Conceptualizing Culture:Effectively Integrating Culture into the

Proficiency-Oriented Classroom

Danielle Asay & Bethany DanielBrigham Young University

What is culture?

Disclaimer!“Culture is pervasive, all-encompassing, and inescapable. The images and messages we receive and transmit are profoundly shaped by our culture. It is the framework through which we understand and interpret the world around us, in that it provides the context for a group of people to understand and interpret the world around them.”

Andrea DeCapua & Ann C. Wintergerst, 2004, p. 9

Why is it a challenge to teach culture?

Defining culture: Providing a cultural framework

“In the study of language, nothing has been discussed more and with less effect than the relationship between language and culture.”

Walker and Noda, 2000, p. 187

Common Approaches to Teaching Culture

1. The Frankenstein Approach• A taco from here, a flamenco dancer from there, a gaucho

from here, a bullfight from there.2. The 4-F Approach:

• Folk dances, festivals, fairs, and food.3. The Tour Guide Approach

• The identification of monuments, rivers, and cities. 4. The “By-the-Way” Approach

• Sporadic lectures or bits of behavior selected indiscriminately to emphasize sharp differences.

Galloway, 1985, as cited in Omaggio Hadley, 2001

Common Approaches to Teaching Culture

5. Big C/little c• Culture—great art, literature, music• culture—daily life, popular culture

6. Products, Practices and Perspectives (SFLL, 1996)

A "New" (Old) Possibility • Omaggio Hadley stresses the need for a balanced

approach to teaching culture (p. 353).• Hammerly, 1982:

• Informational culture• Facts that the educated native speaker knows about his

society (geography, history, heros, villains, etc.)• Achievement culture

• The artistic and literary accomplishments of a society• Behavioral culture

• The sum of everyday life• Revealed• Ignored• Suppressed

ExamplesWhat kind of culture are these examples an example of?

1. Napoleon2. the Great Wall3. les bises4. la siesta5. Wienerschnitzel6. Spanish Civil War7. Le Petit prince

Textbook Review

Proficiency and Performance• ACTFL defines proficiency as “the ability to use language

to communicate meaningful information in a spontaneous interaction, and in a manner acceptable and appropriate to native speakers of the language” (Swender & Vicars, 2012).• Focuses on the functional speaking ability—what students

are able to DO with the language.• They need to be able to DO these things in culturally

appropriate ways.

Proficiency and Performance

“Knowing how, when, and why to say what to whom”

• All the linguistic and social knowledge required for effective human-to-human interaction is encompassed in those ten words.

Standards, 1996

Proficiency and Performance• “You cannot learn a foreign language, you can only learn

to do things in a foreign language. The more things we learn to do, the more expert we are in that language.”

Walker and Noda, 2000, p. 25

Proficiency and Performance• Performed culture (Walker and Noda)

• Cultural memories• Situating events:

• Place• Time• Script• Roles• Audience

Strategies for Integration• Achievement

Strategies for Integration• Informational

• Authentic, realistic images• Cultural calendar/timeline

• important dates and events from target culture• Culture-oriented writing

• write on a topic from the target culture point of view

Strategies for Integration• Behavioral/Performed

• Performances• Role plays• Contextualization• Pragmatics

Examples

Questions?