Teaching French civilization and culture through a multicultural perspective in the classrooms of French language students in Jordanian universities

Abstract

With the advent of the communicative methodology, the goal of learning and teaching foreign languages is to acquire a communicative skill aimed at making students able to behave appropriately when communicating with speakers of these languages. This communicative skill is not limited to grammatical or linguistic aspects, but also includes cultural elements that seem to be of great importance. Through our experience, it seems to us that the practices of learning and teaching French as a foreign language, in the Jordanian university context, do not give an important place to cultural elements. This study aims to encourage teachers to focus more on the cultural aspects in the French as a foreign language class, and to think about the educational potential of this skill. To achieve this, we will first shed light on the relationship between the concept of social perceptions and the teaching and learning of French as a foreign language in the Jordanian university context, with a focus on cultural concepts. I will then present a number of educational proposals related to intercultural knowledge in learning and teaching French as a foreign language, in the Jordanian university context. Keywords: French as a foreign language, communication skills, classroom practices, social perceptions, intercultural studies, educational suggestions.