Culture & SLA - Week 2 - The Cultural Experience

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 2 of the course Culture and Second Language Aquisition. In this class we discuss the challenges of defining culture and we explore three frameworks for understanding culture.

Todays's Goals:

• Contribute to a group definition of culture and compare it to Moran's definition.
• Use the 5 Dimensions of Culture framework to explore an aspect of everyday Costa Rican culture.
• Describe a memorable cultural experience you had using the Cultural Knowings Framework and the Experiential Learning cycle.

Task 1: Cultural Metaphors and Analogies

Moran uses the analogy of an iceberg to describe the complexities of culture. Discuss these questions with your partners and then click the link below.

• What is the significance of Moran's iceberg metaphor you read about?
• Do you think this is a good metaphor for culture? Why or why not?

• Group Document: CLICK HERE 

Task 2: Defining Culture

Culture is such a large concept that it can be difficult to define in a single sentence while still addressing its complexities. In this activity you will compare several definitions of culture and find what they have in common in order to synthesize those ideas in your own group definition. Click the link below and navigate to your group's tab. 

• Group Document: CLICK HERE

Theory Break: The Cultural Experience

• "As teachers, we have little difficulty listing cultural topics, but organizing them is another matter entirely. For good reasons. Culture is multifaceted and complex, and there is no consensus on what culture is (Moran, p. 13)."

• "As language teachers, our challenge is to bring some order to the apparent randomness of culture, both for ourselves and for the students in our classes, as a first step in making culture accessible (Moran, p. 13)."

• "Culture has many definitions... For the most part, these definitions present culture as an abstract entity that can be separated from the experience of participating in it. While they do help us understand the nature of culture, these definitions remain abstract, disconnected from the people who live in that culture, and more importantly, from the experience of participating in that culture (Moran, p. 13)."  

Task 3: Exploring the Cultural Knowings Framework

Moran's Cultural Knowings Framework can help us make sense of the complexities of the culture learning process. Open the document below and navigate to your group tab. Follow the instructions inside.

• Group Document: CLICK HERE

Theory Break: Cultural Knowings

• "The cultural knowings framework offers a means for describing culture in terms of what students need to do in order to learn it - their encounters with another way of life. Once these interactions are specified, the learning objectives follow, as do the choice of teaching and learning activities and the appropriate means of evaluation (Moran, p. 15)."

• "The cultural experience is highly personal, and therefore idiosynchratic. Individual learners need to understand themselves and their own culture as a means to comprehending, adapting to, or integrating into the [target] culture (Moran, p. 17)."

• "In the end, individual learners set the limits of knowing about, how, and why. They decide. For this reason, knowing oneself is the organizing diension of the cultural knowings. Learners' abilities to make such decisions depend on their awareness of themselves, their situation, and their intentions. The more aware they are, the more focused their work becomes in the acquisition of cultural information, skills, and understanding (Moran, p. 17)."

• "Seen in broad terms, culture consists of artifacts, actions, and meanings. The three components of culture - products, practices, perspectives - reflect a triangular concept. This view of culture is understandable and relatively easy to apply, with two important exceptions. Cultural artifacts, actions, and meanings do not exist apart from the people of the culture. People - alone and with others - make and use artifacts, carry out actions, and hold meanings. To capture the active role of people in their culture, I have added two dimensions to this definition: communities and persons (Moran, p. 23-24)."

• Reflection: What can you say about the products, practices, perspectives, communities, and persons of the Nacirema culture you read about last week?

Task 3: The 5 Dimensions of Culture

Let's explore the 5 Dimensions of Culture by using them to describe an aspect of Costa Rican culture.

Click your group link and follow the instructions in the document. 

• Group 1: CLICK HERE
• Group 2: CLICK HERE
• Group 3: CLICK HERE
• Group 4: CLICK HERE
• Group 5: CLICK HERE

Theory Break: Experiential Learning Cycle

Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle

• In terms of the stages of the cylce, concrete experience becomes participation, where the task is direct or indirect engagement in the culture, with an emphasis on knowing how. Reflective observation becomes description, with a focus on knowing about. Abstract conceptualization becomes interpretation, where learners concentrate on knowing why. Active experimentation becomes response, with an emphasis on self-awareness, knowing oneself (Moran, p. 19)."

• Reflection: Moran gives the example of a female college student from the US studying abroad in the Dominican Republic. What were some of her initial confusing experiences? How did she interpret them? How did she come to greater levels of self-awareness as she also learned the other knowings (about, how, and why)? 

• Task: Describe a time when you had an experience with another culture. Use the language of the experiential learning cycle and the Cultural Knowings framework to illustrate your learning process and your own reactions to it.

Suplementary Reading: Body Ritual among the Nacirema

Here you have the readings from class 1 in which we explored the the mysterious "Nacirema" culture. Nacirema is "American" spelled backward. These readings served as a humorous example a how lack of contextual understanding can lead us to view cultural practices as exotic. 

• Part 1: CLICK HERE
• Part 2: CLICK HERE
• Part 3: CLICK HERE

References:

Miner, H. (1956). Body Ritual Among the Nacirema. American Anthropologist. 58(3), 503-507. 

Moran, P. (2001). Teaching Culture: Perspectices in Practice. Heinle, Cengage Learning.