Methodology in Language Learning: Cultural Counselor
We need to unpack what is meant by culture because this is a term in common usage, but with a variety of di ff erent meanings. Second, we need to examine the roles teachers and learners can take in the language classroom. As we showed in the vignette above, teacher and learner roles may be culturally determined and learners may bring to the classroom di ff erent expectations of their own and their teachers’ roles. Further, teacher and learner roles may be assigned—by the institution and its expectations of what is appropriate behavior for teachers and learners. By its very nature, ELT is an intercultural enterprise. Learners are learning a language so they can interact with English speakers from around the world. In fact, given the much larger number of learners in the Expanding Circle, it is most likely that learners will interact with NNSs, rather than NSs. The reality of English as a global language is that a Belgian engineer may be working for a Japanese company b...