A repost:
We don’t get many erudite points about culture here – three are below. Because it is included as a standard, teaching culture has become an excuse by many teachers to include a large social studies component into their teaching, sacrificing vast amounts of time from the language.
Mark Knowles shares:
A lot of the problem with ACTFL is that much there is under-theorized and much of the ACTFL framework seems to be calcified policy hatched upon us through undisciplined committee work. From a theoretical standpoint in language, ACTFL makes it seem that the three modes of communication and the 5 Cs are God-given decrees but I prefer to believe they come from the void, and the fact that there is very little bibliographic attribution available in ACTFL documents does not help.
We need rigor in our discussion of language pedagogy, and that rigor depends on coming into agreement on definitions. What is the definition of culture, and how did we as a profession come to agreement on that definition? One statement about language and culture that I like to hang my hat on is one that might help a lot of people on this list breathe a sigh of relief.
“Learning to speak another’s language means taking one’s place in the human community. It means reaching out to others across cultural and linguistic boundaries. Language is far more than a system to be explained. It is our most important link to the world around us. Language is culture in motion. It is people interacting with people.”
Sandra Savignon (1983), Chapter 5, Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice, p. 187.
This definition tacitly states that people interacting with people is culture. If there is evidence of that happening in a TPRS classroom, doesn’t that address the big Culture C of the standards? And, oh, doesn’t all language use require interpretation, so isn’t that mode always taken care of by default in a CI classroom? What about the interpersonal mode – how often is that one not taken care of in a CI classroom? The only one of the three modes that is not an automatic given in a CI classroom is the presentational. But here again, without some kind of theoretical backing about how learners come to proficiency in a presentational mode (and by the way, just by doing something as obvious as checking into how people actually communicate in the wild, do we see a lot of presentational language happening?), ACTFL finds itself on a very weak limb on a very high tree.
Nathaniel Hardt adds to the above:
Nice quote from Savignon, Mark, especially, “Language is culture in motion.”
That aspect of the quote might not have jumped out at me without your commentary, “This definition tacitly states that people interacting with people is culture.”
“Language as culture in motion” precedes the Culture standard. The first four words of the Culture standards are “Learners use the language.” The definition goes on to say what learners use the language for (know culture), but “use the language” is what language learners do. Use the language. Use the language. “Use the language” is culture in motion. Can we use “culture in motion” (i.e., language) to become more culturally savvy?
Question: Do we include culture in our classes?
Counter-question: Are we using the language? I.e., do we have “culture in motion?”
Affirmative answer: Yes. (Then we can include culture).
Negative answer: No. (Then we cannot include culture).*
“Use” is a mode-neutral verb. It does not imply output on the part of the learner and we should not be tricked into thinking it does. Learners can use language to listen to a song (interpretive oral) and they can use language to read a story (interpretive written). Learners can use language to show whether they comprehend the speaker (interactive).
Language is culture, dynamic culture. Use the language. Make it possible for the kids to use the language. Sufficiently slow and comprehensible. Use the language.
*I am just talking in terms of the definitions, not about what we have to do on hot and humid days when the teacher is tired and the kids are cranky and nothing is working.