Aspects of Culture in Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Learning PDF
Preview Aspects of Culture in Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Learning
Second Language Learning and Teaching Series Editor Mirosław Pawlak For furthervolumes: http://www.springer.com/series/10129 About the Series The series brings together volumes dealing with different aspects of learning and teaching second and foreign languages. The titles included are both monographs and edited collections focusing on a variety of topics ranging from the processes underlying second language acquisition, through various aspects of language learningininstructedandnon-instructedsettings,todifferentfacetsoftheteaching process, including syllabus choice, materials design, classroom practices and evaluation. The publications reflect state-of-the-art developments in those areas, they adopt a wide range of theoretical perspectives and follow diverse research paradigms. The intended audience are all those who are interested in naturalistic andclassroomsecondlanguageacquisition,includingresearchers,methodologists, curriculum and materials designers, teachers and undergraduate and graduate students undertaking empirical investigations of how second languages are learnt and taught. Janusz Arabski Adam Wojtaszek • Editors Aspects of Culture in Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Learning 123 JanuszArabski Adam Wojtaszek Department of LanguageAcquisition Department of LanguageAcquisition Instituteof English Instituteof English Universityof Silesia Universityof Silesia Grota-Roweckiego 5 Grota-Roweckiego 5 41-205Sosnowiec 41-205Sosnowiec Poland Poland e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected] ISBN 978-3-642-20200-1 e-ISBN978-3-642-20201-8 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-20201-8 SpringerHeidelbergDordrechtLondonNewYork (cid:2)Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2011 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.Allrightsarereserved,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialis concerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation,broadcast- ing, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publicationorpartsthereofispermittedonlyundertheprovisionsoftheGermanCopyrightLawof September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer.ViolationsareliabletoprosecutionundertheGermanCopyrightLaw. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,etc.inthispublicationdoesnot imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Coverdesign:eStudioCalamar,Berlin/Figueres Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) Contents 1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Janusz Arabski and Adam Wojtaszek Part I Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence 2 Understanding Culture Through a Lingua Franca. . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Anna Niz_egorodcew 3 Sensitizing Foreign Language Learners to Cultural Diversity Through Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence. . . 21 Liliana Piasecka 4 Do We Need to Teach Culture and How Much Culture Do We Need?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Agnieszka Otwinowska-Kasztelanic 5 The Contribution of FL Learning Experiences to the Development of Multicultural Identity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Dagmara Gałajda 6 The Attitudes of English Teachers Towards Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Małgorzata Jedynak Part II Cultural Differences in Language Instruction 7 Cultural Differences in Perceptions of Form-Focused Instruction: The Case of Advanced Polish and Italian Learners . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Mirosław Pawlak v vi Contents 8 Multilingual/Multicultural Perspective on the Identification of Dyslexia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Joanna Nijakowska 9 Is Teaching Culture-Bound? A Cross-Cultural Study on the Beliefs of ELT Teachers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Cem Can, Hasan Bedir and Graz_yna Kilian´ska-Przybyło 10 Australian Experience of Culturally Diverse University Classrooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Beata Malczewska-Webb 11 Culture Through Literature in Foreign Language Teaching. . . . . 139 Ann Gillian Elgar Part III Culture-Related Concepts and Constructs 12 Time as Cultural Construct: Some Preliminary Remarks on the Conceptualization of Time in L1 and L2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Danuta Gabrys´-Barker 13 Getting Rid of the Modesty Stigma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Ewa Bogdanowska-Jakubowska 14 Language Distance Across Cultures as a Way of Expressing Politeness and Not Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Ireneusz Kida 15 Ethnic and Disciplinary Cultures and Understatement: Litotic Constructions in Polish and English Linguistics and Biology Research Articles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Andrzej Łyda and Krystyna Warchał 16 Ways of Expressing Birthday, Christmas and New Year’s and Easter Wishes in L2 and L3: Cross-Cultural Transfer and Interlanguage Pragmatics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Teresa Maria Włosowicz Contents vii Part IV Culture-Related Issues in Polish Education Context 17 Willingness to Communicate in L2 and Self-Perceived Levels of FL Skills in Polish Adolescents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel 18 The Ideal L2 Self and International Posture in the Polish Educational Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak and Agnieszka Pietrzykowska 19 Pragmatic Aspects of Culture in Foreign Language Learning . . . 263 Justyna Zie˛bka 20 Strangers in Paradise: The Role of Target Language Culture in Foreign Language Teaching Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 Marek Derenowski Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 Chapter 1 Introduction Janusz Arabski and Adam Wojtaszek In recent decades an interesting dichotomy has appeared in SLA/FLL research, revealing a division between those scholars who focus primarily on the psycho- linguistic aspects of the process of L2 development and those investigators who look at the process from a more external perspective, investigating the role of sociolinguistic and culture-related factors shaping the course and nature of L2 acquisition.Withintheformerparadigm,SLAresearchhasoftenbeenclassifiedas a branch of cognitive science, incorporating its theorems and methodologies, treating the process of L2 learning and acquisition as predominantly mental and cognitive phenomena, dependent to a large extent on learner’s individual psy- chological characteristics. Such a strong cognitive orientation has often been rejected recently by some scholars, while others were attempting to incorporate culture-related variables into the psycholinguistic paradigm, treating them as contributors to individual variation. The latter option is, arguably, not very well-founded, as explicated by Dash (2003): It is arguable that culture, at often times, is not so readily identifiable, or of priority significanceforthespecificimpactithasonthelearningprocessesofindividualstudents, bothintheoryandinpractice.Excessiveconsiderationofitasaseparateandsignificant factor can cause stereotyping and overly hinder the instructor from looking at each individualstudentinthebroadercontextoftraditionallywellacceptedandtestedmodels fromarangeofscholars(Gardneretal.1979;Schumann1986;Mangubhai2002). What might be a considerable problem for psycholinguistically-biased inves- tigators, however, does not have to constitute a major obstacle for those who opt J.Arabski(cid:2)A.Wojtaszek(&) DepartmentofLanguageAcquisition,UniversityofSilesia,InstituteofEnglish, Grota-Roweckiego5,41-205,Katowice,Poland e-mail:[email protected] J.Arabski e-mail:[email protected] J.ArabskiandA.Wojtaszek(eds.),AspectsofCultureinSecondLanguageAcquisition 1 andForeignLanguageLearning,SecondLanguageLearningandTeaching, DOI:10.1007/978-3-642-20201-8_1,(cid:2)Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2011 2 J.ArabskiandA.Wojtaszek for a more sociolinguistically-oriented approach. Undoubtedly, language learning isinfactasocial-psychologicalprocess,inwhichtheroleofawidersociocultural contextshouldnotbemarginalised.Moreover,theroleofEnglishaslinguafranca in contemporary world, the process of globalisation and increasing role of inter- cultural communication inevitably enforce the inclusion of such issues as impor- tantcontributorstotheprocessesofL2learningandacquisition.Withintercultural communicative competence now being the goal of much of foreign language learningandteachingthe questionsconcerningthe relationshipbetween language andculturehaveplacednewemphasisinresearchonsecondlanguageacquisition and foreign language learning, resulting in an increasing number of conferences and publications focusing on aspects of culture in SLA. The most prominent volumes published in the recent decade include Byram (2008),whichisacollectionofessaysbyarenownedexpertinthefield,presenting the evolution of the concept of intercultural competence (ICC), advocating the need of adopting an intercultural approach to language teaching in European schools, Byram et al. (2001), a collection of papers by different authors, focusing on development of intercultural competence in diverse settings and on different proficiency levels, Hall (2002), a self-contained monograph, written from the sociocultural perspective, discussing the theoretical underpinnings of contempo- rarythoughtonthenatureoflanguage-and-culturelearning,aswellasLange and Paige (2003), which is a collection of chapters written by American experts dis- cussing interdisciplinary perspectives on culture teaching and learning as well as integrating culture into second language curriculum. Additionally, a separate section devoted to the discussion of identity, culture and critical pedagogy in secondlanguageteachingandlearning,includingilluminatingchaptersbyThomas Riceto (Considerations of identity in L2 learning) as well as Michael Byram and AnweiFeng(Teachingandresearchinginterculturalcompetence) canbefoundin Hinkel (2005), which is a comprehensive overview of SLA research. The present volume constitutes, on the one hand, a certain supplement to the issuesdiscussedintheabove-mentionedworks,andontheotherhandasuggestion for some future developments and interesting directions in research. It has been divided into four major thematic sections, encompassing nineteen chapters by authors representing different cultural backgrounds (with the Polish majority) and variousprofessionalmilieus,rangingfromtheoreticallybiasedscholarstoteachers and practitioners in language pedagogy. In the first part, titled Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence, the first two chapters offer a valuable introduction to the topic, covering different approaches to understanding of culture, the role of English as a lingua franca in intercultural communication and the place of cultural factors in SLA theorising, research, second/foreign language teaching and teacher training. The remaining three contributions contain reports on empirical research designed to explore the learners’ and teachers’ views on the purpose, extent and effectiveness of devel- oping intercultural competence through teaching English as a foreign language. Thesecondpart,undertheheadingCulturaldifferencesinlanguageinstruction, brings together experiences of language teachers and researchers from all around
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