Culture of English Speaking Countries - Week 12 - Culture Learning Outcomes

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 12 of the course Culture of English Speaking Countries for the bachelor's in English teaching at ULACIT. This week you will talk about language and culture, identify culture learning outcomes, and discuss differences and similarities between family dynamics in the United States and Costa Rica. 

Today's Goals:

• Explore similarities and differences in the communication styles of Costa Ricans and Americans.
• Categorize culture learning outcomes in terms of what they involve, how they are achieved, and why they are significant.
• Compare family dynamics between US and Costa Rican culture.

Guiding Questions: 

• What differences in communication style exist between people of Costa Rica and the United States?
• What are the possible results of the culture learning process and which do I see as most relevant to my work as a language teacher?
• How is my culture represented in family dynamics and relationships?

Warm Up: Body Language

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

• Group Link: CLICK HERE

Task 1: 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

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: Group Presentations

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

Click to view full sized image.

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 link below to explore the what, how, and why of the six culture learning outcomes.

• Group Link: CLICK HERE

• Answer Key: CLICK HERE

Theory Break: 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? CLICK HERE to add to the culture teaching manifesto!

Task 4: Family Life in the USA

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

• Group Link: CLICK HERE

References:

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