Admin
Admin
Posts : 358
Join date : 2009-09-23
Age : 49
Location : Changwon, Korea / Ottawa, Canada
 |  Subject: Sociocultural factors in language learning  Thu Sep 24, 2009 2:46 pm | |
| Reflect on how you incorporate culture into your own language teaching. Use these questions to write a journal entry.
- Think about the content of your lessons. How much of your classes are devoted to what you would consider language (structures, functions, vocabulary, skills)?
- How much of your classes are devoted to L2 culture specifically, or how culture is evident in language use?
- What do you feel is an appropriate mix of language and culture for your students? Why?
- What changes would you propose to your current lessons based on this reflection?
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Admin
Admin
Posts : 358
Join date : 2009-09-23
Age : 49
Location : Changwon, Korea / Ottawa, Canada
| | Subject: Culture in the classroom Thu Sep 24, 2009 4:17 pm | |
| How do you make your learners aware of cultural differences? Do you rely only on visible differences or do you dig deeper. Do you use the way people communicate – verbally or non-verbally - with each other to illustrate some important aspects of cultural differences between the learner’s L1 and his/her desired acquisition of the target language?
Over the years I have spent teaching, I have never consciously thought about culture and its role in defining and explaining language. That said when looking at my lesson plans and the ways I have conducted my classes I can comfortably say that I have been incorporating the target language’s culture into my lessons.
In a 40-minute class I roughly spend 15 minutes devoted to culture. For the first15 minutes of a class I introduce the goals of the day’s lesson and I exposed the learners to expressions or phrases that one can use or hear related with the lesson. Using scripts, videos, mini dialogues or comparisons I demonstrate when and how the expressions or phrases can be utilized.
I believe that a perfect mix of language and culture would be 40-60. I think that if learners understand the culture of the target language they are studying it will make it easier for them to understand why and how things are done. In addition, that 60% also includes the learner’s culture. What I have noticed with young learners is that they tend to absorb cultural points and retain those aspects a lot longer than language points. That is another reason I would spend more time looking at culture than language.
What can I do improve my classrooms and help my learners best? I need to not only introduce expressions or phrases through different mediums, but also explain their context culturally. I need to make a conscious effort to introduce culture to learners in order to help them understand the background of the language they are learning. | |
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