大学英语教学中学习者母语素质现状及培养策略

在外语教学中,对目的语国家的文化内容介绍已受到重视,但是母语文化的外语表达也不容忽视。文章从教材、课程设置、教师素质等方面对外语教学中母语文化的现状及成因做出分析,并就大学英语教育中如何提高学习者母语素质的问题提出了五点建议。     

The foreign language and intercultural competence teacher: the acquisition of a new professional identity

It has now become commonplace to state that foreign language learning should be viewed in an intercultural perspective. The main objective of foreign language education is no longer defined strictly in terms of the acquisition of communicative competence. Teachers are now required to teach intercultural communicative competence. The aim of the study reported on here was to investigate to what extent and in what way teachers' current professional profiles meet the specifications formulated in the theoretical literature regarding the ‘foreign language and intercultural competence teacher’. To answer this question, an international research design was developed, involving teachers from Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Mexico, Poland, Spain and Sweden. Our findings suggest that teachers' current foreign language‐and‐culture teaching profiles do not yet meet those of the envisaged ‘foreign language and intercultural competence teacher’, and that patterns in teacher thinking and teaching practice appear to exist within and across the participating countries.     

Are Turkish EFL pre-service teachers ready to manage intercultural challenges?

English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers, as the backbone of language teaching system, are expected to raise the awareness level of students’ intercultural communication competence by helping them relate their own culture to foreign cultures, empathise with foreign cultures’ perspectives and tolerate the ambiguities or differences. This study examines the relationship between certain personal factors such as age, gender, year of study, overseas experience and students’ preferences for Turkish movies over foreign ones and three predictors of intercultural communication competence namely, ambiguity tolerance, empathy and open-mindedness. The sample group of the study consisted of 145 prospective English teachers in the Educational Faculty of a state university in Turkey. The participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire consisting of two parts which investigated their background and perceived levels of ambiguity tolerance, open-mindedness and empathy in Turkish EFL context. The results indicated that half of pre-service EFL teachers had poor intercultural communication competence. In particular, males, the final-year students and those who had been abroad indicated higher levels of tolerance than their respective counterparts. Besides, age and students’ preferences for Turkish or foreign movies were not significant factors in any of the predictors of intercultural communication competence.     

Examining power through social relations in teachers’ discourse about intercultural education

This study examined power through social relations between entities in the implementation of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in an environment where English is spoken as a foreign language. The examination involved analysing the discourse of two foreign English teachers. Specifically, subject positioning of entities, made apparent through pronominal markers and shifts, as well as discourse meaning, were analysed to establish attributes and relations pertinent to the teaching and learning entities and context. The findings showed how teachers’ epistemologies can be made visible through the examination of discourse. Steven, a participant of this study, indicated that while he seemingly practised an inclusive approach, he was restricted by his teaching context, which appeared to be stricter, and his students’ language proficiency. The second teacher, Tamara, was more democratic in her pedagogical approach, seen through her students’ involvement. This signified a more open work environment as both teacher and student could make necessary adjustments to support the learning objectives. From this study, we could see how intercultural education is still perceived differently. This difference may be due to the parameters of the teachers. This study also showed how teachers’ discourse is a feasible site for the examination of power.     

Destabilisation and cultural literacy

There is a growing body of work on the field of what is now known as ‘cultural literacy’, but little has been written about its application, and even less on how to teach it in the context of higher education. This article discusses ‘destabilisation’ as an approach to teaching cultural literacy in higher education in the context of the global challenges that universities face today. It defines the characteristics of destabilisation and highlights its advantages in relation to other teaching approaches that have a similar focus on developing cultural competence in students. The article also situates ‘destabilisation’ as a pedagogical term within a spectrum of experiential learning methods and techniques that are focused on developing cultural competence.     

Critically engaging with cultural representations in foreign language textbooks

There is currently strong recognition within the field of intercultural language teaching of the need for language learners to develop the ability to actively interpret and critically reflect on cultural meanings and representations from a variety of perspectives. This article argues that cultural representations contained in language textbooks, though often problematic, can be used as a useful resource for helping learners develop their capacities for interpretation and critical reflection. The paper draws on data collected in an English language classroom in Japan to highlight some of the ways that language learners construct critical accounts of cultural content in a language textbook, highlighting not only the content of their accounts but also the discursive strategies they use to construct them. It therefore illustrates the potential for working with imperfect materials to develop intercultural competencies.     

Toward a Cultural Competence Measure for Social Work with Specific Populations

Abstract

The notion that cultural competence is crucial to sound social work practice is widely accepted in the profession. However, there exists a gap between the achievement of the goal of developing culturally competent practitioners through social work education and the ability to measure such competence. A second gap exists between education and the providing of culturally appropriate services in everyday practice. These gaps are likely due to (1) the broad terms used to define cultural competence, (2) the slow evolution of instrumentation to measure cultural competence, and (3) the lack of culture-specific training and measurement techniques. This paper assesses the need for further refinement of the concept and suggests a new approach for the development of instruments to measure it. The authors provide an overview of the construct of cultural competence, analyze the conceptual and empirical foundations of four well-known measures, and provide a rationale forthe development of culture-Specific instruments.     

Iranian EFL teachers’ beliefs and perspectives on incorporating culture in EFL classes

ABSTRACT

Researcher and teacher beliefs towards culture and teaching culture have changed over the last decade. Nowadays, the main objective of language teachers has shifted from teaching communicative competence to intercultural communicative competence. The purpose of this study was to investigate the beliefs and perspectives of a number of Iranian EFL teachers towards incorporating culture teaching into their classrooms. More specifically, the study strived to reveal what Iranian EFL teachers thought about the concept of culture, what cultural information they focused on in their classes, and what obstacles they believed should be removed in order to allocate more time to culture teaching in their classes. The non-random purposive sampling method was used to select the participants for this study. A total number of 10 Iranian EFL teachers with a PhD degree in Applied Linguistics participated in this study. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview and a closed-ended questionnaire based on a 5-point scale. The main finding of this study indicated that even though the Iranian EFL teachers favoured including cultural information in their classes, a number of obstacles prevented them from teaching culture in their English classes. Implications for further study have been provided in the article.     

Extending reading research with a focus on cultural understanding and research on intercultural communication: an empirical investigation in Argentina

The work presented here is an empirical study of how advanced learners of English as a foreign language in Argentina access and understand the culture-specific dimensions of literary narrative texts. It has three purposes. First, to extend research into reading in a foreign language to take account of the culture-specific content of texts. Second, to extend the focus of research on intercultural communication to include the analysis of reading processes. Finally, to introduce an approach to the analysis of the cultural dimension of the reading process using a new model of levels of cultural understanding. It is argued that cultural understanding goes beyond the quantification of prior knowledge or background knowledge in the form of idea units as evidence of the comprehension process. In this sense, the proposed model succeeds in portraying a more detailed picture of cultural understanding in this setting.     

Integrating language‐and‐culture teaching: an investigation of Spanish teachers' perceptions of the objectives of foreign language education

A recent shift has been noticeable in foreign language education theory. Previously, foreign languages were taught as a linguistic code. This then shifted to teaching that code against the sociocultural background of, primarily, one country in which the foreign language is spoken as a national language. More recently, teaching has reflected on language and culture in an integrated way with a view to preparing learners to use the foreign language in intercultural contact situations. Though in many countries national curricula for the teaching of foreign languages have been slow in the uptake of this shift in thinking, recent curricular guidelines tend to focus more explicitly on the sociocultural dimension of foreign language education, distinguishing between cognitive, attitudinal and behavioural objectives to be attained in the area of language‐and‐culture teaching. This change in focus in curricular guidelines entails a change in the expectations voiced towards foreign language teachers. Research on innovation in education has shown that teachers' perceptions of the innovation to a large extent determine the success of that innovation. This paper reports on an investigation among Spanish secondary school EFL teachers, focusing on the extent to which teachers support the new culture‐and‐language teaching objectives. Our findings suggest that teachers are willing to support the new objectives, but that they experience conflicts when having to prioritize language teaching and culture teaching objectives.     

Latvian Bilingual Education: Towards a new approach

During the transitional period from being part of the Soviet Union, with Russian as the official state language, to an independent state within the European Union, with special language policies supporting minority languages, Latvia has developed reasonable principles of bilingual education. Nevertheless, a lot of work still needs to be done to improve teaching methods, to develop effective programmes, and to assess the multifaceted process of language use at school, including sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic analysis of educational discourse and spontaneous bilingual communication. The quality of bilingual education depends upon different factors, which are subject to various influences. Some of these are not mentioned in the models being proposed by the government, such as the pedagogical relevance of a child-centered approach, the progression in language and cultural competence of participants, mixing/overlapping/avoidance strategies of language use, attitudes of families, children and teachers, etc. The challenge for teachers of both Latvian as a second and Russian as a first language is enormous. In the future, other bilingual situations will present themselves in Latvia as well. Because of this, Latvian society must consider their entire policy towards bilingualism in the educational system.     

Complexities of cultural difference in social care work in England

The ageing of the ethnic minority population in Britain has led to a more ethnically diverse older client group for social care services than has ever been the case. This article focuses on the issue of how social care staff in England experience working across differences of culture, ethnicity, religion, and language. First, the article critically discusses the concept of cultural competence. Then, it reports on the perspectives of social care staff on their attempts to work in a culturally competent way. Individual in-depth qualitative interviews were carried out with 39 social care practitioners, and thematically analysed. Themes related to professional competence, appropriate behaviour, and training needs. Some practitioners felt unable to perform to their accustomed skill level when working across diversity, which has implications for the quality of care provided and job satisfaction. Other practitioners were confident in working across diversity. The key difference between these practitioners was a degree of cultural reflexivity. Recommendations for training are provided.     

International and intercultural issues in English teaching textbooks: the case of Spain

The sociocultural content of foreign language textbooks has become a concern of scholars and practitioners owing to the fact that the traditional emphasis on purely linguistic issues has been expanded to embrace a language in context approach. This paper studies the English‐speaking communities that are described in English language teaching textbooks marketed in Spain. It examines to what extent an international and/or intercultural approach is a constituent element in their design.     

The Application of Communicative Approach in Adults Oral English Teaching

More and more adults are into learning English for travelling abroad so that enhancing adult's English language competence for getting information and communication is indispensable. The paper first analyses the current situation in adults oral English teaching, then discusses communicative approach, finally explores its application.     

论文学语言在大学英语教学中的意义

本文主要论述了英美文学与大学英语教学相结合的重要性,以及文学语言的渗透在教学中的实际意义。笔者认为采用英美文学与大学英语教学相结合的教学模式是我国英语教育改革的一项重要尝试,有助于提高学生的语言能力以及拓展综合素质,并在文中举例分析论证了这种教学模式的可行性。     

Are we ready for them? Overseas-qualified social workers' professional cultural transition

Developing sociocultural competence in a new country is essential for migrants practising social work within new and distinct cultures. An argument for interventions needed to support the cultural transitioning of a migrant social work workforce is made, informed by findings from a mixed methods study of the experiences of overseas-qualified social workers in New Zealand. One of the main findings relates to migrant social workers' professional adaptation to the new environment. We focus the discussion here on how the perceptions and practices regarding the cultural dimensions of the transition informed their adaptation. Although this is a highly contextual example of social work practice in a foreign setting, the dynamics have equivalents in many international contexts as migration of labour is common globally. We argue that a greater focus on the migrant workforce is required in debates on globalisation. The discussion of the findings will highlight the need for culturally informed interventions to enable an increasingly global workforce to successfully make a professional cultural transition.     

Effect of communication variables,affective variables,and teacher immediacy on willingness to communicate of foreign language learners

The current study examined the willingness to communicate (WTC) of language learners who were studying English as a foreign language in a Chinese college setting. Some 234 college students participated in the study. The objective of the current study was to test the proposed relationships among communication apprehension (CA), self-perceived communication competence (SPCC), integrativeness, attitudes toward the learning situation, motivation, instrumental orientation, teacher immediacy, and second language (L2) WTC. A quantitative research method using questionnaires was employed. A path model was proposed and tested to examine the relationships among variables. The results of the study supported MacIntyre et al.'s (1998) WTC model. Four proposed relationships in the original path model were not obtained. Another four new relationships between variables were supported by the data. The significance of the current study lies in its theoretical contribution to the WTC construct and its pedagogical implication in second language teaching and learning.     

Teaching Cultural Competence:

The need for inclusion of cultural competence material in Social Work curriculums is well established. There is a dramatic increase in cultural and ethnic diversity in American society. Commensurate with that increase is an alarming rise of racism on college campuses. Social Work programs are required to include cultural competence material and Social Work educators need down-to-earth and practical ideas for doing so. This paper describes five strategies for teaching cultural competence which have been successfully employed in Social Work practice classes. Evaluation results are reported.