A New Framework of Culture Teaching for Teaching English as a Global Language

The traditional premise of culture teaching that language and culture are not separable is now challenged by the global spread of English as a means of wider communication. Today's English is no longer an inviolable property of English-speaking people. It is becoming a common property of different peoples around the world. This state of affairs is rendering the revision of the traditional framework of culture teaching inevitable. This paper proposes a new framework of culture teaching that is in consonance with the current global state of English. In place of the traditional dichotomy of small c culture and large C culture, the paper proposes a new trichotomy of culture around language, culture in language, and culture through language. After specifying the contents of each type of culture and their interrelationships within a cultural syllabus, the paper describes strategies to realise a new set of goals of culture teaching, drawing illustrations from English language education in Japan, where English is taught not only as a foreign language but also as a global language.