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Image mediated- culture within the teaching- learning process. When approaching the teaching-learning process, experts like Álvarez de Zayas(2003) Ginoris (2006); Silverstein(1996) focuse it as the one where the transmission and assimilation of knowledge, abilities and values take place. Some others like Labarrere (1996) and Montoya(2005) analyse such process as a cultural one, view that is taken for these authors to take account of the teaching- learning process of the subject History of the culture of the English speaking peoples in which the subject-subject relationship is established respect to some objects of culture. Within the frames of it, the trainer transmits to trainees the cultural heritage (knowledge, abilities and values) that the English speaking world has amassed alongside the course of its history and trainees appropriate and reconstruct culture. In this cultural process when trainees reconstruct culture through their personal lens, they assume a given attitude respect to the bulk of material and spiritual values that are internalised. Not only attitudes towards the object of culture is internalised but also the subjective relations, i.e., the quality of them that generates the movement of trainees to a superior stage transforming themselves and to the world. This process is assumed as a cultural one ‘cause not only the transmission and appropriation of culture are achieved within it, the process itself reveals the mechanism of culture creation, that is, the activity in all its manifestations and taken as the practical, communicative and axiological one. Based on this line of analysis, the authors follow Mezhuiev´s perspective of culture (1980). This author enphasizes that the true relationship between culture and the human activity is understandable only when the very activity is the source, the cause of man’s existence, formation and development”. This perspective widens our vision of culture since it is conceived as a process where every human act is estimated because man grows spiritually at the time he surpasses his own borders of knowledge and abilities to better up living conditions. The authors´ outlook also takes account of the contextual outlook of culture put forth by Clifford Geertz (1984) when stating: “[…] Culture is a context”. According to this author the teaching-learning process is culture because in the context where it is developed the premises for the trainees’ personal and social advance are settled down, being the most important one the quality of the subject-subject relationship that guarantees to carry out the instrumental role of culture. To the light of the things already explained, the teaching-learning process as a cultural one may be approached from a linguistic perspective. The transmission and reconstruction of the English speaking culture within the frames of this process are possible thanks to communication whose main instrument is the English language. This paper comes to be an heir of all theses comprised within the realm of the textual-linguistics, especially of that related to the communicative approach. The English language is not further analysed as the target of theoretical reflections, on the contrary, what is really distinguished is the value of its instrumental function, its importance for the social relationships that are established among trainees and trainer and trainees themselves, its use to explore the cultural richness of the English speaking peoples, to dig in the essence of cultural phenomena, an to shape the trainees’ vision of the English speaking world, so as to establish positive relations towards its people an its culture. Through the linguistic code trainees get into the meaningful world of those aspects reconstructed in class to perfect the ways of thinking and acting as well as to influence on the ways on the others’. Consequently, it is in this cultural process in which trainees recognise the true and authentic sense of the English language as an instrument to appropriate the heritage of such peoples and to be tolerant and open-minded in relation to different cultural behaviours. So, the assumption of the communicative prospective allows the authors to delve into a new horizon in which the linguistic structures, the lexicon, the linguistic strategies allow the actors of the teaching-learning process to analyse, to explain, to judge, to interpret and to reach conclusions upon the English speaking culture. Applying this communicative approach in History of the culture of the English speaking peoples I means as stated by A. Romeu (1999), to make clear for trainees the utility of the linguistic structures they already know watching them function in the language eventually this communicative angle of the English language stresses the achievement of the communicative competence by means of which trainees become efficient communicators able to make their own choices concerning the words, and forms to convey meaning with accuracy, clearness and elegance according to the context and situation. Psychologically speaking, this cultural outlook of the teaching- learning process is based upon mediation (Vigotsky, Morenza, 1998:13). The process is mediated not only by language but also by the computer and by the icastic- generating image. The mediation achieved by artefacts is a characteristic trait of our times. As a fact of today’s school individuals are shaped as a result of the social practices and discourses of our historical epoch. Language is for Vigotsky the mediating tool between the social reality and the individual who is involved in a process of formation. He does not keep a passive attitude in accordance to the reality that surrounds him; on the contrary, he changes it actively when reconstructing culture. The author of this paper agrees on the idea that the icastic-generating image acts as a mediator between culture and the process of internalisation that takes places in each individual, since it has a peculiar language and it continuously “widens the intermediation possibilities between society and individual” (De Pablos, 1996). In the field of the ICsT, Vigotsky’s concept of mediating cultural tools is emphasised and the most far-reaching legacy on this issue is the fact that they constitute the device of new communication languages that might determine our own conception of life and exert some great influence on our identity. Image has a painstaking role in culture diffusion within the teaching-learning process of this subject for it is the vehicle to transmit, appropriate and reconstruct the British heritage, but at the same time it is a mediating devise to sustain that diffusion. In the view of this author’s position, it depicts, in the area of History of the culture of the English speaking peoples I, those aspects involved in the cultural inheritance of the U.K. and trainees are able to include them in their personal reservoir and retain them longer. In this process of mediated internalisation they do not only get the culture of the English civilisation but also that of image, i.e., the role of colours for conveying messages, areas , tones, values, texture, etc. These semiotic codes are learned step by step and trainees and they are vital to interpret this sign. Consequently, this will contribute to the formation of the image culture as part of their general culture. So, the application of the icastic-generating image in the educational context is an important choice to be considered since mediation is useful to teach students how to learn. The icastic-generating image is not only a semiotic system used to act as a cultural mediator, for it involves other types of mediation as the pedagogic one since it is a resource to better up the learning process. The linguistic mediation is when language is used as a tool to learn and explore this image, to construct meaning from it, being this an entity resulting from human production and culture. The icastic-generating image displays a communicative process but it is not an autonomous way. Image as a semiological system has to do with language. Learners, in the process of perceiving and constructing the image meaning, they should inevitably use language. The cultural mediation is the intermediation achieved through image as an entity where the advance and progress of human culture is manifested. It is itself a result, and part of culture. Besides, this mediation allows learners know the effects and role that this sign belonging to culture can have in their lives. Eventually, the semiological mediation has to do with the codes of the visual language, how it is presented, its syntax and its meaning. The changes in the dynamics of society open new horizons to the pedagogy of our times. The new nature of learning surpasses the traditional forms and demands an active participation on behalf of the learners. For this, they have to interact with the mediators that privilege their epoch. This is a condition for paving the way for the elaboration of new theoretical assumptions. At the time of learning through the icastic- generating image, representation becomes a key factor in the way trainees establish relations among themselves and with the reality (Millán: 2005). The fascinating powers of this image should be taken into consideration in the educative context for they contribute to a longer retention of the information and also to stir up feelings and emotions in the process. The icastic- generating image produces a number of stimuli and emotions that reinforce learning. They help to make the different messages more intelligible; motivation and concentration increase. This sign is the bridge by means of which trainer puts students closer to the reality that is transferred to the educational context. While learning the experience we get from this visual image produces in the learners a sensation of authenticity. The optic mediation is the one that induces the subjective effect of visualisation. In this sense, images are the lively reality, the ones that make us capable of shaping existence. Images go beyond their aesthetical function, they, with certainty, communicate. It is the image’s power of seduction what moves the spectator’s emotional but not conscious answers (Gubern, 1997, p.68). But the effective relationship that trainees achieved with the visual sign implies the processes of comprehension and interpretation. After analysing several view points (Jeckinson, 1973; Romeu, 1996; Antich, 1988; Palacio, 1996; Cajamarca, 1996), the author of this research paper the definition of comprehension given by Merani (1993:83) when stating: “[…] it is knowledge that is extended to evaluation of the objects and qualities’ meaning with reference to condition causes-effect and some other relations in the necessary measure to offer the right solution to problems of the individual and social life”. As it is seen, comprehension requires a progressive succession of stages to get the desired aim as well as some philosophical categories present in the process of meaning comprehension as cause-effect, essence-phenomenon, general –particular, etc. Comprehension is sustained on the learners’ previous knowledge (Romeu, 1996; Sole, 1994; Avila, 1994). This sentence is corroborated by the following: “Children interpret problems according to the knowledge and conceptualisations they have. Thus, they can interpret differently the same problem; that is, they can attribute to it different meaning. Upon the basis of the different meaning children attribute to problems, they search and construct different solutions”(Avila, 1994). So to speak, in the image comprehension is remarkable the learners’ previous knowledge, their intellectual level, their subjective world which will enhance a unique vision of the content reflected. Interpretation is one of the comprehension levels (Blom, 1956; Jeckinson, 1973; Gomez Palacio, 1996; Romeu, 1996). The first author makes a distinction among: analysis, interpretation and evaluation as levels of the process of comprehension. Olson (1989) on his behalf, distinguishes between reading and interpretation (literal comprehension of a text and the construction of it). Interpretation facilitates the critical valuation of the iconic sign. The spectator is capable of displaying the evaluations of it, evaluates image, and expresses her / his view point and judgments on the information presented by image. This process goes far beyond of comprehension itself to become in comprehension for oneself, and this puts emphasis on the image/spectator relationship, on the spectator’s protagonist role and dynamic information processing as well as the sense and meaning s/he finds in the information. So, interpretation is the spectator’s comprehension on the basis of the senses and meaning he can attribute to the image information. It is the cardinal process in the image hermeneutics. Interpreting means the selection of some image components by the spectator and the hierarchy s/he establishes among them, since no spectator approaches image as a whole and each of its parts neither with the same attention nor with identical values. The image interpretation is to exteriorise through language and through a given behaviour the result of comprehending the image information according to the personal sense that is attributed to it. This process presupposes comprehension as a basis for the discovery of the true sense of the information by the spectator that is why, the image meaning construction is the process of image comprehension and interpretation. When approaching image from the philosophical point of view, comprehension and interpretation take place as a sequenced process, and it is sustained on the unity between the internal and the external as parts of the whole. In the image meaning construction when comprehending the spectator interiorises the content essence, and interpreting means revealing the essence as a external manifestation permeated by the personal sense given. The comprehension-interpretation process of image includes general and particular aspects. The general is determined by the content meaning, by the established meaning, by the general idea. On the other hand, the particular is determined by the set of values, emotions, feelings ideology, in short by the spectator’s spiritual world. The image interpretation is carried out on the basis of those traits that characterise his individuality and personality as: experiences, previous knowledge, his world outlook and his temper. Finally, it is worth jotting down that general lies on the meaning comprehension and the particular, on the spectator’s interpretation. Bibliografía Ávila, Alicia. Los niños también cuentan. Procesos de construcción de la aritmética en la escuela primaria, México, 1994. De Pablos Pons, Juan ((1996): “Procesos de aprendizaje mediados. Una perspectiva sociocultural sobre las nuevas tecnologías”.Cedec. Barcelona Geertz, Clifford: La interpretación de las culturas. Barcelona, Editorial Gedisa, 1988. Gubert, R. “Retos al audiovisual” en www.infoamerica.org/articulos/g/gubern.htm consultado el 13 de abril de 2005. Merani, A. Diccionario de Pedagogía. Ediciones Grijalbo S.A., Barcelona- Buenos Aires, 1993
Autora: Elaine
Frómeta Quintana Fecha de realización: 5 de mayo de 2005
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