Language

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argue about what the final level of learners’ sociocultural competence should be.
The Modern National Curricula Standards for the Foreign Languages (U.S.A.) has published official requirements for sociocultural education in Europe and Russia that state that as a result of L2 culture teaching learners should develop cultural awareness, which includes the development of tolerance and empathy towards representatives of different cultures (ACTFL, 1999; Byram & Fleming, 1998; Byram & Risager, 1999; Saphonova, 1999; Savignon, 2002). In our previous research, we argued that cultural identity is the next level L2 learners should achieve after cultural awareness (Sysoyev, 2001a, b; Savignon, Sysoyev, 2002; Sysoyev, 2002a, b). After learning about other cultures in the mode “we” and “they” (for details see Hall, XXX), which often results in the creation of false negative or positive stereotypes and generalizations about a L2 society, L2 learners should come to an understanding of their ...

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enable L2 learners to see people and societies polyculturally, aiding them in perceiving diversity as a norm in modern polycultural societies.

Cultural Identity in L2 Teaching

Identity as a theoretical construct is not a new idea. It was originally developed within the field of psychology, where the major focus of researchers was altering of an individual’s state and condition over time through changes in his or her contexts (e.g., Erikson, 1968). Initially however, for psychologists an individual’s identity represented a considerably stable construct, it was supposed to change only 4-5 times during an individual’s life, usually when that person entered a new age group (e.g., child ...

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