Integrated Culture in Language Teaching

Abstract

For years, scholars have searched remedies to the inadequate treatment of the role of Culture in Foreign Language Education. On one hand, course book and syllabus designers treated language and culture tasks separately. Some go as far as to place culture at the “core” of language instruction, whereby the ultimate goal is cultural awareness and intercultural communication competence (Tran-Hoang, 2010). On the other hand, ESL research argues that focusing primarily on culture in language classrooms runs the risk of undermining the last 40 years of SLA research. The 2017 National Curriculum Revisions in Japan labelled Communication Competence as one essential life skill. Curriculum is challenged and “interaction” has become the key element in language and communication (Kubota, 2019). Although recent trends show that scholars and educators have come to embrace the natural interdependence of language and culture (Ennis, M, 2015), culture teaching has left much to be desired. An extensive review of literature reveals related problems include instructors’ negative attitudes, ineffective instruction and absence of academic support for teaching culture. This presentation suggests an interdisciplinary approach to the teaching of Communications that help create a powerful learning experience emphasizing integrative learning and heightened student engagement. The goal is to show that by carefully selecting culture content and tasks, and maximizing student engagement through classroom interaction, culture learning can be fully integrated into communication classes. This careful integration exemplifies the case “inside a white box there are two black boxes wanting to come out."



Author Information
Cecilia B-Ikeguchi, Tsukuba Gakuin University, Japan

Paper Information
Conference: IICE2022
Stream: Challenging & Preserving: Culture

This paper is part of the IICE2022 Conference Proceedings (View)
Full Paper
View / Download the full paper in a new tab/window


To cite this article:
B-Ikeguchi C. (2022) Integrated Culture in Language Teaching ISSN: 2189-1036 – The IAFOR International Conference on Education – Hawaii 2022 Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-1036.2022.4
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-1036.2022.4


Comments & Feedback

Place a comment using your LinkedIn profile

Comments

Share on activity feed

Powered by WP LinkPress

Share this Research

Posted by James Alexander Gordon