Sunday 11:15 - 12:05
TTI 403
"Pop" Culture and Language Education
Martin Dibbs
Kwangju University, Korea
Asian EFL students provided with a background in the history and development
of Western "Popular" Culture, both in its effect and influence upon social,
political, and economic evolution and its effect upon written and spoken
English, will gain a better overall understanding and fluency in the language
than students who are provided with instruction in the standard language
tools of reading, writing, listening, and conversation.
If one accepts the current trend in thinking that a cognitivist approach
to learning language in which the student is encouraged to actively develop
and apply his or her own methods of learning is more advantageous than
the traditional, non-participatory methods based solely on exposure to
the written and spoken word, then a course in popular Western culture in
which the student is both instructed in English and required to use English
as an analytical and a research tool should prove to be both an interesting
and vital addendum to an EFL program. This consideration will provide
examples and discussion of various applications of "pop" culture for teaching
contemporary English.
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