Attitudes toward Other Cultures Society Teachers Students
Definition of Culture
Categories of Culture
Modes of Presenting Culture In Class
The Students The Teacher Out of Class
Pen Pals and Tape Exchanges Special Programs and Events Community Resources Travelogue Films Summer Camps
Student Exchange and Travel/Study Abroad Regional and State Language Festivals
Incorporation of Culture into the Class In the Lesson Plan Daily Weekly Periodically At Different Levels
Diversifying Second-Language Coals with Culture
Problems and Dangers of Teaching Culture Problems Dangers
In the ideal second-language class the teaching of culture is an integral, organized component of the course content. Fundamental aspects of the culture are incorporated into the ongoing class activities and included in the tests over the material covered. The students realize that cultural knowledge is one of the basic goals of the course, and they are aware that they will be tested over cultural information presented in class. As they begin the course, the students expect to gain some degree of functional ability in the culture as well as in the language. The students anticipate that they will "learn a people" as well as a language.
Why is the culture component so crucial in second-language teaching? First, the ability to interact with speakers of another language depends not only on language skills but also on comprehension of cultural habits and expectations. Understanding a second language does not insure understanding the speaker's actions. Successful cross-cultural communication entails a great deal more than language skills. Intercultural communication between speakers of different languages is rooted in language skills, but it blossoms as people relate to others.
Another fundamental reason for the inclusion of culture in the second- language curriculum is intercultural understanding itself. International understanding is one of the basic goals of education in the modern, interdependent world community of nations. Too, the understanding of cultural differences among the various subcultures within a pluralistic society is equally important. Peace and progress in a world of diverse elements placed in close proximity to each other depend upon understanding, tolerance, and cooperation. Second-language study can be one of the core educational components for fostering this widely recognized objective of intercultural understanding Whether or not it is successful depends upon the degree to which second- language teachers give their students information about the basic similarities and differences between their culture and that of the language they are studying. Because intercultural understanding is emphasized in education and society, the culture goal is a major asset in justifying second-language study in the schools. (See chapter 1, pages 6-9, for a more complete discussion.) The importance of second-language teaching in the future will depend to a considerable extent on the success of second-language teachers in promoting the goal of intercultural understanding.
The third principal reason for stressing culture in second-language classes has to do with the students. On the one hand, they are extremely interested in the people who speak the language they are studying. They want to know about them—what they are like and how they live. On the other hand, they
know very little about the basic aspects of their own culture, and certainly most of them are too young to have had the experiences necessary to gain more than a superficial knowledge about cultures of other countries or even of the subcultures within their own society. Cultural habits are like language skills: the native speaker operates within the system at a subconscious level. Some of those fundamental factors that invoke a subconscious response must be brought to the conscious level in order that the students may begin to realize their own cultural values and those of second-language speakers. Second- language teachers in general are forced to admit that at the present time many students are not gaining a basic familiarity with the second-language culture. In fact, many students do not even realize that culture is a course goal.
Anthropologists agree that individual behavior in any culture lies within the limits of an overall system of learned patterns. In this sense, the study of culture is comparable to the study of language. The basic components of the system need to be identified and presented to the students in a comprehensible manner. Culture is so complex that students cannot be expected to absorb the totality of the native cultural habits, but they should become familiar with those aspects that are most important in understanding the people and their way of life. The extent to which the students wish to familiarize themselves with the second culture depends a great deal on the students. For some, an acquaintance is sufficient. For those who wish to major in the language and/or study in the second-language community, a functional ability to participate at a somewhat less than native level is desirable. At the very least, these students should be given the insights that will enable them to acquire the necessary cultural knowledge to participate in the second-culture setting.
In considering the cultural goals in second-language classes, the teacher should have realistic expectations, just as few students will become bilingual, few will become bicultural. In elementary courses, the teacher should be concerned with comprehension and familiarity. Affinity for and commitment to a second culture is a personal matter that should remain in the realm of the student's own prerogative. Classroom content and activities should revolve around the development of an insight into what to look for in the second- language culture and a sensitivity to and a tolerance for what is seen in the culture. Although specific content will be necessary to develop the desired cultural goals, the processes for comprehending cultural similarities and differences and the attitudes toward those differences should be stressed in the second-language class. The purpose of this chapter is to outline some of the types of activities that have been developed to teach culture and to discuss some of the problems associated with the teaching of culture.
One of the major hurdles to the successful implementation of culture goals in second-language classes revolves around attitudes. Before students can learn about culture, they must be receptive to the concept of learning about cultures other than their own. Often the teacher has to break down cultural barriers prior to initiating teaching-learning activities designed to accomplish culture goals. Cooke (1972) suggests that one way to begin teaching culture on a positive note is to emphasize similarities between peoples. From this beginning, the students can move to a discussion of differences between members of their family, between families, between schools, and between cultures. This approach stresses that similarities are present in all cultures and that differences in the expression of these similarities are natural.
The students' environment exerts a tremendous influence on their receptivity to the learning of cultural concepts. Obviously, societies are different and have different characteristics. If the students are from a society that is cosmopolitan and they are familiar with cultural diversity, they will be more ready to study and benefit from cultural content. On the other hand, students who are products of a rather closed society will probably have less interest in other cultures and subcultures. The teacher should take societal factors into consideration when selecting culture goals and culture content for the second- language class. What can be done will be determined to a large degree by the local situation. The paradox is that those students most in need of developing cultural awareness and cultural sensitivities are normally those who are least disposed toward these goals.
The attitude of the teacher is a crucial factor in determining the extent to which the cultural objectives are attained. If she expects all the students to love the second culture as much as she does, she is certain to be disappointed. If she attempts to indoctrinate the students with attitudes from the second culture, she will most likely be rejected by the majority of her students. If she attempts to criticize the students' own culture, she may arouse negative, counterproductive feelings in the students. In short, the teacher should not insist that the students emulate her own affinity for and commitment to the second culture, as much as she may be predisposed to do so. The teacher's task is to make
students aware of cultural differences, not pass value judgments on those differences. She is to acquaint, not indoctrinate.
The preceding paragraph should not be interpreted to mean that the teacher should not be enthusiastic about second-language teaching and second cultures. Without enthusiasm, any course becomes dry and unpalatable for both teacher and students. However, the teacher's enthusiasm should always be moderated by the realities of the students' situation. They are young, inexperienced, and struggling to develop a self-identity within their own culture. The teacher's enthusiasm should not reach a level at which the students feel culturally threatened, a point at which they are forced to reject all or many aspects of the second culture in order to protect their image of the first. The teacher should seek to make the study of culture a broadening experience, not one of rejection and entrenchment. The students should be made to feel that studying the second culture does not in any way imply the abandonment of their own culture.
Ethnocentrism is defined in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language as the "belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group." Oswalt (1970, p. 19) gives the following example of ethnocentrism:
Among many tribal peoples this attitude is well reflected in the name that they have for themselves. For example, we call a group of primitives in northern North America Eskimos ; this name, originated by certain Indians to the south of the Eskimos, means "Eaters of Raw Flesh." However, the Eskimos' own name for themselves is not Eskimos but is Inupik, meaning "Real People." By their name they provide a contrast between themselves and other groups; the latter might be "people" but are never "real."
Ethnocentrism has often been painted in negative terms, but such a reaction is not entirely justified. In order to live, each individual must make choices as to the desirable behavior patterns by which his life is most comfortable and most productive. In modern society, most individuals do not maintain in unaltered form all the cultural patterns of their parents; but neither is it possible for any individual to divorce himself entirely from his cultural heritage. To exist as a sociocultural entity all cultures must, by definition, conform to some system of shared behavior patterns. The extent to which anyone deviates from the native culture patterns depends upon the individual. From both the individual and societal points of view, ethnocentrism has its good aspects and its bad. When the critics decry ethnocentrism, they are
actually referring to the myopic extreme that refuses to consider any viewpoint other than that of its own culture. Oswalt (1970, p. 20) delineates the need for and the possible negative aspects of ethnocentrism in the following terms:
To hold one's own cultural ways up as the norm for measuring those of others is to reflect a bias in favor of one's own. In some respects this is desirable, for it gives one a full and meaningful sense of identity and assurance. In other ways it is harmful because it encourages intolerance. ... If, however, there are areas in which one might profitably learn from other peoples, then in the long run an ethnocentric stance may be detrimental to one's entire way of living. This underlies the anthropological recommendation to avoid hardening of the cultural arteries by at least sampling other ways of life ....
Most junior high and high school students operate from an ethnocentric point of view. Their cultural position arises not so much from a consciously chosen point of view as from a background of exposure primarily to one general sociocultural system. Even though they are a member of a subculture within a total culture system, as everyone is, they tend to see things from their own point of view as do most people. This tendency toward cultural conformity is magnified by the adolescent desire to be like the other members of their group. What they do know about other cultures is usually information based on stereotypes acquired in magazines, newspapers, movies, or conversations.
All second-language teachers are quite familiar with the psychological trauma associated with total immersion in another culture. An individual with a broad perspective on life can emerge triumphant after the initial debilitating effects of culture shock have dissipated; but no one would say that that period of adjustment is easy. The point is that exposure to a second culture in the classroom can also be a disquieting experience for some students. Certainly, a classroom situation will never produce the problems that may accompany study in a second-language community, but the culture component may still bother some students. The teacher should be sensitive to student feelings in this respect and be prepared to take steps to ameliorate any negative reactions that develop. Most of all, precautions should be taken not to threaten in any way the students' belief in their own cultural system. Given the appropriate cultural information, they will acquire a certain degree of comprehension of the people and their culture. Such knowledge should develop in them a higher degree of sensitivity to and tolerance for cultural differences than they had prior to second-language study. As they grow and mature, they can incorporate those behavioral patterns and values that they deem desirable into their own lives.
Culture may mean different things to different people. In the anthropological sense, culture , often labeled "small c culture/' encompasses the "lifeway of a population" (Oswalt, 1970, p. 15). This definition of culture as the way people live is the one most commonly and most highly recommended as the basis for selecting cultural content for second-language classes. This definition encompasses the types of information that would seem to be of most interest and of most importance to the typical student enrolled in a second-language class. In addition, this definition most nearly satisfies the requirements for the type of material needed to satisfy the stated culture goals of intercultural understanding. Ideally, at the end of their studies, the students will have a functional knowledge of the second-culture system just as they have of the second- language system.
In stressing this approach to culture, the teacher should make clear to the students that each individual is a member of a subculture within a culture just as every individual in a language group speaks a dialect of a language. Both the overall population and the specific group conform to certain behavior patterns generally common to the entire population or group. Too, the teacher should emphasize that the student of a second culture should gain insights into his own culture just as the student of a second language gains insights into language. In fact, at times the teacher may find it necessary to introduce a cultural topic by first clarifying the students' own cultural behavior in a particular situation. Often, comparing the two cultural systems can be beneficial to comprehension of one's own culture.
Another definition of culture focuses on the major products and contributions of a society in general or of outstanding individuals in that society. With this approach, often referred to as "large Cculture," the students study the economic, social, and political history and the great politicians, heroes, writers, artists, etc. of the country. Although inherently interesting in its own right to many teachers and students, materials of this type may not contribute significantly to the students' ability to function linguistically and socially in the contemporary culture nor to their intercultural understanding.
The stance taken in this book is that the anthropological definition should be followed in beginning language classes. This is true both from the point of view of student interest and from the point of view of importance of the information to the students. Students who take a language for several years and who wish to explore the society's contributions to world knowledge and civilization should be given the opportunity in advanced classes to probe large C culture in greater depth and breadth. Organized in this fashion, materials can be developed that are more in keeping with student interest and with student linguistic and intellectual capabilities.
Teaching Culture 389
Prior to the audio-lingual revolution, most texts and most classes stressed large C culture whenever culture was included in the course (which was not always). Early audio-lingual proponents viewed the study of language as a total cultural system. The tendency was not to include separate discussions of culture but to rely on the students' absorption of small c culture that was contained in the dialogs to convey the culture system. Since that time, the emphasis on small c culture has continued, but devotion of more class time to culture and including culture as a separate component of the class content have been stressed.
Defining culture is a necessary prerequisite to the implementation of the culture goal in second-language classes. However, the definition merely provides guidelines for choosing the types of information that are to be included in the course content. The problems of what basic information is to be given to the students and how it is to be organized remain. What should students learn about the second culture in order to be able to function in that culture? Around what basic topics should this information be organized? How much do students need to be given as a basis for developing insights and sensitivities to other culture patterns?
Various authors have addressed themselves to the topic of how to organize culture into key themes that will provide insights into characteristic behavior patterns. Nostrand (1974) states that no culture seems to have more than twelve major themes and lists the twelve themes of French culture. Seelye (1968) refers to twenty-three "key ideas" for the comprehension of Latin American culture developed (for social studies teachers) at the University of Texas in Austin. Taylor and Sorenson (1961) outline eight general categories that should be considered in the study of a culture. Although not discussing culture per se, Raths et al. (1966) identify ten value-rich areas basic to each individual in any given culture.
Based on the anthropological definition of culture, the following list is one possible categorization of culture themes. The reader should not hesitate to add other topics and subtopics with which he is familiar and with which the students should become acquainted. This list has been prepared from an anthropological perspective, a values point of view, and from the students' point of view. Both similarities and differences between cultures should be included. Comparisons and contrasts are always implied.
I. Typical student activities A. School days
1. Before school
2. During school
3. After school
4. After returning home
5. During free time
B. Days school not in session
1. Saturdays
2. Sundays
3. During vacation periods
C. With family
D. With friends
E. Alone
F. During family vacations
II. Typical conversations
III. What does the typical student think about most?
IV. Money
V. Meals and drinks
VI. Leisure activities
VII. Careers
VIII. Happiness
IX. Success
X. Parents
XI. Youth view of parenthood
XII. Masculine and feminine roles in society
XIII. The family
XIV. Relatives
XV. Youth
A. How do young people become acquainted?
1. Before attending school
2. In elementary school
3. In secondary school
4. In the university
5. After completing their studies
B. Are they permitted to visit and to go out alone?
C. What are some typical games?
D. Do boys and girls attend the same schools? The same classes?
E. What are the most important customs with regard to boy- girl relationships?
F. Do young people go to parties alone, in pairs, or in groups?
G. How are sex roles changing?
H. How are the customs different in your country?
Teaching Culture 391
XVI. Courtship and marriage
XVII. Education
A. How is the educational system organized?
1. Public and/or private?
2. Who attends school?
3. How long do students attend school?
4. How much does it cost to attend?
5. How are the schools supported?
6. Who controls the schools?
B. Describe the discipline in the schools. Give examples.
C. Describe a typical school day.
D. Do the students have periods of talk and recreation every day?
E. What are the standards for academic work? How are students graded?
F. What are the social rules and standards?
G. What are the dress codes?
H. What is the feeling toward cheating and dishonesty?
I. Are the students interested and studious?
J. What courses are offered?
K. What aspects of school do students like most?
L. What aspects do they like least?
M. What kinds of homework and tests do students have?
N. What are the extracurricular activities in which students participate?
O. What is the attitude of students with respect to their studies?
P. What importance is attached to education?
Q. Is attendance at a university necessary to obtain a good position in the work force?
R. What type of job can one obtain with an elementary school education? A high school education? A university education?
S. Is it possible for poor students to attend the university?
T. Are trade schools and apprenticeships important?
XVIII. Friends
XIX. The social system
XX. The generation gap
XXI. Drugs
XXII. Youth participation in politics XXIII. The economic system
XXIV. Patriotism
XXV. Women's liberation
XXVI. War and peace XXVII. Change and progress XXVIII. Ecology
XXIX. Population
XXX. Religion
XXXI. Crime XXXII. Law XXXIII. Humor XXXIV. Good manners XXXV. Advertising XXXVI. The press XXXVII. Individual liberty XXXVIII. Death
XXXIX. Discipline XL. Holidays XLI. Clothing XLII. Transportation XLIII. Courtesy phrases XLIV. Kinesics 1
For those students who anticipate having contact with speakers of the second language in social situations, special emphasis should be given to courtesy phrases and kinesics. Students should be familiar with what to say in certain regularly occurring situations. They should be prepared to respond, for example, when being introduced to someone, meeting a friend, ordering in a restaurant, asking for information, or receiving a compliment. In addition, they should be acquainted with facial expressions, gestures, and tones of voice that are normally used in specific situations and that carry important social and psychological implications. All information about the second culture is important, but courtesy phrases and kinesics serve as extremely important bases for the establishment of comfortable intercultural relationships.
The teacher must have a definition of culture to determine what aspects of a second culture to present, a thematical organization of basic components of the second culture, and at least an elementary knowledge of the second-
1 Kinesics is the systematic study of nonlinguistic body motion as it relates to communication.
language culture. The teacher's next step is to develop teaching-learning procedures for conveying the chosen information to the students. Fortunately, as attention has turned to the growing need for including more culture in second-language courses and for developing greater expertise in ways and means of teaching a second culture, new ideas for presenting culture have been proposed.
Although certain limitations are inherent in the classroom situation, culture can be taught as a basic part of the class and of the homework assignments. Both the teacher and students can present information to the class to promote increasing familiarity with the second culture. Obviously, vicarious exposure of this type is not comparable to study in the second-language community, but it can serve as a valuable lesson for those who will never have the opportunity to visit another country. It will also serve as preparation for those who do eventually have contact with native speakers of the second language.
The students As is true in other aspects of the class, the teacher cannot do all the work, nor does she need to. The students are capable of gaining a great deal of information on their own, under the teacher's guidance. Assigned reports and projects geared to promote cultural knowledge can be an important adjunct to the material that the teacher provides for the students. For example, early in their exposure to second-language study the students can prepare maps. Working with maps will help them to locate the country as well as the important cities and regions within the country. Subsequent to the map project, the students can begin to delve into other aspects of the country's geography and geographic location. What is the country's relationship with other countries? With whom do they trade and for what products? What are the staples in the people's diet? What are the principal occupations? The students can find the answers to many of these questions in the school or public library. The teacher should be ready to help them with answers that they cannot find, either by answering the questions or suggesting other sources of information.
Jenks (1974b) advocates an approach to teaching culture in which the teacher provides questions that the students are to answer. These are not questions to which the students already know the answers but are questions that require the students to use the library and perhaps other resource centers to find out the answers to the questions. For example, the teacher might ask the students what the exchange rate is between the dollar and the various currencies of Latin America and what is the average wage in each of the countries. Once this information is obtained, the students can be asked to
determine by studying the advertisements in a Latin American newspaper how long the average worker must labor for a pair of shoes, a dress, a sewing machine, a television, a car, a dozen eggs, a gallon of milk, etc. The next step would be to compare the results with the cost of similar products in the students' own country. In order to avoid possible student frustration with difficult research questions, the teacher would need either to choose her questions carefully or make clear to the students that the answers to some of the questions may be unavailable in their library. The important secondary outcome of this approach is that students learn to find their own answers to the questions.
Another potential source of cultural information (often untapped by the teacher) is student knowledge or experience with particular aspects of the second culture. It is not uncommon for one or more of the students to have some information about the second culture that the teacher does not know. Many students take a second language because they have had prior contact with the people and the culture of the foreign country. A survey of the class members at the beginning of the year may reveal students who have collections of stamps, coins, jewelry, etc. from the second country, who have traveled in the country, who have studied some topic related to the second culture, or who have relatives or friends who might serve as resource persons for culture content. Such assets complement the teacher's own cultural knowledge and enable him to expand his cultural offerings to the class.
The teacher The primary responsibility for culture content lies with the teacher and the textual materials. The cultural information of any text will need to be supplemented, but choosing a book that incorporates culture into its format is a helpful beginning. (Authors of recent second-language texts seem to be more conscious of the need for cultural information, and this welcome addition should make the teacher's task somewhat easier. Joiner [1974] has prepared a checklist for evaluating the culture content of second-language texts.)
The following paragraphs contain descriptions and examples of various methods teachers have used to present cultural information in second- language classes.
The culture aside is probably the most widely used approach to the teaching of culture. A culture aside is an unplanned, brief, culture comment. During the class, the teacher commonly takes advantage of relevant topics as they arise to give the students bits of cultural information. For example, if the students have the word coffee, the teacher can differentiate between the coffee drunk in their country and that of the second culture and when and where people normally drink coffee. The advantage of this approach is that the
information is pertinent to class content. The disadvantage is that overall the cultural information received by the class may not be very well organized.
The teacher can also prepare lecture presentations in which he discusses some characteristic of the second culture. For example, at Christmas he might describe the similarities and differences between the two cultures in the ways in which the people observe this holiday season. These comparisons should be carefully prepared in advance, but they should not be so long as to lose student interest or to take too much time from the remainder of the class. Interspersed with other techniques, lecture presentations can give the students many facts in a short period of time.
Taylor (1972) describes a “slice-of-life” technique for teaching culture. Using this technique, the teacher chooses a small segment of life from the second culture that is presented to the students at the beginning or end of the class period. The point is made with a minimum of comment and a maximum of dispatch. The information is valuable and interesting without requiring a great deal of class time. For example, the teacher might bring a second- language calendar to class and point out to the students in what ways it is different from those they are accustomed to seeing.
Culture assimilators are another means of supplying cultural information in class. A culture assimilator consists of three parts: (1) a short passage demonstrating an intercultural exchange in which a misunderstanding occurs, (2) four possible interpretations of what transpired, and (3) feedback for the students as to the correct answer. Bals (1974) gives an example in which the afternoon visit of a young American to a German home does not turn out as well as he had anticipated. Knowing that a gift is appropriate, he presents the hostess with a bouquet of red roses. However, he is startled to notice that she reacts negatively to the gift. The interpretations are (1) the hostess is allergic to roses; (2) the hostess prefers to buy her own flowers; (3) flowers are appropriate only when the guest is having dinner; or (4) red roses are given to sweethearts, not to hostesses. The students finish by learning the correct answer, number 4, and discussing the implications. The focus on confusion caused by differences in cultural expectations is an excellent means of developing student insight into those differences between cultures that can cause misunderstanding and even hostility. This type of activity has the potential to help create insight into and tolerance of cultural diversity. The disadvantages of culture assimilators are that they require a high degree of familiarity with the culture and a great deal of time to prepare.
Culture capsules are also used to teach culture. A culture capsule is a brief description of one aspect of the second culture followed by a discussion of the contrasts between the cultures of the first and second languages. For example, the teacher might describe post-elementary education in the other culture.
396 Part Two: Practice
This description would include types of schools, courses, and students. In the follow-up discussion, the students discuss and summarize the principal differences between the educational system of the second culture and that of their own country. Given the knowledge needed to describe the second culture, the teacher can prepare culture capsules without too much additional work. Another advantage is that the students become involved in the activity and have an opportunity to consider basic characteristics of their own culture.
Meade and Morain (1973) refer to a related series of culture capsules dealing with a central theme as a culture duster. In this approach, the teacher incorporates a small number of separate, ten-minute culture capsules into the class format. Later, one thirty-minute segment of the class is spent acting out the cultural concepts introduced in the capsules and reviewing the content of the previous culture capsules. In their article, Meade and Morain give an example dealing with wedding ceremonies in France. The first capsule treats the civil ceremony, the second the religious ceremony, and the third the wedding banquet. On the fourth day the differences between a city and a country wedding are contrasted, and an enactment of a country wedding is presented.
Some teachers use minidramas or miniskits to help the students visualize culture content. In this approach to the teaching of culture, the students incorporate the culture being learned into their actions as they perform in selected situations. Behmer (1972) has worked with this technique. These skits deal with such phenomena as the kiosque in France, the Gasthaus in Germany, and el reencuentao in Spanish-speaking countries. With a little ingenuity, the teacher can think of other situations suitable for miniskits. Certainly, any time the students are acting out dialogs or role playing, the teacher should insist on the appropriate actions to fit the words being spoken. If a video tape recorder is available, the most interesting and informative student efforts can be preserved for use with future classes.
An interesting approach incorporating both the teaching of language and culture has been developed at the University of Georgia by Kalivoda, Morain, and Elkins (1972). An extension of the "total physical response" approach to the teaching of second languages, 2 the audio-motor unit is a technique in which students act out commands given by the teacher. By choosing culture- rich situations, the teacher can combine teaching of language with teaching of culture. For example, after having been told that they are in a restaurant, the students are asked to pick up their napkins, unfold them, put them on their laps, pick up their forks in their left hands, pick up their knives in their right hands, cut a piece of meat, put it in their mouths, put down their knives and
2 Students learning with "total physical response” techniques either do or pretend to do whatever they say in the second language.
forks, leave their hands on the table, break off a piece of bread, etc. As the students perform these actions, first following the teacher's cues and later on their own, they are practicing important cultural differences in eating habits.
With visuals or realia the teacher may use either a question-directed discussion approach or an inquiry method to bring out important cultural facts. The teacher, for example, can show the students a picture of a typical dwelling in the second culture. Then, by asking the students questions, he can lead them into important observations as to the differences between the house in the picture and their own homes. On the other hand, he might bring in a hat from the second culture. After displaying the hat, the teacher assumes the role of a resource person, and the students must determine where this hat is worn and why it has come to have the style it does by asking the teacher questions that can be answered with a yes or a no (Taylor, 1972).
Taylor (1972) also describes an activity in which the group solves a situational problem. For example, a young student who has been in the foreign country less than two weeks is invited by a friend of the family to a birthday party for their son, who is the same age. The problem is the following: Would he use the polite or the familiar form in addressing the son and the other guests? An alternative technique is to describe a situation in which the visitor to the second culture commits a faux pas. The students are asked to identify the "blunder." More appropriate actions for the described situation should be discussed.
Newspapers and magazines are as important for their cultural content as for their factual content. Each and every class should have these materials available for the students, both for browsing and for assigned class projects. Browsing time does not have to be lengthy, and assignments do not have to require advanced linguistic skills. Asking the students to survey articles on currently popular clothing styles, movies, TV programs, and books would be interesting, informative, and relatively simple for each student to accomplish. The more capable students can do independent projects and prepare a report for the class. By planning activities based on the content of the newspapers and magazines and the abilities of the students, the teacher can make these supplemental reading materials an important addition to the teaching of culture. Without her guidance, however, the wealth of information they contain may lie useless and untouched in the back of the room. The students will benefit from such materials only if they are assisted in doing so. Schulz (1974) recommends that the teacher provide the students with a purpose, a topic, and specific questions before asking them to work with printed news media.
Bulletin boards can be a striking means of presenting cultural information while at the same time brightening up the classroom. Students often have a difficult time attempting to visualize the cultural element being described.
Carefully selected pictures and art work placed on the bulletin board can help eliminate this problem. Old magazines and newspapers are a rich source of pictures, cartoons, and articles for collection, organization, and display. If the teacher does not have the time to search for appropriate materials, faster students needing extra work or slower students seeking extra credit can look for interesting visuals dealing with certain cultural themes. Advertisements are interesting and contain a great deal of information about what people eat, wear, etc. (The best displays can be labeled and saved for other classes.)
Visual aids, such as films, filmstrips, slides, and photographs, can make a vital contribution to the stimulation of interest in the second culture and to a clearer perception of the way of life in the second culture. Telling students about outdoor markets, squares, and other points of interest only suffices if pictures are not available for student viewing. The teacher should acquaint herself with the holdings of nearby film libraries and order films each year for her classes. (Normally, the audio-visual director for the school will have these catalogues available for teacher use.) Slides taken by the teacher add a touch of personal authenticity to the teacher's credibility, and the teacher should show them to all her students varying the commentary to the students' linguistic level. All the slides may be shown at once, or the teacher can select them individually to illustrate specific aspects of culture. Drawings and models (for example, the Eiffel Tower) prepared by artistically talented students can be saved from year to year to add a visual dimension to teacher and textbook descriptions.
In the case of those teachers who have the ability and interest, music and dance of the second culture can be introduced. The words, the music, and the dance movements can all be related to the people, their moods, their interests, and their way of life. Not all students, of course, are interested in music or dance. With some classes, such activities are successful while with others they are not. Some teachers have the spirit and enthusiasm to get the students involved while others do not. For those teachers who can bring music and dance into the schools succesfully, activities in which the students participate in singing or dancing can be a tremendous morale builder among the students. Too, a program based on student talent is an excellent means of building interest in the second language both in the school and in the community. To be successful, however, the students need to become active participants in the singing and dancing. Simply listening to music or watching films of dancing does not hold adolescent attention for more than short periods of time.
Out of Class
Learning activities focusing on culture need not be restricted to the classroom. Many possibilities for extending student familiarity with the second culture exist beyond the classroom.
Pen pals and tape exchanges Pen pals and tape exchanges give the students an opportunity to make personal contact with someone their own age from the second culture. Thus, they get to know a speaker of the second language from a personal point of view, and they can ask the questions in which they have an interest. If the teacher has time and if the students are willing, some of the most interesting and informative letters can be shared with the other members of the class. Besides the cultural advantage, just writing to the pen pal can often be a strong motivating factor in second-language study. Tapes, either between classes or between individuals, can be undertaken with advantageous results for the students in both cultures. Each tape can deal with a different aspect of culture, which over the period of a year can yield cultural information that might not be available to the students in any other manner. The exchange of tapes may even lead to the exchange of realia and other objects of interest to the class.
Special programs and events Cultural touring groups from abroad afford special opportunities for the students to witness some of the representatives of the language and the culture they have been studying. Fortunately, the intercultural exchange programs have brought singing, dancing, and theater groups from other cultures within driving distance of most American students. The alert teacher will take advantage of these opportunities for students to attend programs of large C culture and to motivate student interest in the second culture.
Community resources Many cultural resources in the local school district can be tapped to broaden the students' exposure to cultural information and activities. One way to make the culture come alive is to bring the students into contact with the living culture in the community. Native speakers, for example, can be invited to the class to talk to the students about life in the second- language community, both in the students' own country and abroad. (Prior to the day of the visit the teacher should be sure to focus the attention of the students and the native speaker upon the specific topics to be discussed.) In most of the larger cities and even in many of the smaller ones, specialty restaurants offer foods from many different nations. A class excursion for a meal at one of these spots can highlight a semester and give the students the experience of tasting food of the second culture. (If the waiters speak the second language, the students are treated to a linguistic as well as a culinary experience.) Museums and art galleries in the larger cities may have special collections or exhibits of interest to some or all of the students. These may be of interest and importance for the cultural implications of the work as well as for the fame of the artist. In some areas, theaters show feature films from the second culture and in the second language with subtitles. With careful screening and detailed student preparation prior to seeing the movie, the
teacher may be able to take the students to a movie. Obviously, movies in commercial theaters are not prepared with students in mind, so the teacher should keep in mind that not all films will be suitable. Those that are, however, can help the students to visualize cultural differences.
Travelogue films Many communities have individuals or groups who sponsor a series of travel films. These filmed glimpses into other countries and other cultures are produced by experts and are normally very well done. Whenever one deals with a country of interest to the class, the students can learn a great deal by attending the program. They will learn about the architecture and the tourist attractions, of course, but they will also learn some things about the people and their customs.
Summer camps Although not numerous, some summer language camps exist. Under the guidance of native speakers, the students learn, play, and work in the second language during their stay at the camp.
Student exchange and travel/study abroad For those students who have the linguistic ability, interest, time, and money, the opportunity to study in the second-language community is a definite asset to any second-language program. The most valuable type of experience is direct exposure to the customs and habits of the second culture. Students can learn more in less time than is ever possible in class. However, they must be carefully prepared before going abroad, and both they and the programs must be carefully selected if the results are to be satisfactory and worthwhile.
Regional and state language festivals A recent innovation in second-language education has been the holding of regional and state language festivals. Second-language students in the area come together for a day of fun, games, programs, and activities in the second language. Although organized primarily to promote interest in second-language study, making purchases, playing games, attending programs, etc. in the second language can have cultural advantages as well.
Given the culture content and a variety of techniques for presenting the information to the students, the next decision facing the teacher is how to coordinate culture with the other material to be learned in the class. Learning the language itself is a full-time task. How can room be made for more
material? The answer to this question is certainly not an easy one, but it is hoped that the second-language teacher will recognize the need for developing a second-language course in which culture is a basic component. Techniques have been developed that can be inserted unobtrusively into the class without disturbing the remainder of the lesson plan. On those days in which more time is required for lengthy activities, the culture portion of the class can serve as a change of pace to the more typical language routine. Too, a deepening insight into the people can be a motivating stimulus that will enhance student interest in the course.
How much time should be spent teaching culture? In this author's opinion, the answer to that question depends upon the teacher and the students in the class. Too, the type of cultural material presented and the manner in which it is organized will influence the amount of time spent. The point is that the amount of culture introduced is not so important as the degree of familiarity the students have with the second culture at the end of the course. However, if a rule of thumb is desirable, this author believes that in the ideal second-language class some culture is included in each and every regular class.
The following paragraphs specify how the various culture techniques may be incorporated into the structure of the class.
Daily Daily culture topics should be short and concise. Dwelling on a particular culture item every day robs the class of time needed for the four language skills. Too, the teacher should not overdo a good thing, for this would most likely lead to a point of diminishing returns. Cultural asides, culture assimilators, and slice-of-life techniques can be used daily with a major cumulative effect on class culture goals without taking up huge amounts of class time. None of these activities should last more than two or three minutes.
Weekly On a weekly basis, the teacher may decide to deal with cultural topics requiring longer periods of time. Near the end of the week he may want to give a lecture presentation, prepare a culture capsule, use a question- directed discussion or the inquiry approach, work with an audio-motor unit, involve the students in a group solution to a situational problem, or give the students time to look for specified topics in newspapers or magazines. These activities may take from a minimum of five to a maximum of fifteen minutes, and they permit a more complete examination of a culture component than is possible on a daily basis.
Periodically Occasionally, the teacher may decide to spend even longer periods on some cultural activity. She can show a film, utilize visual aids or models, develop a culture cluster, have the students prepare miniskits, prepare a bulletin board display as a class activity, give the students time to present reports or the results of projects, play records, sing, or dance. Although too time-consuming to be used regularly in the class, activities of this type can be beneficial learning activities if not used to excess and if approached with a learning objective in mind. The students should not be given the impression that these are minivacations entirely separated from the more serious aspects of the class.
What culture is to be included at the different levels of instruction? Answers to this question remain to be developed. The culture objectives and materials should be so arranged, of course, that content is not repeated. Since many students study a second language for only one or two years, the most important concepts should be introduced during the first two years. Another problem related to teaching culture at different levels has to do with whether to teach the culture in the first or the second language. Some elementary textbook authors prefer to write cultural material in the first language, while others choose the second. A major factor in the decision rests on the content of the materials, but it would seem that as soon as the students have the linguistic skills to comprehend, culture should be taught in the second language.
Brooks (1971) has proposed a sequence of cultural content for each of four levels of second-language study. At the first level, he proposes to treat the family table, the schoolroom, the playground, homework, chores, letters, games, parties, parades, and holidays. The second level would deal with "close-ups of thought and action" contained in proverbs and sayings and pictures and photographs of situations exemplifying typical aspects of the culture. The third level would center on the anatomy of the culture in which the "regrettable" and the "tragic" side of the culture is explored. And the fourth level would synthesize the culture in its entirety. Brooks stresses that during this entire sequence the students will continue to be a part of the first-language culture and that the success of the culture program depends upon a comprehensible and organized presentation of the second-language culture.
Brooks's division is a logical one that can serve as a model for second- language teachers to follow. Beginning with those cultural aspects that are most important to the individual and progressing to a more generalized
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overview of the total culture system is appropriate in view of the need to interest beginning second-language students and to give them the most basic information in the first two years of second-language study. However, if the teacher is contemplating a program in which he plans to gather and prepare cultural materials for use in his classes, it would be most efficient for him to collect information suitable for all levels in the first year of the culture project. In the second year, the materials prepared the first year can be used with first-year students with the new materials being used with all students above the first-year level, and so forth. At the end of the four-year period, a series of cultural materials would be available for each level in the school system. Using this sequence, all students would learn important cultural information and concepts each year without having to repeat the same material; and the teacher would have to prepare only one set of materials each year.