Language, Culture and Learning

Language, Culture and Learning

1. Language

   • Language as code
     • language is made up of words and a series of rules that connect words together.
     • It sees language as fixed and finite and does not explore the complexities involved in using language for communication.
   • Language as social practice
     • Our understanding of language influences our curriculum, planning and classroom pedagogies.
     • People use language for purposeful communication and learning
     • Language is used to create and represent
   • Language and culture
     • Language and culture is central to the process of learning another language
     • Both the learner’s culture and the culture in which meaning is created or communicated have aninfluence on the ways in which possible meanings are understood.
     • Learning to communicate involves developing an awareness of the ways in which culture interrelates with language whenever it is used

2. Culture

   • Static and dynamic approaches to culture
     • The most static way to approach the teaching of a culture typically emphasises artefacts, institutions and factual knowledge
     • The most dynamic approach to culture is represented by the lower right hand quadrant, which sees learners actively engage with the practices of a cultural group. Artefacts
   • The intercultural dimension
     • all human beings are shaped by their cultures and that communicating across cultures involves accepting both one’s own culturally conditioned nature
       • The intercultural framework proposed here, then, consists of three intersecting dimensions for understanding approaches to the teaching of culture in language learning:
         • the nature of content: artefact-practice • the nature of learning: fact-process • the nature of the educational effect: cultural-intercultura
     • Learning about culture in the language classroom
       • Noticing cultural similarities and differences
       • comparing what one has noticed about another language and culture
       • Reflecting on what one’s experience of linguistic and cultural diversity means for oneself
       • Interacting on the basis of one’s learning and experiences of diversity

3. Learning theories

   • In thinking about teaching, learning and assessing in languages education, it is essential for us to consider the understandings that we hold and the assumptions that we make about learning.
   • Theories of learning
     • Behaviourism
       • Behaviourism was based on stimulus-response associations
       • All the constituent parts of learning are to be mastered before proceeding to the next part (objective) in the hierarchy, gradually leading to a complex whole.
       • Motivation involves positive reinforcement of the many small steps in learning and forming good habits
       • Development is seen as occurring through a series of required stages, in a step-by-step process. The
       • The major concerns
         • learning is broken down into ever-smaller, analytic parts that are no longer integrated to form a whole
         • learning entails much more than a response to a stimulus
         • learning is task and context dependent
     • Cognitive theories
       • Learning within these theories is understood as a process of active construction whereby each individual makes sense of new information in his/her mind by mapping it onto his/her existing framework of knowledge and understanding.
       • Students learn by relating new experiences to what they already
       • Learning involves making new meanings which are generally expressed through language
     • Sociocultural theories
       • Learning according to this theory is developed through social interaction with more knowledgeable or more proficient others.
       • It is through this social and cultural process that students are socialised to act, communicate and ‘be’ in ways that are culturally appropriate to the groups in which they participate as members, and through which identities are formed.
       • language is central to the process of conceiving meaning, which is integral to learning.
     • Merged theories
       • Learning, then, is socially constructed, mediated through language and other tools that are congruent with the culture in which the learner and learning are situated, and develops over time.
       • tudents bring with them their own conceptions, misconceptions, understandings, experiences and feelings Sthat shape their learning.
     • Acquisition and participation
       • Learning within the acquisition metaphor involves the accumulation of a body of facts or items of knowledge that are abstracted and generalised
       • The focus within this metaphor is not on possession but on participation in various kinds of activities characteristic of a learning area as the learner gradually becomes a member of the subject community
     • Second language learning
       • A behaviourist approach to second language learning focuses on imitation, practice, encouragement and habit formation.
       • language learning is an innate capacity – that children are programmed to acquire language thanks to their in-built knowledge of a Universal Grammar
       • There is a strong connection between learning and identity: learners need to negotiate constantly who they are, and how they can be/ should be/ would like to be in the language and culture they are learning.
     • The role of language
       • The role of language in learning cannot be over-emphasised. Language is the prime resource teachers have and use for mediating learning
       • Through intercultural language learning, students engage with and learn to understand and interpret human communication and interaction in increasingly sophisticated ways.
       • , intercultural language learning is best understood not as something to be added to teaching and learning but rather something that is integral to the interactions that already (and inevitably) takes place in the classroom and beyond.
         • Active construction: active engagement in interpreting and creating meaning in interaction with others
         • Making connections: Learning is developed firstly through social interactions (interpersonally) and then internally within the mind of the individual (intrapersonally).
         • Interaction: Learning and communication are social and interactive
         • Reflection: Learning involves becoming aware of how we think, know and learn about language
         • Responsibility: Learning depends on learners’ attitudes, dispositions and values, developed over time