How to Bring Target Culture into Foreign Language Teaching

a. Currency. Teachers can bring some target-country coins and banknotes to class. Tell them some knowledge about currency.

b. Foreign newspapers. Tell the students the features of the front pages, headlines and the special grammar used in newspapers. China Daily and 21st Century are two popular foreign language newspapers in China. So teachers can use these newspapers as examples in the class. Besides these, teachers can talk something more about newspapers or magazines. They can tell their students that the most popular newspaper in British is Washington Post and the most popular one in America is Times. Thus, the students' knowledge field would be enlarged quickly.

c. Videos about different cultures. These videos may be about Christmas, Thanks Giving Day, Hallowin, etc. When watching such videos, the students would compare them with their own country's traditional festivals naturally. For example, Spring Festival in China.

    Poems, radio news, stamps and TV programs are also very good objects for students to feel different countries.

    In a word, to use cultural products in the class can encourage the students to learn cultures from foreign countries. It can make our foreign language lessons more interesting and more useful.

3.  Everyday life patterns                                        

In our country, as we known, examinations are so important things in the school that teachers and students pay much attention to grammars. They almost take no notice on everyday life patterns in foreign countries. We must realize such a phenomenon: a student who can get high marks in the school can’t study or work well in foreign countries. Though he is good at doing exercises or examinations, he doesn't know enough about foreigner's way of life and their social customs.

    So teachers should also talk about lifestyles of people in different cultures. The easiest one is to compare and contrast feature of the target culture with feature of the students' culture. For example, the teacher can choose some typical videos about the target culture such as meeting in street, in the office, having dinners, visiting others, etc. to play in the class. When meeting in street, British people often talk about the weather, but Chinese people often talk about their meals. When visiting others, British people always arrive a little later than the time they have fixed before, but Chinese people always arrive earlier, and the host would feel happy about it. They would think that the guests are friendly and enthusiastic. Though these are routins, they are useful if you want to study or work or live in foreign countries.

    Another very important material is the advertisement in newspapers. The advertisement in newspapers can be divided into several categories. Such as “Help wanted”, “ Housing available”, etc. It's very easy to find a “Help wanted” advertisement in British/American newspapers. Here are two examples:

CHILDCARE (after school)

Friendship Heights, 2 girls, 6 and 8, 15-20 hours per week, M/F, own car, references required. Ideal for student, $8 per hour. Call 202-363-3158

COMPANION

Good-humored, gentle, caring woman 35-55 required by disabled lady for light household duties, cooking, reading, and friendship. $100 per week, plus own room, use of car. Box 36. Tel. 0865 794389

    These are two real advertisements collected from British and American newspapers. The first one tells us something about childcare in America. We can know the salary level of childcare in America from this advertisement. Then the students may compare this with that of their own country. The second one is similar.

    Here are two advertisements about housing available:

HAMPSTEAD                                                        

Light, pretty top floor, 2-bed flat for sale or rent, own entrance, 1 reception, gas CH, bath, kitchen. 110,000 pound or 600 pound pcm.

Tel. 071 435 6661

FLORIDA PALM GREENS 2 BR/2 BTH

Furnished 2nd flappt. Pool, tennis, golf. $48k.

Call (619) 759 9087 eve.

    From these two advertisements, the students would know something about the housing condition in Britain and America. And they would also compare it with that of their own country naturally. Through reading the advertisements in newspapers, different cultures transferred fluently in the students' mind. Almost any type of newspaper advertisement can be used to deduce facts about daily life and to get information about the values of the target culture. These are some other similar kinds of advertisement, such as “Lost and found”, “What would you like to do?” , etc.

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