Introduction
This lecture provides, in agreement, with Cortazzi and Jing (1999) models about the three types of cultural materials. They provide a novel look at the sources of cultural information and classify the sources of cultural information into three sources; source culture, target culture, and international target culture.
1. Source Culture
The source culture category refers to the learners’ native culture or it is also called home culture. Generally speaking, this category is produced at a national level for a particular given country. According to Jing (2010: 16), in seeking to learn EFL; learners generally expect that they will need to become familiar, more conscious, and understand their own culture. In the case of EFL Algerian learners, most of them have to pay attention to the culture of Algeria, Islamic North Africa and Islamic nation as a whole. This assumption generates a debate among scholars on whether the EFL teaching and learning should be related only to target culture or to other culture. It appears that this debate would seem to warrant some degree of caution when using categories of culture in certain teaching and learning contexts. This situation raises an important question which is; is it fair or not to use one culture category at the expense of others?
The introduction of the source culture into the EFL classroom is as important as other cultures. According to Laohawiriyanon (2013: 84), the germane of source culture is to cultivate learners’ knowledge of their own culture. It is worth to mention that through the source culture, students will have a chance to learn about topics, themes, and vocabularies which are related to their native background in the target language so that they can interact successfully with people from different cultures. Though it is an important category, it is often criticized as there is no attempt to understand other cultures.
The main aim of EEL teaching and learning is to achieve a mutual understanding. Its main purpose is to enable learners to talk about their own culture to foreign visitors to their country rather than be prepared to encounter other cultures. It becomes easy by now to find the appropriate language and cultural materials it is needed for that given situation.
2. Target Culture
This category usually focuses on one or two target cultures, such as the U K and U S A. It is represented in this lecture by the cultures of the United States of America and Great Britain which are the countries where the target language is spoken as a first language “any English-speaking countries where English is spoken as a first language”. It is also considered as the most popular instruction materials in EFL classroom Jing (2010: 16). They have focused on the use of the target language culture as a vehicle for teaching the language in classrooms and suggest that it is not really possible to teach a language without embedding it in its authentic cultural context.
The rationale for integrating target culture into EFL classroom lies in the fact that learning a target culture will enhance students’ motivation and develop their attitudes toward language learning. In addition, the use of target culture in the EFL classroom makes it possible for learners from different societies to make best use of the same cultural materials in such a context.
Though the target culture is widely used all over the world, it is often criticized for its commercial nature and seen as publisher’s promotional materials Jing (2010: 16). Its main purpose is to enable learners to talk with others who are culturally different from them and be prepared to encounter other cultures because such a process forces learners to express themselves within a culture of which they have scarcely any knowledge. It becomes easy by now also to find the appropriate language and cultural materials it needed for that given situation.
3. International Target Culture
This category refers to cultures that are neither a source culture nor a target culture; these refer to a variety of cultures set not in English-speaking countries or in countries where English is neither a first nor a second language, but is used as an international language or a lingua franca such as in Japan, China, EU, Russia, India, etc. Cortazzi & Jing (1999) maintain that the rationale for this category is that speakers who do not speak it as their first or second language frequently use English as an international language for international situations. McKay (2000) maintains that international cultures supposedly cover a wide variety of knowledge from different cultures all over the world. In addition, he proposes other three benefits of international target culture;
- The first one is that they show the pragmatics when non-native English speakers communicate with the target culture, they should be able to express their own notions of what is appropriate.
- Secondly, it shows the way English can be used effectively in international environment.
- And finally, for English to be the “Lingua Franca” of today there must be a choice for non-native English speakers to reflect cultural norms of culture.