'The Geography of Thought – Richard Nisbett (2003)

Grouping by… Category membership vs. Relationships

Judgments of similarity based on Family resemblance vs. Rule-based category

Family resemblance a philosophical idea proposed by Ludwig Wittgenstein in the book Philosophical Investigations (1953) Things which may be thought to be connected by one essential common feature may in fact be connected by a series of overlapping similarities, where no one feature is common to all. Not to check if it has this or that property according to the definition, but see if it might fit into an array.

Focus Questions What is culture? Do you think cultural awareness and understanding are essential for language teachers? Why? Do you think non-verbal communication such as eye contact, touch, body distance, paralanguage, or interactional skills such as turn-taking rules should be included in language learning?

The concept of culture

It is the frame work though which we understand and interpret the world around us, in that it provides the context for a group of people to understand and interpret the world around them A set of shared beliefs, norms and attitudes that are used to guide the behaviors of a group of people, to explain the world around them, and to solve their problems

“Knowledge of the grammatical system of a language has to be complemented by understanding of culture-specific meanings” (Byram & Morgan 1994, p.4). Q: Any examples?

Q: What do the following pictures tell you?

Q: What is “enculturation”. Q: How do people experience this process Q: What is “enculturation”? Q: How do people experience this process? Q: How does it affect the cultural lenses for seeing the world around us?

Enculturation is the process of learning about the customs, conventions, and practices of one’s society. It entails learning relevant cultural patterns through interactions with people in social environments and mass media. Through the enculturation process, members of different cultural groups interpret events differently.

We interpret the world not the way it necessarily is but the way we ourselves are.

Each culture has “hidden codes” of behavior that , when the culture is viewed from the outside, can rarely be understood without a “code breaker” (Hall & Hall, 1989) Q: Any examples?

Q: What is the difference between Culture and culture (Bennett 1998)?

Culture or culture?

Culture (objective/highbrow culture) art, literature, drama, music, cuisine associated with money, education, political or economic systems culture (subjective culture) day-to-day features. Psychological in nature, involving people’s attitudes, beliefs and values choice of discourse, style of dress, in-group/out-group networks, norms of interactions

Q:Are cultures homogeneous or heterogeneous?

Q: What is the difference between emics and etics (Pike 1954)?

An "emic" account A description of behavior or a belief in terms meaningful to the actor; that is, an emic account comes from a person within the culture. Almost anything from within a culture can provide an emic account. An "etic" account A description of a behavior or belief by an observer, in terms that can be applied to other cultures; that is, an etic account is 'culturally neutral'.

Emics Etics Culture specific Studies from within the system-one culture at a time Etics Cultural universal Studies of more than one culture with position outside the system To understand what elements hold true across all cultures and times

Elements of culture Cultural beliefs---an individual’s convictions about the world Values---ideals or abstract standards Norms Formal norms(Mores) govern culturally and socially sanctioned behavior Informal norms (folkways) are culturally and socially preferred ways of doing things Taboos--- a subset of mores Attitudes--emotional reactions to the world

Emics or Etics ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nem0bkErGVY 1:33 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUTMY7tY8Qk   6:37 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Epy6JvHzUE

Q: What is linguistic relativity? (p.23). Provide an example.

Linguistic Relativity (Sapir-Whorf hypothesis) Differences in the way languages encode cultural and cognitive categories affect the way people think, so that speakers of different languages think and behave differently because of it.

Categorization Rice 쌀 밥 조카 nephew Niece 음식 약 먹다 / eat 먹다 /take