Teaching Culture in Context: Experiences from the Tajiki Language Classroom Presenters : Christopher W. Lemelin Foreign Service Institute/School of Language Studies Karim Khodjibaev Foreign Service Institute/School of Language Studies

Teaching Culture in Context: Some Background from Different Pond, Different Fish, no. 10 (March 2004)

What do we (at FSI/SLS) mean when we say culture? Subjective culture BBV culture (Behaviors, Beliefs, Values) “Practices” (Standard 2.1 of Standards for FL Learning) Foreign Service Institute / School of Language Studies Big-C Culture vs. little-c culture Objective culture MLA culture (Music, Literature, Arts) “Products” (Standard 2.2 of Standards for FL Learning) Foreign Service Institute / School of Professional and Area Studies

Seelye’s Seven Goals of Cultural Instruction The Sense of Culturally Conditioned Behavior The Interaction of Language and Social Variables Conventional Behavior in Common Situations Cultural Connotations of Words and Phrases Evaluating Statements about a Society Researching Another Culture Attitudes toward Other Cultures H. Ned Seelye, Teaching Culture (Chicago, IL: National Textbook Company, 1984)

Galloway’s Convention Clusters Function-determined conventions vs. Context-determined conventions

Stages of a Student’s Cultural Proficiency (adapted from Bennett, Durocher)

Methods suggested by Omaggio Hadley Mini-lecture Native Informants Audio materials – interviews, dialogs Video materials – dialogs, staged encounters, film, YouTube Role play Alice Omaggio Hadley, Teaching Language in Context (Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle, 1993)

Integration strategies suggested by Lafayette (some things to keep in mind) Plan cultural activities and integrate them into lesson (don’t teach culture “on-the-fly”) Use target language for cultural learning (don’t separate culture learning from language learning) Use grammar content with cultural context (use appropriate cultural topic as basis for language practice) Teach vocabulary around a cultural context (use cultural clusters of words, teach connotative meanings) Use experiential learning (not “facts only”) (encourage student curiosity, don’t just say—do it this way) Robert Lafayette, “Integrating the Teaching of Culture into the FL Classroom” (NECTFL, 1988)