General Concepts

* Exemple(s) relevant to the U.S.

• * Exemple(s) relevant to the U.S.

• Q: What would be some exemple(s) relevant to your target culture? (Starting with perspectives, for instance)

• The 3 Ps Approach / Examples

• Perspective/Value: Mobility/Independence

• Practices: Going to school in another town, in another part of the country; moving to another state to begin a new job; etc.

• Products: Use of cars (symbols of mobility and independence); every apartment is fully equipped with kitchen appliances (fridge, stove, etc.); etc.

* Scott & Huntington (2000)

• * Scott & Huntington (2000)

• Research

• . Level and quality of recollection of two groups of students who learned about Ivory Coast.
• . One group studied a fact sheet and the other group studied a poem about colonialism in Côte d’Ivoire.
• . The group that studied the fact sheet retained very little information about the Ivory Coast culture, whereas the group that read the poem showed a capacity to empathize with the personal history of the Ivory Coast people.

=> “An information-acquisition approach to culture may lack essential dimensions that help students to comprehend, internalize, and feel comfortable with [certain] social demands.”

• => “An information-acquisition approach to culture may lack essential dimensions that help students to comprehend, internalize, and feel comfortable with [certain] social demands.”

• Research / Wright, David (2000)

• . Measured two ways of teaching about German culture in a beginning language course.
• . One group (A) was taught following a constructivist, process-oriented approach.
• . The other group (B) was taught following a knowledge-based approach.
• . Group A experienced more positive results on several post-tasks that assessed their cultural sensibilities and their cross-cultural adaptability.

• Some Useful Techniques

• * Use of music/songs and dances

• * Creation of bulletin boards and collages

• * Mini-lectures about a cultural aspect of the target culture (in L2, if possible)

• * Study authentic materials: photos, pictures of ads, songs, video-clips, food items, red envelopes, films, movie-trailers, newspaper articles, magazines, slides, postcards, etc.

• * Extension of TPR: Students act out some culture-related instructions given by the teacher (cf. table manners).