STORIES IN ELT CIOBANU DANIELA 2 Contents 3 Introduction “People become the stories they hear and the stories they tell” (Elie Wiesel) We have a profound need to tell and hear stories. It is how we share experience, understand each other, and create community. Every conversation is full of personal anecdote; every effort to explain shared customs and values needs a tale; every bit of wisdom is best expressed by a story. The very way our minds think is the essence of story. Most of us have grown up with some tradition of storytelling in our families, whether it was a nightly ritual when we went to bed or in conversations around the kitchen table after a Sunday meal. We, as human beings, are defined by our stories. Stories are a powerful force in our lives. ‘‘We have stories to teach us, stories to heal us, stories to warn us, and stories to lead Stories have the power to fashion or shape us in some way. Some stories transform us, while others reform us. Some are designed to inform, and others encourage a level of conformity. Stories shape who we are and how we understand and interact with other people. ‘‘Stories provide a major route to get outside of our immediate experience and feel what it's like to be somebody in another place or another culture. Through stories we explain how things are, why they are, and our role and purpose. Christopher Nash in his book ’’Narrative in Culture’’ admits the fact that "...telling stories helps us to make sense of the Stories create connection, energy, and emotional impact. They are used by teachers and mentors to engage, influence, and persuade. Stories convey culture. Telling stories by the campfire is a time-honored way to pass on culture, wisdom, and experience. It is amazing how many things can we learn from a story. Each story has one or more messages to transmit. Each story teaches us something. There are stories which provide us with cultural, political, social information. Each story has its good and bad characters and in the fight 1 John Bentley Mays 2 Bage, Grant, Teaching Language Learning History, Falmer Press, London, 1999, p.18 3 Christopher Nash, Narrative in Culture-The Use of Storytelling in the Sciences, Philosophy and Literature, University of Warwick, 1990, p.150 4 between the good and the bad the first always win. From stories we can learn how to overcome the obstacles in our life. We learn to be optimistic and courageous, to have faith and not to lose our hope. The world of stories is a magic one. Their power lasts forever. It is unbelievable how, in a world of technology, of computers and of television, stories, written hundreds years ago, still delight us. Today, the art of storytelling continues as we tell stories to children to communicate with them, entertain them, and pass on information. Anyone can read a story but, when a story is told, children feel a bond between the teller and themselves. In a society where parents lead busy lives and children are entertained by the impersonal communication media of films and television, storytelling can be an invaluable part of your program. An experience shared between teller and listener, it helps children develop the skills of listening and encourages them to visualize the story in their imaginations, to relax and fantasize safely. Children believe in magic. A kiss can transform the ugly frog into a handsome prince. They also recognize justice and injustice, crime and punishment. For young boys, it is important for stories to convey magic and fantasy. Like ‘The Wizard of Oz’ or ‘Aladdin and his Magic Lamp’, they can be as far-fetched as the imagination will take them, but they also need to have a sense of real life and fair 4 Aline G. Chan, The Art of the Storyteller, www.eldrbarry.net/roos/storytel.htm 5 CHAPTER I "To be or not to be" "There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories" (Ursula K. Le Guin) 1.1. Culture in the classroom I asked myself many times why do people want to learn a foreign language. Searching for the answer I realized that the reasons are varied according to one's needs and desires. But what does it mean to learn/study a foreign language? At first sight the things are very simple; you have to be able to communicate, to make yourself understood, to have knowledge of grammar rules, pronunciation rules... And yet, studying a foreign language means more than these things. It means to be acquainted with the culture and the civilization of that country, with its customs and its traditions. On the one hand, learning another language gives the learner the ability to step inside the mind and context of that culture, on the other hand studying a new language, communicating with people in their own language, learning about their culture can be a source of both pleasure and personal enrichment. As long as languages have existed, there have also been cultures. Culture is a vital part of the communication process. While learning a foreign language, it is likely for its learners to need cultural information for better communication. Culture and communication are inseparable because culture not only dictates who talks to whom, about what, and how the communication proceeds, it also helps to determine how people encode messages, the meanings they have for messages, and the conditions and circumstances under which various messages may or may not be sent, noticed or interpreted. Culture is the foundation of communication. Byram asserts that language has no function independent of the context in which it is used, thus language always refers to something beyond itself: the cultural context. Understanding the cultural context of day to day conversational conventions such as greetings, 6 farewells, forms of address, thanking, making requests, and giving or receiving compliments means more than just being able to produce grammatical sentences. It means knowing what is appropriate to say to whom, and in what situations and it also means understanding the beliefs and values represented by the various forms and usages of the language. At the same time "the act of language learning moving from first language to second language may lead the learner to a comparison of cultural values in two different arison and contrast between cultures and emphasizing the diversity among cultures students learn to understand and respect the difference, they extend their knowledge and open their eyes to the world. Foreign language learning is a window opening to new horizons by building up connections to other cultures. I think that being aware of other cultures and recognizing the differences among people are the best motivation to learn a language. Just out of curiosity, one can learn a language. During the classes we compare features of our culture with those of British and American cultures. In this way we can make them be aware of the beauties of other languages and cultures, too. The study of different cultures aids us in getting to know different people, which is a necessary prelude to understanding and respecting other peoples and their ways of life. It helps to open our students' eyes to the similarities and differences in the life of various cultural groups. Referring to relation between culture and teaching a foreign language Brooks states "Turning to culture, we deliberately shift focus away from language as such towards the people who use the language: where and how they live, what they think, feel, and do. It is nowadays a commonplace in language pedagogy that language and culture are intertwined, that it is not possible to teach a language without culture, and that culture is the necessary context for language use 5 H.H.Stern, Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching, Oxford University press, 1984, p.422 6 G.L.Brooks, Varieties of english, Macmillian, 1964, p.45 7 But what exactly is culture? Some analysts suggest that this is not an easy question to answer, particularly in an increasingly international world. On a general level, culture has been referred to as ‘the ways of a people’ (Lado, 1957). This view incorporates both ‘material’ manifestations of culture that are easily seen and ‘non-material’ ones that are more difficult to observe. Anthropologists define culture as ‘the whole way of life of a people or group. In this context, culture includes all the social practices that bond a group of people together and distinguish them from others’ (Montgomery and Reid-Thomas, 1994: 5). According to Peck (1998), culture is all the accepted and patterned ways of behavior of a given Trying to define culture Jerry G. Gebhard states that there are many ways to define it but we should think of it as to "the common values and beliefs of a people and the behaviors that reflect Oxford's dictionary defines culture "as the customs, institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or To this we can add concepts, habits, skills, arts, instruments and so we can say that culture is a way of life and is the context within which we exist, think, feel and relate to others. Some specialists go further by stating that the term culture includes speech acts, rhetorical structure of texts, sociocultural behaviors, and ways in which knowledge is transmitted and obtained. Culture is manifested through body language, gestures, concepts of time, hospitality, customs and even expressions of friendliness. In her book Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning, Eli Hinkel speaks of two kinds of culture: invisible and visible culture. Visible culture includes style of dress, cuisine, festivals, customs and other traditions. The far more complex invisible culture is shown through socio-cultural norms, world views, beliefs, assumptions and values. Damon sees culture as "the fifth dimension" of language teaching in addition to other four language skills: speaking, reading, listening and 7 Dimitrios Thanasoulas, the Importance of Teaching Culture in the foreign Language Classroom, thanasoulas.html 8 Jerry G. Gebhard, Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language-A teacher self-development and methodology giude, University of Michigan, 1996, p.113 9 The Concise Oxford Dictionary, Tenth Edition, Oxford University Press, p.348 10 Damen, L(1987) Culture Learning: The Fifth Dimension on the Language Classroom Learning 8 Of what value is culture to second language learning? For the foreign language teacher, the reasons are many. Culture shapes our view of the world. And language is the most representative element in any culture. Any item of behavior, tradition or pattern can only be understood in light of its meaning to the people who practice it. Knowledge of the codes of behavior of another people is important if today's foreign language student is to communicate fully in the target language. Without the study of culture, foreign language instruction is inaccurate and incomplete. For foreign language students, language study seems senseless if they know nothing about the people who speak it or the country in which it is spoken. Language learning should be more than the manipulation of syntax and lexicon. For this "language class should provide an introduction to a country and its Culture and language learning have a multi-dimensional relationship. "Language teaching recognizes a social, interpersonal and cultural dimension and attributes to it just as much importance as the grammatical or phonological Teaching culture raises understanding of and reduces prejudice towards other cultures and peoples. By emphasizing the cultural content teachers can help students to accept the legitimacy of cultural differences among peoples. Thus, Byram (1991) concluded that "cultural knowledge or information should have a beneficial effect on attitudes and understanding in the longer term and, in the short term, also helps to make lessons more attractive and Culture can be divided into formal culture and deep culture. Formal culture, sometimes referred to as “culture with a capital C”, includes the humanistic manifestations and contributions of a foreign culture: art; music; literature; architecture; technology; politics. However, with this way of looking at culture, we often lose sight of the individual. The most profitable way of looking at culture is to see what it does. Deep culture, or “culture with a small c,” focuses on the behavioral patterns or lifestyles of the people: When and what they eat; how they make a living; the attitudes they express towards friends and members of their families; which expressions they use to show approval or disapproval. If we 11 H.H.Stern, Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching, Oxford University Press, 1984, p.191 12 Ibidem, p.229 13 Byram, M.&Esarte-Sarries V. (1991) Investigating Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Teaching, Clevendon: Multilingual Matters, p.156 9 provide our students only with a list of facts of history or geography and a list of lexical items, we have not provided them with an intimate view of what life is really like in the target culture. The teachers' task is to teach both types and to keep a balance between the two. They must find the perfect measure in their teaching. Students should not receive knowledge only about customs and institutions of other countries. Complete language learning should include the non-obvious elements as well, like the non-linguistic gestures, body language, intonation, directness, indirectness, styles of communication, eye contact, expressing emotion and humor. Ideally, the study of culture should begin on the very first day of class and should continue every day thereafter. We all agree that culture is of utmost importance during the process of acquiring a new language but we do not have to forget about the so called cultural shock. The term, cultural shock, was introduced for the first time in 1958 to describe the anxiety produced when a person moves to a completely new environment. This term expresses the lack of direction, the feeling of not knowing what to do or how to do things in a new environment, and not knowing what is appropriate or inappropriate. The feeling of cultural shock generally sets in after the first few weeks of coming to a new place. In time the term cultural shock was extended to the process of learning a new language. As a learner you can experiences different feelings: sadness, melancholy, depression, irritability, loss of identity, lack of confidence, insecurity. At first, you are very excited about “starting a new adventure”. Everything appears to be new and exciting. However, after some time, you may start to feel and to see the differences and you may even become irritated with these differences. However, you will eventually get used to and you realize that the new culture has both good and bad things to offer. Although, one can experience real pain from culture shock; it is also an opportunity for redefining one's life objectives. It is a great opportunity for leaning and acquiring new perspectives. Culture shock can make one develop a better understanding of oneself and stimulate personal creativity. As Gebhard said: “cultural shock can be considered a deep learning experience that can lead to a high degree of self-awareness and personal 14 Jerry G Gebhard, teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language-A teacher self-development and methodology guide, University of Michigan, 1996, p.119 Next >