Building the FLES bridge:
The essence of a change in teaching foreign languages that I took some years ago which brought me to see that "bridge" is the idea that culture is the natural content of the language class, not the language. All of the orientations to culture and foreign language that you find will include the idea of "integrating" the two. This assumes the impossible, which is that they can be separated! The same proponents of "integration" would be the first people to insist that language and culture are "inseparable". It's almost like being pro-choice and pro-life at the same time. Now, the next analogy is that of the eternal chicken and egg question. Well, of course, the answer is culture. Language arises from and has as it's constant impetus, the culture.
Therefore, I propose that we teach culture and bring language patterns out of the images of culture that we create in the brain as students watch or listen to the cultural information we bring to them. CAVEAT: Do not worry about choosing culture that "fits" the language you have selected to teach. That just goes back to the other problem created by the "integrationists" (no, this is not part of a political debate!). That is, culture is being used to match up with language forms. In other words, culture serves the language curriculum. All that is is a bastardization of culture!
Another problem arises from selecting culture and teaching the vocabulary related to the cultural images. That produces difficulty for understanding since the students are not likely to master enough of the new language in order to comprehend the culture!
By using familiar language, the teacher can facilitate students gaining access to the information and their being able to begin processing it in terms of valid cultural categories which the teacher will, hopefully, provide for them as the foundation for understanding the broad perspective of the culture of the people who speak the language they are studying.
Take slides from a vacation trip as an example of American culture. Show some of them and describe pertinent information about the trip and the content of the slides to a group of English speaking students. Ask them to write down some impressions. Then, have them share these impressions. Which language patterns in English would you expect them to use? Well, if you said, anything, you would have the clue to how unlimited *any* cultural information is in terms of making connections to the language patterns and vocabulary that you intend to teach any one day. If one begins making connections to this cultural information with familiar patterns and vocabulary, any teacher worth his/her certification should be able to bridge over the new material. From then on, the techniques used will be whatever that teacher uses to teach language.
But, here's the beauty: the image produced in the brain by the cultural information (especially if audio, visual or tactile) will remain in the brain as a valid element of cultural awareness and, for a good while, will be connected to the new language patterns that are taught that day. At another time, the teacher can come back to the cultural images for further elaboration of the culture and use of the patterns and vocabulary.
The challenge, I believe, in all education is for teachers to take a giant leap of faith in order to orient teaching more around the child as the curriculum and, in language teaching, creating a cultural experience from which the children can share impressions which teachers can use to weave language into. An image that came to me the other day was: Life provides the examples. The students are the reporters.
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