Annotated Bibliography
Language Learning and Culture in EFL Secondary School
(SooHyun Kim, JuHyun Lee, Kyoungchun Kim)
Citation 1:
Grau, M. (2009). Worlds apart? English in German youth cultures and in educational settings. World language,28(2), 160-174.
Summary:
This study focuses on German teenagers and their contact with English in two different contexts: in free-time activities typically involving the mass media, and in institutionalized language learning settings at school. The first objective of the study was to find out more about teenagers’ contacts with English in their free time, especially concerning TV, music, computer games, internet, and travel. This was the starting point for the second aim, which explored aspects of the English language classroom and especially the relevance of the students’ out-of-school language exposure to the institutionalized learning environment.
This paper sets out to explore the needs of a specific group of language users. An interesting feature about this group is their exposure to English from a number of different Sources. With their compulsory English lessons in school on the one hand and a variety of free-time activities on the other, often including exposure to media such as TV, the radio, and the internet, teenagers in Germany today have a more varied and unique contact with their target language than past generations. Another focus lies on the teachers' perceptions of their students' contact with English outside school and on their practice in the classroom as to whether and how they use this experience in class. The data suggests that out-of-class contact with English is often not integrated into the EFL classroom. Thus, the classroom and the students' free time seem to be, by and large, two separate spheres, involving different methods of exposure to English in terms of text types, topics, activities, and language varieties
Review:
According to the article, the main aim of the enquiry was to find out how teenagers experience learning English in school in the light of their exposure to the language in their free time. The article compares the role of the English language in the teenagers in free time and in school. The article also shows us the potential influence of the interaction with the English language outside school on the classroom. We can see how teenager use and improve English in their free time especially concerning TV, music, computer games, internet, and travel, and how out-of-class English learning effects and motivate into a class through the article.
Citation 2:
Ghahremani-Ghajar, S., Mirhosseini, S. A. (2005). English class or speaking about everything class? Dialogue journal writing as a critical EFL literacy practice in an Iranian high school. Language, Culture & Curriculum, 18(3), 286-298
Summary:
In ‘critical language pedagogy’ (Brown, 1997; Reagan & Osborn, 2002), learners must also have the opportunity to think about what to communicate, then, pursues the joint goals of developing communicative language abilities and simultaneously applying this ability to developing a critical understanding and awareness of the world . By applying critical language pedagogy to foreign language teaching, learners are not only given the chance to learn the foreign language in context and to use it in authentic situations, but also they are given the opportunity to do more than language learning, to think and act as critically conscious beings (Graman, 1988).
This study was an effort to explore the contribution of DJW to critical pedagogical values in language education, empowerment in particular. This qualitative study, employing an ethnographic research method, investigates how dialogue journal writing, which allows teachers and learners to engage in `written conversation', may provide an opportunity to bring critical pedagogy and foreign language education together in a productive way in the context of a critical literacy practice. The investigation has been made to see how dialogue journal writing may contribute to the Empowerment of high school learners of English as a foreign language? Second, how may writing dialogue journals help learners move beyond descriptive uncritical writing and towards critical self-reflective writing? The data consisted of informal written interviews and more than 600 journal entries written by 30 16-year-old high school students in Tehran.
The results were qualitatively analyzed in search of themes relevant to empowerment as a critical educational value and critical writing as a critical literacy practice. The study revealed that writing dialogue journals as a language education activity in EFL pedagogy may empower learners and provide them with opportunities to express their `voice'. It further revealed that dialogue journal writing led to gains in critical self-reflective EEL writing ability.
Review:
The present study examined the role of dialogue journaling in Iranian students’ critical English writing development. The examination has been made to show us how much dialogue journal writing has related with critical writing and how much they affect each other. As for the practice to writing journals develop the patterns of change from uncritical writing to critical self-reflection writing, and week of their voice to express their strong voice.
Citation 3:
Castro, P., Sercu, L. & Méndez García, M. C. (2004). Integrating language-and-culture teaching: an investigation of Spanish teachers' perceptions of the objectives of foreign language education. Intercultural Education, 15(1), 91-104.
Summary:
This article reports on an investigation among Spanish secondary school EFL teachers, focusing on the extent to which teachers support the new culture-and-language teaching objectives. The study’s research questions were about Spanish teachers’ perceptions regarding the objectives of foreign language education, Spanish teachers’ perceptions regarding culture teaching objectives, and distribution of teaching time over language teaching and culture teaching. The results of this research illustrate that teachers are eager to support the new objectives, but they face conflicts when they have to prioritize language teaching and culture teaching objectives.
The intercultural aspect in foreign language education has recently become a particular interest for foreign language teachers. Teachers are now expected to educate the foreign linguistic code, and to contextualize that code against the sociocultural background related with the foreign language and to encourage the acquisition of intercultural communicative competence. The success of that innovation depends on teachers’ perceptions of the innovation.
The main results of the study about teachers’ perceptions are as follows. Firstly, the way teachers recognize the objectives of foreign language education is reflected in the amount of time they spend on language and culture teaching. Secondly, the way teachers were taught as students influences how they approach teaching. That is, teachers’ recent perceptions of priorities in foreign language education mirror the approach to teaching which the teachers experienced themselves as students of foreign languages. Finally, teachers may confront conflicting beliefs, another finding that has arisen from research of teachers’ beliefs.
Review:
According to this article, teachers’ perceptions of the objectives of foreign language education are influential in language-and-culture education and Spanish foreign language teachers prioritize language teaching objectives over culture teaching objectives. However, they are eager to try and achieve culture learning objectives in foreign language education. Since teachers are inclined to interculturalize foreign language education, teacher training programs can build on this willingness, demonstrate to teachers how they can advance and help them to enhance their confidence to teach intercultural competence, and thus prepare their students for life in today’s multicultural and globalized world.
Citation 4:
Wang, W., Xuesong, G (2008). English language education in China: A review of selected research. Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development, 29(5), 380-389.
Summary:
This paper reviews the result of research on English language education in China published in 24 international journals from 2001 to 2006. It describes the nature of this collection of research in detail. The review covers research under six categories; General context of ELT in China, English used in China, language policy and planning, curriculum implementation, learners’ experiences and the professional development of English teachers in China.
The paper also identifies the gaps that future research needs to address, such as the dynamic nature of the Chinese culture of learning, the recognition of Chinese English as a variety of English. It shows teaching and learning in settings including non-elite colleges, secondary and primary schools, and schools for ethnic minorities, too. It has reference to relevant literature, aiming to establish the trend of research on English language education in China and suggests for future research.
Review:
According to this article, culture is an important source of influences on Chinese learners and teachers and nature and extent of cultural influences on learning need to be explored in great depth. The findings on the culture of learning in China need to be interpreted in a context of rapid social changes in China. This article indicates that more systematic research is needed to make any substantial claims relating to China’s own variety of English. In the area of language policy and planning, classroom practices are the key to the implementation of language policy and curriculum and there needs to be more practical research into local responses or adaptation practices of national policies and curricula.
This research has weakness that it is defined by a certain group of elite students with no regard to their ethnic origins, therefore, the finding are not readily applicable to the understanding of the enormous challenges and difficulties facing thousands of Chinese ethnic and linguistic minority students in learning English. As a result, more research efforts are required urgently.
Citation 5:
Savignon, J., Sisoyev, V. (2002). Sociocultural strategies for a dialogue of cultures. Modern Language Journal, 86(4), 508-524.
Summary:
There is often a lack of learner opportunity for out-of-classroom interaction in school foreign language programs. This lack of opportunity puts learners at serious disadvantage when faced with the inevitable psychological, linguistic, and sociocultural obstacles in second language communication. This article reports the findings of a study that attempted to operationalize the concept of sociocultural competence for classroom learners and explore the benefit to learners of explicit training in strategies for coping with certain social and cultural situations.
The goal of the study was to encourage learners’ sociocultural competence with a view to preparing them for a dialogue of cultures which is essential to intercultural communication. This report includes 3 sections: (a) a taxonomy of sociocultural strategies, (b) the description of a method of explicit strategy training developed for use in a Russian high school English as a foreign language (EFL) program, and (c) the outcome of an experimental program in explicit instruction in sociocultural strategies with a class of 11th grade EFL learners.
Review:
This article shows that the explicit teaching of sociocultural strategies in a communication-based foreign language program proved successful in several aspects. Since the real L2 communication and interaction with representatives of L2 cultures may be a worrisome for many foreign language students, they seem to get benefit from strategy training. It has concluded that L2 learners can be prepared for a dialogue of cultures through the explicit teaching of sociocultural strategies.
The taxonomy of sociocultural strategies included two types: (a) strategies for establishing and maintaining intercultural contact, and (b) strategies for creating sociocultural portraits of a L2 context and the participations in intercultural communication. There are three stages in a method of explicit training in the use of such strategies- (a) explanation, (b) exploration, and (c) expression. According to this article, explicit strategy training can play a significant role of a L2 curriculum in preparing learners for intercultural communication in a dialogue of cultures
