Lesson plan building Strategies and Techniques for teaching cultures

Lesson plan building In order to translate the goals for teaching culture into classroom practice, we need to follow specific Strategies and Techniques Strategies The lecture Native informants Audio taped interviews Video taped interviewsObservational dialogs Using authentic readings and realia for cross cultural understanding (a four stage approach to a cultural reading of authentic materials is very effective to lead students through the process of guided exploration and discovery 1 Thinking,.

Lesson plan building

In order to translate the goals for teaching culture into classroom practice, we need to follow specific Strategies and Techniques:

Strategies:

• The lecture

• Native informants

• Audio-taped interviews

• Video-taped interviews/Observational dialogs

• Using authentic readings and realia for cross-cultural understanding (a four-stage approach to a cultural reading of authentic materials is very effective to lead students through the process of guided exploration and discovery : 1- Thinking, 2- Looking, 3- Learning, 4- Integrating)

Strategies for Teaching the Value of Diversity

by Christine Elmore- Yale-New Haven Teachers InstituteTechniques:

* Cultural Islands From the first day of class teachers should have prepared a cultural island

in their classrooms Posters, pictures, maps, signs, and realia of many kinds are essential in helping students develop a mental image Assigning students foreign names from the first day can heighten student interest Short presentations on a topic of interest with appropriate pictures or slidesadd to this mental image Start students off by making them aware of the

influence of various foreign cultures in this country Introduce students to the borrowed words in their native language or the place-names of our country This helps students to realize they already know many words in the target language (i.e poncho, fiesta, rodeo) Some of the foods they eatare another example of the influence of foreign cultures (i.e taco, burrito, chili)

A good introductory activity is to send students on cultural scavenger hunts

to supermarkets and department stores and have them make lists of

imported goods

* Culture Capsules (developed by Taylor & Sorenson, 1961)

Culture capsules are generally prepared out of class by a student but presented during class time in 5 or 10 minutes The concept was

developed by Taylor & Sorenson (1961) A Culture capsule consists of a paragraph or so of explanation of one minimal difference between a

Lebanese and an American's custom along with several illustrative photos and relevant realia Miller (1974) has developed well-defined culture

capsules into classroom activities

In Ursula Hendron’s article on teaching culture in the high school

classroom, she suggests using culture capsules The culture capsule teachers through comparison by illustrating one essential difference

between an American and a foreign custom (i.e dating, cuisine, pets, sports) The cultural insights from the culture capsule can be further

illustrated by role playing For example, Hendron suggests teaching dating customs in Spanish-speaking countries by creating an illusion of a plaza mayor in the classroom with posters, props, music or slides Students pretend to be young Latin-Americans and act out a Sunday paseo

Brigham Young University also publishes culture capsules entitled

“Culturgrams” for 100 different countries Each “culturgram” is divided into

sections on family lifestyle, attitudes, customs and courtesies, and history After studying these, students can compare and contrast the foreign

customs and traditions with their own "Infograms" which cut across

cultures with topics such as travel stress, keeping the law, and families, have been published

Culture capsules are one of the best–established and best–known

methods for teaching culture They have been tried mostly in classes for foreign languages other than English Essentially a culture capsule is a brief description of some aspect of the target language culture (e.g., what

is customarily eaten for meals and when those meals are eaten, marriage customs, etc.) followed by, or incorporated with contrasting information from the students' native language culture The contrasting information can

be provided by the teacher, but it is usually more effective to have the students themselves point out the contrasts

Culture capsules are usually done orally with the teacher giving a brief lecture on the chosen cultural point and then leading a discussion about the differences between cultures For example, the information which a teacher might use about the grading system at U S universities is

included in the link The teacher could provide all of the information at once

or could pause after the information in each paragraph and ask students about the contrasts they see Some visual information, such as in handouts

or overhead transparencies or pictures, supporting the lecture can also be used

* Culture Clusters (developed by Meade & Morain, 1973)

A culture cluster is simply a group of three or more illustrated culture capsules on related themes/topics (about the target life) + one 30 minute classroom simulation/skit that integrates the information contained in the capsules (the teacher acts as narrator to guide the students) For example,

a culture cluster about grades and their significance to university students could contain the capsule about how a grade point average is figured plus another about what kind of decisions (such as being accepted in graduate study, receiving scholarships, getting a better job, etc.) are affected by a person's grade point average

Culture capsules and clusters are good methods for giving students

knowledge and some intellectual knowledge about the cultural aspects being explained, but they generally do not cause much emotional empathy

* Culture Assimilators (Developed by Fiedler et al., 1971)

The culture assimilator provides the student with 75 to 100 episodes of target cultural behavior Culture assimilators consist of short (usually

written) descriptions of an incident or situation where interaction takes place between at least one person from the target culture and persons from other cultures (usually the native culture of the students being taught).The description is followed by four possible choices about the meaning of the behavior, action, or words of the participants in the interaction with emphasis on the behavior, actions, or words of the target language

individual(s)

Students read the description in the assimilator and then choose which of the four options they feel is the correct interpretation of the interaction Once all students have made their individual choices, the teacher leads a discussion about why particular options are correct or incorrect in

interpretation Written copies of the discussion issues can be handed out tostudents although they do not have to be It is imperative that the teacher plan what issues the discussion of each option should cover

Culture assimilators are good methods of giving students understanding about cultural information and they may even promote emotional empathy

or affect if students have strong feelings about one or more of the options

* Critical Incidents/Problem Solving

Critical incidents are another method for teaching culture Some people confuse them with culture assimilators, but there are a couple of

differences between the two methods Critical incidents are descriptions of incidents or situations which demand that a participant in the interaction make some kind of decision Most of the situations could happen to any individual; they do not require that there be intercultural interaction as there

is with culture assimilators

Individual critical incidents do not require as much time as individual

culture capsules or individual culture assimilators, so generally when this method is used, more than one critical incident is presented It is probably most effective to have all the critical incidents presented at one time be about the same cultural issue For example, the critical incidents listed in the appendix to this chapter all deal with the issue of time, promptness, and scheduling

Generally, the procedure with a critical incident is to have students read the incident independently and make individual decisions about what they would do Then the students are grouped into small groups to discuss theirdecisions and why they made them they way they did Then all the groups discuss their decisions and the reasons behind them Finally, students have to be given the opportunity to see how their decision and reasoning compare and contrast with the decisions and reasoning of native members

of the target culture If the ESL class is occurring in an English–speaking environment, students can be assigned to go out and survey native

English speakers about how and why they would solve the problem or

make the decision required by the critical incident Reports on the

reasoning and the differences can be made in a following class session If the class takes place in an EFL environment, the native speaker

information would have to be gathered by the teacher from reading or fromcontact with expatriates Sometimes advice columns like the "Dear Abby"

or "Ann Landers" columns, can provide teachers both with critical incidents

or problems to be solved and with information about what native speakers would do and why

Critical incidents are very good for arousing affect (emotional feelings) about the cultural issue Discussion or surveys about what native English speakers would do also promote intellectual understanding of the issues and give learners basic knowledge about the target culture

* Mini–Dramas (Gorden's prototype minidrama, 1970)

Mini–dramas consist of three to five brief episodes in which

misunderstandings are portrayed, in which there are examples of

miscommunication Additional information is made available with each episode, but the precise cause of the misunderstanding does not become apparent until the last scene Each episode is followed by an open-ended question discussion led by the teacher The episodes are generally written

to foster sympathy for the non–native of the culture the "wrong" that is done to him or her by a member of the target culture At the end of the mini–drama, some "knowing" figure explains what is really happening and why the target culture member was really not doing wrong

With mini–dramas, scripts are handed out and people are assigned to act out the parts After each act, the teacher asks students (not necessarily theones performing in the drama) what the actions and words of the

characters in the drama mean and leads them to make judgments about the characters in the play After all of the scenes have been portrayed and

the "knowing" figure has made his or her speech, students are asked to reinterpret what they have seen in view of the information which the

knowing figure provided

The first time mini–drama is used in an ESL classroom, it should promote quite a lot of emotional feeling of the kind that really happens in

intercultural misunderstandings Mini–dramas always promote knowledge and understanding, but the great emotional impact usually only happens the first time Mini–dramas work best if they deal, therefore, with highly charged emotional issues

Brislin et al (1986) prepared 100 critical intercultural incidents in English Intercultural Interactions : A Practical Guide (Cross Cultural Research and Methodology) (Hardcover)

by Richard W Brislin, Kenneth Cushner, Craig Cherrie - 1986

* Audio–motor Units

Audio–motor units consist of verbal instructions for actions by students which the students then carry out They work very well for any cultural routine which requires physical actions (e g., eating with a knife and fork, shaking hands, listening actively, standing in line to buy a ticket, etc.) With an audio–motor unit, the classroom is set up as the required setting and with the required props Individual students are then directed orally by the teacher to carry out appropriate actions The process can be repeated several times with different students carrying out the instructions Once appropriate behavior is established, minor but relevant changes can be made and students can see what factors require adjustment (e.g., Is it proper to shake hands with adults and children in the same way? If two come in together and have to pass in front of people, does it alter what anyone says or does?, etc.)

Audio–motor units give knowledge and practice with correct behavior They

do not necessarily promote understanding nor empathy

misunderstanding

Cultoons generally promote understanding of cultural facts and some understanding, but they do not usually give real understanding of emotionsinvolved in cultural misunderstandings

* Media/Visuals

Magazine pictures, slide presentations, and/or videos are among the kinds

of media/visual presentations which can be used to teach culture Usually with this method, the teacher presents a series of pictures or slides or a video with explanation of what is going on and what it means in terms of the target culture Many aspects of culture, such as appropriate dress for activities, kinds of activities students participate in or the weekend, public transportation, etc., can be effectively presented with such visuals The appendix for this chapter contains the script which might be used for a slide presentation about the importance of the automobile and the

independence it allows in the U S

Media/visuals are usually very good at giving information and intellectual understanding, but, like several other methods of teaching culture, they do not cause students to understand the emotion which is involved with so many cultural issues

http://humanities.byu.edu/classes/ling577lh/culture.html

* Celebrating Festivals

Celebrating foreign festivals is a favorite activity of many students Even though this activity takes a lot of planning, it works well as a culminating activity My Spanish-speaking students start by bringing in recipes from home and then we put our own cookbook together (See bibliography for Cooper’s book) We then prepare for the festival by drawing posters,

decorating the room, and preparing some of the foods in our cookbook At Christmas time, we fill a pinata with candy and learn some folk songs and folk dances (Most textbooks have songs at the back of the book) This kind

of activity enables student to actively participate in the cultural heritage of the people they are studying

* Kinesics and Body Language

Culture is a network of verbal and non-verbal communication If our goal asforeign language teachers is to teach communication, we must not neglect the most obvious form of non-verbal communication which is gesture Gesture, although learned, is largely an unconscious cultural phenomenon.Gesture conveys the “feel” of the language to the student and when

accompanied by verbal communication, injects greater authenticity into theclassroom and makes language study more interesting Gerald Green in his book "Gesture Inventory for Teaching Spanish" suggests that teachers use foreign culture gestures when presenting dialogues, cueing students’ responses, and assisting students to recall dialogue lines (Examples of dialogues and appropriate gestures are given in the book) At the

beginning of the year, teachers can also show foreign films to students just

to have them focus on body movements

* Cultural Consciousness-Raising

Attitude is another factor in language learning that leads to cross cultural understanding Helen Wilkes believes that the totality of language learning

is comprised of three integrated components: linguistic, cultural, and

attitudinal As foreign language teachers, we all teach the basic sounds, vocabulary, and syntax of the target language Above we have seen

methods of introducing culture into the classroom The remainder of this paper will focus on effecting attitudinal changes

Most foreign language teachers would agree that positively sensitizing students to cultural phenomena is urgent and crucial Studies indicate that attitudinal factors are clear predictors of success in second language

learning However, effecting attitudinal changes requires planned programswhich integrate cultural and linguistic units as a means to cross-cultural understanding The following method for effecting attitudinal changes is adapted from Helen Wilkes’ article “A Simple Device for Cultural

Consciousness Raising in the Teenaged Student of French.” The

organization of the notebook can be a useful tool in any discipline, but it can be of special importance in the foreign language classroom as a

cultural consciousness raising tool Helen Wilkes suggests that from the very first day of school the foreign language teacher should have students begin organizing their notebook The notebook should be divided into four sections: Vocabulary, Maps, Grammar, Symbols Each section of the

notebook will have an illustrated title page

* Independent Activity Sheets

CULTURAL NAMES

DIRECTIONS:

Write the names of each of your classmates below Ask each of them what cultural groups their parents and grandparents are from and list them next

to their name At the bottom of the page total the number of cultural groups

in the whole class Decorate the classroom with flags or symbols for each cultural group

NAME CULTURAL GROUP

STORE NAMES: CULTURAL GROUPS:

* CULTURAL ARTIFACTS

DIRECTIONS:

An artifact is an object or a thing Some artifacts are of special importance

or meaning to a cultural group Ask your parents or grandparents if they have an artifact from their cultural group that you could bring to school to tell the class about

ARTIFACT:

WHERE IS THE ARTIFACT FROM?

IMPORTANT OR INTERESTING INFORMATION ABOUT THE ARTIFACT:

* CULTURAL SCAVENGER HUNT

DIRECTIONS:

Many of the things we buy are made in other countries Read the labels on your clothes, shoes, household appliances, and other objects in the house.List where they come from

As a conclusion to this activity each of you might introduce the person you interview to the class

SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

What do you like to do in your spare time?

If you could make three wishes what would they be?

(Teaching Culture: Beyond Language by Deborah Peck

Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute

http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1984/3/84.03.06.x.html)

1 Information Sources

In order to get a comprehensive picture of the target culture from many angles, we need to present our students with different kinds of information The list below shows some possible sources of information which can be used as materials for teaching culture By using a combination of visual, audio and tactile materials, we are also likely to succeed in addressing the different learning styles of our students

Videos, CDs, TV, Readings, Internet, Stories, Students own information, Songs, Newspapers, Realia, Fieldwork, Interviews, Guest speakers, Anecdotes,

Souvenirs, Photographs Surveys, Illustrations, Literature

2 Additional Activities

Many books which attempt to teach culture offer only 'discussion' activities.Discussion is a valuable form of learning in culture, but we cannot expect all students to be able to discuss complex issues at a high level in a foreignlanguage Often, even high-level students need some preparatory activitieswith clear goals before they can proceed to discussion Some of our

favorite activities are discussed below

A- Quizzes

We have found that quizzes are one of the more successful activity types Quizzes can be used to test materials that you have previously taught, but they are also useful in learning new information For example, look at the simple true/false quiz about Ireland below

With a partner, answer true or false to the following questions

Ireland is totally dark during the winter

There is little snow except in the mountains

The population of Ireland is less than that of Aichi Prefecture

Ireland is about the same size as the island of Honshu

The United Kingdom includes the Republic of Ireland

The Coors, the Cranberries, U2, the Beatles and Enya are Irish musicians Some Irish people think the Shinkansen connects Tokyo to Hong Kong You should ask the students to answer true or false to each of the

questions in pairs or groups They will share their existing knowledge and common sense to give answers It is not important whether students get the right answer or not, but by predicting, students will become more

interested in finding out the right answer The right answers can be given

by the teacher, through a reading, listening, or video At this point, extra information can be provided For example, in answering question 7 above,

I tell the story of the Irish man sitting next to me on an airplane who gave

me this lovely nonsense

Here is a different type of quiz that can be useful for introducing the

differences and similarities across cultures

Choose the odd one out of the following items:

a) Earthquakes b) Sushi restaurants c) Snow d) High level of education The correct answer is 'earthquakes' because you can find all the others both in Ireland and in Japan, but there are no earthquakes in Ireland Again, getting the correct answer is less important than thinking about the two cultures

You can also ask students to quiz their partner about readings or other materials Quizzes offer a high-interest activity that keeps students

involved and learning

B- Action Logs

An action log is a notebook used for written reflection on the activities doneduring class which also provides useful feedback for the teacher Students write it up after each class or at the end of each class By requiring

students to evaluate each class activity for interest usefulness, difficulty, and , they must reconsider what they have learnt Each student also

records their target for speaking English, what they think they actually achieve, the names of their discussion partners, and their own comments

on the activities Some students get so interested in the target culture that they write several pages in comments each week

C- Reformulation

When students have read an activity or listened to a story, you may like to use reformulation to allow them to check what they have learned and to reinforce it by retelling it to a partner Reformulation simply means :

'Explain what you just learned to your partner in your own words.' It is a very simple technique, but has proved very successful for learning both culture and language We often give readings for homework and require students to take notes on the content These notes can be in the form of pictures, keywords, or mind-maps

In the next class, we ask the students to reformulate the content of the reading with a partner using their notes without looking at the original paper Reformulation is also effective after watching a short video extract

or listening to a story Through reformulation, students check what they have learnt, find out things that they have missed from their partner, and improve their language by noticing gaps in their own ability to explain D- Noticing

As students watch a video or are engaged with some other materials, you can ask them to 'notice' particular features For example, they could watch

a video of a target-culture wedding and note all the differences with their

own culture Asking students to 'notice' gives a focus to the materials by making it into a task, rather than simply passive viewing or listening

E- Prediction

As mentioned above, prediction can be a useful tool in quizzes, but it can

be equally useful in using almost any materials Like 'noticing', prediction can engage the students more actively For example, when you are telling

a story, you can stop at a certain point and ask the students to predict how

it will continue Or, when you are giving out a reading for homework, first give the title of the reading and ask students to predict what they will learn This will force them to review their existing knowledge of the topic and raise their curiosity about whether their prediction is correct or not

F- Research

Student research is one of the most powerful tools that we can use with college students because it combines their interests with the classroom For example, after the first class, we ask students to search the internet or library and find information on any aspect of the target-culture that

interests them In the following class, students explain to their group what they have learned and answer any questions about it This can lead to poster-sessions or longer projects For some students, it can even lead to

a long-term interest in the target-culture

Some other types of activity that we have found useful include the

following but with a bit of thought, most standard EFL activities can be easily adapted for use in the culture classroom The most important point is

to ensure that the students are actively engaged in the target culture and language

Games Role Play

Field trips Reading activities Listening activities Writing activities Discussion activities Singing

3 Selling Points

In order to create cultural texture, we must be careful not to portray the culture as monolithic, nor to only teach the pleasant aspects Activities and materials should portray different aspects of the culture In other words, weneed to 'sell' different views of the culture to our students Introducing deliberate contrasts within a culture can be useful Some different 'selling points' are contrasted below

Attractive vs Shocking Similarities vs Differences Dark aspects of culture vs Bright Facts vs Behavior

Historical vs Modern Old people vs Young people City life vs Country life Stated beliefs vs Actual behavior

Personalization

Only by personalizing activities and content can we hope to lead students to better cultural understanding We can start off by talking about a distant country, but this will only result in stereotyping if we do not allow students to relate the

same issues to their own lives And as every language teacher knows, students love to talk about themselves

Activities, not just 'Discussion'

I was reading a book on teaching culture recently and had to laugh at one

activity 'Step 1 - introduce the material Step 2 - Lead a lively discussion.' This is probably possible with some high-level students in some parts of the world, but for most foreign-language students, instant lively discussion is an unlikely

scenario We have found that activities with simple instructions and a clear goal such as quizzes or surveys are very successful even with low-level learners It is very easy to extend such activities into open-ended discussions if the opportunityarises On the other hand, it is often impossible to transform open-ended

'discussion' activities (usually with no clear goal) into activities which work

effectively with low-level learners

Suitable Level of Difficulty

Know your students Even though you may see yourself primarily as a teacher of culture, if you are working with EFL students, you must constantly remember thatthey probably will not understand everything that you say It is not necessary that they understand every word and indeed a challenge is wonderful for learning, butconsistently using material or a way of speaking that is too difficult is a sure way

to make students lose their interest in a target-culture

Make It Interesting

Of course, the culture is interesting to you, so you presume that it will be

interesting for your students However, imagine sometimes that you are studying the culture of a foreign country, one that you may have no intention of visiting Pick out the interesting aspects of a culture and present them in a way that will engage students By using the variety of approaches described above to create cultural texture and by employing your own enthusiasm, you should also be able

to create an exciting class for your students

Group-work

Students learn more in groups They have more opportunities for using the targetlanguage, discussing the target culture, and gaining additional perspectives on their own cultural

Don't Try to Cover Everything

You can't A culture is enormous It consists of all the institutions, all the behavior,

in fact all the man-made aspects of a very large group of non-homogeneous people All that we can do is provide some pathways to enter into learning more about the culture After all, we never know everything about our own culture We should not be disappointed that we cannot teach everything but rather be happy that we are able to raise intercultural awareness at all

Learn Your Students' Language and Culture and Understand Your Own Cultural Baggage

One of the oddest things in the world must be a language teacher who only speaks one language or a culture teacher who only knows one culture We are

so immersed in our own culture that we can only understand it by trying to see it from the outside Imposing our own values without making an attempt to

understand our students' values is imperialistic and arrogant We must rememberthat intercultural understanding runs both ways

Practical Techniques for Teaching Culture in the EFL Classroom

defense, and economic well-being of any country, and that global understanding ought to be a mandatory component of basic education

* Brooks, N 1975 The analysis of foreign and familiar cultures In Lafayette, R (ed.) The Culture Revolution in Foreign Language Teaching Skokie, Illinois: National Textbook Company

Buttjes, D (1990) Teaching foreign language and culture: Social impact and political significance Language Learning Journal, 2, 53-57

Finnocchario M (1964), English as a second language: From theory to practice New York: Simon and Schuster

Nostrand, F.B & Nostrand, H.L 1970 Testing Understanding of the Foreign Culture//Seelye, H.N ed Perspectives for Teachers of Latin American Culture Springfield, IL: Office of Public Instruction, 123-127

Lafayette, R.C (1978), Teaching Culture: Strategies and Techniques, Virginia: Arlington

Lafayette, R (1988) Integrating the teaching of culture into the foreign language classroom In Allan J Singerman (Ed.)., Towards a new integration of language and culture Reports of the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Middlebury, VT: The Northeast Conference

INTEGRATING CULTURE INTO EFL TEXTS AND

CLASSROOMS: SUGGESTED LESSON PLANS

Sultan TURKAN* , Servet ÇELI K**

Abstract

The need to integrate culture and its teaching into foreign language education is not a new debate, and has long been highlighted in countless studies Yet, it seems to be common practice that foreign language textbooks and classrooms frequently overlook the conclusions drawn in such studies and neglect the essential information about the target language culture that would help students reach a cultural understanding to accompany their linguistic knowledge The authors of this paper draw attention to this ignorance by using Turkey as an example, and argue that there will always be something missing in language learners’ L2 proficiency and use, if culture is left out in their language learning Thus, language teachers are offered specific ways of integrating culture into their classrooms and supplementing their textbooks with cultural elements As an implication, the authors provide a practical unit plan that includes three lessons showing practitioners how to teach about American holidays These sample lessons demonstrate one of the creative ways for teachers to incorporate culture into their classrooms.

1 INTRODUCTION

Rapid globalization has increased the need for cross-cultural communication sothat people have access to information all over the world This growing andextending need leads to growth in the foreign language teaching profession Manyacknowledge that learning a foreign language is a requirement to survive intoday’s world The English language plays an important role, because it hasbecome the lingua franca of the world, and the default language that one needs tolearn in order to keep up with the information age Similarly, Phillipson (1992)adds that “…at the present time English, to a much greater extent than any otherlanguage, is the language in which the fate of most of the world’s millions isdecided” (p 6)

Burchfield (1985) also acknowledges the role of English as lingua franca, and

argues that even a literate person may experience linguistic deficit anddeprivation, that is, lack of opportunities in language learning As this viewsuggests, this language deficiency is a significant condition, yet not a specificallyidentified one

Given the necessity of English language learning, second language acquisition isnot a process that occurs in a ‘vacuum’ (Halliday, 1975) Students get to beinvolved and actually act in various sociolinguistic situations Second languageacquisition involves mutuality among speakers through the interrelation of anylanguage learning processes that are situated within the sociolinguistic and socio-cultural norms As Volosinov (1973) declares, “the actual reality of language-speech is not the abstract system of linguistic forms, not the isolated monologicutterance, and not the psycho-physiological act of its implementation, but thesocial event of verbal interaction implemented in an utterance or utterances” (p.94) Second or foreign language learning, therefore, is a socially constructedprocess just as are all the other socially mediated activities Since culture isembedded within every aspect of society, language learning, in Seelye’s (1984)words, should not be isolated from the society that uses it

1.1 Aims

Based on this theoretical ground, this paper argues that socio-culturallyinformative themes selected from English speaking cultures should be integratedinto the teaching of English, both in terms of classroom practices and the textbookselection Given that the authors were trained in English language teachingprograms in Turkey and were exposed to English as a foreign languageinstruction there, the ultimate targeted audience is English language teachereducation programs and English language practitioners in the country

The leading observation underlying this paper is that English language education

in primary through high school levels is dependent on massively producedmainstream English language textbooks devoid of the teachers’ attempts to

integrate the target culture into language teaching and learning In this regard, it ismaintained that culture teaching is inevitably a motivating and engagingcomponent of language teaching and learning Therefore, it is specificallyproposed to language teacher educators, as well as language teachers, in Turkeythat they pay closer attention to integrating culture into their classrooms andsupplementing the textbooks with the essentials of the target culture.Furthermore, some of the other most commonly applied ways of integratingculture into language education are discussed At last, a unit plan including threelessons on American holidays is presented to exemplify how culture can beincorporated in English language classrooms in Turkey

2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Controversies exist around what kinds of content should be incorporated into aforeign or second language curriculum Since the early 1970s, momentouschanges have occurred in the field of foreign language teaching The early 1970switnessed the reform of structural methodologies such as the GrammarTranslation Method and Audiolingualism, because it became important that

“language was not to be studied but to be learned and spoken” (Byram, 1991, p.13) After all the transitions from one approach to another, the widely-held beliefwas that it was essential to teach the target language through meaningful andculture-based content In order to be successful in real life situations, this, in turn,would help the learners to employ the social rules of that target culture in learningits language The social rules of language use require an understanding of thesocial context in which the language is used, and hence, the language learnerends up with the inevitable culture-specific context of the foreign or secondlanguage class As Alptekin (2002) puts it, “learning a foreign language becomes

a kind of enculturation, where one acquires new cultural frames of reference and

a new world view, reflecting those of the target language culture and its speakers”(p 58) Similarly, applied linguists such as Halliday (1975) have suggested that

learners should acquire knowledge about how to use the language in order tofunction successfully in socio-cultural contexts Thus, language teachers areinevitably supposed to be equipped with target language communicativecompetence, so that the students can gain access to educational or economicopportunities within the target language setting What is more important, sinceacquisition of target language communicative competence entails the integration

of both language and its culture, learners should become familiar with the

“experience of another language, and a different way of coping with reality”(Alptekin, 2002, p 59) Similarly, as Risager (1991) notes, speaking with a nativespeaker includes the ability to act in real life situations, and is not merely aquestion of knowing the grammar and lexis Thus, it is important for the learners

to be involved in communicative acts, as well as in the reality of the target culture,

so that they can understand the cultural references and views that the nativespeakers of the particular target culture possess

2.1 The Current Situation: Do Materials Include L2 Culture?

It is widely acknowledged that textbooks are the main materials used in languageclasses They may be the teacher, the trainer, the authority, the resource, and theideology in the foreign language classroom (Hinkel, 1999) Such textbooks areproduced massively for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as aSecond Language (ESL) purposes all over the world, and aim to meet the needs

of language learners, so that they can function linguistically and culturally well inEnglish communicative acts Thus, it is extremely important that these textbooksinclude the vital components to teach the language, its culture, and areappropriate for learners’ needs, cultural background, and level Yet, regrettably,certain aspects of the target culture, such as oral and written history, literature,music, drama, dance, visual arts, celebrations, and the lifestyle of native speakersare not always represented in these resources, nor are the interculturalphenomena To illustrate, textbooks produced at a national level for particular