Az angol kultúra megismerésével egybekötött nyelvtanfolyamok

Tanulj az angol kultúráról

A brit szigeteket, bizonyos tévhitek övezik, melyekről érdemes beszélni. Rengeteg információ tör felszínre hazánkban az angol kultúrával és Nagy-Britannia népével kapcsolatban, melyeket helyre kell tenni. Fontos többek között arról is beszélni, hogy mit és kiket értünk az alatt, amikor azt mondjuk, hogy az "angolok". Igen sok érdekes könyv íródott, melyek értékes információt szolgáltatnak a nemzetekről. Betekinthetünk az angolok, írek, skótok mindennapjaiba, az iskolai életükbe, hétköznapjaikba, magánéletükbe. A kurzus alapfeltétele a nyelv középfokú ismerete. Az brit kultúráról szóló oktatás - mellyel a tanulók szignifikánsan növelhetik szókincsüket - kizárólag angol nyelven történik.

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Experimenting with the course 'A Cultural History of Britain' in a Hungarian college of education

By Endre Abkarovits

Antecedents

Until the 1990s training students of English at tertiary level automatically meant training teachers of English, as it was taken for granted that they all wanted to become teachers, and there has been little change in this respect up to the present day, though in the past decade it has become even more obvious than before that the majority of English graduates do not wish to be teachers. I find it a luxury to treat and train all students as future teachers.

Although some kind of credit system was introduced everywhere in the middle of the 90s resulting in the division of courses into voluntary and compulsory, the content of the required courses has not changed much in relation to the earlier system. Two main fields still dominate the training of students of English: literature and linguistics. These two areas have always been overrepresented; students take one or more courses in linguistics or literature almost every term, while history, civilisation and other subjects are restricted to one term in most institutions. It seems to me that even in the two major fields there has been a shift from the practical to the theoretical. While earlier descriptive grammar prevailed, which helped to improve the students' command of English, recently there has been more and more theoretical linguistics, which is less useful for the average student.

One of the reasons why literature was so important in the past was that it is the 'carrier' of the language and if we choose the right pieces of literature, they can help enrich students' vocabulary and facilitate the correct use of the language. Another reason for the importance of literature was that for decades after the second world war there were no opportunities to travel to English-speaking countries, there were no audio-visual aids until the seventies and no English-language television channels until the nineties; thus the only means of being exposed to and learning the language were through the teacher and the written word. And although the situation has changed immeasurably over the last few decades, this process has not been accompanied by a restructuring of course content and the importance afforded to particular subjects.

I can also see 'a force of inertia' in this phenomenon. As students' training had focussed on the fields of linguistics and literature, when they in turn became teachers or lecturers, they also continued to cultivate these areas, not having the competence/knowledge to cover other areas. There have, of course, always been a few exceptional personalities who have tried to educate their students in other fields of culture within the framework of their literature course. When speaking eg about romanticism, these lecturers have also analysed paintings, music, etc of this period besides the literary works. However, they were exceptions to the rule. For the majority of teachers it was more comfortable to speak only of literature in a literature seminar or lecture, as it needed less knowledge in other fields.

Besides short history courses and an ever decreasing number of seminars serving the enhancement of language skills, the only remaining opportunity to say something about British (or American) culture was the one-term course in British (American) civilisation, although this was mainly dedicated to the contemporary political, legal, education, etc system in Britain (or the USA). Earlier books entitled 'British Civilisation' very often discussed modern Britain exclusively, and devoted just one chapter, if any, to the arts or similar topics. Similar books today tend not to use the word 'civilisation', yet they follow the same approach, even if they do contain a chapter on history.

The instruction of 'A Cultural History of Britain' was unthinkable in the past, though there were such initiatives in other departments. In the German department of my college it has always been natural to have separate modern and historical Landeskunde courses. Similarly, there is a noticeable difference in books published about various countries on this subject matter. I have never seen a book (in English) with the title 'An English/British Cultural History', though there are titles on Hungarian and German cultural history. This difference is difficult to explain, and as a representative of the publisher Thames and Hudson told me at the Budapest Book Festival a few weeks ago, this is an obvious gap in their publishing activity.

In the middle of the 1990s, with the advent of optional courses, institutions of Hungarian higher education had the opportunity to introduce courses on English arts and culture. We sometimes also succeeded in changing optionals into required courses after a time, but the proportion of these new courses is still negligible. While English literature courses may comprise five or more terms, the history of the whole of English culture is given only one term in our institution.

This phenomenon of inertia survives amid obvious signs of change. Many students do not want to work as 'teachers of English language and literature', as their diploma officially used to call and still often calls the graduates. Many of them simply want to improve their English in higher education, an idea against which some tutors protest, saying it is not the duty of higher education. Our graduates want to work in all walks of life, using their English as guides, translators, interpreters, etc or work for a (foreign) firm which demands that employees be proficient in at least one foreign tongue. Under these changed circumstances maintaining the dominance of linguistics and literature is difficult to justify. What these young people need most is better language skills and more information about the English-speaking countries. If you travel as a tourist, a businessman, or a guide in England or if you receive English-speaking guests in your country, understanding and awareness of your culture or getting to know their culture can be far more important than knowing various literary or linguistic theories.

What is 'culture'?

'Culture' is a very difficult concept as there is no fixed meaning as such; being used to designate different things by different people. The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary gives the following definitions for the most important meanings from the point of view of our topic:

• 1. the customs and beliefs, art, way of life and social organization of a particular country or group
• 2. art, music, literature, etc thought of as a group
• 3. the beliefs and attitudes about sth that people in a particular group or organization share

To simplify it a bit, 'culture' is used typically in everyday language either to refer to the 'high' arts (music, painting, literature, etc.) or in a wider sense to describe the way of life of a particular people, tribe, country etc. (Eg how they entertain themselves, govern themselves, eat, etc.) This latter meaning covers such a wide area that it would be hopeless to speak about all those aspects of culture throughout the centuries, especially within the present time limits. Even reducing our topic to the 'high' arts is a great challenge. It is, however, a practical need. If you travel abroad or you receive foreign guests and if you (or your guests) have certain cultural needs, you must have some knowledge of architecture, painting, music, theatre, etc. For example on visiting an English cathedral town it is unlikely that anyone, with even minimum cultural needs, will miss visiting the cathedral, but unless you have some previous knowledge and vocabulary in the field of cathedral architecture and architectural styles, you may easily miss seeing the best parts of the building complex and you may not be able to judge the quality of the architecture, or you may even have such basic practical problems that you won't be able to understand the local guide or a brochure.

Similarly, I have often seen Hungarians in trouble if a foreigner asks them: 'Can you tell me where I can listen to traditional Hungarian music?' or 'Can you recommend some good Hungarian folk music records?' The majority of Hungarian students (and, unfortunately, of the whole population) have no idea what authentic Hungarian folk music is, where you can hear such music or what records to recommend to foreigners.

When teaching culture we have to restrict our attention to certain periods, certain achievements and certain artists because of its scope and, if possible, we should draw parallels with our own culture. We cannot afford what teachers of literature often can, that is they dedicate a whole term to each of the past few centuries. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the various fields of English arts had highlights in certain periods, but English artists did not continuously produce high quality works of art throughout the centuries. In this way we can concentrate on those periods when the English excelled in some field, not only from the point of view of their own art history, but from a European perspective as well. And at least briefly we should compare their achievements with ours. I often see teachers reaching the wrong conclusion that is, as a result of English being the number one language in the world today, they suppose that the cultural achievements of the English have also been outstanding throughout the centuries. But just as in other countries it is not the case, and the various fields of culture may have flourished in different periods, or works of arts of certain periods may have simply not survived. While one of the greatest achievements of English arts was Medieval - especially Gothic cathedral - architecture, almost the whole of Medieval painting and a great deal of Medieval sculpture are no longer extant. Our countries in Middle Europe may have excelled in other fields of culture, we have no reason to feel culturally inferior to the English. This is true of both folk and high art.

Why is 'cultural history' needed?

In the past students used to study only 'history', which very often comprises only the description of political and military events throughout the centuries, full of names of rulers, politicians, military commanders. Students are asked to remember a lot of dates of battles, treaties, beginnings and ends of reigns of kings and queens. Though these events and personalities often had a decisive influence on their age (e.g. think of the influence of Henry VIII's private life on the story of the Church of England), I often find it more important and interesting to look at how the conditions for ordinary and richer people have changed during these centuries. It seems that it is easier to make most people accept the necessity of teaching some art history than to get them to recognise the importance of historical changes in people's everyday life. (So 'culture' in a broader sense.) The taken-for-granted aspects of today's society that is that both boys and girls can be educated at all levels, that we can have gas heating in our homes, that in more developed countries each family member can have a room of his or her own, etc go unquestioned by students, but some of these things may not have been natural even when our parents were young, not to speak of earlier centuries. The right to privacy was unknown in the Middle Ages even among the wealthy. My students are always surprised when they hear that the lord of a medieval castle often had to tolerate soldiers passing through his bedroom when the changing of the guard took place in the tower. There are a lot of other things in the fields of hygiene, housing, education, entertainment, etc, which sound quite shocking when we look at them in the light of other centuries, even decades.