Culture of English Speaking Countries - Week 10 - Exploring Folktales

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 109 of the course Culture of English Speaking Countries for the bachelor's in English teaching at ULACIT. This week you will share your folktale analysis presentations and we will also discuss the connection between language and culture. 

Today's Goals:

• Share your folktale analysis presentations to demonstrate how they can be used to study cultural products, practices, and perspectives.
• Discuss differences in communication patterns between people from Costa Rica and the United States.

Guiding Questions: 

• What aspects of culture embodied in folktales?
• How are cultural aspects present in language?
• What differences in communication style exist between Costa Rica and the United States?

Warm Up: ¿Qué es la Guanacastequidad?

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

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

Task 1: Group Presentations

Let's hear your presentations and take some time to give feedback to your partners.

Click to view full sized image.

Theory Break: Language and Culture

• Language and Culture: “In the culture, the language is literally everywhere. Anyone immersed in the culture sees and hears the language all around. In this context, language and culture are clearly fused; one reflects the other (Moran, p. 35).”

• “Language is a product of the culture, as any other, but it also plays a distinct role. Members of the culture have created the language to carry out all their cultural practices, to identify and organize all their cultural products, and to name the underlying cultural perspectives in all the various communities that comprise their culture (p. 35).”

• “The words of the language, it's expressions, structures, sounds, and scripts reflect the culture, just as the cultural products and practices reflect the language. Language, therefore, is a window to the culture. The fact that tu and vous exist in French (tu/vos and usted in Spanish), for example, tells us that French speakers need this distinction in their culture. They need it in order to establish rolls and maintain relationships with other French speakers, which is crucial to enacting their cultural practices (p. 35).”

• Language and Cultural Dimensions: “The folgowing list summarizes how language appears in the five dimensions of culture.

• Products: the language used to describe and manipulate cultural products
• Practices: the language used to participate in cultural practices
• Perspectives: the language used to identify, explain, and justify cultural perspectives
• Communities: language use to participate appropriately and specific cultural communities
• Persons: the language individuals use to express their unique identity within the culture (p. 36)”

• Language and Culture Teaching/Learning: "It is the language of the classroom, where culture is the topic and language that means to comprehend, analyze, and respond to it. To achieve this, four language functions are needed.

• Participation - knowing how: the language used to participate in the cultural experience
• Description - knowing about: the language used to describe the cultural experience
• Interpretation - knowing why: the language used to identify, explained, and Justified cultural perspectives and to compare and contrast the ease with perspectives from the individual's own culture and other cultures
• Respond - knowing oneself: the language individuals used to express their thoughts, feelings, questions, decisions, strategies, and plans regarding the cultural experience (p. 39)”

Task 2: Differences in Communication Styles

Click the link below and discuss the prompts related to the reading you had this week for your Culture Learning Journal.

• Group Link: CLICK HERE

Task 3: Exploring the Components of Identity

Koester and Lustig (X) say that an identity is formed from the combination of cultural, social, and personal factors. Click your group worksheet to explore this topic further.

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

References:

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