Redefining Literacy in a Foreign Language

Abstract

Culture and literature are making a comeback in language instruction. In Germany, teachers trained in pragmatic-functional/ communicative approaches are encouraged to adopt an intercultural approach with a hefty literary component;i in the United States, proficiency-oriented teachers are urged to enrich their lessons with cultural or even literary content. But what kind of content should this be? Should teachers inculcate in their students a stock of nationally shared bits of cultural information and the ability to quote from the classics? Or should they strive for a new type of literacy, centered more on the learner, based more on crosscultural awareness and critical reflection? As language teaching enters the twenty-first century, voices are making themselves heard for a redefinition of second language literacy2 and in particular for a reassessment of the 20th century split between language study and literary/cultural studies.3 The current interest in culture, common to both language and literary studies, offers an opportunity to reconsider the fundamental educational paradox that teachers have to face: the obligation to socialize their students into a given social order and the responsibility to make them develop their own particular voice by contesting that social order. The paradox between these two types of literacy in language study can be dealt with through a cross-cultural approach to teaching literary texts at the intermediate levels of language instruction. We first discuss the limitations of current linguistic and literary theories as they have been applied to the teaching of foreign language texts. We then propose a conceptual framework that is better suited to take into account the unique (op)positional stance of the foreign cultural reader interacting with a foreign cultural text. In a third section we apply this framework to an analysis of concrete examples from classroom practice. I. Limitations of Native Language Literacy Theories