Transcript The basics of needs assessment

Ten Techniques for
Teaching Culture in
the Classroom
Joe
Ann
McVeigh Wintergerst
1. Brainstorming:
Definitions of culture
Culture is . . .
Take a minute to write down your own
definition of culture. Complete this
sentence:
Culture is ________________________ .
Culture is . . .
Take two minutes to discuss your
responses with the person next to you.
What is culture?
Is culture a question of “content” such as
holidays, films, literature, and food?
Or is culture a set of values, attitudes,
and behaviors?
What is culture?
Culture = an integrated system of
learned behavior patterns that are
characteristic of the members of any
given society. Culture refers to the total
way of life of particular groups of people.
It includes everything that a group of
people thinks, says, does and makes—
its systems of attitudes and feelings.
Culture is learned and transmitted from
generation to generation (Kohls 1996)
Technique:
Teaching culture
example
1. Brainstorming:
Definitions of culture
2. Critical Incidents
Nonverbal Communication
2. Critical Incidents
A critical incident offers students a brief
story or vignette in which some type of
cultural miscommunication takes place.
Students read and discuss the incident to
try to understand why the
miscommunication took place and how it
could have been prevented.
Critical Incidents
Steps:
• Prepare copies of the critical incidents.
• Divide students in small groups.
• Distribute the handouts to the students. Tell them how
many incidents you want them to discuss.
• Direct the students to read the incidents one at a time
and to work together to answer the questions at the top
of the handout.
• As a class, discuss the critical incidents, the solutions
from each group, and the area of cultural conflict
described.
Critical Incidents
Take two minutes to read one of the
critical incidents on page 2 of the handout.
With the person next to you, discuss how
the misunderstanding could have been
prevented.
Critical Incidents
Possible interpretations:
• Critical Incident 1: Eye contact. The use and meaning of
eye contact varies from culture to culture. In Japan
individuals are taught at an early age to avoid eye
contact with superiors and elders. In Canada it is
considered an insult to avoid eye contact when
someone, regardless of age and position, addresses
you.
• Critical Incident 2: Touching. In some cultures touching
another person is unacceptable whether male or female.
In Turkey, Greece, Latin American countries, and Arab
countries, among others, touching is a common cultural
practice between those of the same gender. This,
however, is unacceptable in the United States, Canada,
northern European countries, and some Asian countries.
Critical Incidents
Note that students are not given answer
choices but are asked to come up with
their own conclusions.
3. Acting it out:
Nonverbal
communication
Acting It Out
•
Conversational management.
•
Nonverbal cues
– Interested
– Not interested
– Want to end the conversation
Nonverbal cues
• Gazing intently at the speaker to indicate
interest.
• Looking over the speaker’s shoulder as if there
is something more interesting that you would like
to go and do.
• Responding with enthusiastic nonverbal sounds
e.g. Um-hmm!
• Responding with unenthusiastic, monotone
nonverbal sounds.
• Tapping a hand, finger, or foot to indicate
boredom.
• Avoiding eye contact with the speaker.
Steps to Acting it Out
• Choose a volunteer. Without identifying which one, roleplay one of the cues. Ask the class to identify which cue
you are role playing and the meaning.
• Form pairs. Choose a dialog from one of your textbooks.
One student is the primary speaker and the other is the
respondent. Have them practice the nonverbal behaviors
above. Then ask students to switch roles.
• To finish the activity, ask the class to describe what
happened during their role plays. Was it clear to them
when the listener was interested and when not? Could
they tell when the listener wanted to end the
conversation?
4. True/false activities:
Testing across cultures
Testing across cultures
• Ideas about grading vary from culture to
culture (H.D. Brown 2004)
• Emphasis on interdependence leading to
helping not competing
• Some cheating on exams expected and
viewed as common sense
• Unaware of the sanctions for cheating and
plagiarism
(Carnegie Mellon University 2006)
True / false activities
Answer the questions at the bottom of
page 2 of your handout.
True / false activities
Students need to commit to an answer
before it gets discussed.
5. Mime / charades
Mime / Charades
• Explore the symptoms of culture shock
(handout p. 3)
Culture shock pantomime
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Write the word “culture shock” on the
board and ask students what they think it
means.
Help students learn the vocabulary
words (on the handout p. 3)
Write the list of symptoms on small
individual pieces of paper. Hand them
out to students at random so that each
student has at least one paper.
Culture shock pantomime
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•
•
Explain to students the concept of mime or charades.
Break students into medium-sized groups. Give
students time to plan. Circulate and help if needed.
Instruct students to take turns acting out their
symptoms, while other students attempt to guess
them.
When everyone has had a chance, discuss the
symptoms as a class. Explain that such symptoms are
normal and quite common. Ask students if they have
experienced any of the symptoms. Remind them that it
is normal and natural to do so. Ask students if they
have experienced any other symptoms of culture
shock.
6: SelfAwareness &
Feedback
Preparation
•
•
Write on the board: feeling tired, eating
more or less, tight muscles (especially in
shoulders and jaw), difficulty
concentrating, difficulty sleeping,
irritability, headaches, worrying, and
unhappiness.
Introduce the topic of culture shock
Symptoms and strategies
• Ask students to think about other causes
and symptoms of stress. Write their ideas
on the board.
• Ask students about any ideas they have or
strategies they use for dealing with stress.
Write their ideas on the board.
Stress-busters
• If students haven't mentioned the
following, add them to the list on the
board:
– deep breathing
– progressive muscle relaxation
– meditation (mindfulness, guided imagery,
repetitive prayer)
– exercise (yoga, tai-chi, walking)
– massage therapy (by others, by self)
Follow-up
• Share information with your students
about how to explore these and other
techniques at your institution’s health
center, by doing research online, or by
checking their local library or community
center.
• Have students think about a personal plan
that could help them reduce stress.
7. Agreement & completion:
Gender and language
Gender and language
• How men and women view interaction
• For women, “communication is primarily
a way to establish and maintain
relationships with others” (Tannen 1990)
• “The primary purpose of communication
for men is to exert control, preserve
independence, and enhance status”
(Tannen 1990)
Gender and language
• When talking with each other,
women give and receive equal
turns
• They show support and
sympathy for each other
• They use questions to probe
for greater understanding of
feelings
• They work hard to keep the
conversation going
• They are responsive to the
comments of others
• They speak in concrete and
personal terms
• They are sometimes tentative
or apologetic
• Men focus more on gathering
data or solving problems.
• They tend to express
superiority and maintain
control, dominating the
conversation.
• They are not very responsive,
may assert themselves, and
may speak in abstract terms
removed from personal
experience.
(Wood 1994)
Agreement / Completion
• Handout – page3
8. Graphic organizers:
Social and group identity
Social and group identity
• American proverb: “Show me who your friends
are and I’ll tell you who you are.”
• Our social identity is linked to:
– the roles we play in life such as student, teacher,
parent, or sibling
– our physical features such as ethnicity, gender, or
age
– the memberships we hold such as belonging to a
club, an organization, or a political party
Social and group identity
• We identify with groups because we share
similar traits and concerns with their members.
• We add to our social identity by learning about
our traditions, language, religion, genealogy,
and social structures.
• How we communicate with others is not only
affected by our culture but also by the group
memberships we hold within that culture.
Social identity graphic organizer
Steps:
• Introduce students to the concept of group identity by
using yourself as an example. List on the board some of
your group affiliations. Ask students to suggest other
groups and categories.
• Ask students to write down a list of the groups of which
they are members.
• Put students in pairs and ask them to share their lists
with each other.
• Distribute the chart called “Recognize social identity.”
Have the pairs of students write their group
memberships on the chart, using different colors.
Social identity example
PERSONAL
SOCIAL
Family (parents,
siblings)
Religion – Catholic
Music activities – singing
Extended family
Recreation -- bowling
CULTURAL
German background
New Yorker
Graphic organizers
• Recognize social identity (handout p. 3)
Table completion exercise
9. Culture
assimilators
Using a culture assimilator (1)
One of the classic methods of teaching culture
is through the culture assimilator (Seeley
1993):
…describes a “critical incident” of cross
cultural interaction that is usually a common
occurrence in which a [foreign visitor] and a
host national interact, a situation one or both
find puzzling or conflictual or that they are
likely to misinterpret, and a situation that can
be interpreted in a fairly unequivocal manner,
given sufficient knowledge about the other’s
culture.
Using a culture assimilator (2)
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After having read the incident (a paragraph or two),
students answer an interpretive question.
Students are presented with four answer options, but
only one is correct.
After having selected an answer, students are directed
to feedback.
Having chosen an incorrect answer, students are given
redirection, reread the passage, and choose another
answer.
Having answered correctly, students are given a more
detailed description of why their answer is correct.
Using a culture assimilator (3)
•
Culture assimilators are difficult to write correctly and
care must be taken to ensure:
– The incident is reasonably natural rather than too
artificial.
– The incorrect answers are sufficiently possible as
not to be rejected immediately, but not too similar to
the correct answer.
– The explanations offered for the distractors lead to
learning.
– The correct answer is such that a native speaker
would answer it correctly without any difficulty.
Culture Assimilator
Helmut, a businessman from Germany, flew to
Rome for the day to attend a meeting with
Alberto, an Italian partner. After this meeting,
Helmut needed to attend a series of other
meetings later in the day. The meeting with
Alberto was scheduled for 10:00am on Monday.
There were many important issues that needed
to be discussed before Helmut’s second meeting
with another client at 11:00am. The results of the
first meeting were important for the discussions
and the decisions to be made later that day.
Culture Assimilator
Helmut was enjoying a cup of coffee as he waited
in the conference room for Alberto to arrive. It was
now 10:00am.and no one had yet appeared. Then
it was 10:15, and Helmut was still alone in the
room. Finally, it was 10:30 and Alberto strolled in.
Helmut was angry. Alberto asked his German
colleague, “Why are you so angry because I came
at 10:30?” Helmut replied that the meeting was
scheduled for 10:00 in his appointment book.
Alberto quickly responded, “Simply replace 10:00
with 10:30 and we’ll both be content. After all, time
is irrelevant. It’s our business arrangement and our
relationship that matters.”
Culture Assimilator
Why do you think Alberto wasn’t bothered by
being late, while Helmut was furious?
A. Alberto had other things to attend to and did
not care about being on time or not.
B. Meetings can easily be rearranged for both
parties involved.
C. Germans are only interested in schedules
and punctuality and not in the content of the
meeting.
D. Italians organize their time in a different way
from that of Germans.
Culture Assimilator
• You chose A: It is unlikely that Alberto had more
important things to do than to be on time at a meeting
with a business colleague who flew in from Germany just
to conduct business.
• You chose B: It is unlikely since Helmut had a tight
schedule and Alberto’s lateness reduced the amount of
time they were able to discuss their business ventures.
• You chose C: It is unlikely since Helmut had other
meetings scheduled for the day, so both punctuality and
content were both important to him.
• You chose D: This is the correct answer. Southern
Europeans, such as Italians, organize their time and life
in a different way from that of Germans and Americans.
Reality is more important than a schedule or punctuality
to Alberto. In other words, his priority as an Italian is the
event and not the time.
10. Surveys / adapted Likert
scale: Respecting others
Respecting others
• One of the most important goals of
multicultural education is to end
discrimination by valuing diversity and
ethnic differences.
• It is one of our goals as teachers to be
sure that there is equal respect for people
of all backgrounds in our classrooms. But
there are significant barriers to this.
Respecting others
• One challenge to harmony in the language classroom is
ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is the tendency of a
culture to view its own assumptions, values, and beliefs
as normal and those of another culture as odd, different,
or wrong.
• Ethnocentrism taken to extremes can result in
prejudice, which can have an even more serious impact
on classroom dynamics and student learning. Prejudice
refers to the emotional component of people’s reactions
to other groups. It involves not only a set of beliefs about
others, which are captured in stereotypes, but it is also a
deeply felt set of feelings about what is good and bad,
right and wrong, moral and immoral, and so forth.
Surveys / adapted Likert scale
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Make copies of the handout on page 4
The purpose of this activity is to help students think
about how they work together with others—especially
those who are different from themselves.
Tell students that you will be having a discussion about
tolerance and prejudice. Write these words on the
board and define them: tolerance: the willingness to
accept others and their behaviors even if you do not
like them; prejudice: an unfair feeling of dislike against
someone who is different from you.
Have students complete the survey
Lead students in a discussion about differences and
responding to those who are different from us. Try to
elicit from students ways in which we all might be more
sensitive, tolerant, and helpful to others.
Questions
&
Discussion
Activities © 2010 Pearson Longman.
Permission granted to copy for classroom
use.
Copies of PowerPoint slides and handout
with bibliography available at:
www.joemcveigh.org/resources
Photo Credits
The following photos used under a Creative
Commons Attribution license and found on flickr
Tibetan mandala
Blueprints
Taking the plunge
Woman gesturing
Test
Culture shock
Woman and man
People at a party
Time
Women talking
Question mark
Thank you flower
“Wonderlane”
Todd Ehlers
Mark Donoher
David Goehring
“hyperscholar”
“jovike”
Michele Sandberg
See-ming Lee
David Goehring
ryanne “laihui”
Ethan Lofton
Joanne Q. Escober
Intercultural Communication at
TESOL
• Check the index of IC sessions in the
program book on p. 247
• Visit the Intercultural Communication
Interest Section booth in the exhibit hall
• Attend the open business meeting:
Thursday, 5:00-7:00pm room 157A
Thank you !
Ann & Joe
www.joemcveigh.org