Comments on: Speaking of learning and practice http://www.daveswhiteboard.com/archives/670 Dave Ferguson's interests, ideas, notions, tangents Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:43:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Dave http://www.daveswhiteboard.com/archives/670/comment-page-1#comment-9825 Dave Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:39:08 +0000 http://www.daveswhiteboard.com/?p=670#comment-9825 Thanks for jumping in, Trevelyan. I'm not Ken, so it's my own reading here: I saw "culture" in the larger sense -- almost a milieu, a context. So a specific poet, or poetic form, might fit -- but again, it might not. In a discussion on FrenchPod, the moderators were asking about music suggestions. My vote was for Georges Brassens -- unknown to me until six months or so, and I'd guess to most Americans. The analogy that came to me: my not knowing something about Brassens is like a French person not knowing something about Bob Dylan. They're not equivalents in style or their period or their influence -- it's a sort of musical/cultural metaphor. Thanks for jumping in, Trevelyan. I’m not Ken, so it’s my own reading here: I saw “culture” in the larger sense — almost a milieu, a context. So a specific poet, or poetic form, might fit — but again, it might not.

In a discussion on FrenchPod, the moderators were asking about music suggestions. My vote was for Georges Brassens — unknown to me until six months or so, and I’d guess to most Americans. The analogy that came to me: my not knowing something about Brassens is like a French person not knowing something about Bob Dylan. They’re not equivalents in style or their period or their influence — it’s a sort of musical/cultural metaphor.

]]> By: trevelyan http://www.daveswhiteboard.com/archives/670/comment-page-1#comment-9823 trevelyan Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:50:31 +0000 http://www.daveswhiteboard.com/?p=670#comment-9823 I actually disagree with Ken on the "culture" not "language" front. The object of language study is studying language. Claiming otherwise involves either a disconnect from student needs, or a pretension on the part of the teacher that they are not offering a basic service to the learner: helping them communicate in service of their own needs and interests. To its credit, I don't think that Praxis engages in this or even really believes what Ken is saying in practice. At the least, I don't see any classical poetry, or Chinese literature, or calligraphy, or folk music, or Beijing rock, or anything else that would traditionally be considered Chinese culture. But why should they? Culture is amorphous and it is the connections between people that matter, and the ability to actually help students that count. If students are going to learn best from a lesson on Cyndi Lauper, that is the sort of thing they should be producing. I actually disagree with Ken on the “culture” not “language” front. The object of language study is studying language. Claiming otherwise involves either a disconnect from student needs, or a pretension on the part of the teacher that they are not offering a basic service to the learner: helping them communicate in service of their own needs and interests.

To its credit, I don’t think that Praxis engages in this or even really believes what Ken is saying in practice. At the least, I don’t see any classical poetry, or Chinese literature, or calligraphy, or folk music, or Beijing rock, or anything else that would traditionally be considered Chinese culture.

But why should they? Culture is amorphous and it is the connections between people that matter, and the ability to actually help students that count. If students are going to learn best from a lesson on Cyndi Lauper, that is the sort of thing they should be producing.

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