FERNANDA CERVI ROLKOUSKI

THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURE ON TEACHING ENGLISH

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Monograph presented to obtain the Titleof Specialist in English in the graduationcourse in English, Human Sciences,Letters and Arts Area,Universidade Tuiuti do ParanaAdviser: Professor Daniel Lacerda

CURITIBA

2004

CONTENT

1 INTRODUCTION 3

2 TEACHING ENGLISH AND INTERCUL TURALITY 5

2.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING ENGLISH AND THE

INTERCULTURALlTY 5

2.1.1 THE BENEFITS OF LEARNING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE_5

2.1.2 ENGLISH AS A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE: ,6

2.2 THE CONCEPTS OF CULTURE AND ITS RELATION WITH TEACHING

FOREIGN LANGUAGES 7

2.3 THE RELATION BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE 8

2.4 THE MULTICULTURALITY AND THE INTERCULTURALITY 10

3 APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE TEACHING 13

3.1 APPROACHES TO GRAMMAR AND TRANSLATION (AGT) 13

3.2 STRUCTURAL APPROACH 15

3.3 COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH 16

3.3.1 COMPONENTS OF THE COMMUNICATIVE ABILITY 20

3.3.1.1 GRAMMATICAL ABILITY 20

3.3.1.2 SOCIO-LiNGUISTIC ABILITY 20

3.3.1.3 DISCURSIVE ABILITY 20

3.3.1.4 STRATEGIC ABILITY 21

3.4 INTERCULTURAL APPROACH 21

4 A PROPOSAL FOR A LESSON USING THE INTERCUL TURALITY IN THE

TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE 22

4.1 STEPS FOR THE PROPOSED LESSON 25

4.2 ANALYSIS OF THE PROPOSED LESSON AND THE RESULTS

OBTAINED 33

4.3 GRID OF COMPARISON BETWEEN G1 AND G2 35

5 CONCLUSION 37

REFERENCES 39

2

1 INTRODUCTION

The teaching of English as a second or foreign language in elementary school, high

school, under-graduation and graduation courses, and mainly in language centres

comes through changes concerning the learning process. Such changes emerge as

a result of the globalisation process and the fast transformations we are living. The

means of communication are more modern than ever, reaching all the social levels.

The communication and the exchange of cultural information are more present in

people's everyday lives, either through the music, television, cinema, Internet, Of

mainly through the e-mails.

The generation and production of knowledge and its intellectual and social

organization must come from an inter and multidiscipline approach that privileges the

intercultural process in the teaching of languages just like other topics in the National

Curricular Parameters are placed. That is why the use of new approaches that goes

beyond the disciplines division, make the process of teaching and learning effective

no longer an option, but a necessity.

Thus, the approach to the communicative possibilities towards the teaching of a

foreign language becomes the best option, side by side with the intercultural process

as the tonic of the linguistic education.

It is through these premises that the process of teaching and learning English as

a second or foreign language will enable the learners to develop skills that will

prepare them for the new requirements of the world.

Being the teaching of English an enriching element to the process of one's

individual formation - inside and outside school -, broadening the learner's

possibilities of communication, such education is not developed separately, but it

helps stimulating the intercultural process that aims at motivating the learner to

search for information from other areas of knowledge in other cultures as well as to

encourage this learner to be ahead of his or her social and historical reality.

There is an increasing tendency of using new approaches in the teaching of a

foreign language. On the one hand, the available ways to put these approaches into

practice become more accessible. But on the other hand, the teachers of English

struggle with urgent and obvious necessities for specific formation that allow them to

make an adequate choice, an efficient organization, and a pedagogical exploration of

these didactic ways, having in mind the lack of theoretical material on the learning of

the foreign language concerning the intercultural process.

What occurs, however, is that some course books are not enough to help develop

the work with the culture and the intercultural process. The culture currently worked

in the regular teaching of English is normally labelled, hindering that the learner

establishes a linking between his or her culture and the foreign language in question.

In this way, the teacher hypothetically must use extra materials, different from the

ones supplied by the course book.

This project has as the objective to discuss and to present a new vision in relation

to the teaching of the language, so that it is able to act in a conscious and critical way

towards the teaching of English in Brazil with its own pedagogical instruments, in

which analyses the relationships between the education of this language and the

intercultural process, the role of education in this perspective, and the challenges that

will have to be faced to promote educative processes that are truly informed by the

intercultural perspective.

The current project also has the objective to present options and possibilities to

explore the teaching of English in relation to the culture as well as important abilities

to the process of teaching and learning, so that it can be used in a criterion way.

On the whole, we establish as objectives the reflection about changing the

attitude when facing conventional pedagogical practices. Besides that, the

redefinition and repositioning of the teacher in relation to him/herself and the

learners, as well as the stimulus to the use and production of innovative didactic

materials, which are motivating and responsible for an intercultural educative action.

2 TEACHING ENGLISH AND INTERCULTURALITY

2.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING ENGLISH AND THE INTERCULTURALITY

2.1.1 The Benefits of learning English as a second language

The recent changes that happened in the field of the international exchange

programs are scientific, commercial and/or cultural made the learning of a modern

foreign language essential for the learner to be involved in the set of these

exchanges.

In this way, according to TOTIS, the teaching of English as a foreign language

and language of cultural link aims at to contribute to the formation and psychological,

social, cultural and affective development of the learner through the supply of

common knowledge that allows him/her to develop more complex studies later on or

to direct him/herself to a profession. The teaching of English, therefore, is committed

to a wider educational process, widening the horizon of the learner, since his/her

individual necessities and expectations are respected. The learner that is able to use

a foreign language correctly has access to new things that can lead to an intellectual

deepening for the knowledge related to other areas. Thus, the learner will have better

conditions to understand and to contribute in an active and integrated way in the

society where he/she lives (1995, IS).

Furthermore, through the learning of a foreign language, according to the

author, the learner starts to see his/her mother tongue more intrinsically, faCilitating

the comprehension of its mechanisms, because the development of certain cognitive

processes are emphasized and deepened. To this process we can say it is the

linguistic and psychological aspect of learning a foreign language.

Another very important aspect that the author raises is the psycho-social one,

because the learning of a foreign language provides to the learner the chance to live

new situations deeply and play new roles, what favours a deepening in the

relationships in communicative situations that are important in the school as well as

in other situations of his/her daily routines. We cannot leave the cultural aspect aside

as the learning of a modern foreign language provides a critical reflection to the

learner in relation to the foreign language that is transformed into a way to make the

learner aware of his/her own culture. Beyond the contact with the complexity of a

different culture, this approach (of knowledge) occurs through the substratum of the

learner's own cultural identity; moreover, it avoids the limitation of only one culture,

helping the learner not to live his/her own culture in an isolated way.

Through the learning of a modern foreign language the learner is not only in

possession of a tool that will be used to establish communication, but is also exposed

to the discovery of the other in its social relationships, being able to understand the

differences between the peoples customs, acquiring a critical awareness towards

his/her own culture as well as giving the proper value to it.

According to TOTIS, any person who doesn't know English well, as a

language of cultural links will be deprived of the wide participation in the

contemporary world as a whole, deprived of the chance of the communicating with

other people and other cultures.

2.1.2 English as a universal language

English is a universal language, a language of culture in the sense that it is the

official language of the congresses, the conventions and the international meetings. It

allows easy and immediate access to science, literature and any other socio~cultural

manifestation. It certainty is the most necessary language in the world of business,

being indispensable for the exploitation of at least half of the scientific uses of the

existing languages in the world, because it is associated with the technological and

economical development and is the main language of international exchange.

Moreover, according to TOTIS, English is the official language of forty countries,

either as first and/or second language; nowadays it is the most second language

adopted in the world, as well as for scientific publications, 67% are in English (Saints,

1984 and Hiss, 1984 apud TOTIS, 1991, 16).

Even if, based in the data above, we could affirm the importance of English,

only from the 90's is that people started to give more importance to the learning of a

second language, mainly English as a universal language. It has only happened

because of the process called globalisation invaded homes, offices and schools,

broughl the necessity of underslanding one another, most of the times in English.

This process has origin in a previous historical period, but it was only after the

Second World War I that the United States started to dominate the world in the

economic sphere. With this the countries that had been destroyed in the two Great

Worldwide Wars started to get North American resources and to depend on them to

sell their products in the worldwide market and to finance their process of

reconstruction. Consequently the English started to be the most used language in the

commercial transactions. Still in the 80's, to study a foreign language was a luxury

that very few people could have at their disposal. Today, we already notice a change

in relation to learning English.

2.2 THE CONCEPTS OF CULTURE AND ITS RELATION WITH TEACHING

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

According to AURELIO dictionary, culture can mean, among other things, in a

sociological conception, a "system of ideas, knowledge, techniques and devices,

standards of behaviour and attitudes that characterizes a certain society". On the

other hand, in an anthropological conception, culture is the "state or level of cultural

development of people or period, characterized by the set of workmanships,

installations and objects created by the man of this people or period; social content

"There still are other forms of conceiving culture listed by AURELIO, with meanings

that do not have specific relation with our research.

In the same way, in human sciences, there are several meanings for the word

culture. In this project we understand culture as the set of ways of living, or either, the

daily routines of people in a specific region, their different ways of thinking, acting,

expressing and living - their way of communicating.According to LYONS" .. each society has its own culture; and different sub-

groups within a society can have its own distinctive subculture" (1982, 274).

In this sense, we cannot speak of English, North American or Brazilian culture,

but of culture. It is with this meaning that we will be using the term from now on.

If each social group has its own culture, we can agree with Hudson (apud

LYONS) when he says that culture can be described as socially acquired knowledge,

or either, as the knowledge that a person has for being member of a specific society.

According to FARACO, based on Williams' reflections, (1969) "the semantics

of the word culture evolved, since the end of the XVIII century until it acquired the

meaning of 'the whole system of life, in its material, intellectual and spiritual aspects'.

It is called the sociological and anthropological concept of culture." (FARACO, 1997,

55). It is this concept that helps us to understand the basics of communication in the

foreign language teaching, emphasising the real language, in which meaning and

form are more important than grammatical structures.

2.3 THE RELATION BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Among other things, the socio-linguists have come to show us that the relation

between language and culture is very narrow, for instance, when we communicate

we express knowledge in a way that it is only recognisable by the group that uses it.

The language by itself already represents an intrinsic part of this knowledge. The

other part is composed by common attitudes, habits, beliefs, and values. People,

from any culture, act based on their own way of expressing knowledge.

CANTONET says that studying a foreign culture implies in acquiring specific

knowledge, such as, the linguistic knowledge, the paralinguistic knowledge, the

social knowledge, non-verbal, the notional knowledge and the axiological knowledge.

The linguistic knowledge consists of knowing what, how and when to say something

properly. The paralinguistic knowledge is the one necessary for verbal

communication, as gestures, facial expression, mimic, etc. Social knowledge refers to

social use, usual behaviours. Notional knowledge is related to cultural conceptions

and differences between cultures, such as the notion of time and space, for instance.

And finally axiological knowledge has to do with the worldview, and the values of a

certain culture (1995).

According to LYONS, language is a biological and cultural process, which is

"the process of language acquisition is of such nature that the transmission of

everything that is universal in language also depends on, for its success, the cultural

transmission process. "What means, the knowledge of the native language is

culturally transmitted and acquired, not necessarily learned though (1982, 291).

Many concepts of language are tied up to the culture, in the sense that they

depend on the knowledge socially transmitted, so that there is understanding in the

communication. Such concepts vary according to the culture and the society that we

belong to. LYONS gives the example of honesty, sin, kinship and honour, that are

highly connected to the cultural concepts of each society and that vary in its sense

according to the individual knowledge a erson has from his/her culture. Therefore,

the author says that: f°f,OE :%:

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It is indeed accepted that concepts of this type related to the culture are, at the veryleast, more highly possible of codification in some languages than in others. The proponentsof the thesis of linguistic relativity would say that many of the found differences in grammaticaland lexical structures in the languages are of such nature that some things that can be said ina language cannot be said in another one (LYONS, 1982,279).

We can take as an example what LYONS says regarding the borrowed

translation, that means, to take some lexemes borrowed from other languages and

incorporate them in our own language, even words that do not mean exactly the

same in both languages. What occurs is that in terms of cultural contact, there is

widening in the vocabulary range through the loan and a modification of the word

involving changes in the lexical structure in the linguistic system. According to

LYONS there are certain things that cannot be said in determined languages, simply

because the necessary vocabulary to say that does not exist. Therefore, "many

differences, both in the grammatical structure as in the lexical structure can be

correlated to the difference in the cultures, in which determined languages are

associated" (LYONS, 1982,282).

In this sense, not only can we understand that the process of acquisition of a

language embodies the language transmission, but also the culture transmission, so

that the acquisition is successful. To have competence in a determined language it is

necessary to have the ability to produce and to understand sentences, and this many

times depends on the social and cultural knowledge that embodies this language.

An example of this type of linguistic specialization is the cultural juxtaposition,

which means, although many times it is impossible to translate all the sentences of a

language into another, without distortion of its meaning, many times it is possible for

somebody that does not know the language nor the culture of its original,

understands some expressions that are dependent on the culture.

This is a way to make determined meanings that are specific for certain

cultures understandable. Some languages are historically associated to determined

cultures. The total understanding of some meanings and expressions that are

codified in the grammar and vocabulary of a language is only cheated with the total

understanding of the culture, or cultures, in which it functions. LYONS affirms that

"the languages themselves can completely be understood in the context of the

cultures in which they are inextricably connected; thus language and culture are

studied together".

10

Therefore, for the author, the learning of a language can and must be directed

to determined purposes. One of these purposes is to acquire and participate as much

as possible of a different culture from the one where the person was brought up.

It is clearly that the relation between language and culture is of extreme

importance in terms of language acquisition. It is not enough to learn a second

language ignoring the cultural factors that it involves, in order to have total

understanding and express some structures it is necessary to know what is behind

these expressions. Some words have more weight and force in a language than in

another. And depending on how these words are used, their meaning can change

according to the culture that it belongs to. For example, in English when a person

finishes a meal, they say: I'm full. If we translate it into Portuguese it would be: "Estou

cheio". In Portuguese it is rude to say "Estoll cheio" after a meal, mainly in a more

informal environment. The correct expression in Portuguese is: "Estou satisfeito".

Now, if we translate this into English it would be: "I'm satisfied". , what in English

would sound at least funny in this context after a meal, because in English "satisfied"

is used when we want to state the feeling of satisfaction for having carried through

something, or something that have happened, that we really longed for.

2.4 THE MUL TICUL TURALITY AND THE INTERCUL TURALITY

In this stage of our reflection we believe it to be -important to clarify what it is

interculturality and multiculturality. Interculturality is understood as the relation

established between cultures that are in contact through the interaction of participant

citizens from each one of them. People from the same nationality can experience the

interculturality, for example, there is not only one Brazilian culture, but also different

cultures that interact among themselves. The interculturality implies a new

philosophical and methodological structure of the historiography in the research of

the subjectivity and the formation of culture. The interculturality can be defined as a

deepening of a multicultural position, because it considers the construction of

knowledge as interaction between different cultures. While the multiculturality means

the coexistence and reciprocal agreement of different cultures in the same society,

interculturality means the interaction between different cultures.

The multiculturality therefore has as reference many of the cultures that exist

in a nationality, for instance. It reflects, in a way, the composition of a given social

11

community. The interculturality is a process that allows the interaction between

people from different cultures.If we think about the teaching of a second language, the interculturality starts

to have a Significant importance in the learning process. Through the information and

comparison of different cultures, the learning starts to be clearer and to make more

sense for the learner. There are customs and expressions that are peculiar to a

determined region and if it is not clear, it can cause discomfort between the two

cultures in the moment of communication.

To illustrate it better, JANZEN uses as an example a very common situation in

Brazil. Two people are talking and when they are about to say goodbye one invites

the other to come over later for some coffee. The conversation finishes and the

friends go away. The fact that one has invited the other for a cup of coffee does not

necessarily mean that he/she will be waiting the friend with the coffee ready. If we

analyse the conversation, it hasn't been established the place nor the time; and

perhaps the friend does not even have the address. According to JANZEN this

context does not need to be taken into discussion here in Brazil, because this

situation is part of a socia-cultural and historical context, it is a cultural pattern.

"Those people who know the general context have a common ideological orientation

(here as worldview) and can evaluate the conversation as a demonstration of

gentleness/politeness, or a subtle form, but sympathetic to finish with the dialogue"

(1998,7).

On the other hand, people who are not part of this culture could interpret the

invitation as true. It would not be surprising if the invitation for the coffee were given

to a foreigner and this person showed up in the house of who had invited for the

coffee. It happens because people use their knowledge of world to interpret the

things that happen around them.

The importance of the factor interculturality in teaching English is to help the

learner to understand certain common behaviours from another culture that are

different from his own. Through this understanding the learner starts to extend his

vision 01the world, becoming more critical and developing his perception in relation

to the worldwide events. When understanding the other's culture the learner starts to

understand its own culture. For JANZEN, "interculturality is always knowledge and

recognition of the other to deepen the self-knowledge, to feel and to rethink to

understand better, or even to find, his own identity. The interculturality cannot, in

12

anyway, establish a one-way process of communication from the country of the

mother tongue to the one of a different culture - it is much more a double-way

process" (1988, 9).

In other words, the interculturality teaches to respect the cultural differences

and its recognition for the best understanding of the own and 1he other's culture.

In this way, a refiection on how the approaches and the teaching methods

problematize the cultural question and the interculturality when we teach a foreign

language.

13

3 APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE TEACHING

There are many approaches to the learning of a second language. According

to LEFFA, we use approach as a term that eng lobes the theoretic project concerning

the language and the learning. The word method has a more restricted

understanding, being able to be within an approach (1988, 211).

During the long history of teaching a foreign language, many have been the

changes and alterations of methods and approaches. According to TOTIS "what is

noticed is that, at relatively brief intervals, methods and approaches completely

different from each other, but all very attractive, one to another have been

succeeded, having as a common characteristic the fact that each one of them trying

to deny the validity of the one that has preceded it" (1995, 25).

The present study aims at working with the main approaches adopted in

language schools in Brazil.

3.1 APPROACHES TO GRAMMAR AND TRANSLATION (AGT)

The approach to the Grammar and Translation was very used in Europe in the XIX

century for the teaching of foreign languages. According to TOTIS, this approach

does not have historical documents, but it is known that it was used as a method in

the teaching of languages for many years until defenders of other methods then

started to pOint out its problems. This approach is still used in Brazil in some Brazilian

schools (1995, 25).

According to FARACO, this approach appeared from a conception of language

called by the author as normativism. According to the author, "normativism

maniqueisticaly divides the facts of language in right and wrong; he identifies the

language as what is right, crystallizing this set and attempts to link the speakers to it.

The normativism conceives, therefore, the language as a stony institution: ready,

immovable, external to the speakers to whom they must be submitted" (1987, 49).

The normativism was the only conception of language within innumerable

others, that the ancient world built, that could cross the walls of academic universes

and forcefully be established in the common sense.

II was the nonmativist conception that elaborated a language model as a

solution to diminish the conflicts generated by the classic and alexandrine re~~~DE 1'6-.:.: ~.. ~;::l OJ J~FC/\-

,_IS.·\O'

14

starting to use the grammar in the teaching of languages. Thus, the same way of

teaching the classic Greek was used in the teaching of foreign languages.

Then, based in the normativist conception, the approach of grammar and

translation was developed, having as the main objective to enable the learners to

read literature and translate, giving them grammatical ability in the language and a

good range of vocabulary.

According to SILVEIRA, this approach of teaching is based on the fact that

"the first ability of the learner is to know how to translate, and for this, must know the

grammar and the variations of the language" (1999, 59).

For TOTIS, this approach has as characteristic the fact that the lessons are

taught in the mother tongue of the learner, making little use of the target language;

the main focus is given to the grammar, in the analysis of the form and variation of

the words; the reading of classic texts already appears in the beginning levels;

exercises of translation from the target language into the mother tongue; little

attention is given to the contents of the texts, these are worked as grammatical

exercises; little or no attention is given to the pronunciation of the words; the teacher

does not need to speak the target language, it is enough if he/she knows to teach its

grammatical content. The result of this is learners with grammatical ability, but unable

to oral communication (1995, 25).

According to LEFFA basically the AGT consists of the teaching of a second

language based on the mother tongue. All the information necessary to build a

sentence, to understand a text or to appreciate an author, is given through

explanations in the mother tongue of the learner. The three essential steps for the

learning of a language are: (a) previous memorization of a list of words, (b)

knowledge of the rules necessary to put these words together in phrases and (c)

exercises of translation and version (subject). It is a deductive approach, basing on

the rule towards the example (1988, 213).

MEIRELES affirms that:

The effective use of the language as native speakers was completely rejected;therefore, being a method primarily used in the education of dead languages, it did not foreseethe use of the language as a way of communication. The reading was seen as a certification ofthe intellectual activity of a society, INhose positive cultural values ..vere seen as models to beimitated by the apprentices - it is clear that languages of peoples with higher economical andcultural prestige were learned in order to keep contact 'Nith them or to reach a 'superior statusof civilization' (2002, 154).

15

LEFFA still affirms that the objective of the AGT is - or was - to make the

learner appreciate the culture and the literature of the L2. It was believed that the

learner acquired a deeper knowledge of its own language, developing his/her

intelligence and reasoning capacity. But in this approach, culture is seen as an elite

culture, which means, in the sense of a product of a social class only (literature,

music, folklore, etc), in the sense of reflecting the culture valued by the cultural elite

of the people who speak a foreign language. Most of the texts and classroom

activities are in the textbook, and this method has as characteristic to work

essentially on the study of the consecrated literature of the language, such as

poems, tales, parts of romances and stories, and not only as didactic texts. Even

having authentic texts, these did not coincide with the everyday culture of who

studied the language, because they were literary texts far from the daily routine of the

apprentice.

3.2 STRUCTURAL APPROACH

This approach starts to be elaborated in the 30's and 40's. In the 50's it becomes the

innovation of the moment and in the 60's and 70's it practically becomes hegemonic.

The structural approach is based on the principle that teaching is to

manipulate behaviours. The teacher working in classroom as well as the author of the

textbook both recognized that, if the objective of the work was to make the learner

proficient in the target language, the mechanism that makes the language function

would have to be mastered, which means, to learn the language system. The

teaching of a foreign language is seen as training. The role of the teacher was

restricted to follow the manual and the lesson plan, and to use didactic resources, as

tape recorder and slides projector. The teacher is the model, and then he/she must

also control the activities, preventing what might be an over, through the practical

systematic drills. All the work developed in the classroom aimed at promoting the

proficiency of the language system, that is, to develop the ability of the learner

through a controlled practice. Besides all, the teacher should have an involving

personality and a positive performance in the classroom.

The concern was stronger with the form than with the meaning. According to

SILVEIRA "as the trainings of the structures (pattern practice) is in the centre of the

approach, the semantic level, that is, the meaning is not taken into account" That

16

was enough if the learner was able to form structurally correct S8l!tences, not

mattering if that was what the learner was feeling indeed, if he/she agreed or not, or if

that was exactly what he/she meant to express. The approach was not to the

language in use, but in the language as a system (1999, 61).

The structural approach was not concerned with contextualizing the topic to be

taught. NEWMARK explains that: "When linguists and programmers talk about the

planning of their textbooks, they tackle the problem as if they had to decide which

structural characteristic each lesson should carry to be taught. The global program

teaches the addition of its parts: the learner will know this structure, and that one, and

another one ... " (in Brumfit and Johnson, 1979, 161, apud SOWECK, op cit).

The referring cultural elements to this approach, according to SILVEIRA "refer

to everyday life and to the lifestyle of the people. Thus, the dialogues, the illustrations

and the texts for reading, approach subjects related to work, school, leisure ". Such

subjects not always fit in the reality of all learners. It is not always that a leisure

illustration shown in books will be fancied by all, nor all the learners work, and

suddenly they come across texts about jobs (1999, 61).

Thus, Newmark, according to SOWEK, concludes that the task to learn a new

language would be essentially the exchange of a set of structures for a new one. The

learner learns to build perfect sentences, but artificial ones. In this way the learner

will not learn when to use such sentence or when it is the moment to use a

determined expression.

3.3 COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

According to SILVEIRA in this approach the culture has a more significant

role, once the culture provided the beginning of the "communicative movement". This

movement was the result of a convergence of linguistic, philosophical, pragmatic,

sociological, and ethnographical theories that focus on the effective use of the

language and not with the immanence of the linguistic code. This, because "in

Europe, due to the great movement of immigration, a search for more efficient

methods occurs in order to make people not only dominate the grammar of foreign

languages, but also that they could properly use these languages in real situations of

social interaction, mainly at work, at universities, at public institutions" (1999, 73174).

17

The communicative approach had its main landmark in the 70's with the

creation of the concept of Del Hymes communicative ability, which was on the spot in

the 80's and 90's.

According to SOWECK, researchers from different areas, specially some

sociologists, philosophers and linguists considered the linguistic analyses that were

strictly based on the internal functioning of the verbal code inadequate - phonology,

morphology and syntax - without taking into account the circumstances in which the

code is used (1987, 20).

These researchers started from the principle that the communication "is a

process in which we create, negotiate and interpret personal meanings, trace the

premises for the communicative movement establishment". (RILEY, 1985 apud

SOWECK, 1987,22)

Following Breen and Candlin (1980), Morrow (1977) and Widdowson (1978),

Canale (1983) summarizes the concept of communication with the following

characteristics:

It is a form of social interaction, and consequently is acquired and normally used insocial interaction; it involves one unforeseeable high degree of creativity in the form andmessage; it has a place in the socia-cultural speech and context that also supply restrictions inthe appropriate usage of the language as well as hints towards the correct interpretation ofstatements; it happens under limited psychological conditions and of other types, such asmemory restrictions, fatigue and distractions; it always has a purpose (for example, toestablish social relations, to persuade, or to promise); it involves authentic language inopposition to the elaborated language of the textbook; it is judged successful or not in the baseof the real result. (For example, the communication could be judged successful in the case of anon~native speaker of English that was trying to find the railroad station in Toronto and said"How to go train" to a passer~by, and the direction to station was given). (Canale, 1983 apudSOWECK, 198722).

Then a question came up, what people make with the words, and thus the

research field was ex1ended to also include the ex1ernal functioning of the verbal

code. Riley says: "The emphasis in this approach moves from the structure and the

grammar towards the function and the communicative ability; from the sentences put

together towards the execution of acts from the sentences, from the isolated

sentence towards the sentence in contex1" (1985 1 apud SOWECK op. cit.).

According to Johnson, by studying, with bigger depth the acquisition of the

mother tongue by the child, the study of the language as a system started to be seen

more seriously. In researches developed by Campbell and Wales (1970), it is

mentioned: "if someone wants to better understand the acquisition of the language, it

18

is not enough to find out how a child learns the grammatical and phonological system

- systemic ability -, but other deeper aspects must be taken into consideration, mainly

how a child learns to communicate" (1982, 11 apud SOWECK 1987, 19).

The language, then, becomes to be seen not only as a structure, but a way of

communication in which people can express their desires and necessities. The study

of the language as an isolated structure from the context does not help to come up

with conclusions related to how the language is used as a way of communication.

SOWECK gives as an example the following sentence: "'Why you do not get up

soon?', If this sentence is analysed in the structural way it could be understood as an

affirmative one. Under the grammatical aspect, nobody would say that it is a

question. However, functionally a clear ambiguity exists there. It can be an affirmation

or a question, and still, be interpreted as an order, a suggestion or a complaint."

It is clearly then, that it is not enough if the learner knows how to build a sentence

with perfect structures if he/she does not know how to use it in an appropriate

situation. And it is the same for both the speaker and the listener. It is important to

know the tone given in a determined sentence and reveal the situation it has been

placed.

In 1985 the North American Stephen Krashen brought to the teaching of

languages the theories of Piaget, Vygostky and Chomsky, establishing a clear

difference between the formal study and the natural acquisition of languages, and

only accumulate knowledge and develop the ability of the use of a language. It was

concluded that the efficient teaching of languages is not the one that depends on

packages of didactic recommendations, on oral practice in repetition form or that

uses excellent equipment and advanced technological resources. The efficient

teaching of a language is the one that uses the teacher's creative ability to create

real situations of communication, certainly aimed at the necessities of the learners. In

the communicative approach there is no room for the teacher who asks the learners

to describe their last vacations in Greece even knowing that they have never been

there, and that speaking of vacations in Greece is for the learners unreal and

completely irrelevant at that moment of their lives. The teacher/instructor that uses

the communicative approach correctly would ask the learners to tell their classmates

(generally working in pairs or in small groups) something about their last real

vacations, where they really happened. This approach does not have a teacher

worried about only transmitting contents. The teacher must play the role of informer

19

of linguistic items to be acquired by the learners; entertainer of activities, encouraging

the learners to participate of sketches or plays, making the environment less tense as

possible; organizer of tasks, groups, extra-activities; coordinator of discussions,

simulated debates; observer of learners' participation in interactions, always in a

communicative perspective, more focused on the process than in the product; analyst

of the necessities and interests of the learners, to make the teaching as meaningful

as possible; appraiser of the performance of the learner and its own performance,

using for this a reflexive attitude on its own and the learners' performance.

According to SILVEIRA, "the communicative approach, as for the teach-

learning conditions, takes into consideration the concepts of learning versus

acquisition (Krashen, 1982). Learning is a conscientious and artificial process. The

acquisition is an unconscious and natural process, and therefore more long-lasting".

About the didactic material, according to SILVEIRA," this does not need to be a rigid

guide, but a resource to develop the activities of linguistic interaction. The texts must

be authentic respecting the linguistic level of the learner" (1999, 78).

Through the communicative approach a new vision of teaching languages was

created. The artificial aids were left aside, as well as the grammatical structures had

lost its supreme importance. The language was not seen as a system of structures

and rules anymore, and the social context, the natural and real language then

became more important. The texts in didactic books, before considered

representations of a supposedly correct language, became to be seen as artificial,

where the teacher, sometimes, needs to adapt them so that they would became

closer to the reality of the learner.

In the communicative approach, according to MEIRELES, even though the

teaching of German is specifically mentioned, it can be understood in the teaching of

a foreign language, in a general way, that:

The culture of a foreign language starts to gain greater importance, because it is thebackground for all the successful interactions, being the mastering of the language animportant part, but not necessarily decisive. The apprentice sees the foreign culture fromhis/her own cultural experience, comparing and contrasting them, allowing a widening anddifferentiation of the cultural experiences. The learning is then organized in thematic fields,what favours the establishment of relations with the learner's previous experience andincreases the motivation, allowing the use of authentic materials from the German culture, asbrochures, songs, etc (2002, 156).

20

The culture, as well as the interculturality, plays an important role in terms of

learning a second language, not being just a "curiosity", but beginning to have a

basic role in the classroom.

3.3.1 Components of the Communicative Ability

There are four components of the linguistic ability according to Canale and

Swain: Grammatical ability, socio-linguistic ability, discursive ability, and strategic

ability (1983, 6 - 14 apud SOWEK 1987, 33).

3.3.1.1 Grammatical Ability

According to SOWECK definition "it is the own linguistic ability in the restricted sense

of the term that it was used by Chomsky and other linguists".

To have grammatical ability is to master the grammar in the sense of

understanding and knowing how to express correctly, and not just knowing

grammatical rules by heart.

3.3.1.2 Socio-linguistic ability

Canale says: "socia-linguistic ability specifically mentions the property of statements

used by the speaker in different socia-linguistic contexts", That is, to know what to

speak in a certain situation and how it must be said, and also to know the moment of

saying nothing.

3.3.1.3 Discursive ability

It is the ability to use the different combinations of structures and grammatical rules

that exist in a language (verbal or written) in a coherent and cohesive way that can

clearly be expressed to the listener or reader.

Savignon, discursive ability consists of:

The ability to interpret a series of sets of sentences or statements in order toform a significant whole, and to obtain coherent texts that are relevant in a determinedcontext. The success in both cases depends on the common knowledge that the writerI speaker, reader I listener possess - knowledge of the real world, knowledge of thelinguistic code, knowledge of the structure of the speech and knowledge of the socialconventions (1983, 40 apud SOWEK 1987, 39).

21

3.3.1.4 Strategic ability

The strategic ability is the ability to express oneself in other ways in case a certain

word or structure is not remembered. It is the capacity to paraphrase in case of

memory lapse or an eventual mistake in the sentence, which means, the person that

has the strategic ability will be able to communicate with logic and clarity, without

misinterpreting the structure of the sentence.

3.4 INTERCULTURAL APPROACH

Recent studies present a new trend of approach. This is the intercultural approach

that has not been used in language schools yet, but many researches have been

developed in this field, indicating that this is, perhaps, the most adjusted method to

learning a foreign language nowadays.

This approach has a lot in common with the communicative method, because:

both privilege the use of the foreign language in the communication, the cognitive andcreative learning, the organization of the programmatic content in thematic groups and theinteraction in the classroom, with the same group dynamics. The main difference is the factthat the communicative method still aims at mainly enabling the learner to orient and tointegrate him or herself into a foreigner routine. The intercultural approach, on the other hand,aims at propitiating to the learner the chance "to interpret other forms of behaviour,conceptions and values of a culture, having the background of his/her own culture andpersonal experiences" (Saucers; Rohrmann, 1990,5 apud MEIRELES, 2002, 158)

In the intercultural approach the culture of the learner is valued as well as the

culture to be studied, because we start from the learner's own culture to better

understand and study another culture. The learner will decide how much of this new

culture he/she wants to be part of his/her life. As it has been already mentioned

before, culture, in this project, means ways of living, different habits and thoughts.

It is believed that this way of learning a second language will be more

effective, because the learner will be involved and motivated by the learning, being

the most important the relationship the learner will establish with his/her own

worldview.

22

4 A PROPOSAL FOR A LESSON USING THE INTERCULTURALITY IN THE

TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

A big part of didactic books used for teaching English lacks aspects of a foreigner

culture. In the majority of the cases, when it is worked, the culture appears in a

stereotyped way, assuming that the learner already knows the characteristics of that

culture. ALMEIDA FILHO comments that some didactic books try to bring less formal

activities so that it has more communication and information about other cultures, but

even these activities have not been exactly satisfactory. He affirms that:

"There is a current vision of materials as ready products, made by specialists, whodetermine the beginning, the middle and the end of a process. It foresees a technical teacher,applicator of content and methods previously taken on a generalized education for all contexts.There is, VoIhatsoever,the illusion of the didactic material to be the only source to be explored,in the sense of condensing a content kno'Nledge and consecrated method. HQIIoIever, thisquestion has been rethought, because it clashes with the real necessities of teachers andlearners to generate language in use within specific contexts," (ALMEIDA FILHO, 199753)

JANZEN, in his master's degree thesis suggests a new planning of a thematic

unit of a book from a course of German for Brazilian learners. According to the

teacher's book, analysed by JANZEN, the suggested activities are not very

motivating for the learners. The activities run away from the everyday context of the

apprentice, what discourages them to the learning. The subject of this unit is

"Preparing for a trip". Basically the learners must work with preparing a trip to

Germany, suggesting ways, directions and tourist attractions. Having in mind the

disinterest of certain learners, due to the fact of being away from their reality, a new

lesson plan was designed (1998, 78).

In this new planning, instead of having Germany as the destination of the trip,

the destination then becomes Curitiba, what approaches the learner to the reality,

because they have background information regarding the city where they live. In this

way it was much more sensible to plan a tour through the city, tourist attractions and

how to locate in the city. The vocabulary and structures had been the same ones

used in the two proposals, but in the proposal to plan a trip to Curitiba, the

vocabulary and structure were learned less artificially and in a more exciting way.

Based on the master's degree thesis of JANZEN, where it suggests that

teachers intervene with extra material and authentic texts to establish a relation

between cultures of different countries, a different proposal of a lesson from what the

23

didactic book (New Interchange) of an English course suggests was designed (1998,

78).

Some lessons between two groups of the same level had been compared, but

in different times. In a group the lesson was given according to the teacher's guide.

Only an authentic text was used, but without relating the two cultures. I will refer to

this group as G1 (group 1).

In the other group, authentic and real texts have been used, so that the

interculturality became part of the learning. We tried not to follow the teacher's guide

and related the two cultures. I will refer to this group as G2 (group2).

The G1 was chosen to have a lesson in the normal standards because it is a

group of seven girls, aged around twelve years, in the period of the morning, and that

has had an excellent performance, and for not presenting difficulties in learning.

The G2 is a group of 16 learners, boys and girls, in the period of the afternoon,

with ages ranging from 12 to 15 years old. In this group some learners present some

learning difficulties, and there are also those who are not motivated with the learning

of English. Our hypothesis is that working in the perspective of the interculturality we

will motivate and help those learners with difficulties.

The hypothesis of this proposed lesson was that the group who received the

authentic texts would have a better production, understanding and acquiring the

subject, in a way that they are also more involved and would be stimulated with the

learning.

The level of the groups is low intermediate, having had contact with the

language for about 1 year and a half.

The taught communicative function was modals for necessity and suggestion,

which means, they are modal verbs used to give some suggestion or to express

necessity of making something.

The thematic unit used was the one that talks about travelling around the

world. In this unit there is a dialogue of a conversation between mother and daughter.

In this conversation, the daughter demonstrates willingness of "backpacking" around

Europe. Through the context on what to take for a trip, the grammar point would be

introduced and the learners would learn how to say in English what they must and/or

they suggest taking with them for a trip.

24

Below the dialogue of the conversation between mother and daughter:

CONVERSATION

Lucy: Hc)"Mom. I wanl to backpnck fiI'Ollnd Europethis summer. What do you think?

Mom: Backpack around Europe? Thill soundsdangerolls! You shouldn'l go by)'ollrscICYou QUl.{ht to go with someone.

Lucy: Yt.'S,I've thought of thut.Mom: And you'd better talk to your rather fin;t.Lucy: I alrcody did. He thinks it's i1 grent iden.

He wanls to come with me!

A ~ Listen and practice.

As the learners of this institution belong to the high middle class, the possibility

of travelling abroad is something probable, because many learners have already

been abroad more than once. However, it is not part of the Brazilian culture to

"backpack" around different countries. Some can even try it out, but it is much more

common to see teenagers, aged 15 or more, taking part into exchange programs to

other countries with the purpose of studying a second language in another country. In

the United States it is very common to see teenagers "backpacking" around Europe

after having finished high school. What moves these teenagers is the spirit of

adventure to visit new places, different countries and learn about different cultures.

For the Americans, luxury and comfort are not of extreme necessity. A backpack is

enough, because they probably will spend the nights in hostels or in priceless hotels.

When a Brazilian teenagers goes for an exchange program, the travel agencies are

responsible for accommodating the student in a family house, preferably from the

same social level, with all the comfort that this student is used to have.

We realize that a simple didactic text in a book from an English course

involves much more than simply teaching the language. This fact is often unobserved

by second language teachers, who do not take into consideration the cultural

differences or similarities of these countries. Based on these affirmations we have

decided to teach this lesson.

As in this institution, where the experience was carried through, the learners

have access to computers in every lesson, so one of the authentic texts was read on

the Internet.

25

4.1 STEPS FOR THE PROPOSED LESSON

Below are the steps of a different proposal of teaching, comparing the lessons given

in each one of the groups.

1. As the subject of the unit is about where people go on vacations, the question

raised was about where people who go abroad usually spend their vacations.

We elicited from the learners names of countries where people generally visit,

why these people go there, and what the tourist attractions of these places

are. Each idea, suggestion or opinion of the learners was written down on the

board. This brainstorming was used as a warm up. As homework we have

selected 5 countries so that in groups a research could be carried through.

The learners would have to find out the main tourist attractions of these

places. The countries that had been selected were the same that would be in

a text to be read the following class. In this way the learners would be already

involved in the context of the lesson.

2. In the following lesson, the learners from both groups have had between 10 to

15 minutes for an oral presentation to the classroom so that the other

classmates could also share the new information.

3. After having presented their researches, the question of studying abroad was

raised, to check their opinion and their willingness about the topic. In this

context, only the G2 made commentaries about American teenagers who had

"backpacked" around Europe. The topic was deeply explored with this group

and a relation between the Brazilian and American cultures was established.

In the G1 this relation was not established.

4. In order to have a more authentic lesson, the learners from both groups have

visited a site on the Internet that is a small diary of a girl who spent some days

travelling around Europe with a friend (attachment 1). In this site the girl's daily

routines, adventures, difficulties and the places that she has visited were

reported.

26

5. Due to didactic ends, a questionnaire with questions regarding the general

understanding of the text was elaborated (attachment 2).

6. In the following lesson with both groups, the questionnaire on the text read in

the previous lesson was corrected. With the G2 the learners' opinion on what

they had read was requested, if they would do the same thing, or if they would

go to another place, in different conditions. With the G1, these questions had

not been raised and we focused on the linguistic content, which worked out in

the same way with the two groups.

7. Taking the trip subject again, we asked the learners what people must or must

not take with them when they travel to certain places, and if they had

suggestions regarding what to do or to visit in such places. Each suggestion

was written down on the board. In this way the grammar point was introduced

and explored through questions guiding the learners to the most appropriate

and coherent answer.

8. For the G1 the content was introduced according to the instructions from the

teacher's guide, without making any linking to the culture of our country and

the country of the target language. With the G2, so that this part of the lesson

was also related to the context, another authentic text was given to the

learners, taken from the Internet, where a girl that "backpacked" around

Europe suggests a list of things that must be taken. This list was prepared as

an activity, and two copies were printed, but with different items removed from

them. Then, in pairs, each learner got a list with some elements missing, so

that they would have to find out about it from their partner's list. Orally the

learners would have to mention the items that were in their own lists using the

new structure in order to help the other partner complete the list. In this part of

the lesson the learners had put into practice the new structure. Later the

learners compared their previous suggestions written down on the board with

the girl who lived the situation wrote in her list. Thus another cultural relation

was established.

Below, the text found on the Internet with the list of items to take for a trip:

27

What to pack is very much based on how long your trip will be and where you will be going.This list is intended for someone backpacking around Europe for at least a month over thesummer.

You're going to want a nice big backpack to carry stuff around in. Internal or external frame,doesn't much matter. You'll also want a regular backpack to use during the day (a lot of hikingbags come with a smaller bag which zippers on to the bigger one). Here's a list of stuff I havein mind:

clothes and such - I plan 7-day clothes cycle, which implies the following:

o 1 or 2 pairs of pants (get the convertible ones that transform into shorts)

o 2 pairs of shorts

a 4 t-shirts

o 1 long-sleeve shirt

o 1 button-down half-sleeve shirt (layering is key)

o 8 pairs of underwearo 8 pairs of sockso 1 pair of hiking boots (I much prefer these to walking shoes)

o flip fiops

o hat

o towel (get a thin one which will dry out fast)

o rain jacket

o sunglasses

toiletries

o toilet paper

a soap

o shampoo

o razor

o toothpaste

o toothbrush

o deodorant (very important)

o sunscreen (if you need it)

28

2 copies of your passport (exchange with your travel mates)

a copy of your birth certificate (better safe than sorry!)

money belt (it's better to have your ticket and such close to you)

a lock for your bag

a little laundry detergent (it might be easier than getting it there, I'm not sure)

random utilities

o swiss army knife I leather man

o utensils

o one of those cool collapsible cups

o zip-lock bags (trust me, they come in very useful for dirty clothes, among otherthings)

o power adapter for any electronics

sleeping - there are a couple of options here, you could do a small sleeping bag (as Ido), but sheets work ok as well. In any case, you're better off bringing your own thanrenting from each hostel you stay at.

Below are the activities that the learners were supposed to do:

MODEL A

COMPLETE THE LIST WITH THE MISSING INFORMATION

29

·... <'I~

What to pack is very much based on how long your trip will be and where you will be going. This list isintended for someone backpacking around Europe for at least a month over the summer.

You're going to want a nice big backpack to carry stuff around in. Internal or external frame, doesn'tmuch matter. You'll also want a regular backpack to use during the day (a lot of hiking bags come witha smaller bag which zippers on to the bigger one). Here's a list of stuff I have in mind:

clothes and such - I plan 7-day clothes cycle, which implies the following:

o 1 or 2 pairs of pants (get the convertible ones that transform into shorts)

o 2 pairs of shorts

o 1 long-sleeve shirt

o 1 button-down half-sleeve shirt

o 8 pairs of underwear

o 1 pair of hiking boots (I much prefer these to walking shoes)

o flip flops

o towel (get a thin one which will dry out fast)

o sunglasses

toiletries

o toilet paper

o soap

o razor

o toothpaste

o toothbrush

o deodorant (very important)

30

o utensils

o one of those cool collapsible cups

o zip-lock bags (trust me, they come in very useful for dirty clothes, among other things)

a copy of your birth certificate (better safe than sorry!)

money belt (it's better to have your ticket and such close to you)

a little laundry detergent (it might be easier than getting it there, I'm not sure)

randam utilities

sleeping - there are a couple of options here, you CQuid do a small sleeping bag (as 1do), butsheets work ok as well. In any case, you're better off bringing your own than renting from eachhostel you stay at.

MODELB

COMPLETE THE LIST WITH THE MISSING INFORMATION

31

What to pack is very much based on how long your trip will be and where you will be going. This list isintended for someone backpacking around Europe for at least a month over the summer.

You're going to want a nice big backpack to carry stuff around in. Internal or external frame, doesn'tmuch matter, You'll also want a regular backpack to use during the day (a lot of hiking bags come witha smaller bag which zippers on to·the bigger one). Here's a list of stuff I have in mind:

clothes and such -I plan 7-day clothes cycle, which implies the following:

o 1 or 2 pairs of pants (get the convertible ones that transform into shorts)

o 4 t-shirts

o 1 button-down half-sleeve shirt

o 8 pairs of underwear

a 8 pairs of socks

o 1 pair of hiking boots (I much prefer these to walking shoes)

o hat

o towel (get a thin one which will dry out fast)

o rain jacket

toiletries

o toilet paper

o shampoo

o razor

o toothpaste

o deodorant (very important)

o sunscreen (if you need it)

2 copies of your passport (exchange with your travel mates)

32

o power adapter for any electronics

money belt (it's better to have your ticket and such close to you)

random utilities

o swiss army knife

o utensils

o one cjf those cool collapsible cups

sleeping - there are a couple of options here, you could do a small sleeping bag (as I do), butsheets wor~ok as well. In any case, you're better off bringing your own than renting from ,eachhostel you stay at.

33

9. After oral practice of the new content, learners from both groups had opened

books to hear the dialogue between the mother and daughter about

"backpacking" around Europe. (the G1 worked with the book right after the

oral explanation of the topic). Both groups were involved with the context

about travelling around Europe. The dialogue was explored and worked in

class.

10.After working the dialogue in the ways suggested in the teacher's book, the

learners from both groups carried on to the exercise from the book. In this

exercise there were sentences from the previous dialogue as an example for

the grammar topic. The purpose of the exercise was to make the learners fill in

the sentences by using the modal verbs. Until this step both groups were

successful.

11.ln the following lesson an evaluation was made so that I could conclude if my

hypotheses were correct Both groups had to prepare an activity in pairs,

where each learner chose a place in Brazil where he/she would like to

"backpack". After each learner had decided the destination and what period of

the year, they had to suggest in written form what the partner should take for

this trip. In this way they put the language and the new structure in practice.

For the G1 only 5 sentences had been requested and, for the G2, 10

suggestions for the trip had been requested.

4.2 ANALYSIS OF THE PROPOSED LESSON AND THE RESULTS OBTAINED

The didactic book used in this proposed lesson is one of a communicative

character. Each unit is independent of each other, but each one has a theme to be

approached that is linked to the grammar topic. Not only this didactic book as many

others related to the language teaching, is designed to worldwide use. Perhaps it is

where the failure lays in respect to the question of tackling the culture and to

establish a relation between different cultures.

As it has already been mentioned before, the teacher should be persistence to

bring real and authentic texts so that this relation becomes possible. It is important to

focus on a context that is close to the learner and, thus, to work the communicative

34

functions using the vocabulary presented in the book. JANZEN comments on the

National Curricular Lines of High School, article ninth, proposition I says: "in the

learning situation, the knowledge is transposed of the situation where it was created,

invented or produced, and because of this didactic transposition, it must be related to

the practice or experience of the learner in order to acquire meaning". According to

THOMAS "each person will look forward to interact with values, ideas that are used

in the strange culture, from its own orientation system" (apud JANZEN 1998, 85).

Following the principles mentioned above, the idea of proposing a lesson by using

the interculturality as an education tool came up.

Something very interesting can be observed when comparing the results gotten in

the evaluation of both groups. The two groups had fulfilled the task suggested by the

didactic book, but we observe that the G1, even though having presented a good

performance during the semester, had a little difficulty and took longer to finish the

activity. The G1 used the textbook as a support while describing their suggestions of

what to take for a trip, and to my surprise, they had made some suggestions such as

to take a passport, to take a visa or to take a traveller's check, which would be

unnecessary and useless for a trip in Brazil, but these items had been suggested in

the activity presented in the textbook. The sentences were grammatically correct, but

some simply did not make any sense, being incoherent. In the G2, some learners,

who already presented greater difficulty of learning in relation to the others, had

made some mistakes in terms of structure and spelling, but all the 10 suggestions

from the 16 learners had been coherent, creative and appropriated to their worldview.

It was expected that G1 would learn to write and to use the structure in question

correctly, as it has already been mentioned before, it is a group that presents a good

performance. However, the G1 had an artificial learning, distant from their reality and

therefore they came up with artificial and meaningless sentences when evaluated.

My challenge was to choose a heterogeneous group, the G2, and to make them

learn how to use the grammatical content in a proper way. The relation established

between the Brazilian and the American culture lead to learning in a "more natural"

way, knowing when and how to use the learned topic.

It is clear that in this proposal, the use of interculturality only comes to benefit the

learning of a second language, making the learned topic to be acquired as naturally

as possible and raising the interest in learning a second language. When the learner

is involved and motivated, acquiring a language becomes easier. No negative aspect

35

was spotted through the use of intercultural elements during the process, thus, I

come to the conclusion that this is a more effective way of teaching a foreign

language.

4.3 GRID OF COMPARISON BETWEE:;N G1 AND G2

G1 G2STEPS

Raised the question of X Xwhere people use to spendtheir vacations abroad.(step 1)

Homework: research 5 X Xcountries(step·1)

Classroom presentation of X Xthe research done ashomework.(step 2.)

Raised the hypothesis of X Xstudying abroad.(step 3)

Cultura~ relation established Xbetween Brazil and the USAregarding travelling abroad.(step 3)

Text read from the internet. X X(step 4)

Questions about the X Xinternet text.(step 5)

36

Correction of the questions. X X(step 6)

Discussion and opinion Xrelated to the text read fromthe internet.(step 6)

Grammar topic introduction. X X(step 7)

Cultural relation established Xbetween Brazil and the USAregarding "backpacking"around the world.(step 8)

List suggesting items for a X"backpack" trip.(step 8)

Comparison between thelearner's suggested items Xand the items containing inthe activity list. Anothercultural relation wasestablished.(step 8)

Using me didactic book for X Xdialogue comprehension.(step 9)

Exercises suggested by the X Xbook.(step 10)

Classroom evaluation. X X(Step 11)

37

5. CONCLUSION

The teaching of English has been coming through many transformations since of the

beginning of the XIX century, but has always been postponed. There was not the

need of learning how to communicate in English.

During these transformations there had been several methods and

approaches used to teach English, and to each new approach there was the

expectation of it being the ideal method.

Nowadays the most used method is the communicative method that is

supported by simulating real situations that are part of the routine of the learner,

leaving the mechanical practice aside, and making the learner feel the need to

communicate. This method is based on the learner's needs and reflects the natural

use of the language with higher precision.

The communicative method opened the way to the interculturality in the

teaching of languages and through this project it can be concluded that establishing a

relation between the English and the Brazilian culture the learner feels more

stimulated and involved in the process of learning a second language.

What happens is that many of the didactic books used for teaching English

only demonstrate the cultural experienced by the target language speakers, without

relating it to the learner's culture. Such relation becomes difficult of being established

only through the didactic book once these textbooks are adopted worldwide. Then it

is necessary that the teachers adapt the contents and topics of these textbooks to

the reality, background information about the world, age and expectations of the

learners.

There are several factors to be analysed at the moment of a cultural relation

between two countries. The relation established in a certain group might not fit in with

another group depending on all the factors mentioned above.

Through the lesson presented in this project we can clearly notice the

difference of learning by simply following the teacher's guide, and the one that

received extra information through authentic texts as well as relating the cultural

aspects.

The ones who were taught in the parameters considered normal by didactic

books, had the chance to learn the content, but in an artificial way, far from their

reality, that is not part of their expectations. For this group, a discussion about

38

"backpacking" around the world was something abstract and meaningless to their

lives.

Those who participated of the process that included the intercuiturality as one

of the learning factors, had the chance to learn the content in a less artificial way and

closer to their experiences. Even both groups having had exactly the same topic, the

subject was well exploited through the cultural relationship so that the learners

understood what a simple trip as this entails for the Americans. Moreover, the

concept of trip for Brazilians was compared and the lesson was adapted in order to

have the learners to elaborate a trip throughout Brazil. It made the content clear and

more real for the learners, because they could express their ideas according to theirexperiences. The results of this proposed lesson are only a preliminary roll of

evidences without going too deep, but that constitutes real topics of research and

that, in a near future, deserve to be deeply investigated.

The current schools have the need of adapting to the new technologies and

understanding that the globalisation is everywhere and promotes constant innovation

on the way languages are taught. Our learners live in the computer era and all of us

live in the 'Global Village' due to the Internet influence.

Historically revising the methods of teaching foreign languages, it was

concluded that the teacher does not have to be forced to use one or another

approach, but from his/her own experience, the learners characteristics, and the

existing conditions, to make the final decision.

As already mentioned before, each group is different from each other and also

has different experiences and expectations. A well-adjusted approach for a group

might not be effective in another. The teacher must be flexible to adapt his/her

teaching background into each group.

However, the communicative approach is the most appropriate to transmit the

multiplicity of the meaning of the words and situations, having in mind that the

dictionary by itself is not able to fully translate a word or an expression. In this way,

the Communicative Approach, inserted in the field of the interculturality, can develop

the communicative ability in the learner, because the learner will use the language for

communication and not to develop the grammatical ability.

39

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