Making Time to Teach Culture without Taking Time

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"Making Time to Teach Culture without Taking
Time"

• Elena Shvidko, Stefanie Rasmussen,
• and Mark Tanner
• Thursday, March 26, 2009
• Denver, CO Convention Center
• Room 404, 100 145 p.m.

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Orientations towards culture in the language
classroom
Teaching Culture
Learning Culture
Learning About Culture
Teaching About Culture
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Techniques Used to Teach Culture?

• Critical incidents
• Cultural assimilators
• Culturgrams
• Role-plays
• Cultural similations
• Field experiences
• Ethnography

• Experiential activities
• Cross-cultural training
• Values clarification
• Film / video
• Literature
• Realia
• Authentic materials

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• Many teachers do not include culture into the
  language classroom because they feel there is no
  time to address culture in a packed curriculum.

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Consider a culture capsulation

• Can 5 minutes make a difference? Lets do the
  math!
• Say you teach for 14 weeks, 4 days a week for 4
  hours a day If students are taught just 5
  minutes of American culture in each class, how
  much culture instruction will they receive?
• Every day? 4 classes X 5 min. 20 min./day
• Every week? 4 days X 20 min./day 80 min./week
• Entire course? 14 weeks X 80 min. 18 hours
  and 40 min. of culture instruction (It adds up!)

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How can we make time for teaching and learning
about culture?

• The Grammar Class
• The Writing Class
• The Reading Class
• The Listening Class

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• Teaching Culture in the Grammar Class
• What ideas come to your mind of how to teach
  culture?

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What ideas do come to your mind?
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Expanding the lesson
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Another ideaImparatives
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• Do not use under the water!

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• Use only for one head at the same time!

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• Do not use for drying pets!

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• Do not put in mouth!

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• Do not use orally!

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• Teaching Culture in the Reading Class

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Teaching Culture in the Reading Class

• 1) Choose a cultural topic that is related to
  American culture.
• Look at the passage taken from the textbook
  Active Skills for Reading Book 3 by Neil J.
  Anderson

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2) Use different materials in class that help to
teach culture T.V. Guide

• How would you teach culture using this type of
  reading material?

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• Teaching Culture in the Writing Class

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Teaching Culture in the Writing Class

• 1) Choose a cultural topic that is related to
  American culture.
• Compare and contrast two American holidays/famous
  people/cities etc
• Writing on a current event in the US
• Writing about political/economical/educational
  system in America
• 2) Use different materials in class that help to
  teach culture

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How would you use these cultural items in your
writing class?

• Brochures
• Food Packages
• Grocery store receipts
• Newspapers

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How about food packages?
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Teaching how to describe a process by making
peanut butter sandwich
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Why a peanut butter sandwich?
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Procedure

• Students are divided into groups of three or four
• Each group writes the process of making a peanut
  butter and jelly sandwich using transition words
  for describing the process
• First
• Second
• Then
• Following this
• At this point
• After
• Before this
• Simultaneously
• Finally
• Next
• Lastly
• Groups trade their descriptions and each group
  will have to make a sandwich according to the
  description. They should follow the description
  the way it is written.

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• Teaching Culture in the Listening Class

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Teaching Culture in the Listening Class

• Choose a cultural topic that is related to
  American culture.
• Compare and contrast two American famous
  people
• Martin Luther King
• http//www.windmillworks.com/games/dream.htm
• Barak Obama
• http//www.headsupenglish.com/skillbuilders/listen
  ing/obama.pdf -

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What Distinguishes Art from an Accident?
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What distinguishes Culture Teaching from
Talking about Culture?

• Intentionality
• Focus

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Conclusion

• The language learning experience should be
  combined with explicit cultural instruction
  designed to provide students with specific
  information about life in the United States and
  to increase their understanding of American
  values and behavior.
• (Ackerberg and Comer, 1986)
• Consider ways that you can incorporate culture
  into your teaching on a daily basis. As you do
  so, you will empower your students with the
  cultural knowledge and understanding they need to
  be communicatively competent.

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• Presenters Contact Information
• Elena Shvidko icylena_at_hotmail.com
• Stefanie Rasmussen srasmussen_at_uvu.edu
• Mark Tanner mark_tanner_at_byu.edu
• Thanks for coming!