Culture Teaching Research Articles

Editorial

Editorial

Will cultural teaching methods influence student understanding of politics and bureaucracy in the public administration curriculum of African countries within the COVID-19?

Will cultural teaching methods influence student understanding of politics and bureaucracy in the public administration curriculum of African countries within the COVID-19?

Exploring Hong Kong Youth Culture via a Virtual Reality Tour

The advantages of employing virtual reality tours in teaching are attributed to the virtual reality experience it provides to the students. In the case of teaching popular culture, benefits from the potential of VR tour are amplified by the empirical significance that would lead to the students’ imagination and reflection. In addition, an online VR tour suggests a flexibility that allows students to learn anyplace anytime, satisfying the need for blended learning and distance learning, which is a very critical mode of teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article discusses the advantages and challenges of blending “virtual reality” into the teaching of popular culture, and, furthermore, the implications of VR in tertiary education are discussed by examining the research that is conducted through the application of a VR tour in the course: Hong Kong Popular Culture. Sixty-eight students participated in the course. After implementing the VR tour, a questionnaire survey and interviews were conducted. In addition, students wrote essays to reflect on the youth culture of contemporary Hong Kong after the explanation of the tour, and these were also examined. We observed the positive responses from the students and the way in which the VR tour could enhance the learning qualities in the course on cultural studies.

CHINESE CULTURE TEACHING IN MANDARIN LANGUAGE COURSE AT UiTM

Language is closely associated with culture as the carrier and also the main presentation of the culture. People use language to create culture, while culture enriches the expression of language. Thus, language is inseparable from culture, at the same time the spreading of culture depends on the language. In this quantitative research, 70 students and 5 lecturers from the UiTM Sarawak campus were chosen to participate in a questionnaire survey based on the Daily Conversation Mandarin Language 1 serving as the research text. The objective of this study is to investigate the current situation of Mandarin teaching and learning in UiTM, and to provide suggestions for the teaching of Chinese culture in the curriculum, thus enhancing the quality and efficiency of teaching Mandarin as a foreign language.

Teaching Materials Analysis: The Place of Culture in English Teaching Materials Used in an International School in Budapest

With the increased mobility that has given rise to globalization, intercultural competence has become a necessity. Throughout the world, international schools in which English is used as the language of instruction aim to develop their students’ language skills and intercultural competence. To achieve this, teachers in these schools follow curricula and use teaching materials that enable the teaching of culture. The analysis of teaching materials to determine what kind of culture is being presented, and whether it is being taught critically and deeply, is therefore essential. In the present study, a research instrument was piloted that was designed for subsequent use in larger-scale research by the author on the development of cultural diversity awareness (CDA) and intercultural communicative competence (ICC). The present pilot study is based on the thematic content analysis of teaching materials used in the upper primary classes of an international school in Budapest. The findings revealed that the materials include a variety of culture-related activities with elements of big C, little c, and deep culture. Cultural activities, and the respective guidance for teachers included in the analyzed teaching materials, are transferrable to the contexts of English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL).

Weaknesses of Euclidean Geometry: A Step of Needs Analysis of Non-Euclidean Geometry Learning through an Ethnomathematics Approach

Non-Euclidean Geometry is a complex subject for students. It is necessary to analyze the weaknesses of Euclidean geometry to provide a basis for thinking about the need for learning non-Euclidean geometry. The starting point of learning must be close to students' local minds and culture. The purpose of this study is to describe the weaknesses of Euclidean geometry as a step in analyzing the needs of non-Euclidean geometry learning through an ethnomathematics approach. This research uses qualitative descriptive methods. The subjects of this study were students of Mathematics Education at State Islamic University (UIN) Fatmawati Soekarno Bengkulu, Indonesia. The researcher acts as a lecturer and the main instrument in this research. Researchers used a spatial ability test instrument to explore qualitative data. The data were analyzed qualitatively descriptively. The result of this research is that there are two weaknesses of Euclidean geometry, namely Euclid’s attempt to define all elements in geometry, including points, lines, and planes. Euclid defined a point as one that has no part. He defined a line as length without width. The words "section", "length", and "width" are not found in Euclidean Geometry. In addition, almost every part of Euclid’s proof of the theorem uses geometric drawings, but in practice, these drawings are misleading. Local culture and ethnomathematics approach design teaching materials and student learning trajectories in studying Non-Euclid Geometry.

现代汉语类词缀“界”、“坛”、“圈”比较及教学研究

In the past, the research on the quasi-affixes “界”, “坛” and “圈” mainly focused on semantics and structure. So far no scholars have conducted more specific research on teaching strategies. This article refers to the “Modern Chinese Dictionary (Revised Edition)” and “Kangxi Dictionary”and modern Chinese corpus. The semantic evolution of “界”, “坛” and “圈” is analyzed. Then 350 relevant corpora were retrieved through PFR, CCL, BCC and other corpora, and the category difference between the three affix-like syllables and “X” was analyzed. “坛”is mainly combined with monosyllables to form a two-syllable vocabulary. “界” and “圈” are mostly combined with two syllables, and there are various combinations of syllables. “坛” often forms new words with vocabulary in the fields of sports and literature. “界” is easier combined with professional domain vocabulary. and “圈” is frequently combined with human-related vocabulary. And according to the characteristics of quasi-affixes, a teaching strategy is formulated. Including quasi-affix semantic development teaching method, schematic teaching method, morpheme expansion teaching method, cultural teaching method, analogy teaching method and semantic field teaching method (synonymous meaning field and upper and lower meaning field teaching methods), etc. teaching method.

A Study on the Introduction of Cross Cultural Communication in English Reading Teaching from the Perspective of Cross Culture

English reading course aims to cultivate students' ability to obtain information in English, which is highly practical. Students' English language ability and cross culture awareness are relatively weak. In the teaching process, they often pay attention to the cultivation of language knowledge and reading ability and ignore the teaching of cultural knowledge, which makes the cultural differences between China and the West become an obstacle to reading, resulting in the inability to improve students' overall reading ability. In view of this, from the perspective of cross-cultural communication, this paper puts forward a teaching method of integrating the four elements of culture introduction, cultural context creation, cultural contrast and cultural acquisition in college English reading class, integrating cultural teaching into language teaching, and cultivating students' awareness and ability of cross-cultural communication while teaching students reading skills, so as to promote English reading teaching and improve its connotation construction.

Does Short-Term International Immersion have a Sustainable Impact on Teachers’ Cultural Competence? Follow-up Interviews Eight Years After a Teaching Experience in South Korea

This qualitative study was conducted with teacher candidates studying in a Masters program at a university on the west coast in the United States. The main goal was to capture if immersion in a foreign culture and the short-term teaching of primary and secondary school students in South Korea had any sustainable impact on the participating teachers’ perception of their cultural knowledge, competence, and awareness almost a decade after their immersion experience. The researchers interviewed four teachers who had participated in one of two immersion projects conducted in 2010 and 2011. A questionnaire on teachers’ self-efficacy regarding culturally responsive teaching (modified from Chu & Garcia, 2014) was administered prior to the interview giving the participants a tool to reflect on what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher and to self-assess their own cultural competence and teaching practices. Four themes emerged from the interviews, namely, perspective-taking ability, relationships, teaching strategies, and cultural knowledge. The findings indicate that international immersion not only offers an effective way for pre-service teachers to receive intercultural training. It also has the potential to create transformative learning experiences by immersing students in cultural contexts unfamiliar to them. The findings from this study will be interesting to teacher educators who consider integrating international immersion projects into their teacher education programs.

Unveiling American values using sitcoms

The international status of English has contributed to the development of ways to teach the language from an intercultural perspective. In this context, successful cross-cultural communication requires not only the mastery of language skills, but also the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes, as learners will have to interact appropriately with people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In the classroom, teachers tend to rely on textbooks for the introduction of cultural content. This generally means that the teaching of culture is based on the transmission of facts about the target language and that only external aspects of culture are covered. This paper addresses the use of television as an additional tool to reinforce and enhance cultural learning in the EFL classroom. Specifically, this work suggests that situation comedies can be used to identify the cultural values that underlie external behaviors. Thus, after reviewing the theoretical background and the defining features of American culture, we will present a teaching proposal aimed at the tertiary level in which we use the sitcom Superstore to raise students’ cultural awareness.

НАВЧАННЯ МІЖКУЛЬТУРНОЇ КОМПЕТЕНЦІЇ

The article еnlightens some problems in the field of teaching culture withinthe frames of foreign language studies curricula. It is also stated that in accordance with the standards of basic foreign language competences this aspect is still neglected to some extent in the classroom. The article provides a concept of intercultural communicative competence though some researchers find it too vague. In addition, some discrepancies between the new approach to teaching culture and traditional methods, beliefs and discourses related to teaching culture have been analyzed and discussed. The authors have carried out a critical analysis of results of numerous studies of the cultural component of in the field of culture teaching so as to reveal their drawbacks and advantages and to propose possible ways of solving this issue. As some researchers claim in order to develop intercultural competence amidst students of foreign languages departments teachers are to broaden their knowledge of language and culture interaction to avoid stereotyped approaches. Because of new tendencies in teaching culture not only besides philological or literatural issues, they have to deal with such disciplines as semiotics, anthropology, history, sociology and other sciences in the process of discussing culture to master their skills and respond to new challenges.

MƏDƏNİYYƏT VƏ DİLİN MƏDƏNİYYƏTLƏRARASI ÜNSİYYƏTİN TƏDRİSİNDƏ ROLU

The teaching of intercultural communication covers two broad areas of culture and language teaching. The ability to use different expressions is important in the teaching of intercultural communication, as discussions are conducted at a high language level. The teaching of intercultural communication in universities should facilitate intercultural cooperation and understanding among students. It is necessary to learn languages and cultures in the teaching of foreign languages in order to achieve intercultural communication and eliminate the misunderstandings that may arise as a result. Key words: intercultural communication, forms of behavior, language skills, culture and language, interactions

Investigating EFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching English proverbs in EFL classes: A cross-cultural study

Emerging from the experiences of a specific society, proverbs commonly mirror certain cultural signs of the traditions, beliefs, and values of that society. This appears as one of the ways of teaching the target culture through building intercultural connections in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes. Correspondingly, this study reserves two aims: First, to investigate the perceptions of Turkish EFL teachers on teaching English proverbs for intercultural relations and the frequency of using English proverbs in EFL classes and second, to examine the ideas of English native-speaker language teachers residing in Turkey about the intercultural role of learning and using proverbs in learning Turkish. To that end, 65 English teachers participated in a likert-scale pattern of two questionnaires and 4 native English lecturers were e-mail interviewed. The data collected from the participants is analysed and described related to the qualitative and quantitative research procedure of the instruments. The study revealed that for culture teaching in EFL classes, teachers favoured teaching proverbs and they believed that teaching proverbs was effective in improving learners’ language skills, grammar and vocabulary learning in learning an L2. As a second finding, native English lecturers were also positive towards learning Turkish proverbs as cultural connectors. Hence, the study accentuates the realization that proverbs can be effectively employed in teaching culture and evoking cultural relations between native language and the target language, plus in improving L2 skills and studies.

Teaching visual culture in the context of visual arts teacher education

ABSTRACT This article addresses what kind of learning-teaching process should be applied to teach visual culture teaching in the Special Teaching Methods II course given as part of the visual arts teacher education program in Turkey. The study was designed with action research which is, one of the qualitative research methods using a two-step process. The first step was achieved with the participation of 24 preservice art teachers in a state university. In the second step, four volunteers were selected from among the participants of the first step and their process of implementing lesson plans in a visual arts course of a secondary school was examined. Data were obtained from observations, document analysis, and interviews which were then analyzed inductively. This paper focuses on four themes that emerged from the analysis of the data: realize, practice, relate and experience. In the study, it was concluded that preservice teachers develop awareness of how visual culture shapes meaning, shows willingness to raise awareness of society by drawing attention to social problems in their artistic work, and that their lesson plans effectively reflect their achievements regarding visual culture studies.

Functional Revolution. On the literary and cultural aspects of teaching Polish as a foreign language

The paper contains a short overview of the currently used methods of teaching Polish as a foreign language and a discussion of some phenomena related to interculturalism. The essential element of the paper is the linguistic and cultural teaching proposal based on a short story by Sławomir Mrożek titled Rewolucja (Revolution).

‘Africa has a history’: an Afro-diasporic examination of Black education in Colombia and Brazil

ABSTRACT In centering my analysis in the Americas, I examine the body of antiracist legislation composed of Colombia’s General Law of Education, Law 70, and Brazil’s federal Law 10.639/03, which formed the template for the teaching of Afrodescendant education, history, and culture in the national standard curricula. In looking at Colombia and Brazil, I interrogate the state of Afrodescendant education in the Americas as part of global trends of Black mobilization and political and educational reforms. Indeed, I argue that such educational policies resulted from the hemispheric resurgence of Black activist movements from within and without institutions of education, as well as the support of socio-political movements concerned with ethnic and racial diversity. Together, these forces converged with the multicultural movements throughout the globe, shaping the educational realities of Afrodescendant populations not only in Colombia and Brazil but also across the Atlantic.

Exploring Tertiary Health Science Student Willingness or Resistance to Cultural Competency and Safety Pedagogy.

There is an increasing body of literature that considers the relevance and experiences of cultural competency and safety training in health professional students. However, less is written about Australian tertiary learners’ experiences of engaging with cultural competency training. The aim of this study is to explore tertiary students’ willingness or resistance to cultural competency and safety pedagogy. Qualitative student feedback to a teaching unit was collected and triangulated with data from focus groups with tutors. Results were thematically analyzed. Willingness and resistance to cultural competency and safety teaching emerged as two key themes. Willingness to engage with the unit was largely due to student interest in the content, teaching environment and relevance of cultural competency to students’ future practice. Resistance was linked to the students feeling personally attacked, or culturally confronted, with tutors noting the topics around sexuality and white privilege being more resisted. Acknowledging reasons for student resistance and developing strategies to reduce resistance can facilitate more student engagement with cultural competency topics, ultimately leading to their future provision of culturally competent healthcare.

On Science Genius and Cultural Agnosia: Reality Pedagogy and/as Hip-Hop Rooted Cultural Teaching in STEM Education

This paper offers a theoretical and practical approach to teaching and learning in STEM education. We uncover the deficits in existing STEM pedagogies while outlining a culturally relevant/responsive model that reveals the science genius of youth who are marginalized in contemporary STEM classrooms. Through an analysis of the concept cultural agnosia, we suggest hip-hop as treatment of the condition and an approach for a more culturally rich approach to instruction.

A Review of Intercultural Language Teaching from the Perspectives of ELT Teaching Material Evaluation and Application

Review on the evaluation of English Language Teaching (ELT) materials has been carried out by many researchers. Focusing on the cultural aspect, the review covers the three important participants in a classroom setting - coursebook, instructors and students. The review aims to reveal the evaluation of the culture content on ELT materials, to explore and students’ attitude towards source culture and international culture teaching in English as Foreign Language (EFL) class as well summarize some strategies adopted by teachers in their teaching process to give inspirations to current EFL teaching. After analyzing the objects, methods and findings of Several empirical researches in a bottom-up method, this review found: 1) there is an imbalance of cultural representation in ELT textbooks between target culture, home culture and international culture; 2) students show a positive attitude towards home culture and international culture learning in the learning process; 3) teachers notice the importance to cultivate students’ awareness of their own culture and culture relativism consciously and take measures accordingly in their class.

An Ethnographic Approach to Developing Intercultural Awareness: A Case Study of EFL Learners at Najran University

The teaching of culture in foreign language classrooms has gained widespread acceptance in today's globalized world. However, the teaching resources and curricula at present in use promote stereotypes and otherization by supplying pupils with a "us vs them" worldview and knowledge. As a result, learners with little or no intercultural experience are unable to effectively communicate in an intercultural environment. The aim of this study is to assist learners in becoming active cultural observers and interpreters, in improving their comprehension of others, in anticipating and dealing with misunderstandings, and in decentring themselves during intercultural encounters. It is a retrospective account of an experiment that explores why and how intercultural awareness can be developed through an ethnographic-based intercultural syllabus at Najran University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Thirty two male students participated in the experiment. A pre-and post-tests were used to determine whether or not participants improved their intercultural comprehension. The findings indicate that teaching culture through an ethnographic lens is feasible and worthy of developing learners' intercultural awareness and analytic attitude against culture and intercultural interactions.