Culture of English Speaking Countries - Week 8 - Cultural Communities

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 8 of the course Culture of English Speaking Countries for the bachelor's in English teaching at ULACIT. This week we will discuss new topics related to cultural communities, racial and ethnic diversity in the US, and also review the instructions for your upcoming folktale analysis presentation.

Today's Goals:

• Analyze an American folktale to identify products, practices, and perspectives.
• Identify our broad and narrow cultural community affiliations and requirements for membership.
• Discuss the intereactions between different ethnic and racial communities in the US.

Guiding Questions: 

• What cultural elements do folktales transmit?
• How does the consideration of cultural communities add complexity to the analysis of regional or national culture?
• How do racial and ethnic communities within US and Costa Rican culture relate to each other?

Warm Up: A Hero

Click the group link below and follow your teacher's instructions. 

• Group Link: CLICK HERE

Task 1: Folktale Analysis Presentation Demo

Now you will participate in a demonstration presentation about a popular folktale from the United States. This will serve as an example of what you are expected to do in your group presentation on March 25th. 

• Folk Song: Click your group link below and follow the instructions.

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

• Assignment Guidelines: CLICK HERE

• Evaluation Rubric: CLICK HERE and find your group section in the document. Evaluate your teacher's performance using the criteria. This is the same rubric that will be used to evaluate your work.

Theory Break: Whose Perspective?

• “Understanding perspectives, in my opinion, represents the most challenging aspect of teaching culture. The task, simply put, is to identify the perceptions, values, beliefs, and attitudes of the culture. However, culture consists of numerous communities, all coexisting under the same umbrella of national culture…some of them are in opposition – sometimes in open conflict… Given shifting points of view, how can language teachers hope to offer accurate explanations of cultural perspectives (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.

Theory Break: Cultural Communities

• Communities: "Communities consist of the specific groups of the culture in which members, through different kinds of interpersonal relationships, carry out practices in specific social and physical settings (Moran, 2000, p. 90)."

• Broad: Communities can be large and general.
• Nation
• Language
• Gender
• Race
• Religion
• Socioeconomic Class
• Region
• Generation

• Narrow: Communities can be much more specific.
• Workplace
• Neighborhood
• School Association
• Local Political Party
• Religious Social Club
• Sports Team
• Charity Organization
• Co-workers
• Family

• Communities and Social Institutions: "At the broadest level, the social institutions of the culture define communities and accompanying practices for everyone within the borders of the national culture. Economic, political, educational, health, and other institutions exist for members of the national culture as a whole. Accordingly, these institutions establish and maintain many practices that members of the culture need to enact in order to go about a large part of their daily lives (p. 91)."

• Community Dominance: "The social institutions of the culture and its systems tend to reflect the dominant cultural communities, that is, those groups that have the most influence (p. 91)."

• Co-Existing Communities: "Co-existing communities, in other words, are in relationship with one another in the national culture. They may be physically isolated from one another, or they may exist next to one another but be separate, with no interaction between them. They may have a harmonious collaborative relationship or they may oppose one another, possibly in open conflict (p. 93)."

• Terminology: The relationship between different cultural communites has been described using these terms: 

• Microcultures inside a Macroculture

• Co-Cultures inside a Dominant Culture

• The Macroculture or Dominant Culture can also be referred to as:

• Mainstream Culture
• Umbrella Culture
• Core Culture

• Discourses:"Linguist James Gee calls these communities Discourses as a way of emphasizing the social practices they carry out: ways of behaving, interacting, valuing, thinking, believing, speaking, and often reading and writing. Gee contentds that individuals are members of many Discourses and that each one calls for a distinct set of practices for membership, what he calls an identity kit (p. 93)."

• Interpersonal Relationships: “Communities, therefore, in physical settings and social circumstances, form a basis for relationships in the culture. The kinds of relationships that members of the culture establish and maintain are connected to the kinds of communities in which members participate. Communities exist for a wide variety of purposes and they use certain practices to achieve their respective ends, which in turn affect the kinds of relationships that are possible or expected.”

• "The important point here is that relationships are practiced according to the cultural perspectives that underlie practices in these communities. Strangers, acquaintances, friends, romantic partners, rivals, enemies, family members, and group based relationships are all defined accordingly. In simple terms, you relate to people according to the norms, the unwritten rules, of that particular community (p. 93)."

Task 2: My Community Memberships

Click the group link below and follow your teacher's instructions to explore some of your community memberships.

• Group Link: CLICK HERE

Task 3: Ethnic and Racial Diversity in the US

For your journal this week you read an article about ethnic and racial diversity in the US. For better or worse, in the US, cultural communities are often connected to one's ethnic or racial background. Click the group link below and follow the instructions. 

• Group Link: CLICK HERE

Task 4: 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

References:

Kearny, M., Crandall, J., & Kearny, E. (2005). American Ways: An Introduction to American Culture (3rd ed.) Pearson Education, Inc.

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