Culture Bound Bridging the Cultural Gap in Language Teaching

Culture Bound is designed to give language teachers a basis for introducing a cultural component into their teaching. The articles give a perspective on how language and culture interact and explore in particular the difference between interacting with another culture and entering it: language students are encouraged to understand the new culture without necessarily embracing it. This selection brings together representative practical and theoretical material written by a variety of scholars and teachers in the field. The essays are organized under three headings: language, thought, and culture; cultural differences and similarities; and classroom applications. The collection as a whole brings both breadth and depth to a topic that has been strangely neglected despite its recognized importance.

Contents: Preface; Part I. Language, Thought, and Culture: 1. Language and thought Franz Boas; 2. Culture and the written language Robert B. Kaplan; 3. Acculturation and mind William R. Acton and Judith Walker de Felix; 4. Learning a second culture H. Douglas Brown; Part II. Cultural Differences and Similarities: 5. How to compare two cultures Robert Lado; 6. Kinesics and cross-cultural understanding Gennelle G. Mortain; 7. Intercultural differences and communicative approaches to foreign-language teaching in the Third World Karl-Heinz Osterloh; 8. ' ... So near the United States' John C. Condon; 9. Cultural clues to the Middle Eastern student Orin D. Parker and Educational Services Staff, AFME; 10. XANADU - 'A miracle of rare device': the teaching of English in China Alan Maley; 11. Compliments in cross-cultural perspective Nessa Wolfson; Part III. Classroom Applications: 12. Culture in the classroom Nelson Brooks; 13. Newspapers: vehicles for teaching ESOL with a cultural focus Charles H. Blatchford; 14. Culture in literature Joyce Merrill Valdes; 15. English language teaching from an intercultural perspective Stephen C. Dunnett, Fraida Dubin and Amy Lezberg; 16. An argument for culture analysis in the second language classroom George H. Hughes; 17. Culture bump and beyond Carol M. Archer; 18. The culture test Rebecca M. Valette; Bibliography; Index.