This is an attempt to redraw the boundaries of foreign language study. It focuses attention not just on cultural knowledge as a necessary aspect of communicative competence, but as an educational objective in its own right, as an end as well as a means of language learning. Winner MLA Kenneth W Mildenberger Prize
Claire Kramsch, Professor of German and Foreign Language Acquisition, University of California, Berkeley
Acknowledgements Preface Introduction Dubious dichotomies and deceptive symmetries The importance of context in language education A discourse perspective Notes 1: Educational challenge Of challenges and conditions Challenge as action Challenge as paradox Challenge as dialogue Double-voiced discourse Dialogic breakthrough Notes 2: Contexts of speech and social interaction What's in a context? Discourse and culture Contextual shaping Conclusion Notes 3: Teaching the spoken language Five case studies Problems and paradoxes Teaching language as (con)/text Notes 4: Stories and discourses Dimensions of particularity Understanding of particularity Conclusion Notes 5: Teaching the literary text Current practices Defining the reader Teaching the narrative Teaching poetry Post-teaching activities Conclusion Notes 6: Authentic texts and contexts What is cultural authenticity? The communicative proficiency approach The discourse analysis approach The challenge of multimedia Notes 7: Teaching language across the cultural faultline Cultural reality and cultural imagination C2, C2': reconstructing the C2 context of production and reception C1, C1': constructing a context of reception in the learner's native culture C1", C2": in the eyes of others Of bridges and boundaries Notes 8: Looking for third places A popular culture A critical culture An ecological culture Conclusion Notes Appendices Bibliography Index
