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Pamela Arraras

Foreign Language Teaching Wiki - Culture - 1 views

  • The main exposure students had to the culture of the target language was through controlled interaction with native speakers in the classroom.
  • Language & culture are more naturally integrated in this approach. Culture instruction is connected to grammar instruction. Its main goal is to teach students how to use the target language when communicating in a cultural context
  • the following are other common approaches to teaching culture: (from Omaggio) The Frankenstein Approach: A taco from here, a flamenco dancer from there, a gaucho from here, a bullfight from there. The 4-F Approach: Folk dances, festivals, fairs and food. The Tour Guide Approach: The identification of monuments, rivers and cities. The "By-the-Way" Approach: Sporadic lectures or bits of behavior selected indiscriminately to emphasize sharp differences.
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  • focusing a little more on similarities, instead of the differences, between cultures
  • Latorre believes that focusing on differences instead of on the similarities contributes to people misunderstanding other cultures, often thinking that the foreign cultures are "exotic," perhaps more exotic than they actually are. What Latorre suggests that any teacher of any foreign language should do is focus on the “true differential, the language [itself], rather than enlarging beyond proportion attitudes and activities which are either regional, outdated, or downright non-existent” (672).
  • one of the most important factors for success in learning a foreign language is the need for students to get involved in the learning process. The use of materials based on internet technologies offers many innovative ways of getting students involved in the process of learning a language. Students can get to know the target culture by means of interacting directly with native speakers via on-line communication, with mail exchanges or chatrooms.
  • From her point of view, it is crucial that the students can learn not only the language but also the diversity of the target culture. That is why, according to her, internet resources, such as newspapers and magazines, have a great importance, since they provide students with authentic and current information that can help them understand the target culture. Reading on-line newspapers makes students aware of current social phenomena.
  • According to Lee, recent studies have proved that internet resources can help students improve their language skills in a similar way to full immersion or study abroad, although are based basically on written communication. Besides, this use of on-line resources are more beneficial to students at the advanced level because they require a high level of language proficiency to read, comprehend, and respond to cultural readings, for example, newspapers.
  • The most important part of Stern's research involves his 3-level framework of foreign culture pedagogy: teaching social sciences, applying theory/research, and their practical applications in the classroom. In the 1990s, Stern's cultural/communication mix evolved from describing sociocultural contexts of second language/foreign language to contexts of competence in second culture acquisition (not just language acquisition). This is the first time that cultural pedagogy and social sciences had been paired.
  • In H.H. Stern's breakthrough 1983 study "Fundamental concepts of language Teaching," there are concepts of day-to-day culture and customs that should be used in the classroom. Stern uses a four component model including a 'cultural syllabus' for culture teaching.
  • Foreign language (FL) teachers should make culture more of a central role in the class FL teachers should throw out teaching culture in terms of isolated facts FL teachers should have an awareness of the past on the present within any culture without focusing too much on the past FL teachers should be aware of cognitive and affective influences on the students FL teachers should engage students as active participants FL teachers should teach culture in such a way that students can be cross-cultural here and abroad Given that the teacher’s assumptions about how language and lang learning affect how he or she teaches lang and culture, the approach should aim for communicative competence (that is, real communication)
  • Tang discussed the use of performance-based theory developed by Walker (2000) who suggests that culture could be better taught if done through simulated social interactions in the classroom, for example hosting a guest or accepting a gift. This serves to create a “default memory” within the student's mind that will help him perform in the target culture without drawing conclusions or using as a reference his own base culture which could lead to misunderstandings.
  • Tang also discourages the pure instruction of behavioral culture in the classroom and says that to perform effectively in a target culture one must not only be able to master it linguistically, be familiar with its artifacts, norms and rituals but also with the meaning system, or the hidden significance underlying these. This is why she believes that Walker's performance-based theory can only work properly if the true meaning system underlying the simulated situations and interations created in the classroom are internalized by the students.
  • the Three P's, into three separate categories: cultural perspectives, cultural products, and cultural practices. Cultural perspectives are the values, beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions shared within a culture. Cultural products are things such as literature, music, art, or even utensils such as chopsticks; tangible items that are linked to a certain culture. Cultural practices are the acceptable behavioral patterns, forms of discourse, and rites of passage within a specific culture.
  • the goals are that students "demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied," which means that we should encourage the students to understand why other cultures do what they do and what the members of that culture think about the reasons behind what they do. In addition, the students should come to an understanding of "the relationship between the products and perspectives of the culture studied." This means that we should enlighten the students on what members of other cultures do and what these peoples' own opinions are about what they do. Moreover, culture should be starting point for all classroom education. In keeping with the 5 C's, culture is used to make comparisons and connections about communities and in doing so students can have meaningful communication within those communties.
  • According to Omaggio: Culture is complex and elusive and is difficult to include in linear instructional formats. Culture requires time that many teachers feel that do not have. Teachers avoid culture because of their own perceived lack of knowledge. Culture often requires both teacher and learner to move beyond their level of comfort when confronted with deeper, sometimes controversial issues. When teaching languages that are spoken in many different countries, e.g., Spanish, where are the cultural boundaries? Balancing Big C with Little C.
  • Strategies, techniques, and tools for teaching culture in the classroom
Joel Josephson

Folk Songs of Europe http://folkdc.eu/ - 4 views

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    Folk music in many European languages http://folkdc.eu/ The Digital Children's Folksongs for Language and Cultural Learning (Folk DC) project is a European Union project designed to motivate young language learners to engage with language learning through using Folk songs, and activities around the songs. The songs are in 10 European languages (Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Turkish). The project will be producing a complete package for schools (Autonomous Teacher Training Tool kit - ATTT) so that schools all over Europe can take part in the project. The project culminates in a simultaneous, live concert in 5 countries, streamed over the Internet to audiences all over Europe. School choirs will sing folk songs in non-native languages that will be streamed to the other concert venues and also made available to an Internet audience. Schools can take part in this project by: Using the resources produced by the project Suggesting your own language, culture and music activities, inspired by the project Watching the live concert (at the venue or online) - see how you can join Adding folk songs of your language - see the project Wiki You can ask more information about how you can take part here. The project will introduce an understanding of the number, richness and culture of other languages when children start to learn a foreign language and begin to understand the meaning of additional languages. It will engage children in fascinating and engaging activities that will resonate in to the future and answer the need for materials that can directly engage and motivate children to enjoy their learning.
Claude Almansi

World Digital Library - 0 views

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    The World Digital Library will make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and to contribute to scholarly research.
Martin Burrett

Mandarin Tools - 4 views

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    I've been using this site for almost 10 years. It's not sophisticated, but it has a vast collect of Mandarin and Chinese cultural resource. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+&+Chinese+culture
Sian Button

German Language Learning Resources Online - Vistawide - 0 views

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    German Culture Resources - Websites on German Language & Culture
Fiona Joyce

LangMedia: Resources for World Languages - Five College Center for the Study of World L... - 7 views

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    Cultural and language resources for MANY different languages. Includes videos on many areas of daily life from many different countries.
Barbara Lindsey

NEA: World Languages - 0 views

  • "The fact that our students study a language from grade one not only teaches them how to learn languages, it gives them the mindset that languages are just as important as any other subject," says Janet Eklund, now in her 20th year at Glastonbury, where she's one of two Russian teachers.
  • "All along, we're working to make them not just language proficient, but culturally aware," says Oleksak. "We always remind them that they have to learn more than just the words to relate to people from other cultures."
  • "There's a Chinese saying, that if three people pass by, one of them is your teacher. We learn from just about every experience we have," says Wang. "Then we make sense of it through our language."   
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  • Asia Society's Shuhan Wang cautions against a "language of the month" approach for districts working to build their language programs. It's more important, she says, to build on community resources and to do what you can to make language learning real-world and relevant to them.
  • Presidential candidate Barack Obama hit on some deep-seated anxiety when he remarked in July that we should emphasize foreign language learning from an early age.
  • "The U.S. will become less competitive in the global economy because of a shortage of strong foreign language and international studies programs at the elementary, high school, and college levels," the Committee for Economic Development stated plainly in a 2006 report. "Our diplomatic efforts often have been hampered by a lack of cultural awareness," the report went on to say. The world is becoming so interrelated, if we don't teach our young other languages and cultural values, says Wang, "We are denying them access to the new world. It is just plain and simple. If we continue to view language learning as for the elite, for the "smart ones," or for the family who can afford to pay for it, we are really widening the gap."
  • What does it say about America that we are the only industrialized nation that routinely graduates high school students who speak only one language? Frankly, it says that if you want to talk to us—to do business with us, negotiate peace with us, learn from or teach us, or even just pal around with us—you'd better speak English.
  • "The norm is still either no foreign language or two years in high school," says Marty Abbott, director of Education at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
  • Foreign language programs are often among the first things cut by urban school administrators desperately adding math and reading classes to raise test scores.
  • "It's time to reassess what 'basic skills' really means for the 21st century," says Asia Society's Wang.
  • Not only will students learn new vocabulary in the target language, but they get to work on the concepts they need to master for other classes, and yes, for high-stakes tests. That's how they do it in Glastonbury, says Oleksak: "We pre-teach, co-teach, and post-teach what's going on in the elementary classroom."
  • The kids reason out what you get when you add three butterflies plus four butterflies: Seven, yes, but really it's practice in Chinese and math, as well as a reminder that caterpillars turn into butterflies.
  • Right now, districts like Glastonbury—with an articulated, sequential program spanning grades 1–12, state-of-the-art language labs, and all the support an administration could give—are the exception.
Martin Burrett

French Teacher Net - 2 views

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    A vast French language resources site with links to useful sites, lesson plans, games and a great selection of PowerPoints to download. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Languages%2C+Culture+%26+International+Projects
Martin Burrett

Kids Chinese Podcast - 3 views

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    This is a superb site for finding downloadable podcast for kids to learn Mandarin. Not all the resources are free, but there are lots of really useful resource that are, including over a hundred audio files lessons and for learning pinyin. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture
Claude Almansi

Chansons françaises et francophones en cours de FLE / French through Songs an... - 3 views

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    "This multimedia site features streaming MP3s, annotated lyrics, articles and links. The recordings are of songs in the public domain plus artists' originals used with permission. The emphasis is on providing resources for students and teachers of French. The site is best viewed in Firefox or Safari. Its goals are: 1. To promote French and Francophone cultures 2. To encourage the use of songs in the classroom 3. To provide a resource bank that can grow over time"
Isabelle Jones

Primary Language Resource - 0 views

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    Resources for Primary-mostly French, word, acrobat or ppt files
Andrew Jeppesen

French resources - home - 1 views

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    This wiki is to enable my students of French and any others who might find some use, to download resources outside of lessons.
Martin Burrett

eTools for Language Teachers - French - 8 views

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    A nice blog for French and language teachers by http://twitter.com/sylviaduckworthwith enough good tips, ideas, links and resources to make any teacher say "Oui". http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Languages,+Culture+&+International+Projects
Martin Burrett

Whiteboard Date & Weather Display - French - 8 views

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    A useful whiteboard resource displaying the date and weather in French. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Languages,+Culture+&+International+Projects
Stéphane Métral

Espace apprendre - 7 views

  • L'Espace Apprendre de Canal Académie propose de développer ses connaissances de la langue et de la culture françaises. Chaque fiche propose des extraits d'émissions de Canal Académie, accompagnés d'un parcours pédagogique.
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    L'Espace Apprendre de Canal Académie propose de développer ses connaissances de la langue et de la culture françaises.Chaque fiche propose des extraits d'émissions de Canal Académie, accompagnés d'un parcours pédagogique.
Isabelle Jones

Super French Web Sites - 1 views

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    huge site with lots of links grammar quizzes dictionaries games culture lesson plans promotion french links
Stéphane Métral

What are your favourite tools to teach or learn languages ? - 289 views

Bonjour, I teach French to foreigners recently arrived in Geneva. We have 2 Mac in class in a computer room with a PC for each student I use a blog to make my students write and t...

languages teaching tools

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