Finally, if language barriers present themselves, it may be in every one's best interest to employ a reliable, experienced translator.
Because English is not the first language of many international businesspeople, their use of the language may be peppered with culture-specific or non-standard English phrases, which can hamper the communication process. Again, having a translator on hand (even if just during the initial phases of work) may be the best solution here. The translator can help everyone involved to recognize cultural and communication differences and ensure that all parties, regardless of geographic location and background, come together and stay together through successful project completion.
(https://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/Cross-Cultural-communication.htm)
2. Read the text and provide a summary of each part in the Russian language.
Making culture happen in the English language classroom
By Barry Tomalin
This article looks at teaching the cultural agenda and explores possible avenues of thinking in the following areas:
· Where does culture fit? What discipline does it belong to?
· Is there such a thing as a cultural curriculum or a cultural syllabus? When should we introduce the teaching of culture in ELT? Whose culture should we be teaching and what should we teach at what level?
· How do materials address the issue of culture and is it adequate?
· What are the best audio, text and visual aids for the teaching of culture?
· What kind of methodology is best suited to the teaching of cultures at different levels?
· What kinds of activities lend themselves to learning about and appreciating other cultures?
Where does culture fit? What discipline does culture belong to?
Culture has many mothers – academic disciplines that have influenced its development. One is linguistics, which has provided the concepts of language analysis that are the basis of inter-cultural communication. Another is psychology, that has provided many of the concepts we use in understanding people’s motivation and behaviour. Two other disciplines, sociology and anthropology, have both influenced our study of behaviour and also the influences that form social values in different communities.
So we can say that cultural awareness is an interdisciplinary subject that draws on the resources of a variety of humanistic disciplines to profile the aptitudes and skills required to understand and work successfully in another culture. To my mind, the skills of cultural awareness are part of the newly developed subject of emotional intelligence. However, you may well identify other ‘mothers’ and other antecedents and other homes for the study of cultural awareness or cultural competence.
Culture in the curriculum
Once you have discussed the roots of culture then you can search for its appearance in the curriculum. The Council of Europe Common European Framework for Reference (CEFR) has no section for culture but several cultural references spread through its examples. Pretty much all textbooks at secondary level and upwards now have a cultural syllabus and many primary ELT books make room for a ‘culture spot’ or ‘cultural corner’. My concern in such resources is that the syllabus is really ‘tacked on’ to the topic area of the textbook unit and has no real consistency of development as a skills set on its own.
One writer, Simon Greenall, who has an informed interest in this subject, has tried to tackle the cultural agenda in his Macmillan textbook ‘People like Us’. Simon chooses other cultures as his subject. But should we be teaching a specific culture? For example, British or US culture. If so, why exclude Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, Singapore or Indian culture, all of whom have English medium instruction, as do some other countries.
When should we introduce culture in English language teaching? Do students need to understand basic English before they begin looking at culture and if so what level are we talking about? Is it A1, A2, or B1 or even B2 according to the CEFR (Council of Europe Framework of Reference)?
Cultural materials
Culture tends to be relegated to a specific section in textbooks or to be the subject of readers. Yet you could argue that every photo, drawing, reading package and dialogue is the subject not just of linguistic exploitation but of cultural discussion and debate.
Nowadays our textbooks contain print, audio, CDROM and DVD components and even dedicated websites. Are these better avenues for teaching cultural awareness and if so what should we be putting in them? Teachers of Professional English often complain about the lack of ‘critical incident methodology’ video material which highlights key areas of misunderstanding between cultures and presents them for discussion. We should exchange our recommendations on materials. I’ll gladly share mine if you’ll share yours.
An important question is how can we best incorporate cultural material in our teaching materials? Should we provide more cultural input in our ELT textbooks or should we ‘deculturalise’ our textbooks to give them the widest application?
Cultural methodology
How should we teach cultural awareness? Should we be teaching it as a special slot, such as a culture corner or culture spot in the lesson, or should each lesson seek to contain a cultural awareness skill that students develop through working through the textbook and associated materials? Should we be teaching the skills of identifying culturally significant information, how to research cultural information and how to develop cultural skills?
Should we have lectures and presentations where we tell our students what they need to know? Should we be using task-based learning and discovery techniques to help our students learn for themselves? Are some methods more appropriate than others for teachers who are not native-speakers or have large classes of sixty or more students?
In other words, when do you include culture in your lessons and how do you teach it? What methodology works for you?
Conclusion
When we discuss the teaching of cultural awareness as a skill as opposed to teaching cultural information, we have to consider a number of issues, such as the curriculum, the materials and the methodology. The challenge is to initiate a debate on what and how to teach to help develop our children as international citizens of the world, using English and other languages as their lingua franca.
(https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/making-culture-happen-english-language-classroom)
D EFFECTIVE WRITING
I Revising and editing