Using Images as Springboards to Teach Cultural Perspectives in Light of the Ideals of the MLA Report.

Abstract: The centrality of culture and language learning in foreign language instruction is highlighted in the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (National Standards, 2006) and the MLA report, "Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World" (MLA Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Languages, 2007). Operationalizing the teaching of culture, however, is an ongoing challenge for instructors. Although classrooms are often replete with cultural "products" and descriptions of cultural "practices," devising ways to effectively use them as springboards for analysis of cultural "perspectives" may be elusive. This article describes an approach to teaching cultural and linguistic competence through the analysis of images linked to other texts. At the same time, it helps students move toward slowly becoming more "translingual" and "transcultural." Key words: Spanish, culture, images, MLA report, primary/secondary discourses, translingual and transcultural competence Introduction: The Centrality of the Study of Culture For many years our profession has called for classroom practice to reflect the centrality of the study of culture and the development of the ability to interact appropriately with members of other cultures in foreign language teaching and learning.1 The foundational documents that lay out goals for K-16 and postsecondary language programs highlight the special role of culture. The Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (National Standards, 2006) weave together the 5 CsFCommunication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and CommunitiesFand emphasize the multiple ways in which they intersect. Although Communication in all of its forms (face-to-face conversations, listening to media, writing with pen and paper or electronically, and reading texts, literary and nonliterary) is ''at the heart of second language study,'' the Standards emphasize that ''students cannot truly master the language until they have also mastered the cultural contexts in which the language occurs'' (National Standards, 2006, p. 31).More specifically with regard to culture, the document enumerates outcomes that students should achieve, including an understanding of: 1. ''the relationship between the practices [''patterns of behavior accepted by a society''] and perspectives [''traditional ideas, attitudes, and values''] of the cultures studied'' (Standard 2.1, p. 50); 2. ''the relationship between the products [both tangible and intangible, ranging from artifacts and works of art or literature to systems of education or rituals associated with religious belief] and perspectives of the cultures studied'' (Standard 2.2, p. 51); and 3. ''the concept of culture through comparisons'' of their own culture and the target culture(s) (Standard 4.2, p. 60). The recent MLA report ''Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World'' (MLA Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Languages, 2007) similarly situates postsecondary foreign language teaching and learning in a context that links language proficiency with cultural proficiency. It promotes creating undergraduate language major programs that focus on producing ''educated speakers who have deep translingual and transcultural competence'' [emphasis ours], explaining that: the idea of translingual and transcultural competence places value on the ability to operate between languages. Students are educated to function as informed and capable interlocutors with educated native speakers in the target language. They are also trained to reflect on the world and themselves through the lens of another language and culture. They learn to comprehend speakers of the target languages as members of foreign societies and to grasp themselves as AmericansFthat is, as members of a society that is foreign to others . . . . (p. 237) [emphasis ours] Both documents affirm the multifaceted interconnectedness of language and culture and, in addition, in ways that are both explicit and implicit, encourage the development of students' analytical and reflective skills as they study language and culture. …