Chapter 1 Introduction
1.3 Significance of the Study
國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
1.2 Purpose of the Study
In response to a lack of studies in examining the implementation of cultural teaching for young learners in Taiwan, this case study addressed this issue by documenting and analyzing the development of a young learners’ attitude toward English learning during the integrated English and culture teaching instruction. The purpose of this study was to examine how the instruction may influence his English learning attitude and also to gain insight from his individual feedbacks and
preferences for the cultural contents on the instruction.
To achieve the objective of the study, the researcher first designed the integrated English and culture teaching material based on the cultural themes derived from the grade 1 and grade 2 Mandarin textbooks used by the participant. The researcher then instructed the participant in a private tutoring session for approximately four months while keeping track of his learning attitude and feedbacks.
1.3 Significance of the Study
The present study has a twofold significance. First, it is hoped that the result of the current study could be taken as a reference for the future design of similar cultural teaching programs for young learners and also, it would contribute to providing in-depth insights into the influence of the cultural instruction that aims to enhance young learners’ English learning attitude and to foster their English learning in the EFL learning context. In sum, the study explored a cultural teaching instruction for a young Taiwanese learner, and hopefully the findings could serve as a reference for the educational institutes, EFL teachers, and future research on young EFL learners.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction
The present chapter contains two main sections. The first section discusses the attitude and motivation research in the field of SLA. Then, the second section lays emphasis on the theoretical framework for culture teaching and learning in language education, including the importance of cultural learning, perspectives on culture teaching, contents and activities for teaching children culture and teaching children culture in the EFL context. Lastly, the final section offers a deliberation of the research summary, which in turn brings forth the research question of this study.
2.1 Attitude and Motivation in SLA
Among all the conative factors in the field of SLA, motivation and attitude have been among the best researched areas (Ortega, 2009) and are regarded as
essential factors that influence the success or failure of L2 learning results (Gardener, 1985). On one hand, according to Dörnyei and Ottó (1998), motivation can be
defined as “the dynamically changing cumulative arousal in a person that initiates, directs, coordinates, amplifies, terminates, and evaluates the cognitive and motor processes whereby initial wishes and desires are selected, prioritized,
operationalised and (successfully or unsuccessfully) acted out ” (p. 65). Canadian researchers Gardener and Lambert (1972), two distinguished scholars in the research of motivation, have indicated that L2 learners’ motivation is influenced by their attitudes towards the L2 community as well as their life goals. They further
identified two common types of orientations of motivation—integrative orientation and instrumental orientation. Integrative orientation refers to L2 learners’ positive
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
attitudes toward the target language groups and their desire to interact with or blend in with those in the L2 community, or in Dörnyei’s (2003) interpretation, “the cultural and intellectual values associated with the language, as well as to the actual L2 itself”
(p.6). Instrumental orientation, on the contrary, refers to L2 learners’ drive to obtain potential utilitarian benefits gaining from their proficiency of L2, such as getting a better job, receiving greater education, or having higher salary (Dörnyei, 1994; Ellis, 2008). Inspired by Gardener and Lambert’s research, the SLA research community has thus far produced voluminous studies with the hope of further deepening and complementing the L2 motivation theory. Among which, one particular motivation research that has received wide attention was the distinction between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation (e.g., Brown, 2007; Dickinson, 1995; Dörnyei, 1994). Intrinsic motivation refers to self-initiated desire of engaging in L2 learning activities; learners exhibit high level of motivation purely because of their enjoyment or satisfaction derived from those activities (Dörnyei, 2001). Studies have also indicated that L2 learners who are intrinsically motivated have relatively higher chance to develop learning autonomy and hence achieve higher L2 competence. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation compels individuals to carry out behaviors driven by exogenous factors such as the desire to receive reward or better grades. This type of motivation with high level of externality is often deemed as less ideal, for L2 learners may have higher propensity of losing natural interest and turn out to become passive in L2 activities.
Attitude, on the other hand, is another critical affective component that can be defined as “an organized and consistent manner of thinking, feeling and reacting to people, group, social issue or more generally, to any event in the environment”
(Lambert & Lambert, 1973, p.72). In the context of L2 learning, L2 learning
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
attitude thus refers to learners’ reaction exuded, feelings, or response toward language learning based on the belief and opinions they hold. According to Wenden (1991), learners’ learning attitude can be distinguished into three dimensions: affective, behavioral and cognitive, which are supposed to be interconnected and influenced by each other. Affective attitude refers to the emotional aspect that one harbors toward an object, as English learning being the case, and whether he/ she likes or dislikes it.
Behavioral attitude, on the other hand, involves one’s action, behavioral tendency, and interest toward English learning. Lastly, the cognitive attitude is related to the
learner’s beliefs, viewpoints, ideas, and perceived usefulness about English learning.
It is widely accepted that attitude is a critical conative element in L2 acquisition in that entertaining favorable attitude towards the target language and its speakers may in turn stimulate an innate desire for learners to start the engine of learning motivation, which could contribute to the success to the language learning.
2.2 Young L2 Learners’ Leaning Attitude and Motivation
L2 learners’ learning attitude and motivation are influenced by a variety of factors, including L2 learning experience, instructional setting, social supports, self-confidence when using the language, and so on (Ortega, 2009). For young L2 learners who are yet mature in their cognitive and moral development, it is suggested that environmental or situational variables, for example, learning contexts, teaching materials, classroom activities, and teachers’ teaching strategies in maintaining and gaining students’ interest, play more crucial roles in shaping their attitude as well as motivation (Dörnyei,1998; Nikolov,1999). In other words, children’s L2 motivation and attitude are more prone to influences like “how lessons are taught, whether the activities in class are interesting and meaningful to them and whether the learners
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
are feeling comfortable and not under unbearable pressure in the class” (Huang, 2011, p.187). Therefore, in order to cultivate intriscincally motivated L2 learners, teachers ought to take into account aforementioned variables in the execution of their lessons, the choosing of suitable materials, and the designing of pertinent and interesting activities, for they all have influence on the learners’ motivation and attitude. Also, teachers have to be encouraging and supportive to create a learning environment that is comfortable, joyful and anxiety-free.
In sum, it is beyond doubt that motivation and attitude play significant roles in determining L2 achievement. An unabated and continuous motivation sustains students’ L2 learning drive, gives them greater oppurtunities to master L2, and assists them to march toward autonomous learners in the lifelong L2 learning journey.
2.3 Theoretical Framework for Culture Teaching and Learning
Any seasoned instructors and teachers would agree that cultural learning could serve as a great and effective channel to cultivate and motivate young L2 learners via interesting, relevant, and meaningful world knowledge. Just as what Brooks (1997) wrote, to involve students’ attention, interest, and active participation in language class, the integration of a systematic cultural studies is a way to go. The following section is the analysis of the theoretical framework of cultural teaching and learning in language education, including (1) the importance of culture teaching in FLL, (2) perspectives of culture teaching, (3) general objectives of culture
teaching, (4) contents and activities for teaching children culture and (5) teaching children culture in the EFL context.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
2.3.1 The Importance of Culture Teaching in Foreign Language Learning (FLL) It is vital to treat the development of both intercultural as well as language competence in L2 learning with equal weight. It has been widely agreed upon by SLA researchers that communicative competence should be seen as the ultimate goal in second language learning. This advocacy by researchers and practitioners has added new strength and purpose to the fundamentals of language acquisition. According to Bachman (1990), communicative competence is composed of two main components:
organizational competence and pragmatic competence. The former is related to grammatical and discourse elements while the latter includes sociocultural aspects of language. Simply put, to communicate appropriately and successfully, language learners ought to be proficient in these two distinct but intimately related components;
that is, they are expected to communicate in both linguistically and culturally correct fashion to succeed in intercultural communication.
Moreover, myriads of literature have addressed the importance of incorporating the teaching of cultural dimension into the foreign language learning to foster students’
intercultural communicative competence (ICC) as one of the major goals in language classrooms (e.g., Deneme, Ada & Uzun, 2011; Byram, Gribkova & Starkey, 2002; Ho, 2009; Kramsch, 1998, 2006; Valencia & Medina 2009). The concept of ICC in
language education refers to “the ability to ensure a shared understanding by people of different social identities, and the ability to interact with people as complex human beings with multiple identities and their own individuality” (Byram, et al., 2002 ). In other words, acquiring ICC means that students would deepen their understanding about themselves and others by constructing meaning via different language sources and consciously comparing their own culture with others’ (Harrop, 2012). Therefore,
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
language curriculums should also offer opportunities to introduce cultural issues to help raise students’ awareness of others.
Last but not least, teaching culture is quintessential because it could be highly effective to raise student’s interest and motivation in their quest toward FLL. It has been reported that culture learning leads to heightened motivation, and working through a variety of culturally-based activities allows students to know, to compare, and to acquire both target and native cultural information (Hammerly, 1982; Tsou, 2005)—a joyful learning experience that inadvertently facilitate FLL. According to Kramsch (1998), by transferring students’ attention away from language forms, such as grammar and vocabulary study, culture learning provides a channel to make students learn a foreign language more meaningfully and thus more interestingly.
After recognizing the importance of incorporating culture in the foreign language classrooms, the researcher moves on to explore the cultural perspectives, goals of cultural teaching, contents and activities for teaching culture, and the teaching of culture to children in the following section. All of which will contribute to the effective making of clear guidelines, principles and suggestion on the
integration of culture teaching into language curriculum.
2.3.2 Perspectives of Culture Teaching
A succession of theorists have made contributions to theorizing perspectives and models of culture teaching and learning, most of which provide useful components for teachers to make pedagogical decision on what perspectives they should take on their culture curriculum. The following section categorizes some common perspectives on culture teaching and learning.
1. Culture specific and culture general perspectives
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
The first common perspective on culture teaching and learning is the distinction between two perspectives: culture specific and culture general. According to Moran (2011), culture specific perspective emphasizes the acquisition of knowledge related to a particular culture. When applying this perspective on the culture curriculum, the instructors provide relevant cultural information of the target culture and expect students to acquire the information and develop the ability to explain the cultural components, such as behavior and attitude of that specific culture. Culture-general perspective, on the other hand, refers to the understanding toward the nature of culture itself in general. Moran (2011) explained that the focus of cultural learning under this perspective lies not in the acquisition of specific cultural knowledge but in the general understanding of different cultural aspects, including perspectives, products, practices, and communities.
2. The foreign-cultural, intercultural, multicultural, or transcultural perspectives Risager (1998) proposed four types of approaches to teaching culture, including the foreign-cultural, intercultural, multicultural, and transcultural perspectives. In her words, the foreign-cultural approach, similar to the mono-cultural approach aims at introducing the notion of a single target culture without giving any attention on the learners’ own native culture. The objective of adopting such an approach lies in developing learners’ native-like communicative and cultural competence.
The intercultural approach, on the other hand, gives focus on both the target culture and the learners’ own culture by virtue of offering opportunities for learners to compare different cultures. Therefore, while the target culture is still the main focus under this perspective, the learners’ own culture is also introduced to afford them a chance to reflect upon their own culture. The objective of this approach is to cultivate the students’ non-ethnocentric view and also to develop their ICC.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
The third perspective on culture suggested by Risager (1998), the multicultural approach, also puts a dual focus on the target and the learners’ native culture. This type of approach does not view culture as a monolithic chunk; instead, it extends the view of culture by recognizing that a cultural entity, say a country, is composed of different sub-cultures within its territory. Under this perspective, Risager suggested that multifarious cultural views and pluralistic community values that coexist within that sphere of multiculturalism have the capacity of influencing one another and therefore should be discussed and presented. The aim of this approach is then to develop the learners’ reflective and anti-racist view to the culture.
The last one is the trans-cultural approach. This approach is based on the idea that in a globalized world, our frequent and massive communication and interactions among cultures have made humanity of different backgrounds closer to one another and have also made the world cultures intertwine with each other. Hence, language teachers should correspond to this reality by treating foreign language as a lingua franca. That is, in addition to the knowledge about the target culture and the learners’
native culture, the learners are also expected to able to use the language appropriately in different cultural contexts (Risager, 1998).
2.3.3 General Objectives of Culture Teaching
Like designing any types of language learning curriculum, teachers and practitioners who aim to incorporate culture learning into foreign language
classrooms will need clear objectives to organize systematic and coherent lessons.
The following section will present general culture teaching objectives. First, in setting goals for culture teaching, most researchers devoted to culture learning have agreed unanimously that the goals of culture teaching should include not merely the
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
acquisition of cultural information but also the fostering of high level of sensitivity that allows students to become cultured minds who embrace the open-minded, reflective, and positive attitude toward other cultures. For instance, Louise (1990) pointed out that in designing culture learning, the objectives of culture learning should not be limited into introducing specific information. Instead, it should put more focus on providing an experience within which students get to practice different ways of culture learning. She provided six general goals which she believed to be suitable for any cross-cultural and intercultural learning. The six goals are as follows (Louise, 1990, p.247):
1. To expand cultural awareness of both the student’s native culture and the target culture.
2. To increase tolerance and acceptance of the existence of different values, attitudes, and belief system as part of target culture.
3. To encourage a seeking to understand the new and different cultural patterns.
4. To develop intercultural communicative skills in areas in which cross-cultural similarities occur.
5. To develop a perspective of cross-cultural awareness that recognizes cultural differences and fosters understanding of strength found in diversity.
6. To develop an attitude of acceptance toward change personal adjustment to foster personal flexibility in order to open avenues for learning and growth throughout a lifetime; and to understand that culture shock is a natural.
Likewise, Seelye (1997) also shared the view of having the learners acquire more than cultural facts as the goal of culture learning, for he believed the ultimate
objective of culture learning should also involve developing understanding, attitude,
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
and performance skills so that the students could act and communicate culturally appropriate when interacting with other cultures. The six main goals he proposed are as follows (Seelye, 1997, p.102):
1. Interest: The students show curiosity about another culture and empathy toward its members.
2. Who: The students recognize how social variables, such as age, sex, social class, religion, ethnicity and place of residence affect the way people speak and behave.
3. What: The students know what culturally conditioned images are evoked in the minds when they think, act, and react the world around them.
4. Where and when: The students recognize that the situational variable and convention shape behavior in important ways.
5. Why: The students realize that people generally act the way they do due to some underlying reasons, and cultural behavior and patterns are interrelated.
6. Exploration: The students can evaluate a statement about the target culture reasonably and have the skills to locate and organize information about culture.
Likewise, as mentioned previously, developing students’ ICC is crucial and has been recognized as one of the necessary learning goals in language education (e.g., Byram, et al., 2002; Zarate, Gohard-Radenkovic, Lussier & Penz, 2004). To illustrate what language learners need of acquiring ICC, Byram et al. (2002) distinguished ICC into five different savoirs (knowledge and skills) that also serve as useful criteria for setting culture teaching objectives. The five savoirs are summarized as follows (Byram et al., 2002, p. 7-9):
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
1. Intercultural attitudes (savoir être): one’s open-minded and tolerant attitude toward other cultures and the understanding that different cultures value different perspectives, beliefs and behaviors from their own.
2. Knowledge (savoir): the knowledge that one has about other social groups in learners’ own society or country, such as their cultural products, practices.
This type of knowledge also includes the understanding of how society processes and how people interact in a society.
3. Skills of interpreting and relating (savoir comprendre): the ability that enables one to compare, relate and interpret the behaviors, perspectives of other cultures.
4. Skills of discovery and interaction (savoir apprendre/faire): the ability that allows one to acquire new cultural knowledge during an intercultural communication.
5. Critical cultural awareness (savior engager): the ability to critically examine and evaluate one’s own native culture
From the goals listed above, it can be summarized that the principal goals of culture teaching in language curriculum should include not just the acquisition of cultural information but also the development of the competence; these objectives can therefore help students become global citizens who have multicultural
understanding and who can act and communicate successfully in cross-cultural communication.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
2.3.4 Contents and Activities for Teaching Children Culture
A legion of activities have been proposed to achieve the aforementioned cultural teaching objectives. Some common activities are role plays, simulations, story-telling, dramas, and culture capsules to name but a few (Byram et al., 2001; Hadley & Reiken,
A legion of activities have been proposed to achieve the aforementioned cultural teaching objectives. Some common activities are role plays, simulations, story-telling, dramas, and culture capsules to name but a few (Byram et al., 2001; Hadley & Reiken,