Please watch this video called Culture: tishrab ahwa?
(Would you like a coffee?), taken from a coursebook called Alif-Ba, to
teach Arabic to beginners...
After that, consider this statement and your position
about it.
“Ideally, language learning should function as a
multicultural discourse in which the ‘strange’ and ‘foreign’ become more
familiar, and in which the participants learn new questions, new perspectives
relating to the object of their study, thereby gaining an increased awareness
of their own attitudes and perhaps develop a more critical consciousness of
themselves and their motivation with regard to the subject they have chosen to
learn.” (Attar, 1988, p. 9)
I strongly agree with the above statement... and you?
Now, in the light of that video and statement, consider the following
questions:
- As an Arab (if you are one), do you think that the video represents the ‘culture of coffee’ in the Arab world?
- Imagine that you are a beginner student of Arabic. What would you get from that video?
- Do you think that video is consistent with the previous statement?
- What is its purpose? Does it provide the learner with any new value/knowledge?
- As an Arab (if you are one), do you think that the video represents the ‘culture of coffee’ in the Arab world?
- Imagine that you are a beginner student of Arabic. What would you get from that video?
- Do you think that video is consistent with the previous statement?
- What is its purpose? Does it provide the learner with any new value/knowledge?
My answer is that the video only oversimplifies the
reality which, in fact, is much more multi-faceted, and contributes to foster
useless stereotypes. Working as a teacher of Arabic and Italian as foreign languages, I
have been noticing more and more how much some coursebooks contribute to foster this
kind of stereotypes. Their attempt to give the students a simplified taste of
cultures impoverishes the latters and holds them up to ridicules. In my opinion,
a teacher should always consider the perspective she/he is presenting to the
students, having a constant critical
look at her/his practice and - when dealing with language and culture - always
considering the socio-historical aspects, avoiding simplification and thinking
about what can foster a better intercultural communication, starting from the
language itself.
You could be willing to ask yourself some questions,
such as:
a) Is it
possible to represent a culture in a simplified way?
b) What is the relationship
between representation and power?
c) How can we deal with
complexity when teaching language and culture?
d) Is culture something
separated from language or are they tightly interconnected?
c) Is it enough, when
learning a new language to have a superficial idea and ‘ready to use’ information or is it necessary to follow a more complex path that pushes the learner
to look at both the other and him/herself from a new standpoint?
d) Shall we challenge
students to be open to negotiate their identity and beliefs?
As for myself, I relate the role of a teacher to a transformative intellectual whose primary goal is to raise awareness and critical reflection. Therefore, I believe that a greater task for
a language teacher is to help building bridges and facilitating mutual social,
political and historical understanding between nations.
I also believe that learning
a language should help to dip ourselves in a new dimension. I suggest we think, here, of Gulliver (in
the famous novel Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift). During his
journey, Gulliver modifies his perspective, starting to see others’ customs,
laws and lifestyle from a new angle and, in order to do so, he feels the need to learn other
people’s languages. He learns to listen to other points of view, to welcome them
and, in some cases, to agree with them.
The concept of culture can
be interpreted in several ways. Generalisation should be discouraged.
“Cultures are not monolithic and a variety of
successful behaviors are possible for any type of interaction in any particular
culture.” (Peterson and Coltrane, 2003).
P. Casola
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