Pedagogical sciences/. Modern teaching methods

Student of Master Degree Shyngysbayev R.A.

Candidate of pedagogical science Gaurieva G.M.

L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University

Approaches to the integration of non-linguistic elements into the FL

Not so long ago, in foreign language teaching, teachers usually focused on the language points and didn’t pay much attention to the culture introduction in language teaching, so most students lacked the ability to use the language properly while they know a great many of words and grammar knowledge well. They may make a lot of mistakes when communicating with foreign people.

In foreign language teaching, teacher should not only let students know the basic knowledge of the language, the grammar, but also the culture knowledge.

But what and how to teach are still the two problems faced by foreign language teachers.

Language is one of the most important carriers of culture and reflects the latter. If there is no language, culture would not be known. On the one hand, culture is the basis and one of the most important attributes of language and exerts great influence on the latter. [1]

Integrating culture into the curriculum has been examined by scholars for many years but it was not until the 1980s that scholars like Kramsch and Byram began to think of language and culture as inseparable.

Byram has defined the notion of cultural studies in foreign language education and put forward a model for teaching foreign language and culture. According to him, foreign language educations should include four fundamental components, namely, language learning, language awareness, culture awareness and cultural experience. By combining the use of learners first language and foreign language through comparative analysis and new cultural experience, Byram believes that will provide an integrative approach for teaching and learning language and culture. He shared Buttjes's view about cultural content as a prime motivator for language learning. [2]

According to Kramcsh, the teaching of culture in foreign language has taken two main directions: one has focused on cultural information, statistical information, institutional structures and facts of civilization, highbrow information. The classics of literature and arts, lowbrow information, the foods, fairs, and folklore's of everyday life, the other has been to situate culture within an interpretive framework, taken from cross-cultural psychology or cultural anthropology, using universal categories of human behavior and procedures for making sense of foreign reality. [3]

Teaching cultures should not be separate from other forms of cross cultural communication. It is a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate in similar and different ways among themselves, and how they endeavor to communicate across cultures.

What Should the Learners Do?

* To get culturally aware in the language classroom, learners should:

* Work with authentic materials derived from the communities, who use the language,

* Be able to contact with the native speakers of the language, from these contacts and materials they will know the similarities and differences between their own and the second culture,

* Get a quasi-identity with the people of the second culture,

* Use this knowledge to develop a more objective view of their customs and ways of thinking.

* Make the second language teachers pledge to take more responsible role in presenting cultural aspects.

* Identify the subtle differences in their own culture when compared to the culture of the second language they are learning and behavioral modification exercises can be given in the class. [4, 116-117]

As a matter of fact, the most difficult thing for the language learners to deal with in their study of the foreign language is not the linguistic forms or grammar, but the cultural difference.

Sun, Li. in her paper "Culture teaching in foreign language teaching" puts a question: what is the fundamental principle to be obeyed so as to eliminate as many barriers as possible on account of cultural difference. [1] Further, she identifies three basic principles: firstly, step by step principle. Developing. students cultural awareness should follow the basic sequence of from simplicity to complexity, from surface to depth. The teachers must be conscious of the general level of his students and constantly adjust to it the scope and depth of his cultural teaching. In this sense, we may call for a systematic program for culture teaching. Secondly, appropriateness principle. In cultivating students cultural awareness, we must bear in mind that the ultimate goal of teaching culture is to promote their linguist knowledge and communicative competence. The teacher should strike a proper balance between linguistic teaching and culture teaching to avoid going to the other extreme of rejecting the teaching of linguistic knowledge. Thirdly, as know, culture covers a wide range including geography, art, custom, history and science. There are sub-branches under each culture. The teacher is to distinguish the mainstream from the less important and to introduce to the students the mainstream.

Culture teaching is a long and complex process concerning something more than language use itself. In teaching culture, the aim is to increase students' awareness and to develop their curiosity towards the target culture and their own, helping them to make comparisons among cultures. The comparisons are not meant to underestimate any of the cultures being analyzed, but to enrich students' experience and to make them aware that although some culture elements are being globalized, there is still diversity among cultures. This diversity should then be understood, and never underestimated.

Below we try to give some popular culture teaching devices commonly recognized in teaching practice.

1 Describing and explaining the culture

One of the commonest methods of presenting the cultural information has been by exposition and explanation. For this method, teachers could choose to talk the geography, the history, the literature, the art, the scientific achievements and the small details of a foreign people. These culture talks could be part of their subject teaching or some special topics particularly for foreign culture teaching. Actually, sometimes, it could be replaced by some new approaches. For example, this information could be presented by groups of students or by individual students. In the beginning, when culture readings are supplementing basic language practice, it may be prepared by the students in their native language. As soon as they have a higher command of language, they could present them in target language, which can be an exciting exchange of idea, both in class and at some out-of-class occasions. Of course, these two methods are, to some extent, lack of variety and inspiration. So we suggest that these presentations from teachers or students be accompanied by visual illustration in the form of charts, diagrams, maps, and pictures, with films and slides where it is necessary and available.

2 Experiencing culture through language use

While trying the first method, we may encounter such a problem: Can we take time in our language class for the teaching of culture background in this way? There is another approach which doesn't take time from the essential work of language learning, that is, teaching for culture understanding is fully integrated with the process of assimilation of syntax and vocabulary. Since language is closely interwoven with every aspect of culture, this approach is possible, when the teachers involved are well informed and alert to cultural differences and thus, their students absorb the meaning in many small ways. This awareness should be part of every language teaching classroom where the teacher should orient the thinking of the students so that they will feel curious about such differences and become observant as they listen and read, applying what they have perceived in their active oral work.

3 Dialogues and mini-dramas

Usually, in a conventional teacher-student situation, students feel foolish if asked to respond in a foreign way with an accurate imitation of the sounds of the language and with appropriate gestures. In this case, situations are proposed which students then act out in a culturally authentic fashion, a common method used in language teaching called dialogue or mini-drama. Each dialogue should be constructed around an experience compatible with the age and interests of the students. As students become familiar with the dialogue and act it out, they can learn through role playing how to interact with all kinds of people, as they did in their own culture. Such experience are valuable than many lines of comment and explanation.

In terms of the material, some textbooks deliberately began with dialogues reflecting common and everyday experience of the students in their native culture. But acting out dialogues of this type confirms the impression of many students that the new language is the native language in a new dress which students are very familiar with in any case. In other textbooks, one finds the dialogue are deliberately kept "culturally neutral" which will be inevitably interpreted by the students as familiar patterns of their own cultures. The two cases are, to some degree, deprive the students from being exposed to the real situation, and thus should be avoided. So authenticity of situational material is extremely valuable as the dialogue or drama reading faithfully reflects the behaviors in the target culture.

4 Role playing

After students have learned acted-out dialogues or dramatized situations from the early stage, they are encouraged to try to use what they have learned freely and spontaneously in communications. They may also use the skills in developing their own skits. If they are encouraged to look upon much of their language learning as role playing, they are more likely to carry this over into classroom conversations with contents, gestures, and reaction to simulate a situation in the second culture. Undoubtedly, the students will be able to do this more successfully as their knowledge of the foreign culture increases.

Besides, students could invent their own situations based on their understanding of the daily life, or the imitation of a foreign film (their own version), and then discuss which presentation most authentically represents cultural viewpoints, relationships, and general behavior.

5 Other popular activities within culture

a. songs and dances

It is always suggested that a sense of reality should be brought into the classroom when students have the opportunity to enjoy the types of activities native speakers of the language enjoy. Some classrooms invite the celebration of native festivals, the national sports, or the local cooking with the language they are learning. If such activities seem to be impossible, it is always possible to introduce the students some songs or dances of the foreign people.

The types of songs or dances people choose in moments of happiness, in moments of fervor, or in moments of depression reflect the things they prize, the things that amuse them, the thing they fear. Students are fond of such experience when they are given the chance to feel the foreign culture with appropriate action and atmosphere, and of course, opportunity should be taken to teach them within a certain context of explanation, illustration and discussion which will breathe cultural life into them.

The lyrics should not be expressed in language too difficult for the students at the early stage of their learning or in language specifically dialectal. Scripts of the words should be available and records or cassettes will prove useful if the teachers cannot lead the singing.

b. pictures

Suitable pictures with authentic cultural setting will bring many of the lessons to life. Many may be found in the pages of illustrated magazines. Often advertisements in magazines portray natural situations and the activities of people of different ages, social groups. In choosing pictures for teaching purposes, we must avoid those that are cluttered with too much detail. The pictures should be illustrative of one main aspect of cultural behavior which is clearly depicted.

c. films

Film is a vivid medium of presentation, so it is imperative that it should not give a distorted picture of the life of the people. Since only a few films are suitable for a program where cultural knowledge is integrated completely with language learning, we should be alert to selection of the subject.

Films, videos and other electronic aids. These means can present the customs and values of a culture to the students directly and impressively and thus produce an unexpected effect by materializing the western culture.

d. bulletin board

Another means of making life in the country where the language is spoken seem real and contemporary is the keeping of an up-to-date bulletin board in the language classroom. On this board will be affixed news of current events, new ventures, works of art, cartoons, proverbs, which usually contain the folk wisdom of a race and are often a significant index to the value system.

The daily news is a rich source of cultural information. News may be recorded from short-wave broadcasts and made available in the language laboratory, or extracted regularly from the foreign magazines and newspapers, or more conveniently, downloaded from the internet. Students are expected to give a brief news report as assignment or to discuss the cultural importance of certain events with the teachers' explanation.

e. Novels, books, and journal.

The literature of a particular country is usually a good reflection of its culture. By reading the writings of a specific speech community, the students at the same time of appreciating the masterpiece, can also get familiar with the customs, cultural background reflected the book. For instance, in Gone with the Wind, the students can get information of the American Civil War as well.

f. inviting native speakers

From time to time, native speakers should be invited to the language classroom. Students can ask them questions that have long puzzled them and thus get a clearer understanding of the background. Regular communication and exchanging views would help to improve the mutual understanding and trust and respect of different cultures which is one of the outmost goals of our language teaching and learning.

We are convinced that cultural knowledge is an essential component for comprehension of a wide range of authentic culture teaching devices that should be selected on the basis of their potential value for the dissemination of cultural knowledge.

References

1 Li Sun. Culture Teaching in Foreign Language Teaching. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 371-375, February 2013.

2 Byram, Michael and Carol Morgan. Teaching-and-Learning: Language-and-Culture. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1994.

3 Kramsch, Claire J. Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

4 Ahmad Abdel Tawwab Sharaf Eldin. Teaching Culture in the Classroom to Arabic Language Students. International Education Studies; Vol. 8, No. 2; 2015, 113-120.