Approaches to Teaching Culture in ELT

Culture, Culture Teaching, Teaching, Teaching Practices, Teaching Tips 0 comments

Approaches to Teaching Culture in ELT

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Friday, September 5, 2014

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 142

If “Culture seems to include everything people learn to do” (Seelye 1993), what can be done to accomplish some good intercultural communication training among students in a language class? An answer to this simple question is of crucial importance when one thinks that “intercultural communication occurs when a member of one culture produces a message for consumption by a member of another culture” (Samovar, Porter, & McDaniel 2010). The answer can be directly linked to the overt teaching of Culture Assimilators, Culture Capsules, and Culture Clusters.

“Intercultural communication involves interaction between people whose cultural perceptions and symbol systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event” (Samovar, Porter, & McDaniel 2010). To avoid communication alterations, culture assimilators can be a way to gap the breakdown in exchanging information when members of two contrasting cultures meet. Culture assimilators were devised by Fiddler, Mitchel, & Triandis in 1971 (Seelye 1993), and they consist of a “mini-exposé” of a piece of target behavior unit that needs to be explained, understood, and then used by an outsider. These units of target behavior are at times “puzzling,” “conflictful,” (Seelye 1993) and misleading in the eyes of an alien to that culture. Fiddler, Mitchel, & Triandis devised culture assimilators by creating situations with four possible explanations or interpretations to test trainee’s understanding. Though students can get a wrong answer, they are given explanations why they are wrong and have them explore another alternative until they get the right one. Finally, this way of working with a target culture can be “fun to read;” it can actively involve trainees with real cross cultural issues, and learners can become more effective in dealing with these experiences.

As Seelye (1993) has pointed out, “special skills are required if the messages received are to resemble the messages sent.” Based on this assumption, culture capsules can be of great help, too. These capsules are also “mini-exposés” of a small unit of target behavior that needs to be explained and taught to trainees. As suggested by Taylor & Sorenson (1961, also quoted by Seelye 1993), these culture capsules can be prepared outside of class by students but presented in class. That is, learners are provided with a passage or audio track which is explaining a minimal difference between their culture and the target culture. After the reading or listening, students are given a set of questions to test their comprehension whose goal is to serve as a way to spot the difference, make pupils aware of that difference, and mull over them to see how those disparities differ from their culture. By means of this analysis, trainees can get the special skills required to cope with cultural differences.

“Although cultures might express [their] feelings and emotions differently, all people, by both nature and nurture, have a need to communicate and interact with others” (Samovar, Porter, & McDaniel 2010). Yet it is our decision to find ways to comprehend our differences to communicate better; for that reason, a set of culture clusters can make us foreigners in a culture understand it better. Meade & Morain in 1973 (Seelye 1993) came up with this idea of clusters to show and demonstrate broader relationships among several cultural fragments. Since Meade & Morain thought of three illustrated culture capsules that develop the very same topic, they suggest to have students culminate with a simulation where learners actually act the cultural fragments out. The teacher’s role is of a narrator who guides trainees through the process to ensure comprehension and assimilation. As can be deduced from these notes, culture clusters are presented to learners in both “textual descriptions” and “accompanying media” (realia, audio, pictures, etc.).

“Communication,” as stated by Samovar, Porter, & McDaniel (2010), “is powerful: It brings companions to our side or scatters our rivals, reassures or alerts children, and forges consensus or battle lines between us.” If we language instructors really intend to teach students how to cope with cultural differences as part of their language and work readiness training, it is necessary to find assertive methodological ways to do so. Culture Assimilators, as well as Culture Capsules and Culture Clusters, can become safe pathways to have learners explore their own cultural behavior when facing cultural differences and to have them develop their cultural sensibility and tolerance towards different “behavioral options available in any one society” (Seelye 1993), which are the product of its past history. These three cultural training options can be optimal ways to teach cross cultural understanding.

Samovar, L., Porter, R., & McDaniel, E. (2010). Communication between Cultures. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning

Seelye, H. (1993). Teaching Culture: Strategies for Intercultural Communication. National Textbook Company

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