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Second Language and Culture Teaching in an ESL Classroom - Application of Literature Circles in an ESL Classroom

1. Introduction Language and culture are inseparable and constitute " a single universe or domain of experience " (Bot et al, 1991:217). The implication is clear: cultural awareness developed by the second culture acquisition necessarily helps attain second language competence. To put it in a different way, the nonnative speakers' inappropriate language behavior or what is called sociolinguistic and sociopragmatic failure often occurs due to their violations of cultural norms of appropriateness in their communications with native language speakers. In this perspective, second language teaching and learning should include both target language and culture learning and teaching. Or to be more exact, second language teaching should be carried out explicitly and implicitly in the second culture teaching. To realize this goal in my ESL teaching, I have introduced an instructional method called a " Literature Circle " into my in ESL classroom and this approach has turned out to be very effective. A " Literature Circle " , which is a student book club in the classroom, has become a hot topic in this decade, especially in the field of literacy instruction. (Daniels 2002) The national literacy standards sanctioned by the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association in 1996 explicitly identified literature circles as one of the " best classroom practices " in the teaching of (cultural) literacy. Also there has developed an abundant professional literature and research base in this field. (Daniels 2002:7) There has been an array of studies of literature circles in elementary classrooms However, writing on literature circles in ESL classrooms is quite scarce and without documentation of real classroom practice. MacGillivray, Tse & McQuillan (1995) wrote an article on the role of literature circles for ESL learners in a format of a play based on the conversations among the three of them about their personal feelings and experiences with no authentic classroom data. I believe that students learn through interaction and mediation with others (Vygotsky 1978) and through tool-mediated goal-oriented activities (Leontiev 1978) and that incorporating literature into cultural literacy instruction can model language structures, connect lessons to students' prior knowledge, develop cultural awareness by comparing their own culture with the second culture, and thus motivate students in their learning and using of the second language (Roser & Martinez 1995). Thus, a literature circle appeals to me as it may provide an excellent milieu and may serve as a tool …