JĘZYKI I PAMIĘĆ KULTUROWA. O GLOTTODYDAKTYCZNYM POTENCJALE MIEJSC PAMIĘCI

Looking for motivating concepts to stimulate integrated language andculture-related teaching and learning processes in the foreign languageclassroom, the vibrant concept of Cultural Memory is certainly an issueto pay attention to. It offers a variety of occasions for language and cultureawareness training tightly connected with language learning, reachingfar beyond traditional regional studies. Realms of memory, acting asproducts and markers of a complex cultural memory, can reveal to whatextent (by whom, by which means, to what aims) cultural patterns andmeanings are constructed, how they change or under which circumstancesthey survive long periods of time. Up-to-date foreign languagedidactics can make use of this in aiming at symbolic competence (ClaireKramsch). Understanding culture as an ongoing process of (de-and re-)construction, learners might be enabled to notice and (partly) participatein authentic discourses, going on in different languages. Realms ofmemory, manifesting themselves per definition e.g. as texts, pictures,sounds, buildings, historic or mythic persons, objects, terms or whole culturalconcepts, own a considerable linguistic and cultural potential. Thisclearly points at content and process oriented learning processes involvingthe foreign language as a natural means of exploration.The article discusses criteria which might help to choose realms ofmemory suitable for the foreign language classroom and takes a look attwo genuinely “German-speaking” examples in the field of sport (Córdoba1978) and everyday objects (Schweizermesser). They can illustratethe wide range of didactic possibilities and stimulating methods whicharise from authentic and vivid parts of a widely understood culture.