Page 156 - Apuntes de Investigación en la Enseñanza de Idiomas

140 Apuntes de Investigación en la Enseñanza de Idiomas

Mexico. The teaching practices for these mandatory courses are highly focused on the learning of
specific language structures and vocabulary which will serve learners to succeed in exams thereby
there was no a clear or systematic evidence of an approach for the cultural dimension or the use of
English for intercultural communication.

Conclusions

The cultural dimension is characterised by a superficial and reified approach of culture. It is aimed
to compare and contrast the most visible features captured through the human senses between
the Mexican culture and the American culture. Culture teaching is viewed as a time-consuming en-
deavour which is not part of the aims and evaluation of the course, although the teachers consider
language and culture as inseparable components of the learning and teaching of a language. The
teachers added that time, the syllabus itself, and the lack of knowledge on what culture to teach
when we view English as a global lingua franca restrict the inclusion of this dimension into their daily
teaching practices. Therefore, it is sporadically included yet its agreed relevance as also found in
other studies. The lack of teacher training on what an intercultural approach for ELT in the context
of the internationalisation of HE was also identified as a shortcoming in the teachers’ daily practices.

References

Knight, J. (2004). Internationalization Remodeled: Definition, Approaches, and Rationales. Jour-
nal of Studies in International Education, 8 (1), 5-31

Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Kramsch, C. (2006). Culture in Language Teaching. In Andersen, H.L., Lund, K. and Risager, K.
(eds.) Culture in Language Learning (pp. 11-25). Århus, DNK: Aarhus University Press,
Risager, K. (2006). Language and culture: Global flows and local complexity. Clevedon: Multilin-
gual matters.

Risager, K. (2007). Language and Culture Pedagogy: From a National to a Transnational Para-
digm. Clevedon, GBR: Multilingual Matters.
Scollon, R., Scollon, S.W. and Jones, R.H. (2012). Intercultural Communication: A Discourse
Approach, 3rd. Ed. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1962). Language and Thought. Cambridge; MA: MIT Press.