4 Flashcards
(7 cards)
OUTLINE OF THE TOPIC
- INTRODUCTION
- THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AS AN INSTRUMENT OF COMMUNICATION AMONG PEOPLE AND COUNTRIES
- English as Lingua Franca
- Importance of Foreign Languages in the European Union (EU)
- Communicative Competence
- DEVELOPING INTEREST FOR LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF A NEW LANGUAGE AND ITS CULTURE.
- HOW TO INTEGRATE CULTURE IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
- Intro
- 2.Ideas to Promote an Interest on the Target Culture
- didactic applications
THE IMPORTANCE OF FL AS INSTR. OF COMMUNICATION: INTRO
Language is the basis of human communication, but at the same time, is the main barrier. In order to overcome this obstacle there have been many attempts of seeking a solution, such as creating a universal language, as Esperanto, or using an existing one as a lingua franca, which is the case of English. This last method has been proofed to be the best way of breaking linguistic barriers.
THE IMPORTANCE OF FL AS INSTR. OF COMMUNICATION: English as Lingua Franca
With the advent of the satellite, computer and the mass media, English has become the widest spoken language. In an international society, being able to communicate in English is very useful as it is the world’s lingua franca in many respects.
Today, English is used as an official or semi-official language in over sixty countries and it is the language of science, computing and business, among others. Other languages are on the rise, such as Spanish or Chinese, but the hegemony of English today is unquestionable. Therefore, learning English is nowadays a necessity.
However, we have to bear in mind that Spain is part of the European Union, so we need to analyse the importance of foreign languages within this context.
THE IMPORTANCE OF FL AS INSTR. OF COMMUNICATION: Importance of Foreign Languages in the European Union (EU)
The EU currently has 28 member states and 24 official languages, and this is a barrier for communcication. To try to overcome it, the European Commission has set a target language for the year 2020 expressed in the formula “Mother tongue + 2”, meaning that at least 50% of Europeans should be able to communicate in two foreign languages in addition to their own mother tongue at the age of fifteen. The level of proficiency considered desirable is “independent user” which corresponds to level B1 – B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference (C.E.F.R.)
Some important initiatives of the European Commission that aim to promote foreign language learning are Erasmus+, the European Language Portfolio, and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). Let us analize each of them.
• Erasmus+ is a programme addressed to all education levels, including Primary teachers who can enroll training courses sponsored by the EU.
• The European Language Portfolio is a personal document for learners which consist of three parts:
The Language Passport where the language learners can summarize their linguistic and cultural identity, as well as their experiences with other languages and cultures.
The Language Biography which helps the learner to set targets and assess the progress made.
The Dossier where learners can keep samples of their works.
• CLIL: The term was coined by David Marsh in the 1990s. This method involves teaching a curricular subject through a foreign language, where the teachers are specialists in their own discipline. The main advantage of this method is the increase in learners’ exposure to the foreign language, providing them more opportunities to use the target language. The Community of Madrid has embraced this educational approach setting up a growing number of CLIL schools.
All of these initiatives give the students the chance of acquiring a proficiency in the foreign language. The ability to communicate in foreign languages has probably never been as valued as it is today. Parents view learning English as a language that can open future professional doors. Thus, their perception as a relevant subject has a positive influence on pupils’ motivation.
However, this extrinsic type of motivation is not enough by itself, and teachers need to look for ways to motivate pupils to use English as the language of communication in class in order to help them achieve a communicative competence on the target language.
COCO: AUTHORS AND THEORIES
This term was coined by Dell Hymes in the 1970’s, as a reaction to Chomsky’s distinction between linguistic competence (the speaker’s knowledge of language) and linguistic performance (the actual use of language in real situations). Hymes brought the sociolinguistic perspective into Chomsky’s view, as for him native speakers do not only construct grammatically correct utterances, but knows WHERE, WHEN, and HOW to use the language. His model consisted of four main aspects, Systematic potential (have a system to create language), Appropriacy (knowledge of the correct language in a given situation), Frequency of occurrence (know how often something is said), and finally Feasibility (plausibility of the language).
These categories were adapted for teaching purposes by Canale and Swain, who stipulated four subcompetences:
Grammatical: ability to use the units and the rules of the language system.
Discourse: the ability to use the language with coherence and cohesion.
Sociolinguistic: use of the appropriate language according to the context.
Strategic: ability to use verbal and non-verbal communicative strategies to solve problems during communication
Later, Jan Van Eck introduced a fifth sub-competence, sociocultural, which is the ability to know the social and cultural context in which the language is used.
Although this latter competence, the sociocultural has a significant role in this topic, from a didactical perspective, we need to promote the achievement of the five subcompetences in our classroom in order to make our pupils communicative competent in English. This goal is established in our current Educational System in several ways, such as objective F (article 7 of RD 126 and article 4 of D 89) which states the need for pupils “to acquire basic communicative competence in a foreign language in order to express and understand simple messages related to their everyday life”.
COCO: CONCLUSION
However, the ability to communicate with people from another culture is unlikely to provide sufficient motivation on its own for young learners of English. Thus, if we are able to make students think about the relationship between language and culture, we may be able to make them a little more interested in linguistic diversity.
DEVELOPING I’ FOR LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY : INTEGRATE CULTURE
The foremost prerequisite for language teachers, in order to incorporate cultural material into their classroom, is that they have the basic backdrop, to be able to effectively help students, appreciate and enjoy, the discovery of another culture.
This does not imply the denial of one’s own culture, or accepting a foreign culture as the ideal. On the contrary, this awareness serves as a safeguard, against potential negative attitudes students may encounter, and helps them recognize and appreciate, the differences between the two cultures.
In this sense, students should be able to use of wide range of resources, such as books, movies or authentic materials, among others, in order to avoid oversimplifications. Thus, language teachers need to reflect in those materials different aspects of the target culture, such as the lifestyle or family values, among others.
The potential activities are endless, so teachers should adjust them to the students’ needs and interests. Although many of the textbooks used in schools include some exercises that encourage cultural awareness, with a little imagination a great deal can be achieved.
