Integrating Culture in the Language Classroom

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Integrating Culture in the Language Classroom

• Trish Pashby
• Leslie Opp-Beckman
• University of Oregon

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Topics, Session 08

• Announcements
• Overview
• Activity 1 Brainstorm
• Part I What is Culture?
• Part II Culture in the Class
• Activity 2 Network Tree
• Conclusion, Q A

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Announcements

• Introductions
• Continuing the series, starting November
  2005http//thaiuo.uoregon.edu/
• Homework to share?

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Activity 1

• Brainstorm, Graphic Organizers,
• Network Tree
• Work in groups. Choose a unit or theme from your
  text andlist as many matching cultural topics
  as you can.

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(No Transcript)
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What is Culture?

• Culture is the shared beliefs, symbols, and
  interpretations within a human group...The
  essence of a culture is not its artifacts, tools,
  or other tangible cultural elements but how the
  members of the group interpret, use, and
  perceive them. (Banks, 2001)

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Characteristics of Culture

• It is
• Learned
• Transmissible
• Dynamic
• Selective(Porter and Samovar, 1994)

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Characteristics of Culture

• Culture shifts in and outside our reflective
  awareness.
• (Erikson, 2001)

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4 Areas of Culture

• Aesthetic
• Sociological
• Semantic
• Pragmatic/Sociolinguistic
• (Lessard-Clouston, 1997)

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Bangkok Islamic School, iEARN
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Bangkok Islamic School, iEARN
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Bangkok Islamic School, iEARN
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International Education and Resource Network
(iEARN) Teddy Bear and over 200 Other
Cross-Cultural Projectshttp//www.iearn.org/
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Culture and Communication

• are inseparable because culturehelps to
  determine how people encode messages, their
  meaning for messages, and the conditions and
  circumstances under which messages may or may
  not be sent, noticed, or interpreted. (Samovar,
  Porter, Jain, 1981)

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Intercultural Understanding

• It is insufficient to promote the use of English
  as a mere linguistic tool. Rather, its function
  as a means for intercultural understanding and
  communication should be further expandedinto one
  that incorporates intercultural awareness
  understanding as well. (Kim, J., 2002)

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Benefits to Students

• Students benefit most when our culture lessons
  and the cultural aspects of our language teaching
  are well planned and developed.
• (Lessard-Clouston, 1997)

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Goals

• We must help students
• Gain knowledge of the target language culture.
• Develop skills in communication and behavior in
  the target language.
• Become aware of dynamic nature of all cultures.

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Teacher Challenges

• Limited preparation time.
• Access to practical activities.(Omaggio in
  Cullen, 2000)
• Lack of cultural insight.
• Lack of sources of information. (Kim, J., 2002)

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Ethnographic Approach

• Teachers and students can become ethnographers
  and explore their own beliefs about the target
  language and their native language. This
  experience can be used as the basis for
  cross-cultural application and analysis.

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Cultural Texture

• Information Sources
• Video, CDs, TV
• Readings, internet, stories, songs, newspapers,
  realia
• Fieldwork, interviews, photos, anecdotes, guest
  speakers, souvenirs

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Cultural Texture

• Activity Types
• Quizzes
• Action logs
• Reformulation, noticing, prediction
• Research

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Cultural Texture

• Selling-points (contrasting views)
• Historical vs. modern, older vs. younger
  generations
• City vs. country life
• Stated beliefs vs. actual behavior similarities
  vs. differences

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Activity 2

• Cultural Texture (Cullen)
• Match Content from Activity 1 to
• Information sources
• Activity types
• Selling points (contrasting views)
• What Cultural Texture items did your group
  choose, and why?

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Practical Tips

• Personalize content.
• Vary activities.
• Use suitable level of difficulty.
• Choose high interest topics.
• Use group work.
• Dont try to cover everything. (Cullen, 2000)

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Integrating Culture in the Language Classroom

• http//thaiuo.uoregon.edu
• Trish PashbyLeslie Opp-BeckmanUniversity of
  Oregon