Job Discussion Forums

[tiberio]

I would like to improve my understanding of how the native culture of students is really affected by studying in a language that is not their own and being taught by foreigners coming from a variety of backgrounds and cultures.

I have tried Google and some journal databases but I wasnt very lucky. Can anyone point me in the right direction, please? Any publications that deal with the topic, any books, research, etc.? I would like to understand underlying mechanisms and theories rather than just work in such an environment and not know enough about it.

Kind regards,
Tiberio

[gaijinalways]

There have been various linguistic studies done on this under the headings of sociolinguistics and cross-cultural influences. Applied linguistics carries some articles as well as ELT journal. Try the TESL journal for articles/abstracts and also the US government ERIC (education resources information center).

[carnac]

I am happy to see someone interested in the effect of L2 (or others) on L1, as this is something I have been working on for some time. I believe the effect is synergistic, the interface of the languages producing something greater than the sum of its parts.
You may be helped by the writings of Professor Istvan Kecskes (google - kecskes linguistics) in such books as "Foreign Language and Mother Tongue" and "Situation-Bound Utterances in L1 and L2".
See for example this link: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/SLA/Multicompetence/MCRefsAnnotated.htm

[sheeba]

I often ponder the question . In my view there is only one way to find this knowledge. Live with the culture you are targetting and learn their language . Since I've been in China I have found a good deal of what has been written is not precise or out of date . Sure you can get some ideas about the areas of difference and concern but you really need to be here to learn and actually experience the culture itself. Books and especially internet(I don't believe anything written on the net) only give you the frame that you need to work with.

If you can't get into the culture then why not try learning the language. You will learn more about the culture from thier language(at least with Chinese anyway) and I imagine many other languages. I learn history and culture in Chinese from books that concentrate on culture. This is the best entry in my view toward the culture. You also learn a lot from word order, idioms , the written language (pictograms)and general expressions.

[tiberio]

thanks a lot for all your advice, it certainly helped me find out more and read into different approaches to the subject.

as for sheeba's comment on living with the culture, i see what you mean, but what I am looking for is a methodology to understand the processes better, a scientific framework. i need to understand better what i am contributing to by educating the youth of a nation in something completely alien to them or their native culture. it is not only about teaching in english language, it is also about teaching concepts that dont naturally work for most of them.

when i was taught french in school, i hated the culture part about it, but on the other hand i was very thrilled by learning about ancient rome in latin class. the difference is however that of course these were only a few hours a week, while these kids here learn english language first and then are taught every other subject in that language as well and i admire them for it, even those who do badly. also of course i was not taught latin by a roman who somehow felt his culture was superior to mine.

i just need to understand better what it is i am part of here, i am new and most of my colleagues unfortunately dont appreciate the host culture and have either become way too sarcastic or fell victim to overestimating their own culture in terms of it's value to others. i am worried about making similar mistakes and this is one reason why i am looking for scientific explanations of the dynamics of cultural change through english language education.

kind regards,
tiberio

[sheeba]