Culture Acquisition in English Instruction andEffective Intercultural Communication1. The Purpose of the StudyThus, in considering culture acquisition at school in this paper, the purpose will be to seek for the way of culture learning which leads to an effective interculturalcommunication. In other words, the primary concerns sin this Paper are as follows: Firstly, what culture learning will be more likely to lead to the reduction of the impact of prejudice, bias?, and hostility between People based on cultural group memberships.
Secondly, what culture learning will make it possible for learners to preventmiscommunication from occurring in intercultural encounters. Thirdly, what culture learning will equip the learners with knowledge, perspective and attitude to minimize the negative impacts on them and on others when misunderstanding or miscommunication does occur.. Finally, the author of the Paper Will make out a framework about what kind of culture learning is likely to lead to the effectiveintercultural communication, and will Present several Principles on the basis of the framework. Then the Practices of the actual instructions will be examined on the basis of the Principles.
2. Communication and CultureGallois and Callna(1997) give us various perspectives how communication andCulture interrelate with each other in real intercultural communication settings:??¦to some extent, culture is communication, in that cultural knowledge, including values, Are communicated constantly(15).??¦for many people the definition of culture is communication, as culture comprises the knowledge, beliefs, values, and Practices that are constantly transmitted in conversation, written communication, and non-verbal behavior(22).
3. The Effective Intercultural CommunicationIn terms of a number of strategies for intercultural Communication, Gallois and Callan(1999: 153 ) summarize that all the Points have the goal of ??? making the Communication less inter-group and more interpersonal???. In this way, the effective Intercultural communication can be defined as the state that the Personal identity is more salient. On the other hand, the ineffective intercultural communication will be defined as the state when the social identity is more salient.
?·4 . Culture Acquisition by Small Culture ApproachHolliday (1999)explains culture learning in terms of theLarge and small culture Approach as follows: In the large culture approach culture learning tends to be??? other, or??? foreign??™directed. In contrast, in the small culture approach, culture learning will focus on searching for demarcating and observing the interaction between several cultures within a target scenario5. Frameworks Aiming at Process LearningThis paper would like to make out an original frame of reference on the basis of several frameworks Which Hadley(1993)Presents in the book?·As a basic framework, the paper will adopt one of Lafayette(1988), Who maintains that culture is still the weakest component of our curricula, Partly because cultural material receives uneven treatment in textbooks and Partly because many teachers lack fist-hand knowledge of the culture and o/r appropriate techniques for teaching it. Lafayette (1988)Provides a set of 13 goal statements that he groups intoFive categories. The goal statements are Presented in a somewhat modified form, incorporating the category r designations he describes as follows: Group I: Knowledge of formal or??? high culture : Students will be able torecognize/explain??¦1.
major geographical monuments2. majo historical events3. majornistitutions4. major artistic accomplishmentsGroup ll: Knowledge of everyday ??? Popular” culture: Students will be able torecognize/explain??¦5.??? active,, cultural Patterns, consisting of functions or tasks related to everydayliving(such as eating, shopping, travels, obtaining lodging, etc.)6.
??? Passive,, everyday cultural Patterns (consisting of underlying realities, such as Social stratification, work, marriage, etc.)Students will be able to??¦7. act appropriately in common everyday situations8.
use appropriate common gesturesGroup III : Affective objectives: Students will be able to, 9, value different Peoples and societiesGroup IV: Multicultural objectives: Students will be able to recognize/explain the culture of??¦10. target language-related ethnic groups in the United States11. non-EuroPean Peoples speaking the target language(Canada, Africa, SouthAmerica, etc.)GroupV: Process objectives: Students will be able to??¦12. evaluate the validity of statements about culture13. develop skills needed to locate and organize information; about culture(Basedon Lafyette1988, P49? 50; inHadley(1993))6. Six Principles for Culture instructionPrinciple lCulture acquisition should not be restricted to the learning of formal or??? high,, culture, but it should mainly include the learning of everyday or??? Popular,, culture, which is more to do with our social environments. Principle 2Culture acquisition should be highly concerned with the aspect of verbal andNonverbal communication such as common wards and phrases, gestures, and behaviors.
It should incorporate??? Process learning,, so that it will sensitize learners to the interaction of communication and culture. Principle 3Culture learning should Provide learners with chances of transfiguration of theirviewpoints about the interaction of communication and culture. An Example of Communication Activity: the Use of the Perception CheckingPrinciple 4Culture acquisition should not be limited to the treatment of national or ethnic level culture, so that learner will acquire perspective diversity toward others.
Principle 5Culture learning should not be equated with the learning of the culture of English speaking countries and peoples, nor the adaptation of it. It should deal with varieties of countries and Peoples, so that learners will appreciate the value of cultural diversityPrinciple 6Culture acquisition should place high priority on the learning of the culture oflearners??™own country and people. ConclusionCulture is communication.
Thus culture acquisition should Provide learners withchances of transfiguration of their viewpoints about the interaction of communication and culture, so that they will successfully cope with a new situation. Only learners have achieved the diversity of Perspectives, not in the stereotypical or Prejudiced Perspectives, the intercultural communication can be more interpersonal. 09??? ???
