the online culture of electronic exchanges all have their own ways of redrawing the boundaries of what may be said, written and done within a given discourse community. They are inextricably linked to issues of power and control. The last section explores the current methodological trends in the study of language and culture: the increased questioning and politicization of cultural reality, the increased interdisciplinary nature of research, the growing importance of reflexivity, and the noticeable convergence of intercultural communication studies and applied language studies in the study of language and culture.
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This paper discusses the choices made in a large scale textbook project concerning the cultural content of the new English course for Moroccan secondary schools. We look first at the different meanings of 'culture' in foreign language teaching; at the possible arguments for including a foreign cultural component in an English course designed for a national market in a non-anglophone country; and at the means of conveying this cultural component. The paper then suggests an idealized procedure for deciding on the cultural content of a course, and goes on to apply this pro- cedure to the Moroccan case, outlining the solutions adopted. In conclus- ion, it is suggested that what should really determine these choices is not the top-down strategy that has been presented, but rather the prevailing attitude towards the foreign culture among teachers of English. For in our opinion, it is teachers' attitudes to a language textbook that most of all determine its effectiveness and its useful life-span.1
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This chapter shows just how deeply affected English has already been through its unprecedented spread, and the unique function it has as the world language. It argues, however, that it would be premature to launch into a discussion of the teaching of this lingua franca before certain prerequisites have been met. The most important of these are a conceptualization of speakers of lingua franca English as language users in their own right, and the acknowledgment of the legitimacy of, and indeed the need for, a description of salient features of English as a lingua franca (ELF), alongside English as a native language (ENL). The presentation summarizes the empirical research into the lingua franca use of English, which has recently gathered considerable momentum. It sets this research in relation to other relevant work in descriptive linguistics, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics for language pedagogy. Finally, it discusses the implications of this historically unique situation for potential developments in the pedagogy of English teaching and outlines some research questions that must be addressed if advances in the teaching of English as a lingua franca are to have a secure theoretical and descriptive base.
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This paper offers an examination of classroom language learning from the perspectives of research and teaching. It addresses two questions: (1) What are the specific contributions of the classroom to the process of language development?; and (2) In what ways might the teacher exploit the social reality of the classroom as a resource for the teaching of language? The paper explores the classroom as a special social situation and identifies certain aspects of classroom language learning that seem to be neglected by current research. It offers also new directions for research and proposals for language teaching deduced from particular social and psychological characteristics of classroom life.
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 Kachru (1988) and Sridhar and Sridhar (1992) argue that the spread of English as a world language increases the types of context in which English is learnt today. The sociolinguistic realities of world Englishes learners today challenge the validity of some second-language acquisition theories. One of the theoretical limitations of existing second-language acquisition theories is the dependence upon the notion of integrativeness to explain success in second-language acquisition. In this paper, the notion of integrativeness is problematized from an empirical and theoretical perspective. The main findings are: (1) second-language acquisition theories that rely on any assumption of integrativeness should not be applied uncritically to sociolinguistic contexts where learners are acquiring a variety of world English today; (2) it seems that the concentric circle description of the sociolinguistic realities of world Englishes speakers needs to be adjusted.
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This study suggests that identity-formation is related to the social process of identity-assignation in the mother tongue context. The case studies of four English speakers are summarized in this study. The four English speakers, who were all born outside the mother tongue context, bend categories in various ways. This uncovers the ways in which mother tongue speakers situate other English users and how such social attitudes help shape the identities of those users. The findings support the contention that nativeness and nonnativeness among English users constitute non-elective socially constructed identities rather than linguistic categories.
Chapter
This chapter is concerned with the role English plays as a lingua franca in Europe used by Europeans as a means of communication among themselves and with others. This extension of the use of English and its de facto status as an auxiliary language for global communicative purposes rather than as a traditional foreign language is widely acknowledged and discussed. However, current ways of thinking about English and its learning and use have yet to take this radical change in the role of the language fully into account. If the European ideals of individual plurilingualism and societal multilingualism are to be realized, it is crucial to understand how English as a lingua franca (ELF) functions in complementary rather than competitive relation to other languages. Such an understanding will depend on the fulfillment of two interrelated conditions: a) a proper conceptualization of ELF as common property, essentially distinct from and independent of English as a native language; and b) an empirically-based description of the linguistic properties of actual ELF usage. Such conceptualization and description will be prerequisites for adequately responding to the changing demands and directions that European language policy and language education face at the beginning of the 21st century.
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Incl. bibl., glossary, index
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This article places the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language in its cultural contexts: the culture of the native speaker of English on the one hand and that of the learner on the other. The tension which arises when the two cultures come into contact is examined in both the social and the classroom contexts. It is assumed that an ethno-centric response to the tension makes learning more difficult and that the native-speaker teacher would do well to recognize the international status of English and to work from local varieties of English.
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In this paper, the author argues that when teaching English as an international language, educators should recognize the value of including topics that deal with the local culture, support the selection of a methodology that is appropriate to the local educational context, and recognize the strengths of bilingual teachers of English. Based on the results of a questionnaire given to Chilean teachers of English, the author maintains that in Chile there is growing support for such practices and attitudes. Nowadays many countries where English is a required subject are confronting similar questions regarding the use of the local culture in ELT.
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Teachers wanting to insert a ‘culture’ component into their language classrooms could be forgiven for being confused. On the one side, there exists a large body of EFL/ESL scholarship based in cultural anthropology which seeks to isolate the essences of various cultures and aid teachers in applying these insights in their work. The aim of much of this research has been an apparently benign attempt to sensitize teachers and students to cultural differences, and the possible misunderstandings they may cause. On the other hand, there has recently emerged a body of literature that is critical of much of this approach to teaching culture. Proponents of this critical perspective claim that much EFL cultural research has had the unfortunate result of misrepresenting foreign cultures by reinforcing popular stereotypes and constructing these cultures as monolithic, static ‘Others’, rather than as dynamic, fluid entities. Such representations are often considered by these critics to be politically‐motivated constructs that serve to ‘essentialize’ and ‘exoticize’ this ‘Other’. How, then, can teachers walk what is often a politically‐charged tightrope? What follows is an attempt to help teachers bring a balanced awareness of the role and usage of culture into the EFL classroom. Although the examples provided here are largely from Asia, the points made can extend to any culture.
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The ‘cultural background’ in language teaching has, for a number of reasons, recently moved to the foreground: there is renewed interest in subjects as varied as the politics of national language policy, sexism in EFL, and the ideology of textbooks and dictionaries. Broadly speaking, there has been a shift in emphasis in course design from a pre-occupation with form to an interest in content. This article describes the results of a survey designed to elicit the views of students on what language teaching should be about. It tests a number of hypotheses expressed by a variety of writers in previous articles in this journal: the importance or otherwise of 1 bilingual, bicultural teachers; 2 native-speaker models of English; 3 the cultural content of English lessons in a context where English is a foreign rather than a second language.1
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The relationship between language learning and cross-cultural awareness is of increasing interest, particularly in the wide European context. This paper considers some aspects of the relationship, and offers exercises to assist in defining the components of cultural awareness and the notion of the cultural group.
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