Target language culture in EFL materials
by Cem Alptekin
Expressing and interpreting
meanings in a given language involves two types of knowledge.
Systemic knowledge refers to the forma/properties of language,
comprising its syntactic and semantic aspects. Schematic knowledge,
on the other hand, is socially acquired. It is an important part
of the ‘fit’ which exists between people’s culture-specific
cognition and their native language. In native language learning,
the child’s schematic knowledge and systemic knowledge develop
concurrently. Given what is known about the facilitating effects
of familiar schemas (or schemata) on foreign language acquisition,
it is most natural for learners to rely on their already established
schematic knowledge when developing new systemic knowledge. For
this reason, foreign language teaching materials which make use
of target-language culture elements to present the systemic data
are likely to interfere with this natural tendency. It is argued
here that such teaching materials are actually detrimental to
foreign language learning for a variety of reasons. The article
discusses the problem in question in the context of EFL materials,
yet with English as a lingua franca in mind. Pedagogic suggestions
are then offered to make smooth transitions from familiar to
unfamiliar schemas.
Taken from ELT Journal Volume 47/2 (April 1993).
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You might be interested to know that the search function on version 2 of the CD-ROM shows that 52 out of the 699 documents included contain the word 'schema'. These include:
Schemata for oirdering the
teaching and learning of vocabulary by Seth Lindstromberg
(Volume 39/4: October 1985)
A rich view of lexical competence
by Peter Robinson
(Volume 43/4: October 1989)
Key concept: Bottom up and
top down processing
by John Field (Volume
53/4: October 1999)