The importance of Culture in teaching and learning English in Expanding Circle Countries
The importance of Culture in teaching and learning English in Expanding Circle Countries
Constanza Ramos
Universidad San Sebastián
Introduction:
It is widely known that the phenomenon of globalization has affected many fields in everybody’s life, such as economy, politics, culture and so on... Education is one of the matters that has been affected by this phenomenon and with this, more people has been interested to learn a second language, in this case, English. As Berns (2005) mentioned, “today more is known about the sociolinguistic, political, and economic dimensions of the presence and influence of this language on its users” (p.85). There is no doubt that learning a second language is a challenge, but it also is for native or non-native teachers. In this matter, teachers have to focus on a series of factors that go from using the proper methodology, how to include the local culture when teaching and how to take advantage of the teacher’s skills. For this reason, more attention should be given to the local culture and the methodology when an international language is being introduced in a Expanding Circle country. In this way, students will feel more familiar with the language they are learning.
Background:
For many years, English was taught mainly by following the Inner Circle Patterns. That is to say, the methodologies used were focused on imitating the native speaker because ,as Cook (1999) stated, that is often considered by language professionals, that the most appropriate model of language’s use come from its native speakers (p.185). These methodologies only focused on achieving the native speaker model, from which there are multiple definitions, all of them with different point of views. Hence, students from the Expanding Circle are taught to follow a native model that does not have a clear definition and not even a clear origin, because nowadays English is no longer linked exclusively to the English speaking countries. Stating that
Constanza Ramos
Universidad San Sebastián
Introduction:
It is widely known that the phenomenon of globalization has affected many fields in everybody’s life, such as economy, politics, culture and so on... Education is one of the matters that has been affected by this phenomenon and with this, more people has been interested to learn a second language, in this case, English. As Berns (2005) mentioned, “today more is known about the sociolinguistic, political, and economic dimensions of the presence and influence of this language on its users” (p.85). There is no doubt that learning a second language is a challenge, but it also is for native or non-native teachers. In this matter, teachers have to focus on a series of factors that go from using the proper methodology, how to include the local culture when teaching and how to take advantage of the teacher’s skills. For this reason, more attention should be given to the local culture and the methodology when an international language is being introduced in a Expanding Circle country. In this way, students will feel more familiar with the language they are learning.
Background:
For many years, English was taught mainly by following the Inner Circle Patterns. That is to say, the methodologies used were focused on imitating the native speaker because ,as Cook (1999) stated, that is often considered by language professionals, that the most appropriate model of language’s use come from its native speakers (p.185). These methodologies only focused on achieving the native speaker model, from which there are multiple definitions, all of them with different point of views. Hence, students from the Expanding Circle are taught to follow a native model that does not have a clear definition and not even a clear origin, because nowadays English is no longer linked exclusively to the English speaking countries. Stating that
References: Alptekin, C.(1993). Target-language culture in EFL materials. ELT Journal. Volume 47 (2), 136-143. Berns, M. (2005). Expanding on the expanding circle: where do we go from here? World Englishes. 24 (1), 85 – 93. Cook, V.(1999). Going beyond the native speaker in language teaching. Tesol Quarterly. 33 (2), 185 – 209. McKay, S. (2003). Teaching English as an international language: the Chilean context. ELT Journal. 57 (2), 139 – 147. Widdowson, H. (1994). The Ownership of English. TESOL Quarterly. 28 (2), 377-389