Culture & SLA - Week 3 - Cultural Products

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 3 of the course Culture and Second Language Aquisition. In this class we discuss the products of culture, both tangible and intangible, and how they can serve as portals to the exploration of the other four cultural dimensions.

Today's Goals:

• Explore the practices, perspectives, communities, and persons associated with everyday Costa Rican cultural products.
• Create a culture map to examine the interaction between products, practices, and persons in physical space.
• Share a memorable cultural experience you had using the Cultural Knowings Framework and the Experiential Learning cycle.

Task 1: Future Archeology

Archeologists study the material culture (products) of past civilizations. With some cultures, there is a written record that helps researchers understand their associated practices and perspectives. However, in preliterate societies or ones whose writing system has not been decyphered, these associations must be infered. David Macaulay (1979) wrote a humorous book called Motel of the Mysteries to explore this topic. 

• Typical 21st Century North American: CLICK HERE 

Now, play the role of a future archeologist exploring the ancient ruins of the lost civilization of Ti-qui-cia. Choose several everyday cultural products that are common in Costa Rica. What would a future researcher infer about the practices and perspectives associated with it?

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

Task 2: Sharing Your Quotes

Your task this week was to read Chapter 5, select 3 quotes that were meaningful to you, and write a comment about each one. Take 10 minutes with your group members to explore your quotes. You will not have time to analyze each one so start with the most important ones first then move to the others. 

Quote Exploration:

• Read your quote.
• What does it mean to you?
• Why is it significant?
• What insight does it give you about the topic of culture?
• What do your partners think?

Theory Break: Cultural Products

• "Products, the visible dimension of culture, are the gateway to the new culture, the new way of life. They are the first things that greet our senses when we enter the culture, and the differences stand out (Moran, p. 48)."

• "Visible cultural products often appear discrete or isolated. However, if we look more closely at them, we see that they are almost always related to other cultural products, and that these collections of objects are ultimately linked to sets of cultural practices, set within specific communities, involving particular persons, and are carriers of meaning - cultural perspectives (Moran, p. 49)."

• Cultural products can be broken into four categories:

• Artifacts: "The things of the culture"
• Places: Places or physical settings
• Institutions: Social institutions to deal with "the business of living"
• Art Forms: "Reflect the esthetic outlook, sensibilities, and philosophy of the culture" (perspectives) CLICK HERE

Task 3: Artifacts as Portals to Other Cultural Dimensions

Since products are the most visible dimension of culture, they are often what we first notice when entering a new culture but we don't need to stop here. Since all products are associated with practices, persons, communities, and perspectives, they can serve as an entry point that helps us explore the rich details and connections under the surface. Return to the links in Task 1. Look at some of the cultural artifacts and explore the 5 Dimensions of Culture framework by responding to the prompts belo

• Product: What is it? Where do you find it?
• Practices: How do you use it? When?
• Persons: Which people use this?
• Communities: Which groups of people use this object?
• Perspectives: Why do people use this? What significance does it have in the culture?
• Additional Associations: If you have time, use the prompts below to guide your exploration of this cultural practices assocaited with this artifact even futher. Not all will be applicable.

• Making/creating
• Designing
• Decorating
• Buying
• Selling
• Trading
• Losing
• Using/operating
• Maintaining
• Storing
• Damaging
• Repairing
• Discarding
• Recovering 

Theory Break: Places

• "Man-made settings are populated with numerous artifacts, arranged in particular ways within the physical space. The organization, layout, or interpretation of this physical space is a critical feature of places, just as much as the artifacts and their arrangements in these places (Moran, p. 52)."
• Places are interesting cultural features to explore because of the reasons mentioned in the quote and also because it is within places that different cultural practices are carried out by communities and specific persons.

Task 4: Culture Mapping

Let's explore the topic of places in greater detail by drawing a culture map. Choose a public place that you are familiar with and draw a map of it from a top-down perspective. Be as detailed as you can and include the cultural artifacts in their locations. If your drawing skills are not great, just use simple shapes and symbols. 

Suggested Places: You can choose any public place but be sure it is a specific real place that you visit.

• Your hair salon / barbershop
• Pulperia in your neighborhood
• Soda/restaurant you are familiar with

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

Exploring the Culture Maps: Now share your maps with your partners and explain the following aspects.

• Where is this place located within your city or neighborhood?
• Describe the physical layout of the place and the artifacts found there.
• What is the significance of the location of the artifacts?
• What are the "hot spots", the points in the map where actions occur?
• What can you say about the products, practices, perspectives, communities, and persons associated with this place?

Task 5: Your Cultural Learning Experience

 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. Paraphrase what your wrote for the assignment this week. 

References:

Macaulay, D. (1979). Motel of the Mysteries. Scholastic Inc. 

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