149
Constructing Sociocultural
Awareness from the EFL
Classroom1
Construyendo Conciencia Sociocultural Desde la
Clase de Inglés como Lengua Extranjera
Nancy Yolanda Bautista Pérez2*
Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, Colombia
Abstract
This article reports an action research project carried out with a group of 24
undergraduate students in a private university in Ibagué, Colombia. The study
aimed to characterize the development of university students’ sociocultural
skills, to analyze their perceptions and to examine the teacher’s procedures and
possible implications required to implement the Raising Cultural Consciousness
Macrostrategy taken from the Postmethod Pedagogy. To reach these objectives
a series of interconnected tasks were designed and implemented in three
different stages. To collect the data, five data collection methods were used:
the students’ artifacts, teacher’s field notes, questionnaires, video recordings
and a focus group. The findings revealed that these university students became
gradually aware of the importance of having the opportunity to develop tasks
that allowed them to connect the English classroom with the local and global
context. Furthermore, students suggested that this type of pedagogy should be
an explicit component of the curricula of their professional programs. A review
of the literature also showed that in our local context this kind of sociocultural
study with a postmethod orientation is scarce, thus this study intends to bridge
this gap in the Colombian ELT field.
Key words: Postmethod Pedagogy, macrostrategy, sociocultural skills,
local and global context.
1 Received: July 10th 2017/ Accepted: December 11th 2017
2 nancy.bautista@campusucc.edu.co
CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK DURING CLASSROOM INTERACTIONS Gist Education and Learning Research Journal. ISSN 1692-5777.
No.15. (July - December) 2017. pp. 149-172.
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Resumen
Este artículo reporta un proyecto de investigación acción realizado con un
grupo de 24 estudiantes de pregrado en una universidad privada colombiana en
la ciudad de Ibagué. Los objetivos del estudio fueron caracterizar el desarrollo
gradual de las competencias socioculturales, analizar las percepciones de
los estudiantes universitarios, examinar los procedimientos del profesor y
las posibles implicaciones requeridas para implementar la Macro-estrategia
Incrementando la Conciencia Cultural seleccionada de la Pedagogía del
Posmétodo. Para alcanzar estos objetivos, fue necesario diseñar una serie de
tareas que se implementaron en tres ciclos. Los instrumentos que se utilizaron
para recolectar la información fueron los materiales hechos por los estudiantes,
las notas del profesor, cuestionarios, videos y un grupo focal. Los resultados
revelaron que los estudiantes universitarios comenzaron gradualmente a ser
conscientes de la importancia de tener la oportunidad de desarrollar actividades
que les permitieron conectar su clase de inglés con el contexto local y global,
también sugirieron que esta pedagogía debería ser parte de sus currículos en
sus diferentes programas de formación profesional. Además, se evidenció que
en el contexto local este tipo de estudios con la orientación de la Pedagogía del
Posmétodo son escasos, por lo que este estudio intenta contribuir a llenar este
vacío en el campo de la enseñanza del inglés en Colombia.
Palabras claves: Pedagogía Posmétodo, macro-estrategia, conciencia
sociocultural, contexto local y global.
Resumo
Este artigo reporta um projeto de pesquisa-ação realizado com um grupo de
24 estudantes de curso de graduação numa universidade colombiana na cidade
de Ibagué. Os objetivos do estudo foram caracterizar o desenvolvimento
gradual das competências socioculturais, analisar as percepções dos alunos
universitários, examinar os procedimentos do professor e as possíveis
implicações requeridas para implementar a macro-estratégia Incrementando a
Consciência Cultural; a qual foi selecionada da Pedagogia do Posmétodo. Para
alcançar estes objetivos, foi necessário desenhar uma serie de tarefas “tasks”
que foram implementadas em três ciclos. Os instrumentos utilizados para
recolher os dados foram: os materiais feitos pelos estudantes, notas de campo
do professor, questionários, vídeos e um grupo focal. Os resultados revelaram
que os estudantes universitários começaram gradualmente a ser conscientes da
importância de ter a oportunidade de fazer atividades e conectar sua classe de
inglês com o contexto local e global, eles também sugeriram que esta pedagogia
deveria ser parte de seus currículos nos diferentes programas de graduação.
Além disso, se evidenciou que no contexto local este tipo de estudos com
orientação da Pedagogia do Posmétodo é escasso; por isso, este estudo intenta
contribuir a encher esse vazio no campo do ensino de inglês na Colômbia.
Palavras chaves: Pedagogia Posmétodo, macro- estratégia, consciência
sociocultural, contexto local e global.
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Introduction
Good communication skills in English is one of the demands in this globalized world of permanent evolution and changes that have affected our thoughts, beliefs, behavior and interests.
Consequently, the way we teach and learn, as it has been said by
many researchers and scholars. These trends and changes imply the
development of new pedagogies and approaches in the EFL classroom
to give students the opportunity to develop their linguistic skills and
sociocultural competence to better prepare them for life.
As a result, from this huge demand in teaching and learning English,
methods and approaches with a sociocultural orientation have evolved
and emerged in an attempt to meet the fact that learners’ needs and
interests have changed too. In this regard, Johnson (2009) emphasizes
that today it is important to reflect about who teaches English, who
learns English and why. Also to know about the sociopolitical and
socioeconomic contexts in which English is taught.
In response to these challenges and responsibilities for school,
university and teachers regarding the English learning process, an
action research project was undertaken during the second academic
semester in 2016, at a private university in Ibagué, with a group of
24 students from different undergraduate programs. The study aimed
to characterize the development of students’ sociocultural skills, to
analyze their perceptions and to examine the teacher’s procedures
and possible implications. To achieve these goals, the Raising
Cultural Consciousness Macrostrategy and its guiding principles were
implemented in the English classroom. This macrostrategy was taken
from the Postmethod Pedagogy framework, which is considered by
many scholars such as Stern (1992), Allwright (1984), Giroux (1988),
Johnson (2009), and Byram (2002), a sustainable approach to language
teaching around the world due to its sensitivity to local particularities
and the involvement of critical awareness of local conditions and needs.
Furthermore, some local researchers as, Fandiño (2014), Aldemar
& Bonilla (2009) and Ramos (2013) have manifested that this is a
suitable pedagogy for Latin America.
The outcomes of the study evidenced that by gradually
empowering students to go beyond the walls of the classroom, they
were able to expand their global and local knowledge. Foucault (1984)
suggests that being able to read the community critically is part of
the learning process; it means questioning reality, raising awareness,
transforming self and rewriting the world.
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In this paper, I present a discussion and description of the
theoretical constructs that supported the study, the implemented
methodology, the results and, finally the conclusions and pedagogical
implications.
Literature Review
Understanding the Postmethod Pedagogy
The main construct of this project is the Postmethod Pedagogy.
This pedagogy emerged as an answer to the teachers and teacher
educators’ voices of dissatisfaction with prescriptive methods of
teaching and as part of the ELT evolution and the new challenges the
new millennium has brought. These changes have gradually evolved
over the years thanks to the critical thinkers that have questioned not
only the pedagogical limitations but the insidious, sociocultural and
political agenda that have permeated our educational system. Macedo
(1994) called for an “anti-methods pedagogy” he said that any pedagogy
should include a critical understanding of the sociocultural context that
guides teachers’ practices (p.8).
Kumaravadivelu (2003) defines the Postmethod Pedagogy as “a
search for an alternative to method rather than an alternative method”
(p. 32). He considers that alternative methods are primarily products of
top-down processes and alternatives to method are mainly products of
bottom-up processes. In other words, teaching practices and policies
should emerge from the daily-classroom activities. He assures that the
postmethod condition empowers practitioners to construct personal
theories of practice that gives teachers autonomy.
Following these ideas, Kumaravadivelu and other scholars
recognize that “the nature of any language pedagogy should be socially-
realistic and contextually-sensitive” (Kumaravadivelu, 2003, P.32).
Grasping the Pedagogic Wheel and the Macrostrategies
The Postmethod Pedagogy proposed by Kumaravadivelu can be
visualized as three-dimensional system or framework consisting of
three pedagogic parameters: particularity, practicality, and possibility.
He designed the Pedagogic Wheel to show how the three parameters
interweave and interact with each other and the systematic relationship
among the ten macrostrategies. As illustrated in the Pedagogic Wheel.
(Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p.41):
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“These three parameters are based on social, cultural, economic
and political dimensions that have permeated the process of language
teaching; at the same time those parameters are complemented by ten
macrostrategies or classroom principles” (Kumaravadivelu, 2003,
p.41).
This framework encompasses the most relevant elements that
surround people’s life; for this reason, teachers are required to be aware of
the students’ sociocultural background as well as their linguistics needs.
Kumaravadivelu states that it is the teacher’s discretion to implement
one, two, or whatever macrostrategy as needed, or experience teachers
can even create their own ones. I explored all of them to seek which
one was the most appropriate to develop my project, and I selected
the Raising Cultural Consciousness Macrostrategy, which appeared to
be the most suitable according to the needs analysis and the students’
characteristics.
The Raising Cultural Consciousness Macrostrategy
As it is well known, teaching culture has been an integral part of
language class and it is viewed as a cognitive component. The Postmethod
Pedagogy, proposes that the cultural dimension as “an obligation we,
language teachers, have to our students” (Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p.
284). In this sense, Stern (1992) points out that teaching culture should
include three components: the cognitive, affective and behavioral to
help students to gain an understanding of the native speakers, their
cultural values, attitude and diversity.
This macrostrategy also indicates that the global cultural
consciousness is a requisite in the English language teaching and
learning process. Kumaravadivelu (2003) asserts that nowadays teacher
should not be considered as the sole cultural informant; teachers need
to treat learners as cultural informants as well. Teachers can encourage
learners to be engaged in a process of participation by identifying the
cultural knowledge learners bring to the classroom and share their own
individual perspectives with the teacher as well as with other learners;
such a multicultural approach can dispel stereotypes that create and
sustain cross-cultural misunderstandings and miscommunications, as it
was evidenced in this study.
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Addressing Culture in the EFL Classroom
Brown (2007) argues that culture is an integral part of the
interaction between language and thought. It means that culture involves
a series of cultural patterns and customs that shape the way we think
and understand the world around us. Williams (1976) defines culture as
one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language
because it “brings to mind different images to different people…such
as the mental habits, personal prejudices, moral values, social customs,
artistic achievements, and aesthetic preferences of particular societies”
(p.87).
Additionally, Kramsch (2013) describes culture as the meaning
that members of a social group give to the discursive practices they share
in a given space and time and over the historical life of the group. “She
states that language learners learn who they are through encounters with
the Other. They cannot understand the Other if they don’t understand
the historical and subjective experiences that have made them who they
are” (p. 61). In this regard, the term Third Place is seen as a place of
contact or encounter between speakers from two different countries.
Learners occupy a position where they see themselves both from the
inside and from the outside; and that is what she has called a “third
place” of symbolic competence that regards to language-in-context for
the making of meaning. Kramsch (2005) uses the term “Thirdness” as
a way of seeing the relation of language, thought and culture.
The above concepts and thoughts helped me to create encounters
in and outside the classroom, where students had the opportunity
to reflect about them and the Other, and were able to expand and to
understand the concept of culture as it is evidenced in the outcomes of
the project. On account of these kind of sociocultural encounters with
the Other the intercultural competence merged as it will be explained
in the next section.
Tackle the Intercultural Competence in the English classroom
The term ‘intercultural’ emerged in the eighties in the fields of
intercultural education and intercultural communication. Both are part
of an effort to increase dialogue and cooperation among members of
different national cultures within a common European Union or within
a global economy (Jackson, 2012; Kramsch, 2001).
Byram (2000) visualizes intercultural competence as the ability
‘to see relationships between different cultures – both internal and
external to a society – and to mediate, that is interpret each in terms of
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the other, either for themselves or for other people’. It also encompasses
the ability ‘to critically or analytically understand that one’s own and
other cultures’ perspective is culturally determined rather than natural.’
(p.10). He states that globalization has put individuals in contact with
one another at an unprecedented scale. It has brought forth a general
challenge to traditionally recognized boundaries of nation, language,
race, gender, and class. For this reason, Byram (2000) and others like
Kramsch (2011) consider that teachers should promote the intercultural
skill in the classroom.
Sociocultural Perspective
Another important construct of the study was the sociocultural
perspective that views human learning as a dynamic social activity that
is situated in physical and social contexts and it is distributed across
persons, tools, and activities (Vygotsky, 1978).
According to Johnson (2009), a sociocultural perspective
assumes that human cognition is formed through engagement in social
activities. This perspective refers to the social relationships and the
culturally constructed materials, signs, and symbols that mediate those
relationships that create uniquely human forms of higher-level thinking
and as a consequence of it. This means, that learning takes place in
interactive processes mediated by culture, context, language, and social
interaction.
Community-based Pedagogy
Community-based pedagogy is a perspective inspired on the work
of educators such as Freire (1988) and, more recently, Murrell (2001).
Freire insisted that curriculum be locally generated and generative and
that learners and their worlds be invited into the project and process
of education. A community-based pedagogy curriculum reflects a close
link between the community and school. Furthermore, Murrell (2001)
observes that this pedagogy is informed by sociocultural approaches
and that teachers are called to research the knowledge of the cultures
represented by children, families and communities.
Thus, I based my study on this approach because one of the aims
was to encourage students to inquire about their surroundings; such as
their neighborhoods, inside and outside the university, etc. In order to
connect the EFL classroom to the local context and to expand their
awareness, experiences and very likely to take action on what they
found needed or feasible.
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Teacher’s Decision-making: Moving from Theory to Practice
As part of the advent of new approaches and pedagogies, the
teacher’s role in the EFL classroom has also changed and evolved.
Zeichner & Liston (1996) suggest that the notion of the teacher as a self-
reflective, inquiring, and critically motivated practitioner is required
today. Allwright & Bailey (1991) have stated that this tendency is
accelerating interest in research in ELT environments.
However, it is important to consider that every teacher has her/
his personal theory of teaching and learning, which Kelly (1955) calls
personal constructs. “Teachers make decisions to act on the basis of
his/her sense and understanding; in order for teachers to transform
the personal constructs, they need to adapt them to reach a common
understanding together with others” (Williams & Burden, 1997, p. 28).
Furthermore, Freeman (1998) called such a reflective thinking inquiry-
oriented teacher research. He defines as “A state of being engaged in
what is going on in the classroom that drives one to better understand
what is happening—and can happen—there” (p.14).
In the following figure, I summarize the process and the challenges
I had to tackle as a teacher researcher in order to connect the theory
and practice and to accomplish the aims of the project. The Figure 1.
includes the theoretical framework and the six main dimensions that I
explored in order to design the curricular units for each cycle in order
to get students sociocultural aware.
Figure 1. Teacher’s Decision Making
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Background
The Postmethod Pedagogy is considered a sustainable approach
to language teaching around the world including Latin America, mainly,
because it is sensitive to local particularities and involves a critical
awareness of local conditions and needs. However, after searching for
similar studies; I realized that most of them are focused on discussions,
analysis of theory and the way of teaching English and culture in the
EFL classroom influenced by the Postmethod Pedagogy.
Nonetheless, I selected two practice-oriented studies that have
been carried out in Latin America: The first one was reported in
Argentina by Porto & Byram (2015) that aimed to combine the language
teaching and education for citizenship; she called her study intercultural
citizenship. This project is part of a network of projects coordinated by
Michael Byram. Findings revealed that Porto’s project is scarce in Latin
America and her study intends to fill an empirical gap; thus, it has given
me some elements to refine my study, which is also a contribution to
bridge the existence gap in the sociocultural studies in Colombia with a
Postmethod Pedagogy orientation.
The second study was held in Colombia by Fandiño (2014),
whose work has been influenced by the Postmethod Pedagogy and
the sociocultural approaches. He proposes five strategies to facilitate a
better understanding and implementation of culture in the Colombian
EFL classroom to help teachers to understand and become aware of the
social conditions. This study enhanced my view of teacher’s agency,
freedom and autonomy, which led me to design activities to foster
students’ awareness with respect to culture in our local context.
Methodology
Research Design
This project was based on Action Research methodology,
which is defined as a process that is characterized as a spiral or cycle
of movements between action and research. It suits the specificity
and particularities of every teaching context and situation through
permanent and systematic actions of reflection, observation, planning,
action and evaluation (Johnson & Christensen 2004; Burns, 2005;
Kemmis & McTaggart, 1988).
Based on this methodological design, the project aimed to answer
the research questions:
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Main question:
What does the implementation of the Raising Cultural
Consciousness Macrostrategy, taken from the Postmethod Pedagogy,
show with respect to the development of a group of university students’
sociocultural skills in their English learning process?
Subquestions:
1. What do university students’ perceptions reveal regarding
the implementation of the Raising Cultural Consciousness
Macrostrategy?
2. What characterizes the teacher’s decision making when
implementing the Raising Cultural Consciousness Macrostrategy
in the English classroom?
Context and Participants
The study was conducted at a private university in Ibagué, during
the second academic semester in 2016. The participants were 24
students from different undergraduate programs who attended English
classes every Monday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. for 16 weeks. The
students’ ages ranged between 18 to 24 years old. They were in the
third level of English, which is a requirement to graduate. Each English
level is characterized by a predetermined set of language competencies
students are expected to achieve according to the curriculum.
Instructional Design
The instructional design involves all the process and the
interconnected activities that were implemented in each of the
three stages of the study. Figure 2 summarizes all the process, the
implementations done and the instruments used in each stage. Each
cycle was divided in alignment with the three academic periods. In
the first cycle students started to raise their sociocultural awareness,
in the second cycle students continued expanding their sociocultural
awareness, and in the third cycle, they were able to take action about
sociocultural issues that affect their community.
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Figure 2. Action Research Process
Data Collection Instruments
To collect the data, five data collection methods were used: the
students’ artifacts, teacher’s field notes, questionnaires, video recordings
and a focus group. All the data gathered through these instruments
helped me to analyze and triangulate the information to find out to what
extend the research questions were answered.
The students’ artifacts were collected and analyzed in each cycle
of the process. They reflected the students’ sociocultural awareness
development during the whole process. Then, questionnaires in
Spanish were applied at the end of each cycle. This instrument was
very valuable to know the students’ opinions and impressions about the
different tasks done in class. The teacher’s field notes were taken during
each class to analyze reactions, interactions or behaviors during or after
the implementation of the different activities.
In addition, most of the activities were recorded, which was very
useful because it let me go back as many times as I needed to analyze
the students’ opinions or to discover new insights of the project. Finally,
a focus group was held to give students the opportunity to discuss and
give their opinions freely about the different activities and strategies
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implemented by the teacher during the whole process, and to reconfirm
previous data collected with other instruments.
Data Analysis and Interpretation
According to Burns (1999), the reflexive nature of Action Research
means that analysis occurs over the entire investigation; she adapted a
framework from McKernan (1996) to shape the overall processes of
analysis. Burns says that throughout a process of constant checks that
lead the analysis and triangulation, the data provide the evidence for the
research insights or outcomes. Thus, the data analysis and interpretation
of this study was based on the grounded theory that allows concepts and
categories emerge from the data and produces knowledge as stated by
Glaser & Strauss (1999).
Table 1 illustrates the four categories and the subcategories that
merged from the data in order to answer the research questions.
Figure 3. Categories and Sub-Categories regarding the Research
question
Students grasping the Postmethod Pedagogy
To answer the main question, since the very beginning, students
were initialized in a process of raising their sociocultural awareness,
then they continued expanding their sociocultural awareness and in
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the last stage, they were able to take actions about sociocultural issues.
According to Kumaravadivelu (2003), students should be aware of
the complex connection between language use and cultural identity to
sensitize themselves to better understand and value the cultural richness
that surrounds their lives. For this reason, one of the first activities
aimed to recognize the students’ understanding of global culture. They
started to analyze the status of English in this global world and the
relation with their lives as citizens and future professionals in order to
develop an awareness of empathy regarding the English language.
These excerpts confirm that this group of students already
possessed a sociocultural background and knowledge about the world
and it was easier for them to become familiar with the postmethod
thoughts.
“Most of the students considered that by learning English they can
have better job opportunities and can have access to international
business. Others thought about the possibility to travel abroad to
study”. (Field notes, august 15, 2016)
“These group of students recognized that globalization affect our
lives in many ways, such as the language the world speaks, the
way we communicate, dress, and so on”. (Field notes, august 15,
2016)
Students Getting Familiar with the Postmethod Parameters and
Macrostrategies
Let me recall that the selected macrostrategy for the purpose of
this study was the Raising Cultural Consciousness Macrostrategy. To
implement this macrostrategy, I designed some microstrategies that I
called activities or tasks to develop their sociocultural skills and give
them the opportunity to create knowledge.
Therefore, in the second stage of this study, I designed a
microstrategy based on a comedy movie called Spanglish. It contains a
lot of nonverbal communication and relevant cultural and cross-cultural
information. After analyzing the students’ opinions about this activity,
it was found that students enhanced their understanding of culture and
identified other aspects of culture such as language, cultural barriers
and stereotypes. They stated that the movie helped them to understand
the difficulties and problems an immigrant has to face when travels to
another country to pursue a dream and commented that some of them
knew a person that has experienced the situation of being illegal in
another country. Students recommend the movie as a way to expand
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their intercultural competence and recognized how important is to
speak English in a foreign country.
The following excerpts were taken from a video recording after
the film activity:
S1. “Esta actividad nos ayudó a practicar, pronunciar y mejorar
el inglés y aprender sobre diferentes culturas”.
S3.“Recomiendo la película pues permite tener una visión más
amplia de la cultura de otros países y reconocer la importancia
de hablar bien inglés”.
S4:“Me ayudó a tener una visión más amplia de mi cultura y de
la cultura de otros países”.
Students Constructing Sociocultural Awareness
Social awareness involves both the will and the skill to interact
with others, involving motivation, attitude, self-confidence, empathy
and the ability to handle social situations (Byram 2002). This category
shows how students became conscious and expanded their knowledge
about the difficulties their communities have and even took part in
possible solutions.
When students presented their final papers and oral presentations
regarding local and global issues, data showed that they have expanded
their social and cultural awareness, were ready to explore global and
local issues, and were able to take action about problems related to
their communities, such as the university, neighborhood and the city.
The following five questions, students attempted to answer in their final
tasks, is an example of it:
1. We are concerned about how to develop awareness in the university
directors about the drug addiction?
2. What can be our contribution to reduce the amount of garbage in the
streets of Ibague?
3. How to improve security in Ibague city, especially near the
Cooperativa University?
4. This group of students was concerned about the corruption that
has been affected our country and especially this city, which is
considered one of the biggest sicknesses of this century.
5. What can we do to reduce domestic violence in the city of Ibague?
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Students understanding and expanding the concept of Culture
Students understood and expanded the concept of culture during
the development of different cultural oriented tasks. The tasks involved
observation and reflection about other’s cultures thus students had the
opportunity to cross the borders from their local to the global culture
with computer and technology to gained intercultural competence.
My Cultural Heritage, a posters session, was one of the activities
that helped students to expand their understanding about culture. The
first step of this activity comprised that students worked in small groups
and drew mind maps to express their understanding of culture. This task
involved observation and reflection about other’s cultures and the face-
to-face interaction with the native assistant who is part of the English
language program.
Students Developing the Intercultural Competence
According to Stewart (2007), the intercultural competence is the
continuous evolution and transformation of the society as a result of
science, technology and globalization, that force intercultural objectives
to evolve and reflect to be able to respond to the needs of modern
citizens and communities. This appreciation, confirms that today’s
students are modern citizens whose learning habits are permeated by
the facts already mentioned. For this reason, I also included technology
in the classroom. A good example on how these students expanded
their intercultural skills was when they watched the movie Spanglish
and in the post-viewing stage, they drew some mind maps and made a
contrast between three cultures; Colombian, Mexican and American.
The mind maps showed that language is the main barrier to get a good
job in a country like the United States. They found that Colombian and
Mexican cultures are more traditional than Americans’ culture. Also,
that Mexico and Colombian have faced similar social problems such as
the violence, trafficking and corruption.
Even though the movie Spanglish is a funny comedy, students
addressed critical opinions to social and cultural differences:
S1:“Recordaré la película como una actividad diferente y al
contrastar las culturas me llama la atención como cada país ve al
otro, dependiendo del STATUS de éste”. (Questionnaire, October
10, 2016)
S2. “Recomiendo la actividad de la película porque nos ayudó a
ser capaces de ser más conscientes de las diferencias con otras
culturas” (Focus group, November 14, 2016)
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S3.”Mexico and Colombia, pensé que no debían ser muchas las
diferencias, pero cuando comencé a investigar habían diferencias
culturales, en la forma de hablar el español. (Field notes, October
10, 2016)
S4.”Así estén cerca hay muchas diferencias entre México y los
Estados Unidos, por ejemplo en la película las dificultades que
tiene que afrontar la mujer son por no conocer la cultura y no
hablar el idioma. (Field notes, October 10, 2016)
Students developing Critical Thinking
The students were immersed in a series of activities that were
sociocultural and political oriented as suggested by Halpern (1996)
who asserts that “A forward –looking education must be built on the
twin foundations of knowing how to learn and knowing how to think
clearly about the proliferating information with which we all have to
contend” (p.4). The decisions teachers make in the classroom will affect
not only the class, but also generations that come; our students.
Therefore, in the third cycle of this study, I took advantage of
a crucial moment our country was facing up, the Peace Process in
Colombia, which has been a controversial topic of discussion during
the last years. The first thing I did was to elicit information from the
students to see how much they knew about it. Since most of them
were not well informed about this process, I asked them to be followers
of this process during two weeks, just before the plebiscite, and to be
ready to participate in a round table session. During the round table
students discussed about this topic that requires they move to a higher-
level of thinking. The following excerpts correspond to some teacher’s
field notes and some opinions students wrote in Spanish to answer a
questionnaire:
S1. “Yo si estoy más enterado del proceso de paz” (Field notes,
October 16, 2016)
S2. “Es muy difícil decirlo en inglés, porque en español para mí
no es tan fácil, pero se aprende mucho” (Questionnaire, October
24, 2016).
S3. “Aparte de aprender sobre este proceso de paz, aprendí
mucho vocabulario nuevo en inglés y soy más conciente de la
importancia de votar”. (Questionnaire, October 24, 2016)
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S4. “Me considero una víctima indirecta y directa porque es
nuestro país y nos afecta todo lo que pase en el” ((Questionnaire,
October 24, 2016).
The above extracts evidenced the students’ awareness about
events that surrounded their lives, even though most of them had never
debated or participated in political issues.
Students expanding local knowledge
Canagarajah (2005) indicates that local knowledge is a “process
rather than a product and it is constituted by the beliefs and practices
of the past […] the most important is the locality that shapes our social
intellectual practice” (p. 3).
Reflecting on Canagarajah’s appreciation, I noticed that the
development of the sociocultural competence in these students who
were strongly influenced by their previous knowledge. It means that
students brought to the English classroom knowledge from their
fields of study. Let me recall that this group of students belongs to the
programs of Civil Engineering, Veterinary and Accounting. Then, they
shared in class their personal beliefs, values and experiences during the
different activities, and finally their global and local knowledge that
includes all the information they possess and express regarding their
communities and the world.
In this sub-category, I will highlight some instances, where
students expressed their global and local knowledge about social issues:
S1: “Cuando analizamos los diferentes problemas sociales,
recordamos que tenemos muchos, lo bueno es que intentamos
sugerir soluciones”(Focus group; November 14, 2016)
S2: “Observamos que algunos compañeros están consumiendo
drogas, o la han consumido en el pasado, por eso nos llamó la
atención este problema”.(Field notes; October 17, 2016)
S1:“We know that drug-addiction is a global problem. It does not
only happen in Colombia or Ibague” (Field notes; October 31,
2016)
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Teacher shifting from traditional to non-conventional decisions
This project could not be done without considering the teacher’s
role during the process. Kumaravadivelu (2001) observes that the most
relevant key component and the heart of the Postmethod Framework is
to empower and promote the teacher’s autonomy. It gives him/her the
elements to become more confident and able to empower learners to
construct their own knowledge.
Following these thoughts, as a language teacher at a higher
educational institution, I am aware that one of the challenges we have
is to promote competences university students need to improve their
quality of life. For these reasons, I generated opportunities for the
students to develop a series of interconnected tasks that were designed
and implemented according to their needs, English level and the
articulation with the English university program. It was necessary the
creation of learning environments that foster the students’ sociocultural
understanding and to continuously analyzed and reflected about
the results of each of the tasks. This ongoing process guided me to
accomplish the project.
The following excerpts correspond to students’ opinions about the
change from traditional to non-traditional class:
S1. “Pues a mí me llaman mucho la atención las actividades que
realizamos, porque es una forma más de desarrollar la habilidad
lingüística y cultural. Si, en lo particular me gustó el cambio es
más significativo.” (Focus group, November 14, 2016)
S2. “En general aprendimos mucho, sobre todo vocabulario, que
en una clase tradicional nunca lo hubiéramos hecho. Si fue una
experiencia única.” (Focus group, November 14, 2016)
S3. “Pues pienso que es muy bueno, pues algunos de esos temas
son interesantes para nosotros y abordarlos en inglés es todo un
reto. Digamos, lo cultural, lo político y esto nos obliga a trabajar
mejor el idioma. Fue una experiencia significativa y fuimos
progresando paso a paso”. (Focus group, November 14, 2016)
Results
Regarding the main question, the findings revealed that this
group of university students became more aware of the importance of
having the opportunity to develop tasks that led them to connect the
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English classroom with the global and local context. They expressed
that it should be part of their learning process as future professionals.
Additionally, data showed that through the development of the
different sociocultural oriented tasks, students activated their previous
knowledge, expanded their intercultural competence, and positioned
themselves regarding social issues.
With respect to the second question, these students demonstrated
that by connecting the English class with their surroundings there were
unlimited opportunities for them to move to a higher level of thinking,
to create meaningful learning, and to become independent learners
(Johnson, 2009). They also recognized that this type of sociocultural
activities offered them a unique opportunity because they had to face
challenges that led them to generate and expand their linguistic skills
and raised their sociocultural awareness.
In relation to the third and last question, the data indicated that
teacher plays an important role in the creation of learning environments
that should give students the opportunity of exploring, discovering,
analyzing and evaluating meaningful information. These were the
main features of the tasks and microstrategies implemented during this
process to reach the aims of the project.
Conclusions and Pedagogical Implications
After the implementation of the Raising Cultural consciousness
Macrostrategy taken from the Postmethod Pedagogy through a series
of interconnected activities along the academic semester; this group of
university students demonstrated a deeper social consciousness about
different local-context realities that they brought to the class because
they are part of their sociocultural background. They evidenced
improvement in the process of being better citizens by opening their
minds to social issues. They recognized that they went beyond the
classroom walls and found the English learning process more meaningful
and challenging. Students believed that this project provided a unique
opportunity to share and compare their ideas, values and beliefs about
their culture and others’ culture.
Furthermore, students changed their perceptions of the English
class. During the execution of the final task, students did not only
analyze social issues, they applied surveys, sent letters to official
institutions, talked to community’s leader and to university’s directors;
in sum they thought of possible solutions to a problem. Even though
some students admitted, it was really challenging to them to do oral
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presentations of sociocultural topics, some of them also said, “We will
never forget this experience”.
From the teacher’s perspective, this pedagogical experience has
changed my point of view about my role as a teacher, the way I teach,
and the way I view students. After this unique experience, I will never
be the same teacher. Although, there were some limitations such as the
lack of experience in this kind of projects, the time constrains due to
the amount of work I had to do. One of the biggest challenges I had to
face was how to start the process of raising the students’ sociocultural
consciousness, and at the same time be in alignment with my institution
English program.
To sum up, being an innovator and a critical thinker in education
is not an easy job. There are some boundaries in our context; such
as, some local policies, lack of resources, similar studies, learners’
attitude or interests, time constrains; despite that I started to walk into
the sociocultural perspective and I was able to connect the classroom
with the global and local context. Thus, when one of the students said
“Teacher esa proeza que tu hiciste de salirte del libro, del tablero, de
combinar de llevarnos a un plano más actual, de hacernos pensar
como ciudadanos y futuros profesionales, creo que fue lo que hizo más
atractivo y se diferenció tu clase de los demás compañeros. El hacer
que pensemos más acerca de lo que estamos viviendo y percibiendo
creo que ha sido lo más novedoso de lo que nos has enseñado”. (Focus
group; November 14, 2016).
I was very excited because in a way he summarized the complexity
that implies to become a kind of pioneer innovator in this particular
field of the ELT process. Even though, Kumaravadivelu (2003) does not
consider the higher education population in his work, and in our local
context, these kind of sociocultural projects with a postmethod and
sociocultural orientation are scarce. This study shows the process, the
results and implications in the Colombian context with undergraduate
students.
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Author
*Nancy Bautista Pérez holds a Specialization in English
Language Teaching and a B.A. in English. She is candidate
to an English Didactics Master’s degree from Universidad
del Tolima. She has been teaching English and Portuguese for
more than twelve years, and is currently working as a full-time
professor at Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia in Ibagué.
She was the winner of the Third Meaningful Experience
Competition at national level in 2017 with her pedagogical
innovation “Constructing Sociocultural Awareness from the EFL
classroom”. Her main research interests are the sociocultural
and intercultural dimensions of English language learning and
teaching.
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