Untitled

saxelmwifo enis swavlebis sakiTxebi:
problemebi da gamowvevebi
Issues of State Language Teaching;
Problems and Challenges
Students as Cultural Resources
Modern societies are culturally and ethnically more diverse than they have ever been. To invite target
language and culture representative in the classroom and engage him/her in the class and extracurricular activities
is very effective for raising language and cultural competencies. Presented with the native informal environment,
like family-life, everyday customs, informal language are especially valuable. These students can
share authentic insights into the home and cultural life of native speakers of the language. Moreover, teachers
can also invite guest speakers, who will talk about their experiences of the foreign country. As we already
mentioned, language learners need to be aware, for example, of the culturally appropriate ways to address
people, express gratitude, make requests, and agree or disagree with someone. They should know that behaviors
and intonation patterns that are appropriate in their own speech community may be perceived differently
by members of the target language speech community. They have to understand that, in order for communication
to be successful, language use must be associated with other culturally appropriate behavior. Knowledge
getting from the first hand is very helpful. We are able to offer prepared video materials, use blogs, videoconference
, chat and etc. integrated in to the course.
Literature
Literary texts are often replete with cultural information and evoke memorable reactions for readers.
Texts that are carefully selected for a given group of students and with specific goals in mind can be very
helpful in allowing students to acquire insight into a culture. One study compared the level and quality of recollection
when two different groups of students learned about Côte D’Ivoire One group studied a fact sheet
and a second studied a poem about colonialism in Côte D’Ivoire. The researchers found that group that studied
the fact sheet retained very little information about the Côte D’Ivoire culture, whereas the group that read the
poem showed a capacity to empathize with the personal history of the Côte D’Ivoire people. First of all, literary
texts are an untapped resource of authentic language that learners can avail themselves of. Exposure to
literary works can help them to expand their language awareness and develop their language competence.
Moreover, trying to interpret and account for the values, assumptions, and beliefs infusing the literary texts of
the target culture is instrumental in defining and redefining those obtaining in the home culture. Of course,
literature can extend to cover the use of film and television in the FL classroom, for they ‘have the capacity…to
present language and situation simultaneously, that is, language in fully contextualized form’ (Corder,
1968). Using links to the authentic WebPages and internet libraries, discussions and chats make the elearning
language courses alive and interesting. It is very effective to combine screen versions with the literature texts
in course.
Film/TV
Integrated in the language course film and television segments offer students an opportunity to witness
behaviors that are not obvious in texts. Film is often one of the more current and comprehensive ways to encapsulate
the look, feel, and rhythm of a culture. Film also connects students with language and cultural issues
simultaneously such as depicting conversational timing or turn-taking in conversation. For our personal
teaching experience, students achieved significant gains in overall cultural knowledge after watching videos
from the target culture in the classroom. Culture is not a static phenomena. In movies and TV programs all
contemporary customs, behavior, way of expressing feelings (verbally and non-verbally are illustrated.
Elearning language courses have advantage to integrate pieces (or even full versions) of movies and TV programs
for their purposes. As we know, language changes reflect in written sources at least 20-30 years later.
As for movies and TV, they react immediately on language changes. It makes clear importance of movies and
TV programs in language learning process. Elearning language course developers should take these advantage
and integrate movies and parts of TV programs in their courses.
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