issues in laguage teaching
- 1. Issues in language teaching Cultural awareness & learning styles
- 2. The article Towards intercultural communicative competence in ELT by Cem Alptekin
- 3. About the author Cem Alptekin, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at Bogaziçi University (Istanbul), publishes internationally in the areas of second language learning and teaching, neurolinguistics, and contrastive rhetoric. He also taught ESL in the United States, and EFL in Turkey and North Cyprus
- 4. The issue in a nutshell “ It is vital that our field move beyond its colour-blind vision imagining itself to be inherently filled with understanding and sensitivity toward diverse cultures and people.” (Ryuko Kubota, Tesol quarterly, Vol. 40, No.3, Sept. 2006)
- 5. Overview of the article The validity of the pedagogic model & it’s portrayal of a monolithic perception of native speaker’s language & culture.
- 6. The components of the model Grammatical competence Sociolinguistic competence Discourse competence Strategic competence
- 7. Sociolinguistic competence “ ..........refers to the culture-specific context embedding the norms, values, beliefs, and behaviour patterns of a culture.” “ Studies in contrastive rhetoric provide ample evidence for culture-specific thought patterns and organizational differences that lead to serious misunderstandings.” (p. 58)
- 8. Contrastive rhetoric the study of how a person’s first language and culture influence his or her writing in a second ...
- 9. Intercultural differences Germans – more direct, language pattern transference may sound rude or aggressive Americans – refusing requests, sympathy, regret, specific excuse Japanese – regret, vague excuse English – more inclined to apologize than speakers of Hebrew – William Littlewood, (Intercultural Differences in Ways of Communicating, p.p. 6&7)
- 10. Differences “ Learning styles focus on individuals, cultures focus on groups…..” Luciano Mariani, TESOL-Italy Conference-Rome 2004 “ I believe that getting to know who’s different helps us to feel the same.” Parent of a primary school child after using primary school portfolio developed in Piedmont “ For us, a dragon carries the idea of “danger”, but in China dragons bring good fortune.”
- 11. Learning Styles “ learning styles are the unique ways in which individual people perceive, interact with and respond to a learning experience.” Luciano Mariani Donald L. Tucker, Understanding learning styles and study strategies of Korean students in American Colleges and Universities. http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/22/a1/9f.pdf
- 12. Cultural Judgements “ 2 lovely Chinese students, 2 lovely Vietnamese students & 2 arrogant Korean students” ESL teacher
- 13. What he discovered That Koreans did not participate in classroom discussion & rarely took notes Studied in groups The word “no” seemed to have no real meaning Preferred oral exams rather than written Were not direct (P.4)
- 14. On the other hand…. Mariani discovered that Vietnamese students were quite verbal, responding to teachers in unison or in chorus. (Sullivan, 1996) Whilst Koreans showed a minor preference for kinaesthetic & tactile, Vietnamese showed a major preference. Koreans are very visual. (Park, 1997, Reid, 1987)
- 15. So it is possible…… That the perception of arrogance could stem from the cultural responses of the Korean students.
- 16. It may surprise you to know… “ The Inuits live in the northern part of North America and Siberia. They’re often called Eskimos, but they dislike this name and actually regard it as offensive.” Luciano Mariani (2004)
- 17. So who do we ask? “ So it becomes essential to get to know how cultures actually make meaning of the world. To do this, one obvious first step could be to ask the learners themselves.” Learning Styles Across Cultures – Luciano Mariani
- 18. Other articles http://www.learningpaths.org/papers/paperculturalstyles.htm - learning styles across cultures – Luciano Mariani http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/5/500003.pdf - Intercultural Differences in Ways of Communicating – William Littlewood.