Culture in the Classroom

                

Learning about Culture

Can we ever fully understand and empathize with another culture? Within the confines of a classroom it is often difficult to teach and expose students to different cultures. Even with the exposure of different texts and examples culture may not be fully understood. It is the educators as well as the students’ responsibility to engage in multiple discourses in regards to cultural diversity. With this said, it is first important to recognize how we acquire culture, and what culture truly means.

According to Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning, culture is a “historically transmitted sermonic network constructed by humans which allows them to develop, communicate and perpetuate their knowledge beliefs and attitudes about the world” (30). Common cultural attitudes create a common ground in which there is a predisposed understanding to a person’s idea. People may share a common lexicon which makes it less complex and effortful to communicate.  This also makes metaphors, a common learning tool, easier to assimilate and understand. A mental representation of a word may be different across culture. For example, when you think of the word “bread” what comes to mind? A slice of bread, a loaf, a sliced open roll? All of these mental representations can be seen as difference in cultural values. Though, how we obtain individual values is determined on our past experiences. So, how can a teacher, with students with many different backgrounds and cultures assimilate then all into a respectful and communal understanding with one another?
Presented in Winrergerst's text, Exploring Culture, are six tips to help both students and teachers with the concept of culture. "1. Have students articulate their own definition of culture, 2. Raise culture to a conscious level, 3. Point out the hidden aspects of culture 4. Point out how cultures may value the same thing differently, 5. Help students understand how culture works, 6. Build awareness about the stress caused by cultural adjustment" (Winrergerst 2). One of the first and most difficult aspects of learning about culture is mentally displacing ourselves out of our own culture. If this is achieved it is easier to examine our own environment and then begin to compare and contrast it to others.  If it is true that a person can fully understand the complexities of culture, exercises such as the one listed above is a good way to begin that process within the confines of a classroom.

Defining Culture

            Culture is like a slight breeze, it may go unnoticed, though is constantly moving and changing as time progresses. After reading Morgan’s text on defining culture, we can further identify this concept of culture as a not only a noun, or essentialist, but also as a verb, or non essentialist. Morgan defines and deconstructs culture in a few different contexts. He states,  “…the persons of the culture are the process of activity creating, changing products, practices, perspectives and communities” (24). He identifies culture as an active, living thing that, like the breeze, travels, and changes.  Some of these aspects, such as products, are tangible, but it is often the non tangible aspects of culture, such as perspectives as Morgan illiterates in an iceberg, that may be often overlooked especially in the classroom.

            A lesson activity that I appreciated in Morgan’s text was his activity “Analyzing the Cultural Phenomenon” (28). The purpose in this activity is to examine the interconnectedness of the five dimensions of culture. Some of the topics are a restaurant, a musical instrument, a food market, or a concert. By identifying students answers to these questions the instructor and the student can better identify some different aspects of culture.

            I am also very interested in language and culture. Language not only is used as a vessel to communicate ideas, though can also be seen as a projection of a person’s identity. An example of this can be seen in the standardization of American English. Americans had a want to separate themselves from the English to create their own identity. The standardization of American English that came with the publication of Noah Websters dictionary in 1828 developed different ways to spell certain words. For this reason, diction, syntax, dialect can develop communities identity and culture.  However, how does language, seen as part of identity, used in a classroom of students that is being taught the English language?

            Prescriptive language is the standard language and grammar. This use of language have a “correct” and an “incorrect” usage. This is what is typically taught in an academic setting. Descriptive language and grammar is how people actually speak, which can be translated into writing. In a classroom a teacher has the challenge of supporting the cultural aspects of language, but also enforcing the learning of prescriptive language.

My name is Bianca I am an English Education major.