ulture. Either point of view is of interest, but inter-cultural awareness depends on a knowledge of both.
It is difficult to state what specific topics should be represented in foreign language textbooks in order to form the basis for the development of cultural awareness. Any end-determined list will be reductionist and limiting. Still, I find it necessary to state that both writers and users of textbooks need to be aware of the fact that texts represent not only content and form, but also a personal representation, either by a foreign language writer or a native speaker. In addition the reader's personal interpretation of the text within his or her own 'horizon' constitutes the outcome of the reading or listening process.
Literature and other authentic texts
The literary text has been greatly underestimated in recent foreign language learning. It represents the personal voice of a culture and, secondly, a voice that young people can easily identify with. The communicative approach to foreign language learning has, to a certain extent, disregarded the literary text as a potential for learning language and encountering the foreign culture. I believe there are three main reasons for this. First, there is the fact that literature is traditionally associated with bourgeois, elitist culture and has been defined by methodologists as an artefact outside the 'real world' of young learners. Secondly, it is due to the way 'culture' was defined in foreign language teaching英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】 at the time the communicative approach developed, namely as the everyday lives of representatives of the foreign culture. Focus was thus on how to behave in everyday social situations. Thirdly, part of the reason can be found in prevailing Anglo-American literary theory in the 1960s and 70s, in 'New Criticism', with its focus on the text itself, not on biographical information as previously, nor on the interrelationship between text and reader and the reader as co-producer of meaning. The close reading of 'New Criticism' in the foreign language classroom put too much emphasis on literary analysis of text, and tended to be dominated by the teacher's 'correct' interpretation. Since then literary theory has concentrated increasingly on the reader's creative role in the reading process. When reading is regarded as a communicative dialogue with the text, new opportunities open up in the encounter between two cultures, as reflected in the literary text.
Learning a language entails undergoing a process of being socialized into a culture, and learning a foreign language means being socialized into that particular foreign culture. One can argue that this socialization process can and will, to a certain extent, be selective, but it is difficult to argue that what I have previously termed 'culture of the people' is the only culture we want our learners to be socialized into and to develop an awareness of. We also have a responsibility to give our students a chance to enhance their c
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