Teach English in Huochangping Zhen - Shaoyang Shi

The Moroccan ministry of education based its formation of the curricula on the view that sees culture and language as interwoven parts that cannot be separated from each other. This view is supported by Brown (1994:165) 'A language is a part of a culture and a culture is a part of a language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture'(1) . We cannot deny the importance of teaching culture to English language learners in sharpening their understanding of the language use. By understanding the target language culture, students will be more capable of dealing with different communication situations, and developing a sense of intercultural awareness that help to avoid any possible cultural conflicts or misunderstanding that can happen during communicating with foreign people. According to Tomalin (2008) (2) Tomalin argues that teachers must focus on a “fifth language skill” in addition to the traditional four language skills that any language learner should acquire, which are: the listening skill, the speaking skill, the reading skill, and the writing skill. Considering the aspects of the targeted learners in the Moroccan high school. They are teenagers and many of them have never learned English before, as English language is a foreign language in Morocco so people are not exposed to it outside the school as much as the French language which is a second language. This method may not give us the results we hope for. For many reasons: First of all, high school students are aged between 14 years old and 18 years old. Adolescence is the transitional from childhood to adulthood. At this stage students suffer from different issues has to do with the transition of their bodies and hormones but what concerns us is the issues of independence and self-identity. Which means that students are already questioning their social and cultural norms. They are ready to rebill against any social power just to prove their intellectual independency i.e.: to prove their existence in society. The main goal of English courses in Moroccan high schools is to teach the students how to use the English language not the culture because we are dealing with beginner learners. Exposing those students to foreign culture during teaching English as foreign language, makes the language harder to be understood as this culture is taking the student away from their daily life atmosphere. This will make students lose their interest in the language as they find it hard to comprehend the texts, which reduces the engagement of the students in the course as the main participants in the process of teaching. On the other hand, students are more likely to face a feeling of tension towards the foreign cultural content included in the curricula. Byram and Flemming (Byram, 1997; Byram and Fleming, 1998) states that the target language culture should be taught in ELT in order to help learners to acculturate into the culture of English countries. The second view expressed by Karchu, Nelson and Canagaraja (Kachru, 1986; Kachru and Nelson, 1996; Canagarajah, 1999) opines that there is no need of teaching target culture especially in the contexts where different institutionalized varieties of English are in practice. Similarly, the third view by Kramsch and Sullivan (Kramsch and Sullivan, 1996) states plainly that ‘local culture’ in TEFL should be taught.(3) Using the local culture in teaching English as a foreign language for beginner learners, which is the case in the Moroccan high schools, is in fact is a very relevant method. It helps students to grasp the deeper meaning of sentences and associate with their own culture in the target language which is English in this case. Students will find it easier to discuss with an enthusiastic energy a text about Morocco using the English language rather than a text based on a foreign culture which may disrupt their focus from acquiring the language into trying to understand the aspects of the target culture. This method force students to put into practice the language in everyday life situations, which open a wide area of practicing the language and as we know practice is the best way to acquire a language. References: (1) BROWN, H.D. 1994. “ Principles of Language Learning and Teaching”. The USA: Prentice Hall Regents. (2) Culture – The fifth language skill Adult General English By Barry Tomalin 2008. WWW.britishcouncil.org . (3) THE ROLE OF LOCAL CULTURE AND CONTEXT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING-MABINDRA REGMI.