Teaching for Cultural Awareness
Presentation
by Dr. Christiane Gautier
University of California, Santa Cruz
STARTALK 2009 Berkeley Teacher Program
University of California, Berkeley
August 7, 2009
Learning a Foreign Language
 Not just about learning a new linguistic code (“what”)
 Learning "how, when, and why to say what to whom.”
 Language/communication does not occur in a vacuum.
=> Culture provides the context within which
communication occurs.
 Language and culture CANNOT be separated.
Culture / Challenges
Q: Why is it challenging for us to teach “culture”?
 Lack of agreement about what “culture” means as it
involves several fields of study; our own definition(s)
of “culture” are not always clear.
 Even if we are native speakers, we are not sure of what
to teach! (As a Mandarin teacher, which/whose
“Chinese culture” do I teach?)
 We are not always sure of when to teach it!
 We are not always sure of how to teach it!
Culture / Challenges
Q: Why is it challenging for us to teach “culture”? (cont’d)
 We don’t have enough time to teach culture.
We have too many other important things to teach.
“I’ll do it later!”
 Our own lack of cultural knowledge; we fear that we
don’t know enough.
 It may be uncomfortable at times since it involves
dealing with students’ stereotypes about the target
culture, and/or students’ ethnocentric views, or possible
negative beliefs/attitudes, etc.
 Culture is multifaceted and changes over time.
Culture / Definition
Q: How would you define “culture”?
 “Culture is the logic by which I give order to the world.
Part of this logic is ‘tacit, invisible,’ it is ‘everything that
goes without saying.’ ” Carroll, Raymonde (1988)
 “[...] culture learning, whether it occurs in a foreign
language or second language context, inside or outside the
classroom, with or without teachers, through books or
through people, is best seen as a lived experience, as a
personal encounter with another way of life.”
Moran, Patrick (2001:3)
Culture / Definition
Q: How would you define “culture”?
 “Culture is all the accepted and patterned ways of behavior
of a given people; it is that facet of human life learned by
people as a result of belonging to some particular group; it is
that part of learned behavior shared with others.
Not only does this concept include a group’s way of thinking,
feeling, and acting, but also the internalized patterns for
doing certain things in certain ways… not just doing them.
This concept also includes the physical manifestations of a
group as exhibited in their achievements and contributions to
civilization.” (Peck, 1998)
Culture / Definition
 Culture is born of the interaction between what constitutes
the formal culture of a society as a whole and the informal
aspects of the individual’s daily lives within that society.
=> 2 major sides, and both are reflected in the language, in
the behaviors, and in the values of the people.
 Culture with a big C
= formal culture / Olympian culture / culture MLA
=> social, political, and economic institutions, music,
literature, and the arts.
 culture with a little c
= informal culture / hearthstone culture / culture BBV
=> products of individuals’ everyday lives (e.g., clothing,
foods, etc.) + personal beliefs, behaviors, and values.
Goals of Cultural Instruction
cf. Seelye (1984)
1) The Sense, or Functionality, of Culturally
Conditioned Behavior
=> Students should be able to demonstrate an understanding
that people act the way they do because they are using the
options the society allow for satisfying their basic physical
and psychological needs.
2) Interaction of Language and Social Variables
=> Students should be able to demonstrate an understanding
that social variables such as age, [gender], social class, and
place of residence affect the way people speak and behave.
Goals of Cultural Instruction (cont’d)
3) Conventional Behavior in Common Situations
=> Students should indicate an ability to demonstrate how
people conventionally act in the most mundane and crisis
situations in the target culture.
4) Cultural Connotations of Words and Phrases
=> Students should indicate an awareness that culturally
conditioned images are associated with even the most
common words and phrases.
Goals of Cultural Instruction (cont’d)
5) Evaluating Statements about a Society
=> Students should demonstrate the relative strength of a
generality concerning the target culture in terms of amount of
evidence substantiating the statement.
6) Researching Another Culture
=> Students should show that they have developed the skills
needed to locate and organize information about the target
culture from the library, the mass media, people, and personal
observations.
Goals of Cultural Instruction (cont’d)
7) Attitudes Toward Other Cultures
=> Students should demonstrate intellectual curiosity about the
target culture and empathy toward its people.
=> After articulating your own working definition of “culture,”
define your own goals for your own cultural instruction.
=> Make sure that these goals translate into tasks that can be
assessed.
Themes Most Commonly Included
Q: What exactly do you cover?
 FAMILY
/ HOME
 EATING / CLOTHING
 HOLIDAYS / VACATION / TRAVEL
 LANGUAGE / SOCIAL INTERACTIONS /
GOOD MANNERS
 LEISURE ACTIVITIES / TRANSPORTATION
 GEOGRAPHY / POPULATION / HISTORY
 EDUCATION
/ POLITICS / RELIGION
 MONEY / WORKING / ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Themes Most Commonly Included
(Cont’d)
 SERVICES : BANKING, POST OFFICE, ETC.
 COURTSHIP & MARRIAGE / DEATH
 HEALTH & WELFARE
 CONTEMPORARY SCENE / MEDIA/PRESS
 NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
 ETC.
=> Remember that you just cannot cover everything!
=> Select cultural aspects that are relevant and interesting
for students.
=> Be aware of the language level of your students.
=> Some cultural themes are dictated by our textbooks.
Some Traditional Teaching Approaches
cf. Galloway, Vicki (1985)
 1. The Frankenstein Approach
A taco from here, a flamenco dancer from there,
a gaucho from here, a bullfight from there.
 2. The 4-F Approach
Folk dances. Festivals. Fairs. Foods.
Some Traditional Teaching Approaches
(cont’d)
 3. The Tour Guide Approach
Identification of monuments, rivers, and cities.
 4. The “By-the-Way” Approach
Sporadic lectures or bits of behavior selected
indiscriminately to emphasize sharp contrasts.
Q: Which methods do you use? What do you think
of these methods?
=> Oftentimes “teaching culture” equals teaching facts
and showing products/artifacts. Is this enough?
The Prevailing Approach
cf. National Standards for Foreign Languages
 Consider three inter-related components of culture:
* Perspectives
* Practices
* Products
 =the “3-Ps Approach”
 =the cultural framework to keep in mind when
we teach
The 3 Ps Approach
* Perspectives => ideas, attitudes, beliefs, and values that
people tend to share within a group; they are molded by
society's overarching framework and belief system
(“world’s view”).
* Practices => certain patterns/behaviors accepted by a
society (traditions/rules); what to do when and where
(e.g., use of personal space, use of compliments, when
to kiss, hug, shake hands, etc.)
* Products => inventions and innovations of individuals
(e.g., clothing, foods, cars, songs, movies, novels, laws,
etc.); they reflect the values and physical needs of a
society.
The 3 Ps Approach / Examples
* Exemple(s) relevant to the U.S.
Perspective/Value: Mobility/Independence
Practices: Going to school in another town, in another
part of the country; moving to another state to begin a
new job; etc.
Products: Use of cars (symbols of mobility and
independence); every apartment is fully equipped with
kitchen appliances (fridge, stove, etc.); etc.
Q: What would be some exemple(s) relevant to your target
culture? (Starting with perspectives, for instance)
Research
* Scott & Huntington (2000)
. Level and quality of recollection of two groups of students
who learned about Ivory Coast.
. One group studied a fact sheet and the other group studied
a poem about colonialism in Côte d’Ivoire.
. The group that studied the fact sheet retained very little
information about the Ivory Coast culture, whereas the
group that read the poem showed a capacity to empathize
with the personal history of the Ivory Coast people.
Research / Wright, David (2000)
. Measured two ways of teaching about German culture in a
beginning language course.
. One group (A) was taught following a constructivist,
process-oriented approach.
. The other group (B) was taught following a knowledgebased approach.
. Group A experienced more positive results on several
post-tasks that assessed their cultural sensibilities and
their cross-cultural adaptability.
=> “An information-acquisition approach to culture may lack
essential dimensions that help students to comprehend,
internalize, and feel comfortable with [certain] social demands.”
Some Useful Techniques
* Mini-lectures about a cultural aspect of the target culture
(in L2, if possible)
* Study authentic materials: photos, pictures of ads,
songs, video-clips, food items, red envelopes, films,
movie-trailers, newspaper articles, magazines, slides,
postcards, etc.
* Extension of TPR: Students act out some culture-related
instructions given by the teacher (cf. table manners).
* Use of music/songs and dances
* Creation of bulletin boards and collages
Some Useful Techniques (cont’d)
* Use of mini dramas/mini skits: Students create and
perform a skit related to a specific cultural theme or
situations (e.g., role plays, journalistic interviews, TV
news reports, case studies, etc.)
* Cultural assimilator:
1) Give/read students a short passage demonstrating an
intercultural exchange where a misunderstanding occurs;
2) Offer four possible interpretations;
3) Get feedback from students on what they think and
why.
Some Useful Techniques (cont’d)
* Culture capsule: Briefly present one aspect of the
target culture (e.g., educational system) followed by a
discussion of the contrasts between target and first
cultures.
* Share your own experiences of the target culture (and
have students share theirs) using realia if possible (e.g.,
postcards, photos of trips, clothing, souvenirs, etc.)
* Turn students into cultural detectives with culturerelated research projects (e.g., present a region of China, a
Chinese writer/painter/singer/athlete, etc.); using libraries,
the Internet, community centers; they create maps,
timelines, posters; they make PPT slides, short movies, etc.
Some Useful Techniques (cont’d)
* Presentation of a critical incident:
1) Situation: some problems occur in the interactions
among people from different cultures (e.g., use a movie, a
dialogue)
2) Students analyze the situation and the reactions of all
people involved.
3) They then reflect on the cultural values represented, and
decide on a course of action.
* Study the language itself: use of proverbs, sayings,
metaphors, humor (e.g., cartoons, excerpts of comedies)
* Use of literary texts, poems, folklore
Some Useful Techniques (cont’d)
* Use of self-awareness techniques (in L2, if possible):
give students self-assessment questionnaires, sensitivity
exercises, a checklist of value orientations, etc.
-> very useful to check on students’ stereotypes and on
students’ awareness about their own culture.
* Use of cultoons: a cartoon or cartoon strip that depicts
some cultural aspects of the target culture; students must
find the cultural clues and interpret the social signals of
the target culture (e.g., select cartoons illustrating cultural
values; delete some words and let students imagine them).
Some Useful Techniques (cont’d)
* Invite native speakers as guests and have students
interact with them.
* Access the target culture available around you as much
as possible, outside class time: field trips to local special
events, visit to local community centers, write to epals/pen pals, set up Skype exchanges, get involved in
study abroad programs, etc.
* Etc.
An Interesting Project
Cultura / M.I.T.: http://cultura.mit.edu
* “[…] more often than not we tend, in our language classes,
to focus our attention on developing our students' linguistic
skills and we spend rather limited time developing their
understanding of the "foreign" culture.”
* Cultura’s objectives :
. to help students develop their own understanding of the
values, attitudes, beliefs and concepts inherent in another
culture
. to understand how people in the target culture interact,
look at the world, and frame their thoughts and ideas.
An Interesting Project
Cultura / M.I.T.: http://cultura.mit.edu
* “Cultura supports a new methodology for learning
about another culture --a methodology which is not
based upon being "taught" what [the native culture
and the target culture] are like or which does not
reduce culture to a series of facts about the other
country.”
* “Developing understanding of another culture is a
process which involves a series of stages that take the
intercultural learner along a journey of discovery and
reflection.”
An Interesting Project
Cultura / M.I.T.: http://cultura.mit.edu
* In and outside of class, on their own and in groups,
students do the following tasks :
* Work on specific documents (e.g., answer
questionnaires and analyze the responses, research
national surveys, watch films, analyze ads, read articles)
* Come back to class and share their findings, and make
connections from one document to the other, thus
generating whole class discussions.
An Interesting Project
Cultura / M.I.T.: http://cultura.mit.edu
* Go onto on-line forums, post their comments, make
hypotheses, ask questions based on their individual
observations and the class discussions
* Come back to class with a selection of comments by
their peers abroad which are then shared and discussed.
* Go back to the website to explore other materials.
Conclusion: Building Bridges
* Articulate your own working definition of “culture” and
your goals for cultural instruction.
* Move away from the idea of “teaching culture
* Instead, think of it as “teaching for cultural awareness,”
“teaching for cultural understanding,” thus as helping
students to build bridges between C1 and C2, and
maybe find a “third space” (C3) in between (Kramsch).
* Don’t simply provide students with cultural facts or
products. Students really need to EXPERIENCE
aspects of the target culture for themselves => include
more learner-centered activities.
References
* See the list of useful references (Word document)
distributed to all participants