Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook

Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Saturday, March 29 2008

Jutta Schmiers-Heller and Annie Falk js2331@columbia.edu & aef61@columbia.edu

03/29/08 Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook

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Overview

Some Theoretical Aspects of Teaching Culture

By the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook: Samples

Questions and Discussion

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Some Theoretical Aspects of Teaching Culture -The 5 C’s of Foreign Language Education

[From: images.google.com]

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The 5 C’s of Foreign Language Education

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Some Theoretical Aspects of Teaching Culture -The 5 C’s of Foreign Language Education cont.

‘Cultures’ is one of the 5 C’s in the Standards for Foreign Language Learning (see: www.actfl.org)

“Cultures” is defined as follows in the National Standards:

Gain Knowledge and Understanding of Other Cultures– Standard 2.1: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between

the practices and perspectives of the culture studied– Standard 2.2: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between

the products and perspectives of the culture studied(Shrum/Glisan, 2005)

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Some Theoretical Aspects of Teaching Culture: The Culture Paradigm (Shrum/Glisan, 2005)

PERSPECTIVES(Meanings, attitudes, values, ideas)

PRACTICES(Patterns of social interactions)

PRODUCTS(Books, tools, foods, laws, music, games)

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Some Theoretical Aspects of Teaching Culture -The 5 C’s of Foreign Language Education cont.

All C’s are interconnected and you can find the other 4 C’s in the Cultures C.

Examples:» Connections:“Connections enable students to further their

knowledge of other disciplines, acquire new information, and recognize the distinctive viewpoints that are available only through the foreign language and its cultures.” (Shrum/Glisan 2005)

» Comparisons:“Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own.” (Shrum/Glisan 2005)

Together these elements will lead to: “Knowing how, when and why to say what to whom.” (http://www.actfl.org/files/public/execsumm.pdf)

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The Presentation of Culture

“Big C” vs. “little C” Culture• Big C: formal culture - arts, literature, music, history• Small c: daily life culture - anthropological and sociological aspects (e.g.:

social behavior, beliefs, housing, food, and transportation)(Brooks, 1975)

Four Common Approaches to Teaching Culture:• The Frankenstein Approach: a taco from here, a flamenco dancer from there, a

gaucho from here, etc.• The 4-F Approach: folk dances, festivals, fairs, food• The Tour Guide Approach: identification of monuments, rivers, and cities• The “By-the-Way” Approach: sporadic lectures or bits of behavior selected

indiscriminately to emphasize sharp differences(Galloway, 1985)

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The Presentation of Culture - Issues

Culture has been traditionally treated in the classroom by giving facts and information.

Information acquisition approach Making culture an integral part of the classroom is a challenging

task for teachers.– We often feel that we don’t have time for culture.– Teachers do not always have sufficient cultural experiences

themselves and find it difficult to integrate them into the linguistic part of the language class.

Learners do not always understand the relationship between language and culture.

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The Process-Oriented vs. the Information-Acquisition Approach

The latter: cultural information is presented by the teacher.

The former: – based on the cultural paradigm which includes

practices, products, and perspectives as outlined in the standards (slide 6)

– allows students to learn about culture, by constructing their own views of culture through social interaction and interpersonal communication => constructivist approach(Shrum/Glisan, 2005)

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Basic Structure of Any Activity

Basic Structure:– Warm-up/Introduction– Modeling/Presentation of New Material– Meaningful Activity/Activities– Wrap-up

Other Considerations:– Contextualization– Varying of Activities– Transitions between Activities– Keeping the Pace (5-15 minutes)(Omaggio Hadley, 2001)

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By the Book and Beyond – Where is the culture in my book?

Culture can be found in different ways:– as part of the presentation of material by the

teacher– in various parts of the book (vocabulary,

dialogs, reading passages, pictures, etc.)– presented in special boxes labeled ‘Culture’

(can be used in a concrete way or as inspiration)

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Some Sources for Taking You beyond the Textbook Your colleagues Websites [with a fairly simple surface structure – see WG/

Kafka/dating/ greeting cards/ restaurant menus/ hotels/ train, bus, movie schedules/ shopping websites (IKEA, clothing)/ university sites and course catalogs, etc.]

Samples: – WG: www.wggesucht.de; – Kafka: http://www.kafka.uni-bonn.de/cgi-bin/kafka?

Rubrik=biographie&Punkt=genealogie or http://www.franzkafka.de/franzkafka/home/ ;

– Dating: www.yahoo.de (click on dating); – Reisen: http://www.bahn.de, http://www.hbf-berlin.de

Songs (itunes, youtube), video, podcasts (www.dwelle.de; http://podster.de/; or google)

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References

Brooks, N. (1785). The Analysis of language and familiar cultures. In R.C. Lafayette (Ed.), The cultural revolution (pp. 19-31). Reports on the Central States Conference on Foreign Language Education. Lincolnwood. IL:NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group.

Galloway, V.B. (1985). A design for the improvement of the teaching of culture in foreign language classrooms. ACTFL project proposal. Yonkers, NY:American Concil on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

http://images.google.com http://www.actfl.org/files/public/execsumm.pdf Omaggio Hadley, A. (2001). Teaching Language in Context. Boston :

Heinle & Heinle. Shrum, J. & Glisan, E. (2005). Teacher’s Handbook: Contextualized

Language Instruction. Boston : Heinle & Heinle.

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By the Book and Beyond -Examples

Family The German ‘WG’ Transportation/Environment Fairy Tales: Biermann Health/Sickness

– Worksheet

– Text