Teaching American Culture abroad
January 21, 2009 8:46 AM Subscribe
What online resources/examples would you use to teach a class about American Culture to ESL students?
I teach ESL in South America and will be teaching a 3-4 hour class on American Culture. Some things I want to include are
-- brief history overview
-- different accents
-- breaking / proving stereotypes.
Know of any good videos/websites/images, etc. to help me compile this info?
I teach ESL in South America and will be teaching a 3-4 hour class on American Culture. Some things I want to include are
-- brief history overview
-- different accents
-- breaking / proving stereotypes.
Know of any good videos/websites/images, etc. to help me compile this info?
Well, it's clear to me what the OP meant. South Americans are not usually simply referred to as Americans, in the same way that Canadians aren't. Not too sure why Mr. Strange felt the need to get his knickers in a wad, but moving on...
Brief histories are probably easiest from Wikipedia. Uncontroversial historic events are usually pretty well documented in wiki, as far as I've found, so you could give students a rundown of things that way.
For accents, try podcasts and online radio. You can even look for those things on a regional basis, so it shouldn't be hard. Also, local news stations often have video stuff these days, so accents aplenty.
I wouldn't even try the breaking and proving stereotypes. That could take ages. Instead, I would think it would just be better to teach your students to be critical thinkers who discover things for themselves. That usually means stereotypes are proven and broken many times over, thus teaching that most things are grey, not black and white.
Probably giving them resources where they can find other things about all 50 states, in their own time, would be helpful (especially since you only have some in-class time). There's a lot to cover.
Statistics may be your friend, as one can come to a basic conclusion about something quickly through them. City-data.com can give you a lot of regional and state-wide information. Statemaster.com is another place to look. Like, students may be interested to know what regions are the poorest or wealthiest, most religious, etc., because it's not always what one would expect (or as mainstream media entertainment always portrays).
This sounds like a fun task! Good luck with it!
posted by metalheart at 10:15 AM on January 21, 2009
Brief histories are probably easiest from Wikipedia. Uncontroversial historic events are usually pretty well documented in wiki, as far as I've found, so you could give students a rundown of things that way.
For accents, try podcasts and online radio. You can even look for those things on a regional basis, so it shouldn't be hard. Also, local news stations often have video stuff these days, so accents aplenty.
I wouldn't even try the breaking and proving stereotypes. That could take ages. Instead, I would think it would just be better to teach your students to be critical thinkers who discover things for themselves. That usually means stereotypes are proven and broken many times over, thus teaching that most things are grey, not black and white.
Probably giving them resources where they can find other things about all 50 states, in their own time, would be helpful (especially since you only have some in-class time). There's a lot to cover.
Statistics may be your friend, as one can come to a basic conclusion about something quickly through them. City-data.com can give you a lot of regional and state-wide information. Statemaster.com is another place to look. Like, students may be interested to know what regions are the poorest or wealthiest, most religious, etc., because it's not always what one would expect (or as mainstream media entertainment always portrays).
This sounds like a fun task! Good luck with it!
posted by metalheart at 10:15 AM on January 21, 2009
This has a ton of information on accents, and SOMEWHERE on that page is a really good link with audio samples of regional dialects. I can't find the exact link, though. It had samples in mp3s, though.
posted by Benjy at 10:35 AM on January 21, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by Benjy at 10:35 AM on January 21, 2009 [1 favorite]
Regarding stereotypes, I would try to keep it as student-centered as possible. A lot will depend on how much they already know. They might just have general ideas about "Americans", or they might have some more specific ones about big Texans, relaxed Californians, rude New Yorkers, etc.
You could do a group / pairwork type task where they do stuff like "True or False for Americans":
In Texas, people will often (blah blah blah)
Americans think it is OK to invite friends form work to their homes
People in New York get angry if you stand on the sidewalk
etc etc.
After some feedback from you on the answers, then they could come back to their previous ideas and see to what extent their stereotypes were accurate.
Something that can help people have a less negative view of a stereotypical behaviour of a foreign culture is to dig a little into the WHY people are like this. For example, everyone says people from NYC are rude. But this is maybe because everyone is very busy, and there are so many strangers you come across so you all need to follow unspoken rules about moving along in public areas, etc. etc. So now, we have moved the stereotype from something negative to something a little more sympathetic and understandable from an alien perspective.
And the final stage here when dealing with aspects of foreign culture is to get a personal reaction. "Carlos, how do YOU feel about this? Could YOU live in a place that was so busy? Would YOU be able to bump a stranegr out of the way if they were blocking the sidewalk?"
This is all taken from Pat Moran's model of cultural education (what, how, why, oneself) which we use extensively in our training courses. I am not finding anything super good with this search, but you could try digging deeper if you are interested.
posted by Meatbomb at 12:55 AM on January 22, 2009
You could do a group / pairwork type task where they do stuff like "True or False for Americans":
In Texas, people will often (blah blah blah)
Americans think it is OK to invite friends form work to their homes
People in New York get angry if you stand on the sidewalk
etc etc.
After some feedback from you on the answers, then they could come back to their previous ideas and see to what extent their stereotypes were accurate.
Something that can help people have a less negative view of a stereotypical behaviour of a foreign culture is to dig a little into the WHY people are like this. For example, everyone says people from NYC are rude. But this is maybe because everyone is very busy, and there are so many strangers you come across so you all need to follow unspoken rules about moving along in public areas, etc. etc. So now, we have moved the stereotype from something negative to something a little more sympathetic and understandable from an alien perspective.
And the final stage here when dealing with aspects of foreign culture is to get a personal reaction. "Carlos, how do YOU feel about this? Could YOU live in a place that was so busy? Would YOU be able to bump a stranegr out of the way if they were blocking the sidewalk?"
This is all taken from Pat Moran's model of cultural education (what, how, why, oneself) which we use extensively in our training courses. I am not finding anything super good with this search, but you could try digging deeper if you are interested.
posted by Meatbomb at 12:55 AM on January 22, 2009
When I was in Kabul it was really interesting when we did this sort of cultural awareness lesson with Afghan kids. We went through greeting in "the West" (as a Canadian I was mainly showing North American style introductory greeting / handshake).
The step I didn't explain above is the "how", which can be fun for things you are able to actually replicate in the classroom. Of course, we allowed women to decline this part of the lesson if they just wanted to watch...
So, the interesting thing to me is how many of these (lovely, bright, eager) young Afghan girls were willing to look me in the eye and give a firm handshake, saying "Hi, my name is Fazila," when in their daily reality making eye contact with a strange man was completely taboo.
And when they understoof the "WHY" of this ritual (everyone is equal, we are all on a first name basis, etc etc.) I am sure that some little seeds of awareness and emancipation were planted. Of course, the down side here is that this sets them up for getting acid thrown in their faces by men who object to women getting educated and not knowing their proper place in society, but that is a story for another day...
posted by Meatbomb at 1:04 AM on January 22, 2009
The step I didn't explain above is the "how", which can be fun for things you are able to actually replicate in the classroom. Of course, we allowed women to decline this part of the lesson if they just wanted to watch...
So, the interesting thing to me is how many of these (lovely, bright, eager) young Afghan girls were willing to look me in the eye and give a firm handshake, saying "Hi, my name is Fazila," when in their daily reality making eye contact with a strange man was completely taboo.
And when they understoof the "WHY" of this ritual (everyone is equal, we are all on a first name basis, etc etc.) I am sure that some little seeds of awareness and emancipation were planted. Of course, the down side here is that this sets them up for getting acid thrown in their faces by men who object to women getting educated and not knowing their proper place in society, but that is a story for another day...
posted by Meatbomb at 1:04 AM on January 22, 2009
Something I did when I lived in France a while back and was trying to get this sort of point across: made a list of the contents and size of my house and my parents house. How many rooms? What was in each? What did I do on a normal Friday/Saturday night? Sunday dinner? What did we all eat? What did I study in school? What did my parents/grandparents/uncle/brother do for a living? Were they from the area I was raised in?
Not just you would do this - your students would as well.
It puts things into a context everyone can understand. Most people have a family of sorts. It normalises the exotic. Plus, as a language teacher, you get a chance to introduce vocabulary and idiom you might not otherwise.
posted by Grrlscout at 2:38 AM on January 22, 2009
Not just you would do this - your students would as well.
It puts things into a context everyone can understand. Most people have a family of sorts. It normalises the exotic. Plus, as a language teacher, you get a chance to introduce vocabulary and idiom you might not otherwise.
posted by Grrlscout at 2:38 AM on January 22, 2009
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Is your only beef that the OP didn't specify "USA" culture and you think that he's discounting the "America" part of South America? Surely you know that the majority of South Americans speak Spanish as their primary language (Brazilians speak Portuguese, of course) and that the customs vary as much from Venezuela to Chile as they do from the US? I'm a mod on an ESL message board and I receive questions from South American students quite frequently regarding things like how to tip in American (excuse me, USA) restaurants, what exactly is the Tooth Fairy, what are traditional Thanksgiving foods, things like that.
Maca, I've found this book to be helpful for explaining things like garage sales, clipping coupons, shaking hands, etc. This website might be a good launching pad for teaching American culture. As for the different accents, YouTube was always my friend - I'd find clips of say, Jeff Foxworthy or Andy Griffith or John F. Kennedy, to demonstrate different Southern drawls and the Boston accent.
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:09 AM on January 21, 2009