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Culture, culture and “culture” in Foreign Language Teaching
Author(s) -
Shanahan Daniel
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1944-9720.1998.tb00588.x
Subject(s) - opposition (politics) , sociology , target culture , foreign language teaching , foreign language , perspective (graphical) , language education , pedagogy , linguistics , psychology , philosophy , political science , art , law , politics , visual arts
“Culture,” which is taking on increasing importance in contemporary foreign language pedagogy, has also been the subject of much debate. Definitions of what culture is have proliferated, from Matthew Arnold to Levi‐Strauss to Edward Hall, and not infrequently lines of opposition have formed around them. But if we abandon an oppositional mode of thinking and address the question of culture and language learning from the perspective of the affective elements contained within both, we may be able to adopt a more ecumenical approach to the former and provide ourselves with a much more powerful tool for helping students acquire the latter.