Sciencepoetry and Language/Culture Teaching

Abstract

As critics are quick to point out, we live in a fragmented, often contradictory world. Somehow, the sciences have become divorced from the humanities, as if these two aspects of intellectual endeavor were not on speaking terms with one another. Similarly, the field of teaching lives and is practiced as if divorced from the teaching of While the fragmentation is evident, the contradictions of these divisions are less so: after all, language is and is culture. The first step in resolving this apparent schism is a recognition of its nature: that is, the illusion, or myth, of vs. culture, science vs. humanities. In his Cienciapoesia, Rafael Catala outlines a poetic genre based on an vision of reality (13). In this genre, the humanities and the sciences are criticized as existing at opposite poles of the academic, or intellectual, spectrum, as supuestamente antag6nicos and maintaining una desastrosa comunicaci6n entre humanistas y cientificos (14). According to Catali, humanists, of which poets comprise one part, have not integrated the most important operative paradigms of the twentieth century, which for the most part come from the sciences, including quantum physics, relativity, and others. Scientists, on the other hand, have been producing technological and environmental changes in and to society and to the planet as a whole, seemingly ignoring the ecological and human consequences of their actions: evidence can be seen in such phenomena as acid rain, as well as nuclear power, genetic engineering, even the questions of when life begins and should end. In short, the humanists cannot ignore this scientific age, and the scientific community is in great need of what Catala terms a major dose of ethics (17). This notion of a fragmented collective consciousness is not a new one, as Catala himself points out in quoting Jose Marti. What is new in Sciencepoetry (written as one word) is the development of it as a praxis of integration, a methodology leading to a more interdisciplinary, holistic approach to learning, or to use Freire's term, concientizagdo. While the notion of sciencepoetry can be examined from many perspectivesanthropological, sociological, political, and of course, scientific and poeticthis paper will be limited to a narrow examination of it and an application of some modern scientific principles to the teaching of language/culture. It is news to no one that the teaching of in second-language courses has always taken a back seat to grammar instruction. In Spanish texts, sections at the back of each chapter tend to fetishize, stereotype, and oversimplify cultural phenomena, even in the better textbooks. Is it rationally conceivable that a chapter introducing vocabulary on clothing, then reflexives, idiomatic expressions with tener, and relative pronouns, be followed with a culture section on La M6isica en Espafia? (Allen, ch. 8) Or, a more recent example of an allegedly proficiency-oriented textbook confines its sections to marked-off boxes and certain colored pages, as if to send the message, Hey, over here! These are the pages for quick reference! (Knorre, et al.) In short, the state of affairs regarding a holistic approach to the teaching of is no less *Members are invited to send material to: Dr. Stella T. Clark, Department of Foreign Languages, California State University, San Bernardino, 5500 State University Parkway, San Bernardino, CA 92404. Maximum length is 15 double-spaced pages. Please send a typed original and a copy for each paper submitted, and include a self-addressed envelope and loose stamps to cover return mailing of the manuscript.