Goals for Cultural Instruction, and Selecting Topics in Cultural Instruction
My study examines Arabic teachers’ positions on what culture is, what goals they should set for the instruction of culture, and what the role of language is in the language classroom. Responses indicated the firm and unanimous belief that cultural instruction is as important as language instruction. The participants are well aware of the importance of culture in the language classroom. The majority of the survey participants regarded culture as a language skill, which is in agreement with Kramsch (1993), who claims that culture should be treated as a fifth language skill and emphasizes that language and culture are intertwined (p.1). My study suggests more support among teachers of Arabic, of the position that culture should be on equal footing alongside the other four language skills and should be regarded as an independent language skill, and much less support to the view of culture as only a supplementary element to support the other four language skills and grammar.
Another significant finding is that culture and language are inseparable, therefore cultural instruction should be an integral part of language teaching. This finding resonates with views like those of Seelye (1993), Byram (1997), Brown (2007) and others, advocating the integration of culture into a language curriculum and supporting the teaching of language and culture in an integrated way since culture is a part of language, just as language is a part of culture. This opinion is also well reflected in the results of other survey questions. For instance, there is a question on the allocation of instructional time to
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the teaching of culture in the first two years of instruction (Q24). More than 25% of the participants indicated that they are unable to calculate what percentage of their instructional time is devoted to culture teaching since they believe that culture teaching is an integrated part of language teaching, which means they teach culture whenever they teach language. Another example is the question on the reason(s) for not assessing cultural competence. Half of the teachers who do not assess culture learning indicated that culture is taught as an integrated part of language teaching in their classrooms, and therefore they do not test it separately. These two examples imply that the teachers’ beliefs on the teaching of culture and language in an integrated way have been reflected in their actual practices. However, these examples can also indicate that the teachers may not have consciously taught culture based on pre-prepared lesson plans or they may not have knowingly assessed culture learning, but simply used the rationale of teaching culture in an integrated way to justify their actual practices of not teaching and assessing culture.
As illustrated above, there are no significant differences among the native and non- native speaking teachers’ views on the relationship between the teaching of language and the teaching of culture. Unanimity on most of the issues of cultural instruction is one of the significant characteristics in the present study, with some minor differences among the participants in their beliefs and practices. The participants’ responses to the survey questions often leaned to one side, be they positive or negative. It may be because the survey uses a 4-point Likert scale, which does not accept a neutral opinion. Another possible reason may be that almost all the participants use the same textbooks (i.e., the al- Kitaab series), and may therefore be similarly influenced by the pedagogical philosophy of the textbooks. This tendency towards unanimity is also seen in the participants’ responses to the question on the definition of culture. All the participants indicated that three well-known cultural components, namely practices, products and perspectives, are
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important or very important in defining culture. There are no appreciable differences among these components in terms of their degrees of significance, but the teachers considered the perspectives component to be slightly more important compared to the other two cultural components. In the ACTFL Guidelines, “Standards for Foreign Language Learning for the 21st Century (2006)” and “World Readiness Standards for Learning Languages (2015),” perspectives are regarded as an important cultural component used as a standard to evaluate cultural competence. These guidelines suggest two standards of cultural competence focusing on the perspectives component: 1) Students understand the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the target culture; 2) Students understand the relationship between the products and perspectives of the target culture (2006, p.6; 2015, p.9). These guidelines emphasize developing the ability to relate the practices and products to perspectives by employing perspectives as the standard for comparison. It means that students should be able to explain how perspectives are reflected in the practices and products, and their language should reflect the relationship among these cultural components (2006, p.6).
In terms of the goals and objectives for the instruction of culture, one of the most prominent objectives selected by the participants is to develop both the learners’ understanding of the target culture and their understanding of their own individual cultures and identities. It means that the teaching of culture should focus not only on promoting students’ openness and tolerance towards other people and cultures, but also on developing a deeper understanding of their native cultures. This objective can be directly related to intercultural competence. Another important objective indicated by the participants is to promote the ability to cope with intercultural contact situations. Indeed, promoting intercultural competence is one of the most important goals of cultural instruction as seen in past research studies (e.g., Sercu, 2005; Xiaohui & Li, 2011; Gonen & Saglam, 2012).
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In particular, Sercu (2005) asserts that foreign language teachers coming from different backgrounds tend to regard cross-cultural awareness as one of the most important objectives of cultural instruction. The participants of the present study come from various backgrounds in terms of their fields of specialization, the types of dialects they speak and teach, and their lengths of teaching experiences, and these varying backgrounds may have contributed to their views on the importance of intercultural competence.
The ability to identify similarities and differences between the target culture and the students’ own cultures, was also indicated as an important objective for cultural instruction. In the ACTFL Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (2006), “Comparisons” is emphasized as a significant standard for the teaching of language and culture to “develop insight into the nature of language and culture” (p.4). Gonen and Saglem’s study (2012) explains the reason why the comparison of the two cultures should be an important cultural objective, indicating that students’ negative attitudes towards the target culture may cause some difficulties in teaching culture in a classroom because they “try to understand the target culture within the own framework of their native cultures” (p.29).
The decision on what aspects of culture should be taught has been one of the most difficult but important issues in teaching culture. On the question regarding the topics of culture learning (Q32), the participants considered various topics for first and second year courses, but placed heavier importance on the topics that are emphasized in the most widely used textbook, the al-Kitaab series, such as greetings, food and eating habits, and family structure. They also indicated that the relationship between Modern Standard Arabic and Colloquial Arabic is an important topic for first and second year students. This result is not consistent with the Lampe’s Culture Proficiency Guidelines for Arabic (2012), where Colloquial forms of verbal and non-verbal competence are mentioned only in the
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descriptions for advanced levels of cultural competence, and not in the descriptions for novice and intermediate levels of cultural competence. Even though it cannot be said that the participants in the present study represent the majority voice of Arabic teaching at U.S. universities, it is worth noting that the majority of the participants in this study (some 95%) regard cultural forms expressed in Colloquial Arabic as an important cultural topic that should be dealt with from the beginning of Arabic learning.
With regard to the choice of cultural topics, a few teachers mentioned that teachers should teach what they personally know, rather than pre-decide what to teach for cultural instruction. However, it seems that this view does not adequately consider students’ needs. According to Q27 in the survey, students’ needs and expectations are the most significant elements affecting the teachers’ decisions on what aspects of Arab culture to include. Contrary to some teachers’ expectations, students may want to learn cultural knowledge and behaviors in relation to the lessons they are studying. They may want to practice cultural words and expressions in similar context to what is presented in the lesson. Even though it is not necessary for teachers to stick to only cultural topics covered in the textbooks they use, this study suggests that teachers should at least have basic ideas of what cultural aspects should be included at each level of language proficiency, so that their cultural instruction would be more organized.
The spontaneity of teaching should be accepted in cultural instruction because it is difficult to teach culture in a linear and sequential way like grammar. However, it does not mean that culture can be taught without clear objectives and specific plans, rather it is necessary to decide what cultural aspects should be covered at least for first and second year courses, so that both organization and spontaneity can be balanced.
An interviewee mentioned that historical events and political and economic conditions should be taught in history and political science classes respectively, rather than
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in a language class. This is not a common position taken by the participants in this study, and in my opinion these topics can be discussed in a language classroom to a certain degree as long as they are relevant to class lessons. I do not think that language teachers will devote a considerable amount of time to discuss historical events and political and economic conditions unless they have a strong background in them or it is their personal preference to teach them. As these topics should be understood in the context of a language classroom, I think they can be discussed at a general level without much depth in first and second year language classrooms.
5.1.1.2. Teaching Culture: Allocation of Class Time for Cultural Instruction and Use