Teaching culture through literature to EFL students

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TeachingCulture ThroughLiterature
LIN 03. English Teaching as a Foreign Language.
Research Project
Teaching culture through literature in ESL classroom.
Professor:
Lic. Swad Ulate Gonzalez.
Student
Wilmer Quirós Pérez
III Quarter
Year: 2015

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Contenido
CHAPTER I.............................................................................................................................. 4
INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................... 4
Background........................................................................................................................... 5
Justification........................................................................................................................... 6
Problem ................................................................................................................................ 7
Terminal Objective ................................................................................................................ 8
Enable objective .................................................................................................................... 8
CHAPTER II............................................................................................................................ 9
THEORICAL FRAMEWORK................................................................................................... 9
English Teaching in Costa Rica .............................................................................................10
Teaching literature................................................................................................................11
Teaching culture...................................................................................................................12
Ethnocentrism. .....................................................................................................................13
Acculturation........................................................................................................................14
Selecting the reading material................................................................................................14
Cultural Shock......................................................................................................................16
Teaching culture through literature. .......................................................................................18
CHAPTER III........................................................................................................................20
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMENDATIONS.......................................................................20
Conclusion. ..........................................................................................................................21
Recommendations. ...............................................................................................................22
CHAPTER IV..........................................................................................................................23
REFERENCES, BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ANNEXES................................................................23
References ...........................................................................................................................24
Bibliography ........................................................................................................................25
Appendix .............................................................................................................................26
English Syllabus from MEP page 14...................................................................................26
Book Jack C. Richards. 2001. Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. United States
of America: Cambridge University Press. ...........................................................................27
Duranti, A. 1997. Linguistic anthropology. Cambridge: University Press..............................28

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H. Ned Seely. 1985. Teaching culture: strategies for intercultural communication. National
Textbook Company. Chicago.............................................................................................29
Practice samples................................................................................................................30

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

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Background.
The syllabus created by MEP to the English teaching introduce the four basic skills needed
to present the topics to the students. The culture comes in the syllabus implicit into the topics
that are going to be used in the classroom. One of the problems is that in most of the cases
the teachers do not introduce the cultural aspects properly, causing negative effects on the
students and the way in which they are going to interpret the cultural bases from other cultures
and their traditions, commonly known as ethnocentrism.
There are emotional and attitude factors involve in the acquisition or interactions with
culture. The teachers need to acquire an understanding and comprehension toward cultural
factors different from the one´s they have. The open mind, helps teachers to be able of learn
about other cultures without developing positive or negative criteria, in this way, the teachers
will be able of introduce the culture in the student deprived of any judgment.
The question that many teachers make is if there is an accurate way to introduce the culture
to the students. The literature provide a great source to introduce culture, within the plan
formats used for the teachers come the linguistic skill “reading”, part of the plan in which the
teacher makes a selections of written material to introduce aspects of the topic that is being
covered in classes.

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Justification.
The elaboration of this project is to prove that using literature is possible to introduce cultural
features from different parts of the world in order to introduce the reality of the societies, in
this case the reality of the student’s native country and the societies that they might face in
real life situations.
The study programs elaborated by MEP, institution in charge of Costa Rica´s educational
system; consider the culture only as a factor that is included in the programs. Although make
a clear connection between the Language and Culture and it importance in the communicative
competence in the future situation that students will face.
The different process that students lived when they are introduce in new cultural situations
need to be take in consideration in advance by the teachers. As consequence, the teachers
need to develop a selective process of the right materials to introduce the culture.
The teachers need to know the possible emotional stages that student experienced when
interact with new cultural aspects. In order to be able in creating an atmosphere of
comprehension and understanding among the students. The attitude of the students toward
the new information is important in their linguistic growth. If students develop negative
feelings about certain aspect of other culture, their final communication outcome will have a
deficiency in terms of creating personal or professional relationships. The cultural context is
in charge of defining the kind of communication needed.

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Problem
How to introduce the cultural insights of the target language to the students using methods
or techniques presented in the general guidelines from MEP in the study plans used by
teachers inside of the classroom?

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Terminal Objective
Propose the literature as a mean to introduce cultural features in the study plans in order to
achieve a completely understanding of the different cultural aspects involve in the second
language learning process.
Enable objective
Model techniques to introduce culture in the study plan prepared by teachers to apply the
contents form the syllabus.
Integrate the literature as source of carry the culture to language teaching inside the
classroom.
Facilitate process to use the literature to introduce culture in the classroom promoting the
learning from the target language culture.

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CHAPTER II
THEORICAL FRAMEWORK

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English Teaching in Costa Rica
The English is considerate as universal language as consequence of the amount of people that
speaks this idiom around the world, it can be as native language or second language. The
importance of introducing English Teaching in the educational system is evident. According
to MEP, the implementation of English Teaching in the educational system respond to dual
basic needs (MEP, Inglés tercer ciclo y educación diversificada, 2003):
a) To offer students a second language which can enable them to communicate within a
broader social-economic context in and outside Costa Rica.
b) To give students a tool to directly access scientific, technological and humanistic
information and, in this way expand their knowledge of the world.
Based on those specific needs, the MEP develop the program, contents, linguistic skills and
contents that are needed in the English Teaching process. The objectives are related to
student’s needs and their development not only in our social context, but also in the
opportunity to expand to other horizons and see different societies around the world.
The English Teaching in Costa Rica has experienced changes in the contents and the
methodologies and strategies, as consequence of the changes the experiment the societies.
These changes happens according to the people needs, if the cultural environment of the
individuals is modify the way in that person receive the education has to change as well. The
syllabus programs for English teaching suffer changes in the contents, in order to adequate
the learning process to the student’s reality.

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Teaching literature.
The literature is an important source in English teaching because help students to develop
critical thinking, build valuable skills and expand student’s worldwide view. there are some
factors that need to be take in consideration when the teacher decide to use literature in their
classes, such as cultural value, expanding horizons, building vocabulary, improving writing
skills, teaching critical thinking.
The cultural value is about learning through stories, it can be real or fictional, ever since the
first writers came up with their stories; literature is the perfect way to picture certain aspects
from different cultures and the perspective of the one´s who dedicate their life to share the
stories and connect the world.
Expanding horizons is one of the benefits of introducing literature; the main goal is to expose
the students to different cultures. This is the result of showing the students that there are so
many stories and history besides the ones they already know.
The literature also helps in building vocabulary that is because using the right readings the
teachers can provide a wide range of new words, terms and expressions helping students to
build and enhance their vocabulary. In this way, the students will be able to produce and
communicate accurate, using their vocabulary to form speeches and even in the improvement
of the writing skills. The students has the opportunity to compare their writings and get
conclusions about format, content and aspects that help them to improve their writings.
Other benefits of literature is the critical thinking, because with the right reading the students
can see how is it to analyze and questioned the situations that may face in the society. With

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the literature, the students can develop the habits to think and analyze if what is happening
around them is right or wrong.
Teaching culture.
The culture is strictly related to the language, there is no way in which someone can learn a
language without acquire or interact with the culture behind the target language. The culture
is in charge of shaping the people; all people act according to their basic needs that are a
reflection of the culture that surround it.
Every day in classes, consciously or unconsciously the students get involve in cultural
insights that provoke certain reactions or changes in the learners behavior; the culture is in
everything that we do, According to Duranti:
“To be part of a culture means to share the propositional knowledge and the rules of
inference necessary to understand whether certain propositions are true (given certain
premises). To the propositional knowledge, one might add the procedural knowledge to carry
out tasks such as cooking, weaving, farming, fishing, giving a formal speech, answering the
phone, asking for a favor, writing a letter for a job application”
(Duranti, 1997)
Clearly the culture is involve in daily life situations, from something simple like greet
someone until complex situations in which someone may need to act according to the
environment. Reason why the culture is an important part in learning a language; topics like

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manners, greetings, foods, traditions and other always have a background that must be clear
for the teacher and the students.
Ethnocentrism.
When the teacher explain the topics to the students, they must be aware of the cultural aspects
that the topic possess, some teacher make the mistake of providing explanation of the topics
without making a previous research of the cultural backgrounds. In these situations, the
students and even the teachers, tend to develop an ethnocentricity attitude to certain aspects
of others culture. The ethnocentrism is having or based on the idea that your own group or
culture is better or more important than others are. This attitude toward others culture can be
modify or avoid if the teacher follow a series of steps such as:
 Avoid Assumptions. Do not forget that people from different culture
would have other customs, beliefs, values or traditions that we should respect.
 Learn about other cultures. Research about traditions and lifestyle from other
countries when you keep an open mind to new or different things it is easy to
learn appreciate culture diversity.
 Avoid judgments. When people around you act differently, do not assume they are
making a mistake. Learn to appreciate differences.
 Be respectful. Keep in mind the golden rule. “Treat people the way you want to be
treated”
It is important that teachers know about the steps to avoid or minimize the ethnocentrism in
the student, at the same time, the teacher learn about the different features of other´s culture

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and reach an attitude of understanding of the characteristics presented. In this way, the
teacher will be able to deal with the student’s questions, doubts or attitudes toward the culture
presented.
Acculturation.
A different process might shows up in the class when a new culture is introduce, the
acculturation is the cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or
borrowing traits from another culture. It is important that teachers can apply acculturation
before to present the topics to students. If the teachers reach a higher level of understanding
in the most relevant aspects of the culture that is going to be presented at students, he/she
will be able to provoke positive reactions in the students toward the new cultural features.
Selecting the reading material.
When comes to selecting the material to present the topics to the students, teachers always
must think which kind of material they will use, it can be authentic material o prepared
material.
Authentic material relates to use in teaching the text, photographs, video selections and other
teaching resources that were not specially prepared for educational purposes. Material
created concerns textbooks and other specially developed educational resources. Some have
argued authentic materials are preferable to materials created because they contain authentic

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language and reflect the real world uses language compared with the artificial material
content created much.
To introduce culture through literature, it is better to implement the use of authentic material,
this will carried out some befits such as (Richards, 2001):
a) They have a positive effect on student motivation, as they are intrinsically more
interesting and motivating than the materials created. There is a great deal of interest
to language learning in the media and on the Web sources and these are closely related
to the interests of many language learners.
b) Provide authentic cultural information about the target culture. Materials can be
selected to illustrate many aspects of the target culture. Including culturally based
practices, beliefs, both linguistic and non-linguistic behavior.
c) They provide exposure to real language instead of artificial texts that are created in
materials that have been specially written to illustrate certain grammatical rules or
types of speech. Of course, students easily know the structure of reality from authentic
material.
d) They are most closely associated with students require and therefore provide a link
between the classroom and student needs in the real world. Each student has different
material needs of the elementary school level, high school, high school and soon.
e) Support a more creative approach to teaching. In using authentic materials as a source
for teaching activities, teachers can develop their full potential as teachers,
development of activities and tasks, better their teaching styles and learning styles of
their students fit.

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Using the authentic material requires that teachers develop a deep process in choosing the
right material to the students. In the case of literature, the teacher needs to analyze the
contents of the reading before to deliver the task to the students. It is important to be clear
with the cultural aspects that are going to be included in the reading; the teacher must look
up for the cultural backgrounds and be prepared to answer and provide feedback to the
upcoming thoughts or needs of the students.
Cultural Shock.
In the classroom, sometimes the students will face a certain emotions toward the new aspects
of a different culture; this is commonly known as “culture shock”. Culture shock is the
personal disorientation a person may feel when an unknown form of life due to immigration
or a visit to a new country, a movement between social environments, or simply travel to
another kind of life is experienced. One of the most common causes of culture shock involves
individuals in a foreign environment. Culture shock can be described as a set of at least one
of four distinct stages: the honeymoon, frustration, adjustment, and domain. (Seely, 1985)
 Honeymoon: During this period, the differences between the old and new culture in
a romantic light are. For example, moving to a new country, a person can love the
new food, lifestyle and habits of the locals. During the first few weeks, most people
are fascinated by the new culture. They associate with nationals who speak their
language and are polite to foreigners. Like most periods honeymoon, this time finally
ends.

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 Negotiation: After some time (usually about three months, depending on the person),
the differences between the old and the new culture are manifested and can create
anxiety. Emotion can eventually lead to unpleasant feelings of frustration and anger
as one continues to experience adverse events that may be perceived as strange and
offensive to the cultural attitude itself. Language barriers, the marked differences in
public health, traffic safety, accessibility and quality of foods can increase the sense
of disconnection from the surroundings.
 Adjustment: Again, after some time (usually 6-12 months), you get used to the new
culture and develops routines. You know what to expect in most situations and the
host country no longer feels so new. One becomes concerned with basic life again,
and things become more "normal". One begins to develop problem-solving skills to
deal with the culture and begins to accept forms of culture with a positive attitude.
The culture begins to make sense, and negative reactions and responses to the culture
are reduced.
 Adaptation: In the domain of individuals’ stage, they are able to participate fully and
comfortably in the host culture. The domain does not mean total conversion; people
often keep many features of the old culture, as accents and languages. It is often
referred to as the bicultural stage.
Inside the classroom the teacher might face this stages in the students only that in a lower
level, even though, it is necessary to be prepare to recognize the mood changes in the students
and try to guide them in the healthy attitude when interact with the new culture.

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Teaching culture through literature.
Language and culture are closely related, the use of language makes sense only in a context,
and culture is part of that context. An important implication is that a language cannot be
taught without a corresponding culture. It has always been believed that literature offers an
ideal way to teach about the life of average people. Literature can be studied for better
understanding of the culture and study the culture may be, for a better understanding of
literature. An effective way of making literature accessible to foreign language students is,
therefore, to introduce them to the culture in which it was conceived this literature.
The current programs introduce the culture as capsules within the topics that must be covered
for the teacher, but it is not receiving the enough amount of time to be subject of study by the
students in classes.
In order to be able to introduce the culture in significant way, the teachers can use the
literature as option. The literature allow the students to experience the culture from the point
of view of the authors or writers, also to know what kind of histories or stories are related of
one specific culture.
To achieve the goal of introducing culture using literature, the teachers are allow to use a
series of steps that make easier the students adaptation to reading habits.
Strategies for teaching literature.
There are some strategies to work the literature in the classroom. These strategies are
(University, 2012):

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 Vocabulary building: The teacher encourage the students to work with familiar or
unfamiliar words; extract vocabulary from the readings and create habits in the
learners.
 Writer's Workshop: The students complete tasks in workshops to learn and
participate in all aspects of the writing process: drafting, revising, editing and
publishing.
 Peer response and editing: The students have the opportunity to work with the
classmates in order to achieve a higher thinking level by revising and evaluating
aspects from their classmates written papers.
 Cooperative learning: Cooperative learning requires students to debate a piece of
literature in small groups engaging the students in meaningful discussion, they begin
to learn to analyze literature and participate in an educational process.
 Texts student-elected: the student have the possibility to choose the readings, in that
way, they are going to work with something that really call their attention. Sometimes
is necessary that teacher provides a list of pre-approve readings in order to ensure the
contents that need to be covered. Then the students have the opportunity to work in
groups and discuss about what they found in the texts. When the strategy success, the
students achieved a higher level of reasoning, thinking and analysis from the readings.
The strategies are helpful in the culture teaching process, if the strategies are well planned,
the students will succeeded in the managing of the new cultural features. All the steps can be
applied during the school year, using them in order the strategies work as a whole to ensure
the proper interaction of the students with the culture.

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CHAPTER III
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMENDATIONS

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Conclusion.
The English programs created by MEP to be used in the educational system, includes some
capsules of culture within the topics that must be covered in classes. In order to achieve a
higher level of linguistic competence the culture should play a bigger role in the elaboration
of plans.
The English Teaching requires effort and commitment from the teachers; to introduce culture,
using literature the teacher need to go through a meticulous process of selection of material
to present the proper and most useful papers to the students.
The literature is the tool to introduce the culture in student´s life, with the proper selection of
reading material and strategies the teacher will succeeded in presenting a similar environment
to the one´s the learners might face when communicate in different scenarios.
The strategies available for the teachers for introducing literature allow the students to work
with authentic material that express the reality of the authors about their cultural
environment, this strategies help students to create strong connections and in other cases
students can feel identify with the writers culture.
Using different strategies, the teacher is able to take the culture into the classroom, following
the steps; the teacher can ensure the students engagement in the literature, this cause a
genuine interest of the students in learning the features of the new cultural aspects.
The literature and culture are strongly related, in order to learn the cultural insights form the
target language, the literature provide enough scenarios to present a wide range of culture
facts and backgrounds of different topics. The culture is the context in which a language is
developed, for that reason, the culture must be included in the educational plans.

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Recommendations.
The following recommendations are offered for developing a successful use of literature to
introduce culture in EFL:
1. The material selection must be a mandatory process for the teachers when they are
planning to introduce culture to students. Choosing the right material can make the
difference in the success and failure of the culture assimilation process in the
students.
2. The previous analysis of the variables that students are going to face when they
interact with the new cultural perceptions. In order to the teacher can know how to
proceed to the student’s upcoming questions and thoughts.
3. Implement strategies that allow the assimilation and integration of new culture
characteristics to the student’s individual growth.
4. Introduce the culture with an upper level of importance in the elaboration of didactic
plans.
5. Work in the attitudes problems of the teachers and students toward other cultures,
avoid the stereotypes, judgment and negative feelings when the new culture insights
are introduce.

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CHAPTER IV
REFERENCES, BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ANNEXES

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References
Duranti. (1997). Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge: University press.
MEP. (2001). Syllabus.
MEP. (2003). Inglés tercer ciclo y educación diversificada. MEP.
Jack C. Richards. 2001. Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. United States of
America: Cambridge University Press.
H. Ned Seely. 1985. Teaching culture: strategies for intercultural commmunication.
National Textbook Company. Chicago.

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Bibliography
Duranti. (1997). Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge: University press.
MEP. (2001). Syllabus.
MEP. (2003). Inglés tercer ciclo y educación diversificada. MEP.
Jack C. Richards. 2001. Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. United States of
America: Cambridge University Press.
H. Ned Seely. 1985. Teaching culture: strategies for intercultural commmunication.
National Textbook Company. Chicago.
Five effective strategies for English Teachers, documento recuperado el 22 de octubre de
2015 de la pagina
http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/teaching-strategies/teaching-strategies-for-english-
teachers/

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Appendix
English Syllabus from MEP page 14.
I INTRODUCTION
"The English Syllabus", was written within the principles stated both in our Constitution, The
Education Law and in the Educational Policy "Towards the 21st Century" in order to help
the students face life and work situations which require an average command of English, with
the desire that this preparation will allow them to participate actively into the challenges of
the global economy for the benefit of the country.
II. THE PURPOSES OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN OUR EDUCATIONAL
SYSTEM
The large number of individuals who speak English either as their first or as a second or
foreign language justifies the fact that English is considered a universal language. Likewise,
within the scientific, technological and humanistic spheres, English is a fundamental
linguistic tool. Written. Consequently, teaching English in our school system responds to
basic needs:
1. To offer students a second language which can enable them to communicate within a
broader social-economic context in and outside Costa Rica.
2. To give students a tool to directly access scientific, technological and humanistic
information and, in this way expand their knowledge of the world.

27
Book Jack C. Richards. 2001. Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. United
States of America: Cambridge University Press.

28
Duranti, A. 1997. Linguistic anthropology. Cambridge: University Press.

29
H. Ned Seely. 1985. Teaching culture: strategies for intercultural communication. National
Textbook Company. Chicago.

30
Practice samples
Elizabethan theatre and the name of William Shakespeare are bound together, yet there
were other playwrights at that time. One of the most successful was Christopher
Marlowe, who many contemporaries considered Shakespeare's superior. Marlowe's
career, however, was cut short at a comparatively young age when he died in a tavern
fight in Deptford, the victim of a knife in the eye. Theatre had a quite negative
reputation. London authorities refused to allow plays within the city, sotheatres opened
across the Thames in Southwark, outside the authority of the city administration. The
first proper theatre as we know it was the Theatre, built at Shoreditch in 1576. Before
this time plays were performed in the courtyard of inns, or sometimes, in the houses of
noblemen. A noble had to be careful about which play he allowed to be performed
within his home, however. Anything that was controversial or politically threatening
was likely to get him in trouble with the crown! After the Theatre, other open air
playhouses were introduced in the London area, including the Rose (1587), and the
Hope (1613). The most famous playhouse was the Globe (1599) built by the company in
which Shakespeare was part-owner. The Globe was only in use until 1613, when a canon
fired during a performance of Henry VIII caught the roof on fire and the building burnt
to the ground. The site of the theatre was rediscovered during the 20th century and a
reconstruction was built near the spot. These theatres could hold thousands of people,
most standing in the open pit before the stage, though rich nobles could watch the play
from a chair set on the side of the stage itself.Theatre performances were held in the
afternoon, because, of course, there was no artificial lighting. Women attended plays,
though often the prosperous woman would wear a mask to disguise her identity.

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Further, no women performed in the plays. Female roles were generally performed by
young boys.
Reading Comprehension Exercise
1. Answer the following questions about the text:
a) Before the opening of the first theatre, where were plays usually performed?
b) Why did theatres open across the Thames and not in the centre of London?
c) Find the name of the theatre in which Shakespeare worked.
d) What happened to that theatre?
e) What was the difference between the nobles and the other people in the
audience?
f) When did performances take place? Why?
g) Who performed female roles?
2) Write a short summary of the text above.
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