Welcome to my blog. I use it to share activities with my English students and with teachers in different training workshops. If you like what you see, why not leave a comment?
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 7 of the course English Grammar II. In this course we will cover an intensive survey of a variety of grammar topics. The purpose of this blog is to facilitate our synchronous class activities and to serve as a record that you can refer back to for study purposes.
Today's Goals:
Share a 7-10 minute oral presentation on a topic of your choice.
Lead your peers in a guided discussion related to the topic of your presentation.
Provide specific feedback for your peers on their oral presentations.
Oral Presentation: Let's hear from you!
Share your graphic organizer, table, or editable document with your teacher and peers and deliver your oral presentation. Remember you have 7-10 minutes for this part.
Group Discussion: Let's talk more about that!
Now lead a 5-7 minute group discussion with your peers based on the prompts you created.
Peer Feedback: Let's hear from your classmates!
Use the Envelope Model below to provide feedback on your partners' oral presentation.
Grammar II - Week 6 - Modals: Ability and Permission
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 6 of the course English Grammar II. In this course we will cover an intensive survey of a variety of grammar topics. The purpose of this blog is to facilitate our synchronous class activities and to serve as a record that you can refer back to for study purposes.
Today's Goals:
Collaborate with your partners to complete a grammar study guide document explaining the main features of can, could, and may for ability and permission.
Complete some grammar practice exercises to clarify your understanding of these structures.
Use expressions of ability to describe a modern superhero.
Community Builder: Would Your Rather...
Spin the wheel and make a choice. Compare your choice with your partners.
Grammar Expansion: Modals: Ability and Permission
Click on your group link below and comple the exercises to review the grammar points for this week.
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 6 of the course Culture and Second Language Aquisition. In this class we discuss Moran's framework for articulating the learning outcomes you seek to achieve when teaching culture and we begin to articulate our beliefs about our role as cultural educators.
Today's Goals:
Describe value orientations in Costa Rican culture and identify contrasting values.
Discuss appropriate culture learning goals for different contexts.
Articulate several core beliefs about how you see yourself as a cultural educator.
Collaborate with your partners to brainstorm potential topics to explore in your Moxie paper.
Guiding Questions:
How do economic and socio-historical factors influence cultural values of countries?
How can I articulate and classify the aims of culture learning?
How do I view myself as a cultural educator?
Task 1: Contrasting Values
Last week we studied Hofstede's 6 Dimensions of Culture that allow us to explore contrasting value orientations at a national level. Click your group link below and classify the values of Costa Rica in general and match them with their contrasting value pairs. When you finish, go on to pages two and three and discuss the prompts.
Moran identifies four categories of cultural perspectives (perceptions, beliefs, values, and attitudes) which he organizes in a continuum from tacit to explict. The most explicit category of perspectives are attitudes which are "visibly manifested in practices (p. 77)." On the far end of the spectrum are perceptions, the least visible category of perspectives.
Perceptions: What we perceive, what we ignore; what we notice or disregard
Beliefs: What we hold to be true or untrue
Values: What we hold to be right/wrong, good/evil, desirable/undesirable, proper/improper, normal/abnormal, appropriate
Attitudes: Our mental and affective dispositions - our frame of mind, our outlook - charged with feeling or emotion
Task 2: World Values Survey
The World Values Survey is a massive international research project that began in 1981. It consists of an extensive survey of the value orientations of individuals around the world in order to produce country level results. The survey seeks to contrast countries on two separate value dimensions or scales.
Traditional Values vs Rational-Secular Values (y axis)
Survival Values vs Self-Expression Values (x axis)
This allows the researchers to place countries in a coordinate system which creates a visual way to easily compare, contrast, and group different countries. Also, by comparing survey results of different years, researchers can chart how the values of a specific country change over time.
Click your assigned link below. Read the information with your partners and discussion the questions at the end. Be prepared to share your ideas when you return to the main room.
Instructions: Click the picture to view the full resolution image and discuss the questions below.
Explore the map, which countries can you find at the extremes of each value dimension (axis)?
What catches your attention about the way the countries cluster by geographic and socio-historical cultural regions?
Where do you think Costa Rica would fall on this map? (WVS plans to include CR in the next value survey.)
Now watch the video that shows how these cultural areas have shifted over the last 40 years through different maps that have been created based on the survey results since it began in 1981. Discuss the questions below the video.
Do you notice any general trends among the countries in the Latin American region?
Watch the video again. This time focus your attention on France. How does this country's values orientation shift through the decades?
Watch the video again. This time focus your attention on Mexico. How does this country's values orientation shift through the decades? What might explain this variation?
Task 3: Culture Learning Outcomes
Your reading this week focuses on the topic of culture learning outcomes; the different possible results of the culture learning process. Moran provides us with a useful way of classifying these outcomes which can help us choose a particular way of focusing our teaching efforts depending on our context. Click the group worksheet link below to explore the what, how, and why of the six culture learning outcomes.
“To generalize … across all these culture learning outcomes, I would say that all intend that learners confront, comprehend, accept, and overcome cultural differences. This process involves an interplay of mind, body, heart, and self - or, in technical terms, cognition, behavior, affect, and identity. As part of mastering the language, learners need to change the way they think, act, feel, and perceive themselves and their roles if they are to function effectively and appropriately in the other culture (p. 119).”
The particular culture learning outcomes you seek for your students will inform the focus you give your lessons and the model of culture teaching you develop. Moran says, “the key distinction among [culture teaching]... models lies with differing notions of ‘overcoming’ cultural differences. These range from simply changing one’s mind or feelings about a given culture (culture-specific understanding) through recognizing how one’s own culture affects acceptance of other cultures (culture-general understanding), learning to communicate appropriately in a second language/culture (competence), integrating oneself into another language and culture (adaptation), developing a distinct sense of self (identity), to taking action to transform a culture based on one’s own beliefs (social change). Ultimately, the individual learner decides how to respond and develops skills as a culture learner (personal competence) (p. 119).
Which of these outcomes resonate with you and the way you view yourself as a cultural educator?
What beliefs about culture form part of your learning philosophy that guides your approach to teaching?
Task 4: Moxie Peer Brainstorming
For homework you completed a brainstorming worksheet based on free-writing tasks and brief internet searches. Through this, you were able to identify 2-3 core ideas that you may want to explore in your Moxie paper. Take a moment to share the ideas you have with your partners. Give each other feedback and make suggestions of related concepts or ideas that your partners may want to consider including in their final paper. Take note of your partners' suggestions for you so that you do not forget.
Guiding Question: Is your teaching purpose aligned with prevailing social and cultural values of the 21st Century?
Moxie Resource: Webinar
Since your Moxie umbrella topic requires you to explore your teaching purpose and the degree to which it is in alignment with modern cultural values, you will have to reflect on your deeply held beliefs about teaching and learning. This webinar by Dr. Neil J. Anderson from the 2021 National Conference for Teachers of English Costa Rica provides a practical workshop to identify and articulate your learning philosophy statement, another way of saying your teaching purpose. I hope you will find this to be a useful resource.
References:
Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014
Moran, P. (2001). Teaching Culture: Perspectices in Practice. Heinle, Cengage Learning.
World Values Survey Association. (2020). Findings and Insights. World Values Survey.
Answer these questions with your partners. Click play on the timer and speak for 10 minutes.
Where do you live?
Do you like your city and neighborhood? Why or why not?
What businesses can you find in your neighborhood?
What activities can you do for fun?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in the following places?
In the center of a big city
In a neighborhood on the edge (las afueras) of the city?
In a small town.
In a rural place.
Choose cities, towns, or places to live in Costa Rica and discuss how they are similar and different.
Size
Population
Weather
Jobs and Economy
Activities and Attractions
Activity 2: Fantastic Hotels
Read the information about the hotels below. How are the different? Which one do you like the best? Why?
Poseidon Undersea Resort
Location: Fiji
Size: 10 rooms.
Average Temperature: 30 degrees.
Description: This is the first underwater hotel in the world. The walls are glass so you can see fish swimming around your room. It has large bedrooms, a restaurant with fresh seafood, and a spa.
Activities: You can rent mini-submarines to explore the ocean around the hotel. There are scuba excursions and also fishing tours.
Nightlife: You can do a night tour of the reef (arrecife) in one of the submarines.
Price: $10,000 to $15,000 per night.
Emirates Palace Hotel
Location: Dubai
Size: 300 rooms.
Average Temperature: 38 degrees.
Description: This is one of the most exclusive and luxurious hotels in the world. It has a private beach, a marina for boats, and even a small airport planes and helicopters. There are 5 restaurants with different types of food. There is even an ATM (cajero automatico) that dispenses gold!
Activities: You can go on shopping tours to different malls near the hotel. There is a golf course and tennis courts. You can go fishing or water skiing.
Nightlife: There are 3 casinos in the hotel and 2 discos if you like to dance.
Price: $5,000 to $9,000 per night.
Ice Palace
Location: Sweden
Size: 25 rooms.
Average Temperature: -3 degrees.
Description: This unique hotel is made entirely of ice! The walls, the floor, the ceiling, the chairs, and even the bed are made of ice. The hotel is only open during the winter. The ice palace is cold but people receive free jackets, boots, and hats and there are many warm blankets on the beds.
Activities: You can go skiing or snowboarding. There are hikes in the forest. You can also take lessons to learn how to make ice sculptures.
Nightlife: You can spend the night drinking in the Ice Bar where all the drinks are cold because they are served in glasses made of ice.
Price: $3,500 to $4,000 per night.
Activity 3: Create your 5 star hotel proposal!
Click your group link and follow the instructions.
Grammar II - Week 5 - There is, There are, Possessive
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 5 of the course English Grammar II. In this course we will cover an intensive survey of a variety of grammar topics. The purpose of this blog is to facilitate our synchronous class activities and to serve as a record that you can refer back to for study purposes.
Today's Goals:
Collaborate with your partners to complete a grammar study guide document explaining the main features of there is, there are, and possessives.
Complete some grammar practice exercises to clarify your understanding of these structures.
Use there is and there are to ask questions a public place.
Community Builder: Yes, and..., Yes, but...
In this warm up game we will take turns adding to a conversation about a particular prompt. One student makes a suggestion and then everybody who adds to the suggestion needs to begin their response with "Yes, and..."
The perfect vacation
A new movie idea
What to eat for dinner
Grammar Expansion: There Is, There Are, and Possessives
Click on your group link below and comple the exercises to review the grammar points for this week.
Click the link and draw two items. One items should be something that you use everyday. The other drawing should be a special item that is important to you. DO NOT worry about your artistic skill. In fact, it is even better if you are bad at drawing on the computer.
Culture & SLA - Week 5 - More on Cultural Perspectives
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 5 of the course Culture and Second Language Aquisition. In this class we discuss more ideas related to cultural perspectives including Hofstede's dimensions of culture, cultures in conflict, and the creation of a national cultural identity.
Today's Goals:
Explore how our various social institutions contribute to the creation of a national culture.
Use Hofstede's 6 Cultural Dimensions to analyze the culture of Costa Rica at a national level.
Comment on the cultural perspectives from last week's reading.
Guiding Questions:
How do social institutions contribute to the creation of a national cultural identity?
How can Hofstede's Dimensions provide additional insight into the nature of culture?
Extra: Folk Remedies Part 2
Last week we began by exploring cultural practices and persepctives about health by idenitfying traditional folk remedies for common ailments. Since many of you brought up ideas related to "pega", I was curious to learn if there were perspectives and practices in other countries in Latin America. I asked a friend from Guatemala and Dominican Republic and here is what they told me.
As you listen, identify similarities and differences between the products, practices, persons, and perspectives.
Task 1: Semantic Map: School Operations, Acts, and Scenarios
School is a cultural product, specifically, a place and institution, that serves as the location for many cultural practices. Create a semantic map of different cultural practices associated with school. For our purposes, please focus your map on primary school.
Operations: Manipulation fo cultural products by individual members of the culture
Acts: Ritualized communicative practices involving other people
Scenarios: Extended communicative practices that involve a series of interactions, including operations and acts. They follow an expected sequence of practices within a particular settings and social circumstances.
“It boils down to this: Culture perspectives depend on your point of view. Given shifting points of view, how can langauge teachers hope to offer accurate descriptions of cultural perspectives (Moran, p. 83)?"
"The working solution I propose is to present alternative vewpoints as part of knowing why, or discovering interpretations. In simple terms, these can be defined respectively as culture as a unified whole culture as distinct communities, and culture as competing communities (p 84)."
Functionalist: Takes the broad view of culture, most often at the national level, using the nation as the focal point.
Interpretive: Does not address the notion of a national culture community. All culture, in the interpretive view, is local.
Conflict: Accepts that each community has its own perspectives but does not assume harmonious relationships among them, rather, they are in competition, struggling for influence, power, or control over the core institutions of society.
Task 2: Schools as Acculturation Institutions
Institutions like school are cultural products. However, they are very special products because they serve the purpose of promoting cultural practices and perspectives and they help to create a shared sense of national cultural identity. Watch this video clip documenting some of the daily routines in a typical elementary school in Japan and answer the questions below.
What were some of the routines?
What was similar and different to your own elementary school experience?
How do these practices give you insight into Japanese cultural perspecitves (perceptions, beliefs, values, attitudes)?
How do practices in Costa Rican elementary schools promote cultural perspectives and contribute to a shared sense of national identity?
Morning Routine in the US
Variations by School and Region
Task 3: Cultural Perspectives: Insights from National Symbols
Symbols of national culture can give insights about broad underlying cultural perspectives. These are examples of emic perspectives, ways that insiders in the culture view themselves. Let's take a moment to analyze cultural imagery connected to values, beliefs, and attitudes from the national anthems of the United States and Costa Rica.
“In the 1970’s (Hofstede) ... got access to a large survey database about values and related sentiments of people in over 50 countries around the world. These people worked in the local subsidiaries of one large multinational corporation: IBM (Hofstede, p. 6)."
"The database contained more than 100,000 questionnaires. Initial analyses of the database at the level of individual respondents proved confusing, but a breakthrough occurred when the focus was directed at correlations between mean scores of survey items at the level of countries. Patterns of correlation at the country level could be strikingly different from what was found at the individual level (p. 6)."
Hofstede began noticing trends among members of certain countries when he controled for different demographic variables leading him to discover and describe 6 cultural dimensions which function like scales. Countries can fall somewhere on each scale between two extreme perspectives. Hofstede is emphatic that this model should only be used to describe cultures at the national level based on statistical trends in large data sets. There are considerable variations at the individual level when it comes to cultural perspectives.
Task 3: Charting Costa Rica's Dimensions
Click the link below and go to your group tab. Organize the table for your assigned dimension and discuss how this relates to Costa Rica at a national level.
Cultural perspectives are hard to describe because certain generalizations must be made that cannot take into account the differences in perspectives at an individual level. You read a book chapter analyzing cultural perspectives in Costa Rica. Let's wrap up the class by sharing your reactions to it.
Reaction: What are your immediate reactions to what you read? To what degree did the authors get it right? What did they miss? What did they overgeneralize or inaccurately describe or interpret?
Analysis: Can you use Moran’s framework of cultural perspectives (described on page 77 of Chapter 7) to identify specific examples of perceptions, beliefs, values, and attitudes present in the reading or additional ones that you can identify in Costa Rican culture?
Response: The perspectives presented in this reading represent generalizations of Costa Rican cultural perspectives from a national level. However, there is always considerable variation in perspectives among individual members of the culture. In what ways do the perspectives presented in the article match your own perspectives? To what degree? In what ways do they not match your own perspectives?
References:
Hiltunen Biesanz, M., Biesanz, R., Zubris Biesanz, K. (1999). The Ticos: Culture and Social Change in Costa Rica. Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014
Moran, P. (2001). Teaching Culture: Perspectices in Practice. Heinle, Cengage Learning.
