characterize international scientific writing and technical communication (Martín- Martín, 2004). This leads to ponder the pedagogic value inherent in the examination and explicit description of the abstract textual organization, which reveals the conventional sectioning of this genre. The results obtained in the present study can be used for formal and systematic reading and writing instruction in ESP courses, and can be addressed to teachers, university program designers, and curriculum planners.
References
Bhatia, V. (1993): Analyzing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings, Harlow, Essex: Longman.
Busch-Lauer, I. (1995): Abstracts in German medical journals: a linguistic analysis. Information Processing & Management, 31 (5), 769-776.
Cross, C. & Ch. Oppenheim (2006): A genre analysis of scientific abstracts. Journal of Documentation, 62 (4), 428-446.
Hyland, K. (2000): Disciplinary Discourses: Social Interactions in Academic Writing, Harlow, Essex:
Longman Pearson Education.
Hyland, K. & P. Tse (2005). “Hooking the reader: a corpus study of evaluative that in abstracts.”
English for Specific Purposes, 24, 123-139.
Lorés, R. (2004): “On RA abstracts: from rhetorical structure to thematic organization.” English for Specific Purposes, 23, 280-302.
Martín-Martín, P. (2003): “A genre analysis of English and Spanish research paper abstracts in experimental social sciences. English for Specific Purposes, 22, 25-43.
Salager-Meyer, F. (1992) A Text-Type and Move Analysis Study of Verb Tense and Modality Distribution in Medical English Abstracts. English for Specific Purposes, 11, 93-113.
Samraj, B. (2002): Disciplinary variation in abstracts: The case of Wildlife Behaviour and Conservation Biology. In Flowerdew, J. (Ed.). Academic Discourse, Longman. Pp. 40-56.
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Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2, 327-341.
Swales, J. (1990): Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings, Glasgow: Cambridge University Press.
Swales, J. (2004): The research article revisited. In M.H. Long and J.C. Richards (Eds.). Research Genres. Exploration and Application, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 207-240.
Weissberg, R. & Buker, S. (1990): Writing Up Research. Experimental Research Report Writing for Students of English, Englewood Cliffs: Hall Regents.
Exploring the Culture Dimension of Content and Language
Stevens 2001; Kramsch, 1993, 1998). Culture C1 (the participants') and culture C2 (target) are not seen as objective entities but rather the conception of culture embraced here is one of social construction, i.e. the result of the perceptions of oneself and others in the context of a multifaceted reality representative of different subcultures such as social class, race, gender, age, and education, among others (Blanco, 2000; Hugo, 2002; Shah, 2004; Warley, 2003). To capture the cultural aspects in a literary text, it is essential to have attitudes of curiosity, openness, and willingness to suspend disbelief and value judgements with regard to other people's beliefs and behaviors (Mountford & Wadham-Smith, 2000).
?The place of culture in narrative comprehension in L2 reading. Narratives allow us to bring to the surface the feelings and thoughts that guide the values and beliefs of our life styles and encourage awareness of them (Ooka Pang, Colvin, Tran, & Barba, 1998). They help learners define themselves and build bridges toward others by offering contrasts with different perspectives (Boyle & Peregoy, 1998). Cultural information is present in almost all the narrative elements, which facilitates the accurate portrayal of certain cultural aspects through the presence of information rich in details (Yakota, 1998). Cultural details give life to a short story and offer readers a window on the life of the culture they are reading about (Yakota, ibid).
?Model of Cultural Apprehension during reading (designed for this study): a six-stage model, adapted from Kramsch (op. cit.), describing the different types of approach of the cultural aspects of literary narrative texts during L2 reading. It constitutes a framework for the exploration of how the cultural aspects of a given text are approached during reading. The stages are described in general terms below:
Level 0. Omission, total rejection, or total acceptance of cultural aspects. Here learners may fail to perceive cultural aspects, which leads to their omission; or they may perceive them erratically, either accepting or rejecting them.
Level 1. Perception/identification of cultural differences. This level involves the perception of cultural differences, with the identification of the different, exciting, attractive, etc. elements of a given culture. This level is accessed through the identification of key vocabulary and works as a bridge for stages 2,3,4,and 5 below.
Level 2. Identification of own values and ideas. Identification of the cultural
assumptions behind one's own culture (C1). This stage refers to the comprehension of culture C1 from an insider perspective, i.e. the visualization of one's behavior, values, ideas, etc. according to one's cultural parameters.
Level 3. Perception of culture C2 (target) from one's own frame of reference. This level involves comprehending culture C2 from an outsider perspective and requires awareness of how the behavior, values, and ideas of others are interpreted from the perspective of one's cultural frame of reference, i.e. as an observer.
Level 4. Perception of culture C2 from the frame of reference of members of culture C2. This stage involves the comprehension of culture C2 from an insider perspective. How members of another culture behave is interpreted in light of their own cultural norms.
Level 5. Perception of culture C1 from the perspective of culture C2. This means apprehending culture C1 from an outsider perspective. This level involves awareness of how one's own behavior is seen through the eyes of the members of other cultures.
Methodology
This experimental observational research used both qualitative and quantitative data analysis procedures.
Research question
How can L2 readers' perception of the cultural content of literary narrative texts be systematized?
Population
180 advanced EFL Argentine learners (Caucasian, middle class, Spanish- speaking, 19-21 years old), enrolled in English Language II at the National University of La Plata, participated on a voluntary basis in 2005.
Materials
Two texts were used (one culturally familiar; one culturally marked) on a common theme (Christmas celebration).
The text with familiar cultural content was in Spanish, and was a selection of Mi planta de naranja-lima (de Vasconcelos, 1971: 39-43) describing a Christmas celebration in Brazil. It presented a view of Christmas applicable to the Latin American context (avoiding complete textual accessibility and total cultural familiarity).
The culturally marked text was in English, and was a selection of Desert Wife (Faunce, 1961: 173-181) describing the Christmas celebration of the Native Americans (Navajos) in the US. The narrator (an outsider) describes, explains and interprets culturally novel information (softening the impact of the cultural load).
Data sources
For each text, participants wrote: a) a summary in Spanish; b) a summary in English; c) a visual reformulation (the visual representation of textual content including the combination of words, phrases, and/or sentences with visual information in different formats such as charts, tables, drawings). The summary in Spanish aimed at observing the interaction between the L1 and L2 (Droop &
Verhoeven, 2003). The visual reformulation was included to justify emotional responses in reading, to access the learners' non-verbal, imaginative systems, and to stimulate the cognitive through the affective (Millard & Marsh, 2001; Sanders Bustle, 2004).
Instrumentation (in 2005)
Each text and the activities based on them (summary in Spanish, summary in English, and visual reformulation) were administered on different days with one week time-lapse in between. There was no time limit to read the texts and participants were allowed to take notes. Participants completed each task in the order they preferred and chose the length for each task as well as the language for the visual reformulation (English, Spanish). Participants were given general written guidelines for the production of the summaries and the visual reformulation.
Data analysis
Using the Model of Cultural Apprehension designed, the following aspects were observed in the three written tasks based on each text:
a) The inclusion in the written tasks of the cultural elements mentioned in the texts
(which were previously identified as part of the analysis of the texts). Those learners who were able to identify (perceive) the cultural elements in the texts and included them in the tasks reached level 1 in the Model of Cultural Apprehension.
The perception of cultural aspects constituted the point of entrance to higher levels of cultural understanding – also described in this model. Here the omission of cultural aspects was as significant as their inclusion.
b) The level of cultural apprehension based on the Model. Each task was assigned a level of cultural apprehension (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) describing the level of cultural understanding reached.
c) The presence of elaborations; distortions of culture C2 (target); intrusions from culture C1 (own); evident errors; inferences from the texts, mentioned explicitly in the tasks; wrong inferences or inferences not motivated or justified by textual content; irrelevant information; rationalizations; reductions/simplifications;
generalizations; evaluative comments from the participants; adequate morale/
interpretation from the participants; inadequate or wrong morale/ interpretation from the participants; explicit inclusion of the feelings and motivations of the characters, inferred from the texts; explicit inclusion of the feelings and motivations of the characters wrongly inferred from the texts or not motivated or justified by their textual content; and culturally adequate details.
Apprehending the cultural content of reading material requires, as mentioned before, the openness of mind to discover new horizons of ideas, something many learners were unable to do. The process of cultural understanding, as portrayed in the model above, necessarily involved learners elaborating, distorting, inferencing, generalizing, simplifying, etc. the cultural content of what they read, depending on the level of cultural apprehension they had reached.
Main result
The learners' prevalent superficial and stereotypical approach to the cultural content of the literary texts used in this study, both familiar and unfamiliar, revealed a threshold of cultural awareness of others (and possibly of oneself) beyond which what was different or unfamiliar remained inaccessible, irrespective of the type of written task required (summary or visual reformulation) and of the use of the mother tongue (Spanish) or the foreign language (English) in the completion of the tasks. The textual opacity of the texts used was unapproachable,
irrespective of their language (Spanish, English), the cultural load (familiar, unfamiliar), and the type of cultural content they included (explicit, implicit). This result points to the impossibility to capture what is different not only in relation to a different culture but also with respect to a subculture within a national culture.
The appreciation of the significance and importance of certain cultural aspects presupposes the capacity for abstraction and analysis (Byram & Grundy, op. cit.) – which only those learners with a high cognitive and moral development may reach.
Note of caution
Discussions about culture tend to be simplistic, with utopian appeals to the tolerance of ideas different from our own and the avoidance of prejudice. As far as the learners are concerned, the appreciation of the significance and importance of certain cultural aspects presupposes the capacity for abstraction and analysis (Alred, Byram, & Fleming, 2003; Byram & Fleming, 2001; Byram & Grundy, op. cit;
Neuner & Byram, 2003) – which only those learners with a high cognitive and moral development may reach. In relation to teachers, many find the area of culture unfamiliar. There exists a gap in the knowledge of teachers (and researchers) about other cultures. This knowledge is in general intuitive and fails to be systematic (Byram, 2000). Considering that teachers (and researchers) go through the same process as the learners themselves in the apprehension of a different culture, they also have an inadequate basis for comprehension. The risk of inappropriately assigning meanings to the behaviors of members of other cultures on the part of teachers, learners, and researchers is always latent.
Research significance
This study has immediate relevance in the field of language education as it addresses the Culture Dimension of Content and Language Integrated Learning through Literature. The description of how L2 readers approach the cultural content of literary narrative texts is materialized in a Model of Cultural Apprehension during L2 reading. This Model, we claim, has immediate applications in different L2 contexts nationwide and worldwide. Results will impact on the following areas: a) the selection of literary reading material in L1 (mother tongue) and L2 contexts (considering cultural load); b) instructional
techniques in working with L2 readers (e.g. awareness-raising strategies about the cultural aspects in a literary text; techniques/strategies contributing to the perception, apprehension, interpretation, etc. of cultural information; etc.); c) the Model of Cultural Apprehension has implications in relation to multicultural education in the framework of globalization and increasingly multilingual, multiethnic, and multicultural educational contexts around the world.
References
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Boyle, O., & S. Peregoy (1998): “Literacy Scaffolds: Strategies for First- and Second-Language Readers and Writers”. In M. Opitz (Ed.), Literacy Instruction for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. A Collection of Articles and Commentaries (pp.150-157). Newark, Delaware: IRA Inc.
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