Cultural Studies for Teachers of English

Is Culture important for learning a foreign language? How do your cultural values and ways you perceive the outside world influence your communication and learning styles? Who is the native speaker of English in today’s multicultural and global world? How is the Black English of African Americans different from the standard American English? Why did American schools demand from Afro-Americans to give up their Black English? How and why did British colonizers in Trinidad force the native elites to learn the “proper” British English? Why is language so powerful?

These and other questions will be discussed in the course of Cultural Studies for Teachers of English. The underlying objective of the course is to point out the misconception of English language and English culture as essentially the same in all English-speaking countries. The course explores cultural and linguistic diversity of English speaking countries. The essential idea of the course also lies in deepening and broadening students’ cultural awareness. Students should develop positive attitudes towards other cultures and improve their skills as intercultural speakers of English.

Literature:

Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. London: SAGE Publications, 2003. Second Edition.

Byram, Michael and Fleming, Michael (eds.). Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective: Approaches through drama and ethnography. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1998.

Campbell, Neil, Kean, Alasdair. American Cultural Studies: An introduction to American culture. Second edition. New York: Routledge, 2006.

D’Andrade, Roy. A Study of Personal and Cultural Values: American, Japanese, and Vietnamese. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Delpit, Lisa (ed.). The Skin that We Speak. New York: The New Press, 2008.

Hofstede, Gert J., Pedersen, Paul B., Hofstede, Geert. Exploring Culture: Exercises, Stories and Synthetic Cultures. Maine: Intercultural Press, 2002.

Janík, Zdeněk. “Intercultural Learning and Intercultural Competencies.“ In Kiehlborn, Alena - Šebek, Jan. Interkulturní dimenze ve výuce cizích jazyků. Pardubice : Univerzita Pardubice, Fakulta filozofická, 2005, s. 95-105, 11 s. ISBN 8071948934

Janík, Zdeněk. "English language as a Cultural Tool for Intercultural Communication." CASALC Review: Odborný časopis České a slovenské asociace učitelů jazykových center na vysokých školách. Brno: 2016, 2, s. 39-50.

Janík, Zdeněk. "Negotiation of Identities in Intercultural Communication." JoLaCe Journal of Language and Cultural Education. Berlin: WALTER DE GRUYTER GMBH, 2017, roč. 5, č. 1, s. 160-181.

Melucci, A. The playing self: person and meaning in the planetary society. Cambridge: CUP, 1996.

Samovar, Larry A., Porter, Richard, E. (eds.) Intercultural Communication. Belmont, USA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2003.