Cultural Immersion in the Foreign Language Classroom: Some Narrative Possibilities

Abstract

IN INTRODUCING THE LAST PERSPECTIVEScolumn on the role of foreign language (FL) departments in internationalizing the curriculum, I observed that claiming such a role was rather akin to asserting the obvious. This column, too, with its focus on Revisiting the Role of Culture in the FL Curriculum, seems at first sight to fall into the same category: affirming the tried and truenamely, that culture has an established place in FL curricular discussions. However, the title already and quite deliberately signals a certain distancing from any self-satisfied stance toward the topic, inasmuch as it probes the implied reconsideration of culture in FL curricula with at least two kinds of "why"s: a retrospective and causative query and a more prospective and purposive "why" that would illuminate the path forward with regard to the role of culture in FL programs.As is to be expected, the two go hand in hand. What might be less expected is how much innovative thinking has of late gone into a seemingly "checked-off" construct like culture in FL curricula and pedagogy. Indeed, might the proposed "revisiting" approximate a "revising," a typographical slip that I encountered in the very writing of this introduction? There is good reason to at least consider that possibility, precisely because the context of culture and the context of situation within which FL specialists in their particular professional culture now discuss the nature and the role of culture in their educational work has shifted dramatically in the last decade or so.We know that these two prominent terms were originally used by the anthropologist Malinowski (1935) as a way of capturing the fact that any understanding of words depends on and is em-bedded in the "active experience of those aspects of reality to which the words belong" (p. 58). Malinowski came to extend that notion of the significance of context to an entire culture, thereby yielding the two pivotal notions of context of situation and context of culture in a linguistically oriented anthropology. Considering the implications of such a position over 40 years later, Halliday (1999) interpreted Malinowski's as follows:language considered as a system-its lexical items and grammatical categories-is to be related to its context of culture; while instances of language in use-specific texts and their component parts-are to be related to their context of situation. (p. 4, original emphasis)

CH Stands for Cheese, Right? A Swiss Culture Class and the National Standards

“…The revised course also presents information about Swiss cultural practices through a range of non‐fiction readings and video clips, in keeping with Kearney's (2010, p. 334) claim that a broad conception of text is required in order to create “a classroom environment that resounds with cultural narratives.” Non‐fiction texts about obligatory military service and language use, children's books on Swiss themes such as Wilhelm Tell and Schellen‐Ursli, short video clips about artists and Victorinox from the Deutsche Welle program Euromaxx , news video clips and audio podcasts help to reinforce information in student presentations and provide learners with opportunities to hone their interpretive skills. Students are encouraged to draw connections between student reports, Swiss news, and the novella, to reinforce the cultural content and to provide context for the literature.…”

Evidence of Intercultural Communication Competence in Tenth Grader’s Narrative Texts

“…These texts may also depict the individual's feelings in relation to life issues and present viewpoints in a critical way (Webster & Mertova, 2007). The creation of narrative texts as extended writing projects (Kearney, 2010) in a culturally immersed classroom can require students to call upon a number of cultural aspects.…”

“…In this sense, participants were able to comprehend, analyze, and reflect upon cultural differences that could somehow shape their world vision. Similarly, once students managed to recognize the ICC skills needed to relate with others, creating narrative stories with cultural focus demanded that they inquire about cultural aspects, put themselves in the shoes of other people, and see the world with new lenses (Kearney, 2010). When writing narratives, individuals had to imagine the situations the characters were immersed in, and reflect upon the choices they had to make.…”

“…When writing narratives, individuals had to imagine the situations the characters were immersed in, and reflect upon the choices they had to make. By the same token, students not only became more critical regarding their contexts; they also could identify themselves within the stories (Kearney, 2010). Therefore, giving students the opportunity to express and tell their own stories is a way to recognize the value of what they have learnt in the classroom, taking advantage of their knowledge and understanding what they have experienced regarding culture and citizenship in their own lives.…”

Von interkultureller Literatur zu inter‐/transkulturellen und symbolischen Kompetenzen: Yoko Tawada im DaF‐Unterricht

“…u.a. Arens, ; Byram, ; Byrnes, ; Eppelsheimer , Frackman, ; Kearney, ; Kramsch, ; Kramsch & Gerhards, ), die in Europa im Zusammenhang mit dem Gemeinsamen Europäischen Referenzrahmen von 2001 auch geführt wird, verlangt einen einleitenden Verweis auf diese Debatte, eine kurze Stellungnahme dazu sowie Bestimmungen der Begriffe interkulturelle, transkulturelle und symbolische Kompetenzen wie sie in diesem Beitrag verwendet werden. Letzteres ist schon deshalb von besonderer Bedeutung, weil die Debatten um den MLA‐Report () und den Gemeinsamen Europäischen Referenzrahmen (2001) auch Debatten sind, die teilweise mit verschieden definierten bzw.…”