Cultural Awareness [3]
论文作者:Anne-Brit Fenner论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2007-01-12编辑:点击率:21449
论文字数:4294论文编号:org200701122229251685语种:英语 English地区:中国价格:免费论文
关键词:Cultural Awareness
ature, food, etc., we will tend to view different cultures or subcultures as objects from a distance. But culture is more than artefacts that 'can be found out there', it is also the glasses through which we perceive the world around us and the language we use to express the culture of which we are an integral part. We are influenced by the culture(s) we are socialized into, and simultaneously we influence that culture. This is a dialectic process, and culture must be seen as a dynamic force in continuous flux, not a static entity. The process does not only take place within our own culture; a similar process constitutes the encounter with a foreign culture.
Language as culture
Language or text is probably the most influential factor in the dynamic interrelationship between cultures. If culture is not only what we see, but also the way we see it and the language we use to express it, culture cannot merely be regarded as a body of knowledge which can be transmitted to the learners by the teacher or the textbook. Culture can be seen as 'a web of spoken and written texts, a linguistic landscape consisting of an indefinite number of texts'. (Time 1989) Language is not only communication, but equally important, it is an expression of culture. It differs from other artefacts of culture in that it can be used to express itself about itself. Through teaching and through textbook tasks the visibility of language and text should be preserved. By that I mean that all aspects of the written or spoken text must be 'seen' and not made invisible, which often happens in the classroom when one only concentrates on the subject-matter of the text or on specific linguistic features. The text as a whole, as an entity of form and content, is the carrier and expression of culture. This requires authentic text, text in the widest sense of the word: i.e. spoken texts, written texts of different genres, paintings, etc.
Knowledge (savoir)
Cultural awareness is based on knowledge of the foreign culture, but also on knowledge of one's own culture. Any process of comparison or contrasting has its starting point in the learner's pre-knowledge. I have previously stated that culture is more than what is 'out there', it is also how we see what is there. From this it naturally follows that the learner's perception of his or her own culture as well as of the foreign culture are important factors in the development of cultural awareness of the individual. And we are talking about individual processes: the learner's 'habitus' (Bourdieu 1994: 12) and 'cultural capital' (Bourdieu 1994:14) vary from one learner to the other. 'Habitus' as used by Bourdieu is a 'set of dispositions which incline agents to act and react in certain ways'. The dispositions reflect social conditions of the individual's background and differ from one social class to another, and even more from one nationality to another. According to Bourdieu the learner's habitus will generate practices, perceptions and attitudes which are not consciously coordinated and will thus be a determining factor in acquiring knowledge. 'Cultural capital' is a concept used by Bourdieu to describe the knowledge, skills and other cultural acquisitions which the individual possesses. Again this is dependent on social background and will vary from one learner to another. In our context it must be seen as an educational goal to increase the individual's cultural capital, building on what each learner brings into s
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