Through a Cultural Lens, Darkly: Revelations on Adaptability, Perspectives, And Applications for Language Teacher Education‪.‬

Introduction If language acquisition implies understanding of cultural perspectives, practices, and ideas with the ability to respond appropriately and flexibly in varying contexts (Doughty & Long, 2003), then we must see the importance of preparing language teachers for the realities of the profession and the demands of performance based assessment. Language is how we understand ourselves as well as communicate to minds other than our own. Inevitably we tend to view the world through individually constructed and socially imposed cultural lenses. Becoming aware of the presence and impact of these lenses constitutes the first step toward successful and meaningful interaction. Unfortunately most textbooks and other materials offer scant treatment of cliched situations, low level drills of rote memorization, and cultural facts in isolation, yielding possible misinterpretations of different cultural groups. Culture in the classroom tends to be limited to projects on the more tangible products of culture tend to be left for a "Friday frill or filler", an afterthought. Cultural perspectives and practices are not integrated into the curriculum, much less seen as a way to design curricular units. The result are tasks that do not encourage flexible and culturally appropriate responses from students.