Investigating Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Teaching: A Book for TeachersThis book was inspired by a major research project investigating the widely-held assumption that foreign language teaching makes a positive and influential contribution to learners' views of the people and culture whose language they are being taught. The authors explain the significance of their research to teachers and suggest how some of the material gathered during the project might be used in their daily practice to investigate and reflect upon their own pupils' views of foreign peoples and cultures. For those who wish to follow the full scientific report of the research, cross-references are provided to the companion volume, Cultural Studies and Language Learning. After an introductory chapter on the significance and role of culture as part of foreign language learning, the second chapter provides an overview of the research and the methods chosen to investigate a most complex phenomenon. These and later chapters include suggestions for further reading and references to the companion volume. Subsequent chapters are focused on specific aspects of the research data which will help teachers to consider their own practice. Suggestions are made for using extracts from interviews with pupils in the research project to elicit and refine learners' understanding of a foreign and their own culture or way of life. There are two chapters dealing with the specific influence of teacher and textbook and explaining how the cultural content of the latter can be analysed. A further chapter describes an experiment in using the school trip to the foreign country to reduce the superficial tourist character of such visits and make pupils more aware of the way foreign people live their daily lives. The final chapter suggests how a more deliberate and rigorous approach to cultural studies will make foreign language teaching a truly educational experience. |
Contents
Defining the Topic and Developing | 1 |
Pupils Perceptions of Other Cultures | 16 |
Empirical Investigations in Cultural Studies 20 2 2 2 2 2 2 | 20 |
Copyright | |
11 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
analysis approach artefacts asked attitudes behaviour Boulogne café cause Channel Tunnel Chapter classroom Clevedon communicative language teaching course cultural information cultural studies culture teaching described discussion emphasis English ethnographic evident example experience of France factors foreign country foreign culture French family French food French language French lessons French set frogs geography geography of France German girls heard holiday influence intercultural competence interesting James Bond kind knowledge language and culture language for touring language learning learners learning French legs levels of ethnocentricity linguistic look mean meat nice observation perceptions primary pupils pupil interviews question regions of France relationship school visits secondary pupils secondary school significant snails sort speak French specific stereotypes structure style talk teachers television tell textbook texts things TICK topics tourist typical French meal understanding viewpoint visit to France