Culture and Language Learning Initiatives
The Culture and Language Learning initiatives sponsored by the Center
for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) have been conducted
with the support of the U.S. Department of Education in several phases.
These initiatives include:
Setting a Research Agenda (1993-1996)
A 1991 symposium on culture and language learning held at the University
of Minnesota provided the foundation for the initial phase of the project.
In 1993 with Language Resource Center funding from the U.S. Department
of Education CARLA faculty and staff began work on a set of new Culture
and Language Learning initiatives. The work began with an exhaustive review
of the literature pertaining to culture learning in foreign and second
language education. The project also commissioned three papers to serve
as the foci of the second project-sponsored conference. One paper examined
the theoretical possibilities of integrating culture and language learning,
while a second suggested ways in which teachers could apply these new concepts
in the classroom. The third paper was a summary of the project's extensive
literature review, taking into consideration the variety of disciplines
affected by and contributing to culture learning. The goal of all these
activities was to create a solid theoretical understanding of the language/culture
connection in order to begin developing concrete educational models for
practitioners. The conference papers were published as part of the CARLA
working paper series and were republished by Information Age Publishing
in 2003. (link to www.infoage.com)
Combining practical application with an historical and theoretical understanding
was also the theme of the two conferences sponsored by the project. The
first conference, held at the University of Minnesota in 1994, provided
a forum for practitioners, researchers, and theorists to share ideas and
learn from each other. Building on the success of this conference, the
second conference, "Culture as the Core: Transforming the Language
Curriculum" (link to past conferences page) was held at the University
of Minnesota in 1996, and included two days of discussion among experts
in the fields of second language learning and intercultural communication,
and one day during which practitioners from the community were invited
to participate in the dialogue. The issues and ideas that resulted from
the active discussions at both conferences have been used to enrich the
revised, published versions of the three commissioned papers, and set a
new direction for language practitioners and researchers alike.
Conducting Research on Culture Learning in the Language Classroom (1996-1999)
During the second round of LRC funding, the Intercultural Studies Project
team conducted a research project that examined ways in which culture learning
and intercultural competence can be assessed in the language classroom.
The study of a foreign language has long been hailed by foreign language
educators, parents and students as a way to
- broaden one's perspective and understanding of the world, and
- increase one's ability to interact with people of different backgrounds
and cultures.
Yet, belief in such benefits from foreign language study rests mainly
on anecdotal evidence; the nature of the effect that foreign language learning
has on the learner, as well as the ways to impact it, have remained largely
unexplored. While the linguistic curriculum and outcomes of the foreign
language classroom are well defined and a number of methods for assessing
their attainment have been devised, no such systematic evaluation of the
cultural outcomes of foreign language instruction has ever taken place.
Furthermore, the integration of language and culture is far from being
realized in the foreign language classroom of the nineties, in spite of
the fact that the integration of language and culture has been an ongoing
concern of foreign language educators for the past fifty years. Of primary
concern is the fact that uncertainty still prevails among foreign language
educators, not just with regard to methods for integrating cultural teaching
into a language syllabus but also regarding what constitutes legitimate
and achievable cultural goals in the foreign language classroom. In particular,
prior research conducted had been inconclusive as to how much teachers'
beliefs about their subject matter influence their educational practice
(Ryan, 1994; Stodolsky & Grossman, 1995).
Accordingly, the goals of this LRC research project were:
- to explore foreign language teachers' beliefs about culture and culture
learning;
- to probe the relationship between teachers' beliefs and their instructional
practices;
- to investigate the acquisition of intercultural sensitivity in the
secondary and post-secondary foreign language classroom.
The specific research questions explored in this study included:
- What are the perceptions of culture held by high school teachers and
university instructors of foreign language?
- What is the relationship between their beliefs about culture and their
instructional behavior?
- What are the levels of intercultural sensitivity demonstrated by the
students in the classes of participating teachers?
The dual focus on the teacher and the student framed the two phases of
the study. In the first phase, the researchers focused on the teacher and
the classroom interactions, with an emphasis on the teacher's conceptualization
of culture and culture teaching. This part of the project involved pre-observation
interviews, classroom observations, and post-observation interviews.
The researchers interviewed thirteen high school teachers and four university
instructors teaching languages at various levels. The researchers’
intent was to explore three kinds of educational constructs, such as beliefs
about culture and culture learning, beliefs about pedagogy, and beliefs
about self. In addition, the teachers also filled out a background questionnaire
for the purpose of collecting demographic data in a standardized form.
Classroom observations included micro-observations of classroom interactions
as well as structural observations. In all observational contexts, the
researchers acted as non-participant observers. In the high school classes,
each teacher was observed for ten consecutive days. The university instructors
were observed once each. Additionally, each high school teacher was observed
for one "culture class" (defined as a whole class period devoted
to the teaching of culture) during the fall semester of 1998. Post-observation
interviews with those teachers who were part of the classroom observations
took place in fall 1998 after the observation of the special culture class.
These interviews were constructed from the field notes and served the double
purpose of clarifying practice and of giving teachers a further opportunity
to elaborate on their instructional choices and decisions.
For further information on this part of the study contact researcher
Francine Klein at efmvk@yahoo.com.
The second direction of the research encompassed the evaluation of learning
outcomes, specifically the students' acquisition of intercultural sensitivity,
defined in the literature as a person's sensitivity to the importance of
cultural differences and to the viewpoints of culturally different others.
The assumptions put to test in this part of the study included the following:
- students of foreign languages will demonstrate high levels of intercultural
sensitivity, and
- students’ sensitivity to cultural difference will increase over
the duration of foreign language study.
For the purposes of this study, the instrument used to measure intercultural
sensitivity was the newly-developed Intercultural
Development Inventory (IDI) (Hammer & Bennett 1998). The IDI is
based on the Bennett model of intercultural sensitivity, which describes
the ways in which people construe cultural difference. Bennett postulates
that acquiring intercultural sensitivity is a developmental process, in
which a person moves from denial of, defense from, and minimization of
cultural difference (ethnocentric stages) to acceptance, adaptation, and
integration of difference (ethnorelative stages).
The IDI was administered to 353 high school students and university students
during the 1997-98 and 98-99 academic years. Fifteen qualitative interviews
were also undertaken with students from several different language and
culture courses. The purpose of the administration was:
- to pilot the instrument in the foreign language classroom;
- to provide the researchers with the baseline data for further research;
and
- to provide diagnostic information to instructors about the students'
intercultural development.
The researchers concluded from the analysis of the quantitative data
that the IDI is a reasonably reliable and valid instrument for assessing
intercultural development. In addition, the qualitative data provided a
cross-validation of the instrument and gave the research team further insight
into how students convey their understanding of intercultural differences.
Data from this study has been presented at many conferences and was published
as an article in the International Journal of Intercultural Relations.
The reference for this article is as follows:
Paige, R.M., Jacobs-Cassuto, M., Yershova, Y. A. &
DeJaeghere, J. (2003). Assessing intercultural sensitivity: An empirical
analysis of the Hammer and Bennett Intercultural Development Inventory.
International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 27, 467-486.
Bridging Research to the Language Classroom
In addition, data from several courses was provided to instructors and
debriefed so that they could explore the implications of their students'
development for their teaching methods and curriculum design. This data
debriefing resulted in an ongoing discussion with these educators about
how to design their teaching and curriculum to promote intercultural development.
From these discussions, a manual was written to assist university language
educators in integrating intercultural learning content and methods into
the language curriculum.
The manual was designed for the following purposes: 1) to provide knowledge
of the concepts of intercultural competence and learning; 2) to provide
techniques and tools that can be utilized in the classroom to help students
become intercultural competent; and 3) to provide specific curriculum ideas
that can be integrated into the language curriculum for the specific purpose
of teaching intercultural competence. The manual consists of five sections:
- an introduction which summarizes the project and the purposes of the
manual;
- defines cultural and intercultural competence and provides the M. J.
Bennett model of intercultural development and the J. Bennett model of
support and challenge in the curriculum as a framework for curriculum
development;
- further develops how the above models and other tools can be used to
design the intercultural classroom and curriculum;
- provides additional tools for facilitating cultural learning throughout
the curriculum; and
- illustrates several curriculum examples that utilize the above tools
for the purposes of culture learning.
In addition, a bibliography on culture
learning was created.
Maximizing Study Abroad: Strategies for Language and Culture Learning and
Use (1999-2003)
In 1999 the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA)
at the University of Minnesota received funding from the U.S. Department
of Education’s Language Resource Center program to create a set of
user-friendly materials on language- and culture-learning strategies designed
to maximize students’ study abroad experiences. This project was
a logical extension of previous work conducted at CARLA on culture and
language learning and strategies-based instruction.
During the period 1999-2003 the project leaders created, field-tested,
and revised the following set of three guides as part of the Maximizing
Study Abroad series:
- Maximizing Study Abroad: A Students’ Guide to Strategies
for Language and Culture Learning and Use
- Maximizing Study Abroad: A Program Professionals’ Guide to
Strategies for Language and Culture Learning and Use
- Maximizing Study Abroad: A Language Instructors’ Guide to
Strategies for Language and Culture Learning and Use
Research on the Effect of Study Abroad Materials on Student Learning (2002-2006)
In September 2002 Professors Cohen and Paige began work on a comprehensive
study on the effectiveness of the Maximizing
Study Abroad guides on the enhancement of study abroad students’
language competence and intercultural communication skills. The study also
examines the use of the materials in study abroad programs and language
classrooms.
For further information about the Culture and Language Learning initiatives
contact Dr. R. Michael Paige at r-paig@umn.edu.
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