TASKS 3 & 4

MOMENT 3: TASK CYCLE

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
GRUPO 551036_8

ALVARO VELASQUEZ
CC 70557892

TUTOR
JOSE GREGORIO PRECIADO

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA

LICENCIATURA EN INGLES COMO LENGUA EXTRANJERA
MEDELLN, June 24th 2016

What is Culture and why should it be taught?

Culture is a big word that involves all the activities linked to human life. Over the past 50
years a large number of definitions have appeared but there is not a common definition that
satisfy everybody or they agreed about it. So probably this is the first obstacle for teachers
when thinking about teaching culture and probably the best thing to do about this subject is
to understand the holistic nature of culture and not only try to categorize culture in terms of
Arts, History, etc.
Anyway there are some definitions that maybe can give us a good idea to what is important
to consider at the time to implement culture in teaching languages. Brown (2007) define
culture as the ideas, customs, skills, arts, tools which characterize a given group of
people in a given period of time and Moran (2001) defines culture as the evolving life
of a group of persons, consisting of a shared set of practices associated with a shared set of
products, based upon a shared set of perspectives on the world, and set within specific
social contexts. The best way to
The link between foreign language learning and culture learning has been established by
the linguists and anthropologists a long time ago. So the importance of culture in language
learning is unquestionable because culture and language are glued to each other and there is
no way to understand and be proficient in a language without understand and grasp the
basics of that culture. Language expresses, embodies and symbolizes cultural reality
And while it may generally be accepted in the language-teaching community that culture is
an integral part of language instruction, there is little common ground on what, much less
how, we should teach it. Even with superior knowledge of the grammatical structure of a
language, and mastery of a large basic vocabulary, without cultural competence to give
relevant meaning and significance to otherwise "correct" utterances, communication does
not occur.
The question that remains and we really need to address as teachers now is how to teach
culture and which are the best way to do it.

Here are some of the main reasons that culture should to be taught along with the language
basic skills:
-

Students cannot truly master the language until they have also mastered the cultural

contexts in which the language occurs.

Language is an important part of our lives. It is a uniquely human gift which lets us
communicate. But language is much more than just a means of communication. It is

also an inseparable part of our culture.

Culture is a major and inseparable component of knowing a language, it is also one
of the most enjoyable aspects of acquiring a new language and keeping yourself

motivated.
The political, social and economic conditions of a country influence its vocabulary
and the shades of meaning of its words.

In that way we are not just supposed to be bilingual but bicultural and specially in this 21 st.
century when the world became digital, we have many ways and opportunities to get closer
to every culture on the planet and enriching our language learning for the best.
TEACHERS INTERVIEW
What are the cultural contents to be included in the English class?
1. CATALINA LVAREZ GMEZ (Virtual English Instructor at SENA)
As a teacher and as a student (because I am learning all the time, everyday) I think that
when we learn something new, we have to connect it to previous knowledge in our brain to
make it stronger and meaningful and cultural contents are the perfect way to take ours
students to this field of culture they already know, because they have their own culture,
but now its giving them the chance to discover new facts of culture around them and some
others people have, far away from them, in order to expand the students world vision, so
this is very important. They must learn, not only the visible features of culture, such as
customs, art, literature, but the invisible features as well (beliefs, values, and attitudes).
Keeping in mind that Culture is ahumanly created environment for all our thoughts and
actions (Tepperman et al1994).

2. LEON GALLEGO (English Instructor at SENA)

Music as a very fantastic cultural content to be included in the English class. Motivation is
an amazing sensation for me. I have no words to define it but I think it is when something
catches my attention. I mean, when I feel motivated for learning or doing whatever, I do not
need to make many efforts because learning just happens. Rebecca Oxford begins her
article on Language Learning Motivation: Expanding the Theoretical Framework (1994) by
explaining that motivation is considered by many to be a determining factor in success in
developing a second or foreign language. She also mentions that motivation is extremely
important for L2 learning, and that it is crucial to understand our students motivations. I
know that the topic is very important and mentioned; in fact, it is a common aspect
considered by other teachers who, as me, have been in classes where students show their
lack of interests. According to Camborne (1988) students do not motivate because they lose
their abilities to make decisions and they do not find purposes, values or uses about the
things they are taught, so they are depowered and with lack of responsibility. If students are
engaged, motivated and the events come from their interests, they will have less
opportunities to be depowered.
As a high school student I was scarcely interested in my English class; most of the time I
did what the teacher asked me to do, something that will give me a good grade; according
to Drnyeis (1994) this is an extrinsic motivation; when I later graduated I began to feel
interested in English through the music I used to listen to; for Drnyei (ibid) that is intrinsic
motivation. So after observations, I realized that as it was for me it could be important to
engage students in the English class through what they were interested in. Not only Drnyei
became important in my theoretical reflections, I also found that the conditions developed
by K. Short and C. Burke such curiosity, intentionality and sociability in one of their works
called Creating Curriculum (1991) and the four principles of engagement worked by
Cambourne (1988) were important for and the purpose I wanted to explore, I mean,
motivating through music as a very fantastic cultural content at the same time students
connect on what we do in the class.
Therefore, my beliefs, findings, wonderings, recommendations, readings and reflections are
presented in this article, which consists of a proposal to use some of the hip hop, electronic

and rock songs as a way to enhance students' motivation in the English class. These three
genres are considered the most important by the students according to surveys, informal
conversations and observations I have done.
I still have contradictory feelings about this process because it is difficult to realize what
students really feel, what they really want and how sincere they are, but as some other
teachers state, it is a good beginning and students learn something; and according to me
based on analysis and findings, students get engaged.
3. JAIME LUJN. (English, Math and Science Teacher at different schools in New York)
The most popular sport lets say sports have such impact in the culture of the different
countries that for example in USA where the baseball is perhaps the most popular sport,
many idioms have to do with this sport. Food is another cultural topic I consider is a very
important topic to be included in any language course. And the third cultural aspect that i
consider very important to be included is art, since being art by itself a way to communicate
it is necessarily a topic that is link to all the languages.
TASK 4
Powtoon Presentation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXbzR9bef2k

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abbaspour, E. (2012). How to Integrate Culture in Second Language Education?
Journal of Education and Practice. Recuperado el June de 2016
Thanasoulas, D. (2010). The Importance Of Teaching Culture In The Foreign
Language. Radical Pedagogy. Recuperado el June de 2016