2.3.5.1. Teaching cultural content through authentic materials
There are many suggestions for using authentic materials to teach cultural content. According to Blatchford (1986), newspapers can be one of the most helpful tools. Blatchford emphasised that with teachers’ support and guidance, students can learn and understand more about different cultural contents through some newspaper features. However, he voiced the concern that this type of authentic material may be demanding for students because of the cultural interference and language difficulty.
Besides newspapers, literature can also be used to teach culture. Nonetheless, this source should be used for upper-intermediate and advanced second-language students, which helps facilitate insight into the culture, understanding, and appreciation
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of literature in their first language as well as that of the second language (Valdes, 1986).
Commercial television can also be an effective source of teaching culture in the classroom contexts, as it can offer a rich source to raise unconscious cultural codes to the level of conscious perception (Scollon, 1999). Krasner (1999) presented a more detailed approach to teaching cultural content through observation with more diverse authentic materials (through films, news broadcasts, maps, or menus).
Peterson and Coltrane (2003) suggested other forms of authentic materials for teaching cultural content that teachers should consider. To begin with, along the same line as Krasner (1999), they proposed using visual materials such as films, news broadcasts, television shows, websites, photographs, magazines, newspapers, restaurant menus, travel brochures, and other printed materials to get the students involved in the cultural contents. Peterson and Coltrane also suggested that presenting objects such as figurines, tools, jewelry, or images from the target culture will be useful. This acts as a springboard for teachers to raise questions for students concerning other cultural, historical, and linguistic factors. Similar to Valdes (1986), Peterson and Coltrane also suggested using literary texts. Another instructional way to teach culture will be using exchange students, immigrant students, or students who speak the target language at home as expert sources for classroom discussion.
In conclusion, different authentic materials can be utilised to teach cultural content. Teachers can use literary texts or visual sources such as films, news broadcasts, television shows, or photographs to support learning and teaching.
Additionally, objects, including figurines, tools, or jewelry, may be helpful tools for this instructional practice. Expert sources like exchange students, immigrant students, or students who speak the target language can also be introduced to the students to boost their engagement in language classrooms.
2.3.5.2. Activities to teach cultural content
According to Byram, Morgan, and Colleagues (1994), the majority of influential theorists in the field of foreign language teaching have not yet provided a
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sufficiently developed understanding on which educators can base their teaching, despite some indications of concern with theories of cultural learning. However, some authors have put forth practical methods or strategies for teaching culture to students second or foreign languages.
According to Hughes (1986), there are several techniques for cultural instruction. First, cultural comparison can be employed by starting a discussion section with a presentation on one or some objects in the target culture that are different from the students’ culture, and then allowing the students to focus on why these differences may cause issues. Second, teacher can use culture assimilators, which is a brief description of an cross-cultural incident that may cause misunderstanding to the students. Then, students are provided with four options of explanations to choose. If their answer is not correct, they are inquired to look for further information that would drive them to the correct option. The third technique suggested by Hughes is culture capsule, a technique in which teachers give students a short presentation about a cultural difference and a set of questions to promote class discussion. Fourth, drama can be a great way for students to help students understand cross-cultural misunderstandings, as they can act out some scenes of misinterpretation happening in the target culture and clarify the root cause of the problem in the ending scene. Teachers can also use Audiomotor, which is a list of oral commands to guide students to act out a cultural experience. Sixth, employing a technique called Newspaper is useful since students can compare an item in the foreign newspaper and its equivalent in their language. Seventh, classroom activities can involve films, filmstrips and slides for the use of Projected media. Regarding the final technique, cuture island, classroom atmosphere can ke kept as a culture island with the use of posters, pictures, a frequently changing bulletin board for attracting students’ attention, questions and comments.
Similar to the suggestions of Hughes, Brooks (1986) proposed that a lesson can begin with a brief presentation about a subject that has not been announced before in a foreign language. Krasner (1999) also provides some helpful techniques for
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imparting culture to students studying foreign languages, including using mini- dramas, observing through different types of media, cultural comparison, and role play. It is added that teachers can also have students visit ethic sections or restaurants of cities, culture capsule.
Teachers looking for feasible ways to include culture in their language teaching may find the instructional strategies proposed by Peterson and Coltrane (2003) to be helpful. For example, teachers can ask the students to prepare the information and materials about the target cultural content they will learn at home.
Another recommended technique is problem solving activities, which is beneficial to develop students’ proficiency of the target cultures. To be specific, teachers can incorporate cultural problem-solving activities based on the listening and reading contents, thereby helping students learning different cultural features. There are three techniques that can be employed to teach culture based on problem-solving skill (Azizmohammadi and Kazazi, 2014). First, teachers can use “culture aside”, which asks students to compare and contrast two cultures when they face a word with cultural background. Second, “slice-of-life” is also a helpful technique, requiring students to perform the same problematic situations but act in the two cultures for comparison. This is followed by students’ discussion that assists them in learning cultural factors naturally from that. Third, “critical incident” can be employed, allowing students to consider the situation of miscommunication and the reactions of the people involved and comment on cultural aspects.
To conclude, some activities teachers can implement in their classrooms to teach cultural content are organising role-play activities or cultural capsules, comparing and contrasting cultures, and preparing information and materials related to cultural content in advance at home.