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ERIC Number: EJ694730
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004-Mar
Pages: 14
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1467-5986
EISSN: N/A
Integrating Language-and-Culture Teaching: An Investigation of Spanish Teachers' Perceptions of the Objectives of Foreign Language Education
Castro, Paloma; Sercu, Lies; Mendez Garcia, Maria del Carmen
Intercultural Education, v15 n1 p91-104 Mar 2004
A recent shift has been noticeable in foreign language education theory. Previously, foreign languages were taught as a linguistic code. This then shifted to teaching that code against the sociocultural background of, primarily, one country in which the foreign language is spoken as a national language. More recently, teaching has reflected on language and culture in an integrated way with a view to preparing learners to use the foreign language in intercultural contact situations. Though in many countries national curricula for the teaching of foreign languages have been slow in the uptake of this shift in thinking, recent curricular guidelines tend to focus more explicitly on the sociocultural dimension of foreign language education, distinguishing between cognitive, attitudinal and behavioural objectives to be attained in the area of language-and-culture teaching. This change in focus in curricular guidelines entails a change in the expectations voiced towards foreign language teachers. Research on innovation in education has shown that teachers' perceptions of the innovation to a large extent determine the success of that innovation. This paper reports on an investigation among Spanish secondary school EFL teachers, focusing on the extent to which teachers support the new culture-and-language teaching objectives. Our findings suggest that teachers are willing to support the new objectives, but that they experience conflicts when having to prioritize language teaching and culture teaching objectives.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A