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Using new literatures as a resource in fostering cross cultural awareness

This paper is based on the premise that the wealth of new literatures in English that are available in several countries of Asia and South East Asia today can serve not only to provide students access to the rich and varied cultural life of the people in these settings, but also help develop in the...

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Main Author: Rubdy, Rani Sumant
Format: Book Section
Language:English
Published: Faculty of Communication and Modern Languages, Universiti Utara Malaysia 2007
Subjects:
LB2300 Higher Education
PE English
Online Access:http://repo.uum.edu.my/3203/1/R1.pdf
http://repo.uum.edu.my/3203/
http://staf.uum.edu.my/tleia2/proceeding.htm
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spelling my.uum.repo.32032011-05-29T07:33:32Z http://repo.uum.edu.my/3203/ Using new literatures as a resource in fostering cross cultural awareness Rubdy, Rani Sumant LB2300 Higher Education PE English This paper is based on the premise that the wealth of new literatures in English that are available in several countries of Asia and South East Asia today can serve not only to provide students access to the rich and varied cultural life of the people in these settings, but also help develop in them sensitivity and empathy towards other cultures. Given that English no longer belongs to any one nation or culture, and is increasingly being used in numerous multilingual and multicultural settings worldwide, it is fast becoming ‘re-nationalised’ (McKay 2000), as it takes on new cultural associations, experiences and values. In teaching English as an international language (EIL), therefore, it no longer makes sense to place an exclusive focus on target culture knowledge alone. The paper makes a strong case for including other cultural materials, especially those from Asian and South East Asian literature, in the selection of content and topics for textbooks constructed for use in EFL/ESL contexts, with a particular focus on fostering cross-cultural tolerance and understanding, a neglected area in ELT. Further, the paper goes on to illustrate how texts from these new literatures may be used in promoting cross-cultural understanding in the language classroom. Only recently has cross–cultural understanding begun to receive the kind of attention it deserves in the realm of EFL and ESL teaching/learning. Indeed, for a long time culture itself was considered peripheral, or at best, no more than a supplementary diversion (Tseng, 2002) to the teaching and learning of language, although cross-cultural variation has continued to be a live and productive topic of study in sociolinguistic and pragmatic research. Even where cultural aspects of language study have been addressed in EFL/ESL, traditionally this has pertained exclusively to target language culture. Given the insight that language and culture are inseparable, and that therefore, to teach language is to teach culture,the belief prevailed that in order to gain full competence in the language learners of English in different parts of the world need to internalize the cultural norms of native speakers of English – that is, speakers of English from the Inner Circle (Kachru, 1989) or BANA (namely, British, Australasian and North American) countries (Holliday, 1994). Faculty of Communication and Modern Languages, Universiti Utara Malaysia 2007 Book Section PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://repo.uum.edu.my/3203/1/R1.pdf Rubdy, Rani Sumant (2007) Using new literatures as a resource in fostering cross cultural awareness. In: The Second Biennial International Conference on Teaching and Learning of English in Asia : Exploring New Frontiers (TELiA2), 14-16 June 2007, Holiday Villa Beach & Spa Resort, Langkawi. Faculty of Communication and Modern Languages, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, pp. 1-14. ISBN 978-983-42061-2-3 http://staf.uum.edu.my/tleia2/proceeding.htm
institution Universiti Utara Malaysia
building UUM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Utara Malaysia
content_source UUM Institutionali Repository
url_provider http://repo.uum.edu.my/
language English
topic LB2300 Higher Education
PE English
spellingShingle LB2300 Higher Education
PE English
Rubdy, Rani Sumant
Using new literatures as a resource in fostering cross cultural awareness
description This paper is based on the premise that the wealth of new literatures in English that are available in several countries of Asia and South East Asia today can serve not only to provide students access to the rich and varied cultural life of the people in these settings, but also help develop in them sensitivity and empathy towards other cultures. Given that English no longer belongs to any one nation or culture, and is increasingly being used in numerous multilingual and multicultural settings worldwide, it is fast becoming ‘re-nationalised’ (McKay 2000), as it takes on new cultural associations, experiences and values. In teaching English as an international language (EIL), therefore, it no longer makes sense to place an exclusive focus on target culture knowledge alone. The paper makes a strong case for including other cultural materials, especially those from Asian and South East Asian literature, in the selection of content and topics for textbooks constructed for use in EFL/ESL contexts, with a particular focus on fostering cross-cultural tolerance and understanding, a neglected area in ELT. Further, the paper goes on to illustrate how texts from these new literatures may be used in promoting cross-cultural understanding in the language classroom. Only recently has cross–cultural understanding begun to receive the kind of attention it deserves in the realm of EFL and ESL teaching/learning. Indeed, for a long time culture itself was considered peripheral, or at best, no more than a supplementary diversion (Tseng, 2002) to the teaching and learning of language, although cross-cultural variation has continued to be a live and productive topic of study in sociolinguistic and pragmatic research. Even where cultural aspects of language study have been addressed in EFL/ESL, traditionally this has pertained exclusively to target language culture. Given the insight that language and culture are inseparable, and that therefore, to teach language is to teach culture,the belief prevailed that in order to gain full competence in the language learners of English in different parts of the world need to internalize the cultural norms of native speakers of English – that is, speakers of English from the Inner Circle (Kachru, 1989) or BANA (namely, British, Australasian and North American) countries (Holliday, 1994).
format Book Section
author Rubdy, Rani Sumant
author_facet Rubdy, Rani Sumant
author_sort Rubdy, Rani Sumant
title Using new literatures as a resource in fostering cross cultural awareness
title_short Using new literatures as a resource in fostering cross cultural awareness
title_full Using new literatures as a resource in fostering cross cultural awareness
title_fullStr Using new literatures as a resource in fostering cross cultural awareness
title_full_unstemmed Using new literatures as a resource in fostering cross cultural awareness
title_sort using new literatures as a resource in fostering cross cultural awareness
publisher Faculty of Communication and Modern Languages, Universiti Utara Malaysia
publishDate 2007
url http://repo.uum.edu.my/3203/1/R1.pdf
http://repo.uum.edu.my/3203/
http://staf.uum.edu.my/tleia2/proceeding.htm
_version_ 1644278438195888128
score 13.211869

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