Foreign
language learning consist of several components, including grammatical competence,
communicative competence, language proficiency, and cultural competence
(Thanasoulas, 2001). Cultural competence in particular includes the knowledge
of the conventions, custom, beliefs, and systems of meaning of another country
of which we learn the language. Language teachers have to see it as their goal
to incorporate the teaching of target culture into the foreign language classroom
to promote emphaty and respect toward the different cultures. In other words,
it is our job, an English teacher to develop the learners’ ability to
communicate accros linguistic and cultural boundaries. Since the teaching of
English in Indonesia focuses on genre-based approach (English School-Based
Curriculum, 2006), many text types are discussed in the classroom such as
recount, narrative, descriptive, procedure, and report text. And the cultural
content can be included in the teaching material taught in an integrated way
with the teaching of language skills and language components.
In
accordance with the teaching of target
culture in language classroom, this chapter aims to show the way how to
introduce American culture, particularly the culture of the Stuate of Liberty.
THEORETICAL BASIS
Brown
(2000) defines culture as a way of life. Culture also includes the ideas,
costum, skills, arts and things that characterize a given group of people in a
given period of time. Culture is closely related to values, symbols, and
language used by people in society. The teaching of culture becomes important
and cannot be separated from foreign language teaching.
The teaching of culture should allow
learners to increase their knowledge of the target culture in terms of people’s
way of life, symbols, values, attitudes, and beliefs, and how these are expressed in their behaviors and
linguistic forms. More specifically, the teaching of culture should make
learners aware of speech acts, norms, etiquette of which it is appropiate or
inappropiate behavior, as well as provide them with the target language
environment and the opportunity to act out being a member
of the target culture (Tomalin & Stempleski, 1993; Thanasoulas, 2001).
The teaching culture is to increase learners awareness and to develop their
curiosity towards the target culture in the porpuse of helping them make comparisons
with their own culture make sense their linguistic choice in communication.
McKay
(2003) assumes that culture influences language teaching in two ways:
linguistic and pedagogical matters. Linguistically, it affect the semantic, pragmatic,
and dicourse levels of the language. Pedagogically, it influences the choice of
the language materials because cultural content of the language materials and
the cultural basis of the teaching methodology have to be taken into
consideration while deciding upon the language materials. Language teachers
should be pro-active and creative in selecting the cultural materials.
The
Statue of Liberty is one of the best known symbols of the United Statues
throughout the world that inspires many people for its story and its beauty.
The Statue of Liberty was originally known as Liberty Enlightening the world.
It was given to the United States by Franceto celebrate their allience during
Revolutionary war (World Heritag, Centre). A sculptor by the name of Frederic
Auguste Bartholdi designed the statue together with Gustava Eiffel. The statue,
also known affectionately as “Lady Libert”, it has become a symbol of
international friendship, fredoom, and democracy.
To individuals in the United States,
Lady Liberty symbolizes some basic points that become the reasons why the
Statueof Liberty is important to America. They are as follows:
- The End of Slavery
It
represented the emancipation of African slaves.the idea for thestatue was
inspired by French abolitionists in admiration of Abraham Lincoln.
- Democracy
It
symbolizes the forefathers’ fight for fredoom and the belief that democracy
would prevail in the United Statue.
- Immigration
In
1892, the Statue of Liberty on, Ellis Island was a major port of entry for
millions of European immigrants to the United States until the station was
closedin 1943. The statue welcomed arriving immigrant,who could see the statue
as they arrived in the United States.
- Hope
Many
of the immigrants who entered the New York Harbor were escaping tyranny, oppression,
and proverty. when they saw the Statue of Liberty, it represented hope and the
possibility of a new beginning and a better life.
- Post 9-11
After
september 11, 2001, the Statue ofLiberty became important to America as a
symbol that citizens would not allow fearand terror to take over their lives.
TEACHING PROCEDURES
There
are procedures in teaching descriptive texts by introducing American Culture
through the Statue of Liberty.
·
Pre-teaching
1. Provide
some picture on power point slide about symbols.
2. Do
question and answer activity to the students about the given picture.
3. Prepare
the reading text about Statue of Liberty.
4. Divide
the students into 6 groups.
·
Whilst-teaching
5. Give
the students few minutes to read the text and see the picture/video of Statue
of Liberty.
6. Discuss
the content of the text and answer the reading comprehension question.
7. Ask
the students to find out the important things that describe the Statue of
Liberty from the text in group.
8. Fill
in the sunflower with the key points of the text (mapping the Statue of Liberty’s
description).
9. Ask
the students to present the key points found.
·
Post-teaching
10. Ask
other students to give feedback to the their classmate’s presentation.
11. Ask
the students to make corrections based on the feedback given.
12. Review
the material.
REFLECTION
Teachers
have a significant role in raising student’s awareness of other cultures. In
terms of English teacher and learning, teachers must have big picture of the
target culture that needs to be transfered to the students in the purpose of
developing the learnes’ cultural knowledge, awareness and competents. Related
to the purpose, introducing target culture such as the Statue of Liberty as one
of American symbols in English learning can be effective since it is always
interesting to know and learn other culture. Here, English plays an important
role as means of communication to transfer the message underlying the symbol.
During the teaching of descriptive texts through the Statue of Liberty to
introduce American culture, the students seemed to enjoy the class and felt
impressed with the topic and the technique. The atmosphere was active and
relaxed because the students were encouraged to figure out the meaning of the
symbol and to complete the sun flower with the description of the symbol. Of
course, there are still many aspects of culture that can be brought to the
classroom. However, we should not only focus on teaching students the target
culture but we also have to build a stable foundation for their own culture by
relating the two cultures. At last, it can guide students to focus on the
similarities rather than the differences.
CONCLUSION
As teacher of EFL learnest, it is
more challenging to bring the target culture in the classroom, since we have to
teach the language and the culture in an integrated way. In terms of developing
the learnes’ cultural knowledge, awareness and competence, the teaching of
culture should have some benefits for the learnes on how communicate
effectively and behave appropriately. It means that the intercultural
missunderstanding can be avoided. At this point, it is our responsbility to
teach any cultural topics related to norms and values of the target culture. By
introducing the culture of the Statue of Liberty, it is hoped to make the
learnes have high level of awareness on the values represented by the statue
such as friendship, freedom, and democracy. At last, the learnes can understand
better the language they learned and tolerate the differences among cultures.
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