Foreign language teachers are often migrants. They have traveled and lived in other countries either to learn or to teach a language. In 2005, Domna Stanton characterized language teaching as a cosmopolitan act-"a complex encounter made in a sympathetic effort to see the world as [others] see it and, as a consequence, to denaturalize our own views" (p. 629). Do foreign language teachers 'denaturalize' their views of their native culture through their encounters with the other culture? Could it be that "engagement with the Other necessarily mean[s] an abnegation of the inherited culture" (Mani, 2007, p. 29)? This study investigated not only in how far foreign language teachers affiliate with more than one culture but also how this cultural identity affects their classroom practice. To what extent do foreign language instructors claim multiple cultural identities? What advantages and disadvantages do foreign language instructors experience in the classroom in respect to their cultural identities? To what extent do foreign language instructors feel their cultural identity is relevant in the classroom? Results showed that foreign language instructors engage with their cultural affiliations intellectually, by embracing but not embodying "the other" culture.
Instructors of German as a second language (L2), like instructors of any language, are frequently reminded of the critical role of vocabulary when it comes to the communicative abilities of their students. They observe how challenging it can be for a student to convey an intended message without knowledge of key words or expressions. Instructors may also notice how lack of vocabulary knowledge can impede communication to a much greater degree than lack of grammar knowledge does. Imagine, for example, that a German student wishes to say Die Uhr geht nicht [The clock isn't working]. Insufficient grammar knowledge might lead the learner to produce a sentence like Die Uhr ist nicht gehen with the incorrect assumption that present progressive exists in German in this way. Insufficient vocabulary knowledge, on the other hand, might lead the student to produce a sentence like Die Uhr arbeitet nicht [The clock isn't at work] (it was sick and had to stay home). As this example (see Barcroft, 2012, p. 2, for examples in other languages) illustrates, when it comes to different linguistic subsystems and successful communication, vocabulary almost always leads the way.When planning a lesson involving new vocabulary, instructors might ask themselves one or more of the following questions: How can I teach vocabulary effectively? Do I have to use vocabulary lists? Do I need to provide translations of the target words? How can I stay in the target language when I introduce vocabulary? What specific techniques can I use? In light of questions such as these, the goal of this article is to demonstrate how the input-based incremental (IBI) approach to vocabulary instruction (Barcroft, 2012) can be used to teach novel German vocabulary effectively within a larger program of meaning-oriented language instruction, including communicative language teaching (CLT), task-based instruction (TBI), and content-based instruction (CBI). More specifically, this article demonstrates how the IBI approach can be incorporated within a program of CBI that includes film as content. In this case, the film Barbara (Petzold, 2012) was selected because of its potential to acquaint students of German at the Intermediate Mid to High ACTFL proficiency level (approximately 4 th semester) with the sociopolitical reality of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) and how it affected personal relationships.
This research investigates how foreign language (FL) learners (learners of German) view culture instruction in their L1 (English) and whether, or to what extent, the use of their L1 enhances their understanding of the German language and culture(s). In German language classes, the ways native speakers (NSs) of German verbalize affection are often addressed early on when engaging students in conversations about their family, friends, or personal relationships. Using the example of lessons on the meaning and use of German expressions of affection and friendship at the introductory level, this study addresses three areas of inquiry: (a) how students perceive the use of the L1 and L2 in lessons pertaining to culture, (b) whether students prefer the L1 or the L2 when learning about culture in class, and (c) to what extent the use of the L1 affects students' understanding of culturally connoted expressions in German. Recent ResearchContemporary language teaching recognizes that "deep cultural knowledge and linguistic competence are equally necessary if one wishes to understand people and their communities" (MLA report, 2007, p. 2). Based on the assumption that FL learners "cannot truly master the language until they have also mastered the cultural contexts in which the language occurs" (National Standards, 1996, p. 3), Byram and Kramsch formulated one particular challenge that (German) FL teachers face in this context, namely "to teach not language and culture, but language as culture" (2008, p. 21). Therefore, the concept of intercultural competence (Byram, 1997;Kramsch, 1993;Schulz, 2007) has been fostered to aid FL students in understanding cultural connotations in the FL and in mediating between their native and other cultural contexts. Studies in second language acquisition (SLA) have not only investigated representations of FL culture(s) in the classroom (Harklau, 1999) but also examined the impact instruction has on altering students' preconceived cultural notions (Drewelow, 2013). In this context, Kubota coined the term essentialization to problematize how "the concept of cultural differences often presupposes the existence of essential, stable, and observable traits that can be found in one's own and the target culture, creating fixed, polarized differences between them" (Kubota, 2003, p. 21). Likewise, in 2009 Kramsch pointed to the limitations of purely dualistic cultural conceptions since FL learners are "by definition performers of a first language (L1) and first culture (C1) and are becoming also performers of an L2 and C2" (p. 233). Drawing on Bakthin's dialogic principle (1981) and Bhabha's concept of third space (1994), Kramsch introduced the idea of third culture: a "symbolic place" which does not "propose to eliminate these dichotomies" but allows FL learners to explore "the heteroglossia within each of the poles" (2009, p. 238).The symbiotic relationship between language and culture, in turn, suggests that the target culture ought to be taught in the target language and, moreover, that the use of a...
From early in their learning experience, foreign language (FL) learners at American universities explore socio-cultural connotations that, it is argued, are signified by FL words. Textbook authors and teachers follow an implicit canon of difference, a list of iconic words that over time-and without the benefit of empirical evidence-have come to represent essential differences in outlook between their native and the FL culture (Kubota, 2004). Despite the fast progression of the theory of teaching culture in FL learning (Kramsch, 2015; Risager, 2015), large empirical gaps remain. To date, there is little evidence that native speakers (NSs) of the FL perceive their cultural practices, including the cultural contexts in which language is used, homogenously enough to warrant their status as cultural traits. Using the example of expressions of affection, this exploratory study drew on qualitative and quantitative questionnaire data to investigate whether German NSs' (N=52) accounts of their own and of most fellow Germans' language behavior converged enough to derive a comprehensive and reliable cultural norm. Results indicated a lack of consensus among German NSs' self-reported views, eluding the assumption of a pertinent community-specific norm. Implications for FL teaching and learning, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.
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