Resources for Teachers

What is Culture?

The definition of ‘culture’ used for the purposes of CARLA’s Culture and Language Learning initiatives is given, along with a collection of other definitions of culture used by researchers in a variety of disciplines.

Resources

CARLA's Culture and Language Learning project staff have gathered up a wide range of resources for language teachers who are looking at ways integrating culture and language instruction.

• Academic Programs for Intercultural Studies
• Professional Organizations
• Bibliography for Intercultural Studies
• Journals & Other Periodicals
• Electronic Journals
• Websites
• Culture Learning Simulations & Exercises
• Culture Learning Films & Videos
• Recommended Literature with Intercultural Themes

CARLA Publications on Culture and Language Learning

Maximizing Study Abroad: Strategies for Language and Culture Learning and Use
This new series of guidebooks helps students, program professionals, and language instructors make the most of study abroad opportunities. Practical and user-friendly, each guide speaks to a particular audience in helping students identify and use a wide variety of language- and culture-learning strategies.

Culture Learning in Language Education: A Review of the Literature

This paper examines the theoretical and research literatures pertaining to culture learning in language education programs. Written by R. Michael Paige, Helen Jorstad, Laura Siaya, Francine Klein, Jeanette Colby it was originally published in 1999 as a chapter in the CARLA working paper entitled Culture as the Core: Integrating Culture into the Language Curriculum. Download this paper (PDF).

Culture as the Core: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Culture Learning in the
This collection of papers focused on the important issue of integrating culture into the second language classroom. Seven of the papers were originally presented at a symposium held in 1991, which examined culture and language issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. The final chapter is a reflection on the 1991 symposium and the follow-up conference held by CARLA in 1994.

(Originally published in as CARLA Working Paper #11 in 1998. Selected papers were revised for inclusion in Culture as the Core: Perspectives on Culture in Second Language Learning published by Information Age Publishing in 2003.)

Culture as the Core: Integrating Culture into the Language Curriculum
This volume examined theory, research, and practice related to culture learning in the second language classroom and was based on the conference "Culture as the Core: Transforming the Language Curriculum" sponsored by CARLA in May 1996.

(Originally published in as CARLA Working Paper #15 in 1999. Selected papers were revised for inclusion in Culture as the Core: Perspectives on Culture in Second Language Learning published by Information Age Publishing in 2003.)

CARLA bibliography

More information about additional presentations and publications on Culture and Language Learning is available from the CARLA bibliography.