Aspects of Culture in Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Learning

291 Pages·2011·1.98 MB·English

by  Janusz Arabski

Second Language Learning and Teaching
Series Editor
Mirosław Pawlak
For furthervolumes:
http://www.springer.com/series/10129
About the Series
The series brings together volumes dealing with different aspects of learning and
teaching second and foreign languages. The titles included are both monographs
and edited collections focusing on a variety of topics ranging from the processes
underlying second language acquisition, through various aspects of language
learningininstructedandnon-instructedsettings,todifferentfacetsoftheteaching
process, including syllabus choice, materials design, classroom practices and
evaluation. The publications reflect state-of-the-art developments in those areas,
they adopt a wide range of theoretical perspectives and follow diverse research
paradigms. The intended audience are all those who are interested in naturalistic
andclassroomsecondlanguageacquisition,includingresearchers,methodologists,
curriculum and materials designers, teachers and undergraduate and graduate
students undertaking empirical investigations of how second languages are learnt
and taught.
Janusz Arabski Adam Wojtaszek
•
Editors
Aspects of Culture in Second
Language Acquisition and
Foreign Language Learning
123
JanuszArabski Adam Wojtaszek
Department of LanguageAcquisition Department of LanguageAcquisition
Instituteof English Instituteof English
Universityof Silesia Universityof Silesia
Grota-Roweckiego 5 Grota-Roweckiego 5
41-205Sosnowiec 41-205Sosnowiec
Poland Poland
e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]
ISBN 978-3-642-20200-1 e-ISBN978-3-642-20201-8
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-20201-8
SpringerHeidelbergDordrechtLondonNewYork
(cid:2)Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2011
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Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Janusz Arabski and Adam Wojtaszek
Part I Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence
2 Understanding Culture Through a Lingua Franca. . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Anna Niz_egorodcew
3 Sensitizing Foreign Language Learners to Cultural Diversity
Through Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence. . . 21
Liliana Piasecka
4 Do We Need to Teach Culture and How Much Culture
Do We Need?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Agnieszka Otwinowska-Kasztelanic
5 The Contribution of FL Learning Experiences to the
Development of Multicultural Identity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Dagmara Gałajda
6 The Attitudes of English Teachers Towards Developing
Intercultural Communicative Competence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Małgorzata Jedynak
Part II Cultural Differences in Language Instruction
7 Cultural Differences in Perceptions of Form-Focused Instruction:
The Case of Advanced Polish and Italian Learners . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Mirosław Pawlak
v
vi Contents
8 Multilingual/Multicultural Perspective on the Identification
of Dyslexia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Joanna Nijakowska
9 Is Teaching Culture-Bound? A Cross-Cultural Study
on the Beliefs of ELT Teachers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Cem Can, Hasan Bedir and Graz_yna Kilian´ska-Przybyło
10 Australian Experience of Culturally Diverse
University Classrooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Beata Malczewska-Webb
11 Culture Through Literature in Foreign Language Teaching. . . . . 139
Ann Gillian Elgar
Part III Culture-Related Concepts and Constructs
12 Time as Cultural Construct: Some Preliminary Remarks
on the Conceptualization of Time in L1 and L2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Danuta Gabrys´-Barker
13 Getting Rid of the Modesty Stigma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Ewa Bogdanowska-Jakubowska
14 Language Distance Across Cultures as a Way of Expressing
Politeness and Not Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Ireneusz Kida
15 Ethnic and Disciplinary Cultures and Understatement:
Litotic Constructions in Polish and English Linguistics
and Biology Research Articles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Andrzej Łyda and Krystyna Warchał
16 Ways of Expressing Birthday, Christmas and New Year’s
and Easter Wishes in L2 and L3: Cross-Cultural Transfer
and Interlanguage Pragmatics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Teresa Maria Włosowicz
Contents vii
Part IV Culture-Related Issues in Polish Education Context
17 Willingness to Communicate in L2 and Self-Perceived Levels
of FL Skills in Polish Adolescents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel
18 The Ideal L2 Self and International Posture in the Polish
Educational Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak and Agnieszka Pietrzykowska
19 Pragmatic Aspects of Culture in Foreign Language Learning . . . 263
Justyna Zie˛bka
20 Strangers in Paradise: The Role of Target Language
Culture in Foreign Language Teaching Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Marek Derenowski
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Chapter 1
Introduction
Janusz Arabski and Adam Wojtaszek
In recent decades an interesting dichotomy has appeared in SLA/FLL research,
revealing a division between those scholars who focus primarily on the psycho-
linguistic aspects of the process of L2 development and those investigators who
look at the process from a more external perspective, investigating the role of
sociolinguistic and culture-related factors shaping the course and nature of L2
acquisition.Withintheformerparadigm,SLAresearchhasoftenbeenclassifiedas
a branch of cognitive science, incorporating its theorems and methodologies,
treating the process of L2 learning and acquisition as predominantly mental and
cognitive phenomena, dependent to a large extent on learner’s individual psy-
chological characteristics. Such a strong cognitive orientation has often been
rejected recently by some scholars, while others were attempting to incorporate
culture-related variables into the psycholinguistic paradigm, treating them as
contributors to individual variation. The latter option is, arguably, not very
well-founded, as explicated by Dash (2003):
It is arguable that culture, at often times, is not so readily identifiable, or of priority
significanceforthespecificimpactithasonthelearningprocessesofindividualstudents,
bothintheoryandinpractice.Excessiveconsiderationofitasaseparateandsignificant
factor can cause stereotyping and overly hinder the instructor from looking at each
individualstudentinthebroadercontextoftraditionallywellacceptedandtestedmodels
fromarangeofscholars(Gardneretal.1979;Schumann1986;Mangubhai2002).
What might be a considerable problem for psycholinguistically-biased inves-
tigators, however, does not have to constitute a major obstacle for those who opt
J.Arabski(cid:2)A.Wojtaszek(&)
DepartmentofLanguageAcquisition,UniversityofSilesia,InstituteofEnglish,
Grota-Roweckiego5,41-205,Katowice,Poland
e-mail:[email protected]
J.Arabski
e-mail:[email protected]
J.ArabskiandA.Wojtaszek(eds.),AspectsofCultureinSecondLanguageAcquisition 1
andForeignLanguageLearning,SecondLanguageLearningandTeaching,
DOI:10.1007/978-3-642-20201-8_1,(cid:2)Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2011