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Language Classrooms - Culture and language learning and teaching (Does learning a language mean learning a culture?) - Moving towards a critical understanding of the notion of culture in global cultural flows

8 important questions on Language Classrooms - Culture and language learning and teaching (Does learning a language mean learning a culture?) - Moving towards a critical understanding of the notion of culture in global cultural flows

What was Atkinson's view (1999)?

He reviewed different practises regarding the notion of culture in the field of TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages). One was a received view of culture which regards cultures in their most typical form as geographically distinct entities, as relatively unchanging and homogeneous and as all-encompassing systems of rules or norms that substantially determine personal behaviour.

What was Atkinson's (1999) second practice?

The received-but-critical view, which is critical of the essentialist tendency in the way the term is used, but still sees cultures in some sense as a collection of shared, possibly normative, values.

What was Atkinson's (1999) third practice?

It recognises culture as a problematic concept and turns to terms such as identity as a postmodernist alternative to traditional approaches to culture.

Which approach to culture did Atkinson call for?

A middle-ground approach to culture, arguing that these different views are not necessarily oppositional or mutually exclusive.

What was Risager's (2006, 2007) view?

Languages spread across cultures and cultures spread across languages.

What is an implication of this argument on language and cultural pedagogy?

Learning a language is no longer just getting to know the language area in a geographical sense but the worldwide network of the target language; the target language exists not only as first language, but also second and foreign language.

What did Pennycook (2007) examine?

How global Englishes and transcultural flows form a circular process of local adaptation, transcending local boundaries and influencing other linguistic varieties, and then returning with new forms and meanings.

What did Baker (2009) challenge?

The conventional way of linking one language with one culture. He revealed that cultural forms, practises and frames of reference should not be viewed as predefined categories.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

Exploring Intercultural Communication Language in Action | 9781136029769 | Zhu Hua

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