1. Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook
Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
Saturday, March
Jutta Schmiers-Heller and Annie Falk
&

2. Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook
Overview
Some Theoretical Aspects of Teaching Culture
By the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook: Samples
Questions and Discussion
03/29/08
Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook

3. Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook
Some Theoretical Aspects of Teaching Culture - The 5 C’s of Foreign Language Education
[From: images.google.com]
03/29/08
Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook

4. The 5 C’s of Foreign Language Education
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Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook

5. Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook
Some Theoretical Aspects of Teaching Culture - The 5 C’s of Foreign Language Education cont.
‘Cultures’ is one of the 5 C’s in the Standards for Foreign Language Learning (see:
“Cultures” is defined as follows in the National Standards:
Gain Knowledge and Understanding of Other Cultures
Standard 2.1: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied
Standard 2.2: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the products and perspectives of the culture studied
(Shrum/Glisan, 2005)
At the back of your handout is a summary of what the 5 C’s entail.
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Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook

6. Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook
Some Theoretical Aspects of Teaching Culture: The Culture Paradigm (Shrum/Glisan, 2005)
PERSPECTIVES
(Meanings, attitudes, values, ideas)
PRACTICES
(Patterns of social interactions)
PRODUCTS
(Books, tools, foods, laws, music, games)
Find good example here.
Practices: are the patterns of behavior accepted by a society; they represent knowledge of “what to do when and where”; what they do
Products: refer to things created by members of the culture, both tangible and intangible; what they make and use
Perspectives: of the culture are the traditional ideas, attitudes, meanings, and values of members of that society; how they think
Study by Wright (2000): results showed that learners under constructivist approach statistically significant gains in flexibility, openness, personal autonomy.
03/29/08
Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook

7. Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook
Some Theoretical Aspects of Teaching Culture - The 5 C’s of Foreign Language Education cont.
All C’s are interconnected and you can find the other 4 C’s in the Cultures C.
Examples:
Connections:“Connections enable students to further their knowledge of other disciplines, acquire new information, and recognize the distinctive viewpoints that are available only through the foreign language and its cultures.” (Shrum/Glisan 2005)
Comparisons:“Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own.” (Shrum/Glisan 2005)
Together these elements will lead to: “Knowing how, when and why to say what to whom.” (
We can see how important culture is deemed in the National Standards.
03/29/08
Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook

8. The Presentation of Culture
“Big C” vs. “little C” Culture
Big C: formal culture - arts, literature, music, history
Small c: daily life culture - anthropological and sociological aspects (e.g.: social behavior, beliefs, housing, food, and transportation)
(Brooks, 1975)
Four Common Approaches to Teaching Culture:
The Frankenstein Approach: a taco from here, a flamenco dancer from there, a gaucho from here, etc.
The 4-F Approach: folk dances, festivals, fairs, food
The Tour Guide Approach: identification of monuments, rivers, and cities
The “By-the-Way” Approach: sporadic lectures or bits of behavior selected indiscriminately to emphasize sharp differences
(Galloway, 1985)
C-distinction been made for decades
End:
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Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook

9. The Presentation of Culture - Issues
Culture has been traditionally treated in the classroom by giving facts and information.
Information acquisition approach
Making culture an integral part of the classroom is a challenging task for teachers.
We often feel that we don’t have time for culture.
Teachers do not always have sufficient cultural experiences themselves and find it difficult to integrate them into the linguistic part of the language class.
Learners do not always understand the relationship between language and culture.
03/29/08
Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook

10. The Process-Oriented vs. the Information-Acquisition Approach
The latter: cultural information is presented by the teacher.
The former:
based on the cultural paradigm which includes practices, products, and perspectives as outlined in the standards (slide 6)
allows students to learn about culture, by constructing their own views of culture through social interaction and interpersonal communication => constructivist approach
(Shrum/Glisan, 2005)
In the constructivist approach culture is constructed by people in how they live their daily lives. Language is the primary vehicle through which they make their culture come alive.
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Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook

11. Basic Structure of Any Activity
Warm-up/Introduction
Modeling/Presentation of New Material
Meaningful Activity/Activities
Wrap-up
Other Considerations:
Contextualization
Varying of Activities
Transitions between Activities
Keeping the Pace (5-15 minutes)
(Omaggio Hadley, 2001)
-activities have to be contextualized. That means that they have to fit within the thematic context of the chapter. If your doing a chapter about possessions, don’t copy a grammar exercise where the grammar fits, but the topic is food. That is not contextualized. If you like how the exercise practices grammar, you can rewrite it with the vocabulary of the chapter, thus contextualizing it yourself.
-vary your activities by hitting all the 4 skills (listening, writing, reading, speaking) and by choosing many different teaching modes (whole class, pair work, group work, individual work) to address the wide range of learning styles your students will have
-keep up the pace:don’t make activities too long; activities should be in the range of 5 (minimum) to 15 (maximum) minutes, so on average around 10 minutes each. If an activity takes 30 minutes (I am not saying it could never happen as in a group project) students will lose interest and the pace of the class is lost.
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Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook

12. By the Book and Beyond – Where is the culture in my book?
Culture can be found in different ways:
as part of the presentation of material by the teacher
in various parts of the book (vocabulary, dialogs, reading passages, pictures, etc.)
presented in special boxes labeled ‘Culture’ (can be used in a concrete way or as inspiration)
Culture can be found in many aspects of teaching. We saw it in Richard’s presentation, when he went around and shook hands with his ‘students’. Apparently Germans shake hands when they meet - that’s culture.
When we demonstrate counting and use our fingers we can see that Germans start with the thumb and make their way along their fingers - that’s culture.
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Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook

13. Some Sources for Taking You beyond the Textbook
Your colleagues
Websites [with a fairly simple surface structure – see WG/ Kafka/dating/ greeting cards/ restaurant menus/ hotels/ train, bus, movie schedules/ shopping websites (IKEA, clothing)/ university sites and course catalogs, etc.]
Samples:
WG:
Kafka: or ;
Dating: (click on dating);
Reisen:
Songs (itunes, youtube), video, podcasts ( or google)
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Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook

14. Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook
References
Brooks, N. (1785). The Analysis of language and familiar cultures. In R.C. Lafayette (Ed.), The cultural revolution (pp ). Reports on the Central States Conference on Foreign Language Education. Lincolnwood. IL:NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group.
Galloway, V.B. (1985). A design for the improvement of the teaching of culture in foreign language classrooms. ACTFL project proposal. Yonkers, NY:American Concil on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
Omaggio Hadley, A. (2001). Teaching Language in Context. Boston : Heinle & Heinle.
Shrum, J. & Glisan, E. (2005). Teacher’s Handbook: Contextualized Language Instruction. Boston : Heinle & Heinle.
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Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook

15. By the Book and Beyond -Examples
Family
The German ‘WG’
Transportation/Environment
Fairy Tales: Biermann
Health/Sickness
Worksheet
Text
03/29/08
Teaching Culture by the Textbook and Beyond the Textbook