Cultural Mediator Definition

A cultural mediator is one who reflects on his own culture, and who considers his own and the other’s cultures from different perspectives. In the text, the term “cultural mediator” is introduced in order to underline the idea that culture becomes the very core of language teaching if language is seen as a social practice. Thus, a cultural mediator who reflects on his own and on the other’s cultures might react linguistically and culturally better in communication situations, avoiding miscommunication.

2. What do scholars mean by “cultural awareness”?

By “cultural awareness” scholars refer to a term that has gained prominence in the discussions about the role of culture in language teaching. It is connected to a number of other terms

Besides, accordingly with what we saw in class the other day “distinguishing between language and culture is synonymous with distinguishing between “linguistically formed culture (language) and non-linguistically formed culture (culture)” (Risager 2006:6) , and this distinction affected both the generic and the differential level. Thus, we conclude that language and culture are generally interwoven and inseparable, although we can establish differences between them. Hence, applying the close relationship of language and culture to language teaching, we could claim that “language teaching must inevitably be accompanied by teaching about cultural phenomena in the countries where the target language is

This would be based on their idea about the American Dream as something ideal, as people who arrived to “the promise land” and helped the indigenous people who lived there. The reason why they believe so is because they lack the knowledge of what was going on in America before the conquerors arrived, and because they have been influenced by the American myth they think conquerors only did positive things (forgetting, for example, that Europeans imposed their own way of thinking on the natives). Thus, they would not pay attention to the naked, indigenous people who are only witnesses of the situation in the picture and who are depicted as a kind of “non-accountable” people. Students would not perceive this representation about the differences between civilizations unless they had a cultural awareness of slavery and notions related to the conquest that settlers carried out in America, or in other words, unless they had cultural awareness of the countries of their target