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England and Wales includes among perspectives. After all, we are what other culture through the text, gains
its objectives for Modern Foreign we are, we dowhat we doand we think cultural knowledge as he puts hisown
Languages: ’pupils should be given as we think, because of the culture we meaning on these facts and develops
opportunities to...consider their own come from. Nevertheless, knowledge intercultural awareness as hestarts to
culture and compare it with other cul- isstructured information. We gain an interact with and through the text.
turesof the countries and communi- understanding of how cultural facts Thisapproach was then demonstrated
ties where the target language is spo- are related , howasa pattern theyform through activitieson two texts, a news-
ken’, and ’to identify with the experi- the cultural fabric of a society. paper article and a poem.
ences and perspectives of these coun- Then finally there is intercultural In conclusion, the Whole Language
tries and communities’. The role of awareness,sometimes called the fifth Approach is traditional in that it uses
culture in ELTis obvious here. skill. This awareness, or understand- a text, but modern in that it adopts a
ing,gives us the ability to interact suc- communicative approach to dealing
b)toenable young people to take their cessfully with people from another with the text. It is content-based and
place in society, join the work force. culture. It does not mean abandon- learner centred while being teacher
Again, there is a role forculture within ingyourown culture and adopting the managed. It gives language practice,
ELT. Inordertobesuccessfulwe need other culture. However, it does re- but also providescultural information
to be aware of and to understand the quire certain skills and attitudes to re- while developingcultural knowledge
culture of the other peoplewith whom late to people from other cultures, and intercultural awareness.
we live, study and work. Robert skills and attitudes that can be devel-
Gibson of the University of Eistatt, oped in the classroom. References
points out that only 25% of interna- We have to recognize thatwhat astate
tional mergers succeed - presumably school teacher can do is limited -she Gibson Robert ’Culture and Busi-
because of cultural differences-so the is constrained by time,syllabus, mate- ness: The butterfly meets the
price of failure is high. Awareness of rials and equipment. Therefor we Wolpertinger’ in British Studies
the other person’sculture is essential have to find asimple,economical,easy Now Anthology Issues 6-10, British
in the modern world. meansfor thestateschool teacher to Council1999

help the learners learn facts about Kramsch Claire ’The cultural compo-
What are we actually talking other cultures,gain knowledge about nent to language teaching’ in British
about? What should we be hisown and otherculturesand develop Studies Now Anthology Issues 6-10,
teaching in state schools? intercultural awareness.This iswhere British Council 1999
the Whole Language Approach can
There is cultural information - facts help.
and figures about other cultures - With thewhole language approach all
which can be gleaned from the con- languagework is basedon a text. How-
tent of course books, films etc. How- ever, the learner does not simply read
ever,a collection of itemsof informa- a text for comprehension. Nor does
tion, although interesting, is not the teacher analyze and dissect the text
enough. for grammar or vocabulary. The text
is treated as a whole text. Different
There is cultural knowledge-which is tasksand activitiesspin off this central
the result of our imposing some sort text, so the learner becomes a ’doer’
of order on the information,interpret- in relationship to the text, and uses all
ing it,giving it meaning.Of course, this the language at his disposal to create
meaning is relational and subjective - meaning around the text. In this way

it dependson our personal beliefs and the learner is meetingfacts about an-

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