Constructing Culture Study Units: A Blueprint and Practical Tools

Abstract

For years the leading voices in foreign language education have spoken to the issue of how to incorporate culture study in the second language classroom. There are essentially two schools of thought about culture study: a traditional “activity” approach and an “anthropology‐process” model. Both schools have inspired innovative and successful techniques, yet seldom do the theorists of either group relate these to a specific language acquisition theory. A theoretical foundation for any model of culture study is important to practitioners, as it provides a blueprint according to which teachers can judge the adequacy of the activities in their repertoire. In this essay, I describe three integrated activities that students and teachers can use as tools to construct and evaluate a culture study unit at the novice level. I conclude with a summary of a psycholinguistic theory of language acquisition and append examples and evaluation forms.

The Effects of Cultural Instruction on Foreign Language Learning

“…Theoretically, incorporating culture study in the language classroom can be understood as important and necessary; practically, however, many problems arise when implementing culture teaching in the foreign language classroom. For instance, teachers' limited foreign experiences, limited knowledge of the target culture, lack of methods and materials, lack of time, and fear of controversy over teaching values and attitudes (Arries 1994;Bragaw 1991;Damen 1987;Hadley 1993;Mantle-Bromley 1993). With the intent of reducing language teachers' fear and providing supports for the culture teaching, the researcher found two important approaches through the literature to teaching culture: task-oriented and anthropology-process approaches.…”

“…Many FL classrooms still view culture learning as an addendum to language study and deal mostly with food, festivals, buildings and other cultural institutions. Without knowing how and what to teach about culture in the FL classroom, most FL teachers are uncomfortable in providing culture teaching (Bragaw 1991;Hadley 1993;Arries 1994). Consequently, FL teachers either do not talk about the target culture in their classrooms or only mention parts of the target culture that has been included in the textbook.…”

Learning Disabilities and Foreign Languages: A Curriculum Approach to the Design of Inclusive Courses

“…Teachers do this because they perceive a miscommunication due to a style of discourse that does not correspond to their students' previous experience. A different accommodation to learning style that my students with LDs found helpful in acquiring and retaining grammar was multisensory, kinesthetic exercises such as Gouin Series (Arries, 1994b;Grittner, 1977;Knop, 1976;Rivers, Azevedo, Heflin, & Hyman-Opler, 1976;Titone, 1968) and TPR (Asher, 1988;. An important modification of these activities for use with students with LDs is the provision of written scripts of the kinesthetic activities so that students can study the utterances independently.…”

Learning and teaching languages: the role of “conceptual fluency”

“…A rethinking of SLT in terms of conceptual, rather than in strictly verbal, terms will require a new and major focus on culture in SLT. As Jonathan Arries (1994) has recently pointed out, the question of how to incorporate culture into SLT is really an old one, betraying two traditions: (1) the L'activity" approach, by which students are involved in a range of activities designed to impart "cultural knowledge (e.g. culture assimilators, mini-dramas, field trips, etc.…”