One danger in teaching culture is that second-language teachers may attempt to teach culture when they do not have the knowledge or expertise to do so. Such attempts may do more harm than good. If the second culture is presented in such a way that false impressions arise, the alternative of no culture is preferable. This author, for example, once asked a German student
of English what impression she had received of Americans from her English teacher. She replied that Americans are "rich, crazy, and they eat out of tin cans!" Stereotypes perpetuated by second-language teachers can lead to results the very opposite of the culture goals expressed at the beginning of this chapter.
The second danger is the amount of work done in the first language in many classes in which the teacher stresses culture. While few second-language educators would currently recommend banning the first language from the second-language class, work done entirely in the first language obviously does not lead to second-language communicative skills. The question does not revolve around which language to use but how to use all the language skills acquired by the students. Anything they can do in the second language should be done in that language. Any content that can be altered to accommodate the students' second-language skills should be geared to their level. Too, the linguistic level of the activities should become increasingly complex as the students progress in their studies.
The third danger is that the culture content selected for the class may concentrate on the unusual, the bizarre, and the esoteric to the exclusion of the basic characteristics of the culture. Cultural activities should not be turned into some sort of circus freak show. Occasionally, the teacher may contribute to such a student reaction by concentrating only on the differences between the cultures rather than on the total picture of any given culture segment. In order to avoid confusion and misunderstanding, the teacher should describe all aspects of the situation. For this reason, films and dramatizations are excellent means of conveying culture.
CONCLUSION
Culture is one of the two major areas (the other being communicative competence) in second-language education in which the greatest need and the greatest potential for improvement exist. The profession must take steps to remedy its unenviable record in transmitting cultural sensitivity and cultural understanding to second-language students. The stress on small c culture is a rather recent innovation in second-language teaching. Great strides have been made, but the knowledge generated by anthropologists, sociologists, and other experts in the second culture must be disseminated to the teachers. As this growing body of information becomes available to teachers, culture objectives will become more realizable. As the teaching of culture improves, so will the image of second-language teaching.