Reading Refection Week 4 - Culture in the English classroom

This week's reading in the MCM book delves into an issue which, as far as i remember, was mentioned as one of the teaching principles in the Teaching by principles book: cultural issues in the language classroom.

Looking back on my English learning process, it now becomes clear to me that while i was clearly taught how to write a good academic essay when it comes to the skill of writing, i barely had any idea how to use formal and informal language when it comes to speaking and normally transfer the conversation norms from my first language to English. And even until now i still find myself not competent enough when it comes to conversing in English in formal contexts. Therefore i greatly agree with what the book says, that the incorporation of the L2 culture into the teaching of English in an EFL setting is highly necessary. One more thing being stated in the reading that i feel greatly identified with is that the teaching of L2 culture does not separate from the teaching of the language skills such as Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. In fact, cultural characteristics, especially invisible ones, will be most effectively conveyed when they go hand in hand with what the students are practicing in class. This, however, may conflict with the 4-F approaches to teaching culture (folk dances, festivals, facts, and foods) brought up in the discussion questions at the end of the article. In my opinion, the 4-Fs approaches should be used to teach culture to student-teachers or English majors who need to have in-depth knowledge about the culture of their target language rather than to ESL/EFL students.