Three basic types of materials can be used in language textbooks, according to cortazzi and jin 1999. Even longtime masters of the craft concede that target language instruction demands careful planning of lessons and materials, along with highenergy execution. Moreover, the paper will address the difficulties and challenges in teaching cultural materials outside of the english speaking countries. Targetlanguage culture in efl materials cem alptekin oxford. How we measure reads a read is counted each time someone. Targetlanguage culture in efl materials article pdf available. Integrating target language culture into teachinglearning efl an important aspect of learning a language is to learn the culture of the language.
The results show that the role of culture in teaching english as a foreign language is significant. An effective way for students to learn about the target language and culture is to send them. These materials and methods, as mckay 2003 makes clear both have differing and important impacts of language acquisition. Cem alptekin, associate professor of applied linguistics at bogazici university istanbul, publishes internationally in the areas of second language learning and teaching, neurolinguistics, and contrastive rhetoric. Scribd is the worlds largest social reading and publishing site.
Whether culture of the target language is to be incorporated into. Example in a ppp lesson, the teacher first presents the target language, learners practise it, and then there is a production stage where the target language is used in a freer activity. During most of our teaching careers we have been preparing students for trinity college london exams, from gese to ise and sew, and our candidates have always been very successful in the exams. How to present the target language heads up english. Pdf targetlanguage culture in efl materials researchgate. The importance of incorporating the target culture in english. This requires the language patterns being put into practice in real life situations.
In class, they regularly sent students to a city in a target culture for example, to spend a weekend in new york city through prepared taskbased activities using authentic materials. Targetlanguage culture in efl materials elt journal. A critical analysis of cultural content in efl materials. An analysis of textbooks from a cultural point of view. The tesol guidelines for developing efl standards 3 it is, however, beyond this document to discuss how culture or cultural segments affect and shape teachers beliefs and, vice versa, how ones teaching reflects those beliefs in different cultures. Second language learners divergence from target language. In the classroom efl materials tend to be written for learners either studying english in their own country or on a short course in an englishspeaking country. Efl students to travel and live in target language country. Impact of the target culture on foreign language learning. A critical analysis of cultural content in efl materials 8 with members of specific target cultures.
For this reason, foreign language teaching materials which make use of target language culture elements to present the systemic data are likely to interfere with. Language and culture in foreign language teaching chialin hsin newcastle university 1. Target language teachingenglish british council bbc. The phenomenon of english is the the most spoken language in the world is undeniable.
On the other hand, the use of target culture is believed to be able to solve the problem teachers face when using home language culture. She also claims that this is due to linguistic intricacies of the target language, especially lexical and semantic barriers, unfamiliarity with or remoteness of the cultural background lazar. Based on the researches in this field, a framework is developed for the. Targetlanguage culture in efl materials researchgate. Here youll find classroom materials suitable for a wide range of subjects and grade levels, thousands of lesson plans, teaching activities, ondemand video assets, and interactive games and simulations. Culture, however, is not a static whole as it affects many aspects of life in a community. Regarding the analysis of the semistructured interviews, it was found that both teachers and students indicated that learning about the targetlanguage culture was important. Authentic materials using authentic sources from the native speech community helps to engage students in. This means that a majority of teachers continue to believe that efl classrooms should enhance students understanding of their own cultural identity. Brown 2001, 116 says that it is useful to consider the.
With respect to the main obstacles facing teachers in developing cultural awareness in efl classrooms, the findings made it clear that shortage of time is a critical concern. Therefore, teaching materials tm should include elements of culture. We are two masters qualified efl teachers and, between us, we have over thirty odd years of teaching experience under our belts. English learning websites and digital resources from the. Targetlanguage culture in efl materials elt journal oxford. The importance of incorporating the target culture in. To some extent the content serves as a window into learning about the target language culture. In this lesson, the students talk about their homes, they read a text about customs regarding covering windows, and then they talk about and write an article about how national customs affect home design. Additionally, it is beyond this document to discuss how basic. Kilickaya authentic materials and cultural content in efl. The uptodate information carried by authentic materials is invaluable for learners to develop an understanding of the target language culture.
Namely, a focus on the learners own culture, the target language culture of the. With regard to recent views of culture teaching in the foreign language classroom, culture does not need to be dealt independently of language because studying language directly brings about awareness of the target culture and peoples behavior in that target culture. The use of target language refers to all that learners say, read, hear, write, and view production and reception of language on the part of learners, educators, and materials. Culture choice board for foreign language classroom by target. Integrating target language culture into teachinglearning efl. Many texts addressing cultural content are limited to offering overt, tourist culture or teaching abstract and irrelevant facts which are often presented with bias and consequently do little more than reinforce stereotypes.
Students can pick and choose their activities based on the options provide. Individual and focus group interviews were data sources for the study. How to present the target language heads up english esl. She states that language in relation with context of communication. However, the native instructors presumptions cause intolerance and underestimation of the host culture. Culture has been neglected or being treated as a supplementary topic in fl teaching. Introduction this discussion deals with language and culture as foreign language fl curricular contents in an englishasaforeignlanguage efl situation. Kurikulum tingkat satuan pendidikan jenjang pendidikan dasar dan menengah. A range of factors have been attributed to this deviation, including transfer from the native language, insufficient knowledge of the target language and its communicative practices, lack of opportunities to in.
Utilising qualitative data collection methods, the responses and scholastic history of the student provide insights into his personal qualities and aptitudes as a nativelike speaker of english as proven by cepa scores and. Since learning about a culture is not accepting it and the role of the culture in the materials is just to create learner interest towards the target language, there should be a variety of culture in the materials, not a specific one. In addition, the use of authentic materials at the intercultural level is argued to not. Keeping it in the target language university of nebraska.
The quantitative data were obtained through a questionnaire, and the. Teaching materials and the roles of eflesl teachers. It is, however, beyond this document to discuss how culture or cultural segments affect and shape teachers beliefs and, vice versa, how ones. One way to remedy the two aforementioned issues is that the teachers using this series can think of other substitute exercises to solve the problem. A critical analysis of cultural content in efl materials core. Selecting the english translation of modern japanese. For her, the best one is international target language materials, which supposedly covers a variety of knowledge from different cultures all over the world using the target language mckay, pp. He may lecture for a minute or two as students listen and take notes. To illustrate, the cultural content of an efl textbook for turkey, spotlight on. Culture in teaching efl in saudi arabia from learners. May 15, 2015 the target language culturethe target languages culturethe target languages. All of the participants think that the current textbook they use definitely includes examples mainly from the target language culture which may indispensably pose a risk of stereotyping. For this reason, foreign language teaching materials which make use of targetlanguage culture elements to present the systemic data are likely to interfere with.
Kramsch 1998 describes language as a principal means. Whenever teaching a new language has not been accompanied by teaching the. This assignment includes four different culture choice boards for the spanish classroom. What do we mean by culture in the efl classroom and why do we need it. Elt materials, evaluation, cultural content, illustrations, multilingual. Language and culture in foreign language teaching university of. Principles and procedures of materials development for. A sample of eighty n80 efl instructors working at state and private university language preparatory programs in turkey participated in this study. Nevertheless, what becomes evident from this study is that learners are in need of explicit pragmatic instruction when it comes to writing emails to authority figures. Similar to the current situation in most, if not all, efl contexts, in turkey, too, target language culture is often omitted in the textbooks. Doc cultural content and illustrations in elt materials for.
Mckay identifies three types of cultural materials. The effect of using authentic materials in teaching. Targetlanguage culture in efl materials cem alptekin. The tesol guidelines for developing efl professional. Developing cultural awareness in efl classrooms at secondary. Principles of materials development 1 make sure that the materials contain a lot of spoken and written texts which provide extensive download materialsdevelopmentinlanguageteaching or read materialsdevelopmentinlanguageteaching online books in pdf, epub and mobi format. In addition, he would provide a similar lecture if he were to teach grammar, a thematic set of vocabulary words, a skill such as how to skim or how to scan, and so on. Teaching email politeness in the eflesl classroom elt.
Third, the students practiced using the course books interactive cd, and submitted a pdf file with the exercises from each unit. But overuse of cultural material in the language classrooms will constitute problems not for students but also for the teachers and decrease the motivation. Introduce the sociocultural lesson plan model, which is centered on the integration of proficiency, literacy and culture oriented learning outcomes. Method two provides added support, thereby making the target language clearer. English language learning ell websites and digital resources have been recognized as an important source of linguistic and cultural knowledge for english as a foreign language efl learners to explore. Theoretical views on culture culture involves deep culture, not only surface culture the efl field has generally focused on teaching elements of surface culture, that is, the easily observable hinkel, 2001 and static elements that represent a nation. Two texts of culture grams that can be manipulated as learning. Culture in teaching efl in saudi arabia from learners perspective this paper aims to study the attitude of saudi arabian undergraduate english students towards the american and british culture by studying their attitude to materials with relevant cultural contents in their textbooks. Target language definition of target language by the.
Teachers and undergraduate students attitudes toward. Discuss the creation of a learning community dedicated to promoting more culture and literacyenriched language teaching practices. In this download you can find a lesson to help students prepare for trinitys gese 7 exam and the national customs subject area. As most language learning contexts are limited to the classroom environment and communication opportunities with members of the target language community. Culture is relevant to information with regard to the targetforeign culture, including music, dance, human beings. In terms of teaching and learning, the result is that these connections matter for both populations of students, regardless of whether or not they speak the target language or how well they speak it. The teacher can draw a diagram or timeline on the board to highlight how to use the target language. What materials and strategies do efl teachers use to promote intercultural. Actfl recommends that learning take place through the target language for 90% or more of classroom time except in immersion program models where the target language. The teacher talks about the target language, no matter the focus. Introduction the dialectical connection between language and culture has always been a concern of l2 teachers and educators. Timelines, pictures, and diagrams all fall into the category of visual aids. For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or.
Sociocultural factors and teaching a foreign language by nader assadi aidinlou and davoud ansari kejal islamic azad university, ahar branch abstract teaching a new language to learners has several bases and considering the culture of the target language is one of them. If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the faq by clicking the link above. The target language is the language learners are studying, and also the individual items of language that they want to learn, or the teacher wants them to learn. This is more the case for those learners who are planning on moving to the target language culture for educational, professional, or personal reasons. Although an explanation is often necessary, it also needs support. The purpose of this study was to understand the role of teaching materials in an efl classroom and to identify the students reactions towards their implementation. Sociocultural factors and teaching a foreign language. Targetlanguage culture in efl materials free download as pdf file. Pecos bill tall tales by a teachable year teachers pay. Findings indicated that cultural responsiveness was considered to be constructed through time, and a necessity of orientation process was emphasized.
The issue of imperialism appeared to be blown away and was replaced by a huge awareness of mastering the language for better prestige. Efl instructors about integrating target culture in their classroom. Other theorists such as prodromou 1988 and alptekin 1993 have focused on the use of the target language culture as a vehicle for teaching the language in textbooks and suggest that it. The actual relationship between the two cannot be separated, because a language serves a particular culture and through the language the cultural values of a people are reflected. Robinson1985, cited in ariffin, 2009 suggests the use of reading materials emphasizing the target language culture to help. Many texts addressing cultural content are limited to offering overt, tourist culture or teaching abstract and irrelevant facts which are often presented with bias and consequently do. Systemic knowledge refers to the formal properties of langu. The effect of using authentic materials in teaching rashid hamed al azri, majid hilal alrashdi abstract authentic materials are among the most important tools a teacher can and must use in class in order to make hisher teaching go smoothly and be effective in transmitting the. Teaching methods and materials language and culture. The importance of teaching culture in the foreign language. Authentic materials and cultural content in efl classrooms. Efl includes short summer courses in an englishspeaking country, such as the uk, canada or the us. If teachers are able to spend more time experiencing and understanding target language.
Principles and procedures of materials development for language learning brian tomlinson this paper takes the position that language learning materials should ideally be driven by learning and teaching principles rather than developed ad hoc or in imitation of best selling coursebooks. Evaluation of english teaching and learning materials in. We distinguish cultural content from cultural medium, or, as we will call it. To illustrate, the cultural content of an efl textbook for turkey, spotlight on english by dede and emre 1988, is primarily turkish. Codeswitching can be an effective teaching strategy when it is used deliberately to further the students tl proficiency by using l1 as a reference point and to help construct knowledge in the tl coste, 1997. On the other hand, the use of target culture is believed to be able to solve the problem teachers face when using homelanguage culture.