preparing students for meaningful culture learning

Preparing Students for Meaningful Culture Learning

Corinne Man tle-Bromley University of Kansas

ABSTRQCT As culture becomes more a focus in the foreign language classroom, teachers need to increase their understanding of two related conceptx first, what preparation k necessav for students to succeed in learning another culture; second, what problems language teachers and their students may encounter in the culture learning process. This article discusses the need for teachers to restructure their views of culture learning, taking into account both the process itself and the problems that may arke. Pmented are practical lessons that can help both to prepare students to accept another culture and to address potential problems.

Culture is inseparable from language and therefore must be included in language study; culture is in the act of becoming and therefore should be taught as process. (Crawford-Lange and Lange, 5 , p.258.)

Introduction Many teachers believe that most students’

perceptions of language learning need to be altered. Students assume that the new words they are learning can be “plugged in” to existing syn- tactic structures. Overcoming this kind of linguistic naivetk and providing the new structures into which to fit the new vocabulary has long challenged teachers’ ingenuity in the classroom.

Teachers, for their part, have a less widely recognized, but analogous problem. They often assume, in teaching “culture,” that new cultural patterns can be fitted into their students’ existing

Corinne Mantie-Bmmley (Ph.D., University of Idaho) is Assistant Professor of Second Language Education at The University of Kansas, Lawrence.

cultural framework. Though teachers are not oblivious to the fact that both language and culture learning are, to some degree, a process of accepting another culture’s patterns of behavior (or “acculturation”), they are not entirely clear about how much attention must be paid to students’ cultural patterns, about how much preparation must be done before students can accept the phenomena of a foreign culture. Teachers, then, not only need to help students revise their linguistic patterns, they likewise need to help students revise their cultural patterns.

This article will discuss the need to help teachers restructure their views of the culture teachingAearning process. It will also offer some practical lessons designed to prep= students for acculturation, this acceptance of new patterns of behavior. Neither the discussion nor the lessons will address the many important facets of providing target culture behaviors; rather, they will focus on the necessary groundwork that must be laid before introducing those behaviors. Laying this groundwork requires an understanding of two concepts: first, what preparation is necessary and sufficient for acculturation to proceed; second, what problems a language teacher and her students may encounter in the course of acculturation.

In order to prepare students to learn a culture, the teacher needs to be aware of the results of research on several topics, including:

1. the role of attitudes, 2. the process of acculturation, 3. the need for readiness, and 4. the need for self-awareness.

These topics will be discussed in the first section. Additionally, the teacher needs an awareness

of the problems acculturation may present and

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researchers’ proposed solutions to those problems. Topics included are

1. social distance, 2. ethnocentrism and identity, 3. negative attitudes, 4. sliding attitudes, and 5 . attempts at attitude change.

These five will be discussed in the second section. Following this review of both the preparation

for and problems in acculturation, practical lessons dealing with both areas will be presented.

Preparation for Acculturation The Role of Attitudes

It is a common understanding that attitudes help shape students’ language-learning behaviors. A number of studies support the theory that students’ attitudes toward both the language being studied and its culture are related to how well they succeed in acquiring a second language (Gardner, Gliksman and Smythe, 9; and Gard- ner, 8). These studies confirm the commonsense notion that students with positive attitudes are more highly motivated and that increased motivation to learn strengthens the likelihood that a variety of desired behaviors will emerge such as greater participation in class (Gardner, et al., 12), continuation of language study (Bar- tley, 1; Gardner and Smythe, ll), and better retention of language skills (Gardner, Lalonde and MacPherson, 10). Consistently identified in studies as important in the traditional “foreign” language classroom-where a dominant group is learning a nondominant language-have been positive attitudes toward the target language, the speakers and cultures of the target language, language study in general, and the teacher and the class (Gardner and Smythe, 11; Gardner, 8).

If teachers are to restructure their students’ cultural conceptions (along with their linguistic ones), they need to recognize that cultural attitudes will play a paramount role in that restructuring. Research suggests that attitudes affect not only the students’ motivation to learn the language, but also their willingness to learn about and participate in acculturation. This process will be slow and frustrating for the students; the teacher’s role is critical if the students are to be successful.

The Process of Acculturation Hanvey (16) has described four levels of ac-

culturation, which he calls levels of “cross cultural awareness.’’ According to Hanvey, the learner initially sees culture in a stereotyped, superficial manner (Level One). As experience with the culture increases, and culture shock is experienced, the learner may move to Level Two, where he is aware of more subtle expressions of culture and becomes frustrated with his inabili- ty to function “normally.” If the learner is willing (i.e., his attitudes are “positive”), and has had the opportunity to establish new cultural patterns which help him adapt to the frustrations presented in Level Two, the learner can achieve Level Three. It is at this level that the learner ac- cepts the cultural event as an alternative behavior, rather than a “wrong” behavior. Hanvey believes that this third level is realistically achievable in the school setting. Furthermore, he believes teachers should strive to achieve Level Four, where the learner understands how members of the target culture feel. (Throughout the acculturation process, of course, the learner will necessarily fluctuate between levels. As new expressions of the culture are introduced, he is most likely to return to Level Two, where he will deal with the frustration of his culture-bound behaviors in relation to the new cultural event. As the event seems more and more believable, and the student establishes a new set of behaviors, he will progress again to Level Three.)

Learning new ways of perceiving is difficult and frustrating; the student and teacher may yearn for the easier, quicker (and less effective) learning about culture, as opposed to the harder work of learning in a new culture. Understand- ing by teachers of the process, and willingness to work through students’ frustrations can help them move through the levels of cross-cultural awareness. Brown, referring to these four levels, defines the teacher’s role in the culture learning process.

Teachers can play a therapeutic role in helping learners to move through stages of acculturation. If the learner is aided in this process by sensitive and perceptive teachers, he can perhaps more smoothly pass through the second stage and into the

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third stage of culture learning, and thereby increase his chances for succeeding in both second language learning and second culture learning (3, p. 39). Brown extends the teacher’s role further, to

helping the student deal with the surprising emotional involvement that acculturation entails. “A teacher can enable the learner to understand the source of his anger and frustration, to express those feelings, and then gradually to emerge from those depths to a very powerful and personal form of learning” (p. 39). Robinson also believes that acculturation requires emotional risk. “In educational programs aimed at developing affiliation with the target culture and language fluency, stimulation of emotion will facilitate the goal; in educational programs aimed at developing empathy, the stimulation of emotion not only facilitates the goal but, moreover, is intrinsic to the goal itself” (31, p. 28).

The Need for Readiness It is plain that teachers can no longer rely on

the traditional definition of culture, which is limited to fine arts, geography, and history. They must begin to teach also about daily patterns of life, including the values and beliefs of the target culture, and must do so in a way that encourages students insofar as possible to accept the new cultural event as an alternate way of behaving. Much work has been done in implementing this broader definition of culture. Seelye (33), among others, has helped teachers apply the earlier restructuring works of Brooks (2) and Nostrand (29) to new cultural materials. Robinson (31), Damon (a), Pusch (30) and Crawford-Lange and Lange (5 ) are included in those authors who have helped to identify problems associated with acculturation and/or methods that can be used to address culture learning. This new role will be difficult: the teacher may lack sufficient cultural knowledge, and, as mentioned earlier, teaching emotion-laden content is not easy.

I became aware of additional problems as I increased the focus of multicultural understanding in my own language classes. Students’ gains were hindered by their lack of understanding about culture in general: my students were unaware of

how much their own behaviors were bound by their own culture. We were all frustrated with several aspects of the culture learning process: it was slow, it resulted in different gains for different students, it lacked an authentic context, and they felt it required a loss of their own identity to accept and use new behaviors.

Because of those additional problems, I at- tempted to design a curriculum whose goal was to introduce new culture-related concepts to beginning language students and prepare them for the culture learning process. It was im- plemented in ten classes of beginning Spanish in the fall of 1989. Ten other classes were used as a control group to determine if there was a difference in students’ attitudes if these specific affective needs were addressed. Mantle-Bromley and Miller (27) provide a complete description of the study along with the statistical results. The treatment included eight lessons that wre taught over a one-semester period to beginning Spanish students. Each lesson involved the students in activities that were designed to help them accept the frustration and ambiguity that is inherent in acculturation. The study indicated that a difference in students’ attitudes can be obtained by including lessons in which the objectives are to prepare students to learn about language and culture-hopefully helping to maintain positive attitudes (and/or to improve negative ones). Us- ing ANCOVA procedures, a statistically significant difference in attitudes (in favor of the ex- perimental group that participated in the lessons) was found between the the experimen- tal and control groups (p < .lo). If the individual student, instead of the classroom unit, is accepted as the unit of analysis, the level of significance is greater (p < .05).

The Need For Self-Awareness In the opinion of this writer self-awareness

must serve as the core of a program of attitude readiness. That is, students must become aware of their own culture-bound behaviors before they can realistically observe others’ behaviors nonjudgmentally. They need to acknowledge their own beliefs and behaviors in order to progress to an understanding of cultural differences. Hall once said that a valuable consequence of


studying another culture is that the learner will learn about himself or herself in the process. “Years of study have convinced me that the real job is not to understand foreign culture but to understand our own” (15, p. 30). Self-understanding should not only be viewed, however, as a valuable consequence of acculturation, it is also the vehicle through which acculturation is achieved. The process is made thereby both more rewarding and more successful.

All learners’ interpretations of cultural expres- sion will necessarily depend to a great degree on their previous experience. Without acknowledging this experience, the learner will find it much more difficult to organize the new information in a meaningful way. Robinson believes the most effective methodology to expose students to the target culture is to “build a bridge between the old and the new by providing culturally familiar content as a point of departure for introducing culturally unfamiliar context at every level of in- struction” (31, p. 17). This view is shared by others; Hoopes (19) believes that the key to intercultural communication is for learners to become aware of the degree that their behaviors are culturally conditioned. It is only through this awareness that behaviors can be altered.

Problems in Acculturation An understanding of students’ needs in the

acculturation process is critical to the successful integration of language and culture learning. However, the process is complicated by a variety of factors that can inhibit acceptance of another culture.

Social Distance It is important to consider the influence of the

language-learning setting (the context) on both acculturation and language acquisition. Schu- mann (32) has analyzed the importance of context and has described good and bad second language learning situations. The two most common foreign language settings found in the public schools in the United States, learning Spa- nish and learning French, are relatively “bad” language learning settings. Our American language learners typically view the United States as dominant in standard of living, education,

degree of technical development, and political power, when compared to Hispanic or Franco- phone cultures. Schumann believes that if the language learners’ culture is dominant, then “social distance” will increase. Social distance, a measure of the degree to which societies allow or inhibit interchange, is believed to decrease the likelihood of successful second language acquisition.

Other factors that may increase social distance, according to Schumann, are culture learning patterns, acceptance of the target culture, cohesiveness (how large the language learning group is), similarity of cultures, attitudes of the two groups toward each other, and the intended contact with the target culture. ?Lpical language learners in the United States see their culture as dominant. American learners also show a desire for preservation and some enclosure of their culture; they belong to a very large cultural group, and they intend to have little contact with the target culture. All of these factors indicate great social distance. The only factor that will help to decrease social distance is the relative similarity of Hispanic and Fran- cophone cultures to ours.

Ethnocentrism and Identity An ethnocentric outlook can hamper some

students’ second language and culture learning. They may believe that learning about other languages and cultures is somehow unpatriotic, and consequently resist alternate views and beliefs. Brown (3) believes that language acquisition involves a degree of identity conflict: successful learners take on a new set of behaviors and beliefs as they begin to use the second language. For the learner with a fragile ego, a defense mechanism may emerge, which serves to “ward off ideas, experiences, and feelings that threaten to dismantle the organization of values and beliefs on which appraisals of self-esteem have been founded” (3, p. 116). Studies have shown that this fear for one’s ethnic identity can be a barrier to second language acquisition (see Taylor, Meynard, and Rheault, 34). In fact, the Bylor et al. study found that those subjects with the least amount of contact with the target group felt the greatest threat to their identity. Guioria


and his colleagues (14) have examined subjects’ languageegos, studying the relationship between subjects’ sensitivity to cues in interpersonal situations (empathic capacity) and their ability to reproduce a foreign language. They found the degree of subjects’ authentic pronunciation (which is psychologically the most difficult language behavior to manipulate) was signi- ficantly related to their empathy. Language ego, the personal egoistic nature of language learning, plays such a part in each student’s ability to take on new behaviors that it determines, in part, whether a student will succeed in the language class.

Negative Attitudes Some students commence language study

with negative attitudes toward the language and toward the people who speak that language. They may possess stereotyped ideas, they have perhaps had negative experiences with the language or its culture, or they may spring from a home or community environment where the target language and culture are not valued-or are actively devalued. In the previously mentioned study of 369 secondary-level students of beginning Spanish, Mantle-Bromley (26) found that 22% of the students began the class with some degree of negative overall attitudes toward Spanish and Spanish speakers.’

Students’ ethnic stereotypes and attitudes have been studied in a variety of settings. One study (Gardner, Taylor and Feenstra, 13) involved 111 native English-speaking ninth grade Cana- dian students and their parents. The researchers found that if parents demonstrated a preference for English Canadians and negative attitudes toward French Canadians, the students demonstrated a similar preference for English Canadians-but not necessarily the negative attitudes toward French Canadians. They also found that the students tended to adopt stereotypes held by the adult community. Addi- tionally, the students’ stereotypes appeared to be independent of their attitudes toward French Canadians, indicating that both the community stereotypes and the children’s own attitudes toward the ethnic group influenced the children’s behavior. Gardner (8, p. 158) employed causal

modeling to determine empirically the role of individual differences in second language acquisition. He found that attitudes toward the language and people, along with attitudes toward the teacher and class, were strongly associated with students’ motivation to learn thelanguage. There were also strong paths linking both motivation and aptitude to achievement. How well students do in the language class is determined, inpart, by their attitudes toward a variety of language learning variables.

Sliding Attitudes Teachers need to be aware that slippage in

students’ attitudes sometimes occurs during language study. Not only do some students begin language study with unrealistic expectations and less than ideal attitudes, students may grow less positive as they progress. Mantle-Bromley and Miller (27) reported that mean attitude scores of students in twenty classes decreased after one semester of Spanish study. Gardner (8, pp. 88-89) reports that other studies have also described decreases in students’ attitudes. These results might be explained by any of a number of contributing factors such as unrealistic expectations (Horwitz, 20), low motivation, frustration about the learning process, or perhaps a fragile language ego.

Attempts at Attitude Change Some studies have addressed these problems

in acculturation by attempting attitude change with second language learners. Inconsistent results have been demonstrated by using direct exposure methodology. ClCment, Gardner and Smythe (4) and Hofmann and Zak (18) both concluded that while inter-ethnic contact can improve some attitudes, the frequency of the contact was directly related to the improvement. Moderately positive attitude change has also been reported in a study using a “French Animator Program’’ (McInnis and Porebski, 28). ’Ifained French speaken conducted a variety of informal, fun activities for English-speaking Canadian children. Marginal increases were found in several attitude variables over a two- year period. Studies by Leonard, and Hanna and Smith (cited in Gardner, 8, p. 85) did not achieve

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significant attitude change using direct exposure methods. These results, even if they had been more conclusive, provide little help for the foreign language classroom teacher. Direct exposure to the target culture, to any great extent, is not possible for most foreign language learners.

Methods of attitude change that are easily adaptable to the language classroom all contain an element of cognitive dissonance (Triandis, 36; Zimbardo, Ebbesen, and Maslach, 37). Cognitive dissonance occurs when new information conflicts with a currently held belief. If attitude change is the goal, restructuring a currently held belief may not be enough. In order to change a belief, that belief must be shown to be inconsistent with newly accepted information, sometimes requiring a new structure for organiz- ing the discrepant information.

The remainder of this article presents both lessons designed to prepare students for culture learning and lessons designed to improve students’ attitudes and behaviors which may inhibit language and culture learning.

Attitude Readiness Lessons The following activities are examples of ex-

periences that can be given to language learners as they begin to learn about another culture. These types of activities should precede classroom activities that provide target culture similarities and differences. The activities can then be referred to as the teacher helps the learner understand the emotional journey of acculturation. As students learn to understand how culture both guides and limits their behaviors, they will be more willing to accept another culture as an alternate instead of a con- tradictory view of reality and will be more likely to risk cross-cultural learning.

The lessons are meant to help students achieve pertinent knowledge assumed by further culture study:

1. What is culture? 2. What are the levels within culture? 3. What do we look for when we study

culture? 4. What is our own culture? 5. Which of our beliefs and behaviors may

inhibit language and culture learning?

Defining Culture Prepare ahead of time approximately ten ex-

amples of culture-bound behaviors (“Yes” examples) and ten examples of individual behaviors (“No” examples) on large strips of heavy paper. YES examples might include: Peo- ple drive on the right-hand side of the road, or Keeping your hands in your pockets is con- sidered extremely rude. NO examples might include: You prefer to shower in the morning or Everyone calls your grandfather T%ps.”

Using the Concept Attainment Model (Joyce and Weil, 22), divide the chalk board into halves. On one half write YES and on the other, NO. Ex- plain to the class that you will be showing them examples and nonexamples of a particular concept. Their job is to study the examples and define (and name, if possible) the concept by looking for patterns in the YES examples. They will also try to determine which are examples of the concept and which are not.

Mix up the examples and show one to the class. Then tape it to the appropriate side of the board, depending on whether it is (YES) or is not (NO) an example of culture-bound behavior. After several examples have been placed on each side, ask students to look for characteristics of the YES examples. List characteristics on the board. Proceed to new examples, adding to or deleting from the list of characteristics as you go. Have students begin making educated guesses about the placement of the examples, and discussing why they think each example is a YES or a NO. Continue this until the students can define the concept “Culture” * from their list of characteristics. After a definition is agreed upon by you and the class, have the students offer their own examples for both sides of the board.

With this technique the students will have actively participated in forming a consensual definition of culture and they will have seen that we all behave according to cultural boundaries. A component of inductive teaching strategies is invoivement in the learning process and a degree of frustration as answers are sought.

Both of these qualities are important if students are to gain higher levels of crosscultural awareness.


Recognizing Subcultures The purpose of this activity isto help students

determine that many differences exist within an individual culture and that differences are not in- trinsically good or bad, just choices that have been made.

Write Similarities on one half of the board and Diffemnces on the other half. Ask a student to name another school in the area. Ask the class for similarities and differences between their own and the other school. (If students are negative with their comments, point out this behavior to them. Discuss why it is common that we see differences negatively.) Duplicate this activity, using two classes (i.e., the language class and a math class) to generate differences and similarities. Have the students practice describing similarities and differences using strictly ob- jective, nonevaluative terms.

The activity can be extended to small-group work, in which groups examine similarities and differences among group members’ families, neighborhoods, and so on. Then, in a class discussion, the lesson can be tied back to cultures: within any culture there will be many subcultures, each with its own unique values and characteristics. Stress the fact that making a generalization about a culture is risky because so many subcultures exist within it.

How Do We Study Culture? In preparation for this activity, look for

something with many pieces that can be taken apart. It should be easily recognized when put together, even when it can be felt and touched but not seen; but it should be difficult to recognize when it is dismantled. A metal Christmas- tree stand works well; a balsa-wood toy airplane is also satisfactory. Take the item apart, and put each piece into a separate paper sack. Number the sacks consecutively, #1 being the most difficult piece from which to identify the whole item.

Rll students they will complete an experiment that is similar to learning about another group’s culture. One at a time, have several students put their hand into sack #1 and describe what they feel. Ask them to guess what the piece belongs to. Don’t allow students to look inside the sacks;

they may only touch the pieces. Continue this for at least three or four sacks,

having different students try to guess what the item is. Then ask the students why it is so difficult to determine the item (“We can’t see it.” “It’s all in separate pieces.” “I haven’t gotten to feel each piece.”). For mature students, ask them to determine how this activity is similar to learning about a group’s culture. For younger groups, explaining that we will never see or feel all aspects of the culture at once may be necessary. Remind them that often we only sense one manifestation of a culture and have to guess its meaning. Point out to the students that for a person outside the American culture, the exercise they just com- pleted might be additionally complicated. It would be quite conceivable for such a person to see every piece of the item used in the experiment, see it put together, and still not be able to determine what the item is used for. Our knowledge as well as our behavior is often guided and bound by our culture.

Our Own Culture Heusinkveld (17) has suggested this activity to

help students begin to see elements of their own culture. Ask students to brainstorm elements of American culture (i.e., shopping malls, Mickey Mouse, Thanksgiving dinner). Write several examples on the board then, have students break into small groups to complete two tasks: 1) continue to brainstorm and record as many examples of American culture as they can in about eight minutes; and 2) decide on fifteen to twenty topics that would be essential in a short course for teenage foreign students learning about American culture. As a whole class, discuss the lists. How many items did every group have in common? Why is there such diversity in the com- piled lists?

Understanding Culture-Bound Behaviors Stereotypes. Elicit commonly held target-

culture stereotypes and help students determine how they originated and how well they represent the overall population. Have students collect items that reinforce stereotypes: food packages, newspaper and magazine advertisements, etc. Discuss how their stereotypes are reinforced by

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the society and why it is difficult to eliminate stereotypes.

Ethnocentrism. Elicit common behaviors from the students by asking questions such as What is the best kind of music? What is the proper way to cut one’s steak? What is the proper behavior when you’re introduced to a relative? Write the students’ responses on the board. Then move the discussion to generational differences. Do your parents agree with you on each of these items? How about your grandparents? Discuss how common it is for different groups to think their way is the best way. Then introduce the term ethnocentrism and have students look for ethnocentric views that they hold. Help students see that ethnocentrism can block communication. Students should be able to provide their own communication problems with parents and grandparents; help them to extend these communication problems to different cdtures. Refer back to this lesson as students exhibit ethnocentric behaviors throughout the year.

The above lessons may help to prepare those students who are either neutral or positively motivated to study the language and culture. Anyone who has taught more than several language classes, however, knows that some students enter the classroom with negative attitudes and behaviors that may be less than helpful in the learning process. Teachers need to address these attitudes and behaviors in their curricula.

Problem Area Lessons-Improving Attitudes Some students will enter the classroom with

negative attitudes and/or strong ethnocentric beliefs, making the teacher’s role more complex (attitudes do not change easily). Specific methods of attitude-change can be used in con- junction with an attitude-readiness program, thereby meeting the needs of more language students.

While addressing a specific attitudinal problem area of some students, the following lessons incorporate one of three attitudechange methods that are easily adaptable to the language classroom (Tkiandis, 36; Zimbardo, Ebbeson and Maslach, 37):

1. Providing discrepant information.

2. Requesting behavior that is inconsistent with one’s attitudes.

3. Providing direct exposure. The success of each of the following methods

is determined, in part, by how much the students are actively involved in the lesson. The classroom examples are intended to suggest, not define, the possible applications of the methods. Other sources discuss many additional activities that both are appropriate to an attitude readiness program and can be easily adapted to use attitude-change methods (e.g., Fantini et al., 7; Heusinkveld, 17; Kohls, 23; Kramsch, 24, Lewin- ski, 25; Pusch, 30; and Seelye, 33).

Pmviding Students with Discrepant IMormation Modifring stereotypa. Have students read

and discuss an article that counters a commonly held stereotype. Discuss the stereotype and ask students to determine its validity in this context. For example, first have students discuss commonly held stereotypes of Hispanic Amer- icans (acknowledging prior “knowledge”). After discussing possible origins of the stereotypes, give students a copy of one of the articles from a special issue of Time ( 3 5 ) entitled “iMagnifCo!: Hispanic culture breaks out of the barrio.” There are four or five appropriate articles that describe the accomplishments of individual Hispanic Americans. Ask students to read the article and list any evidence that either supports or contradicts the previously discussed stereotypes. This activity could also be done with an appropriate newspaper article on an individual representative of the culture, a selection of recent slides, or a short excerpt from a movie or news broadcast that realistically portrays an element of the culture being studied. As students learn to observe individuals, they will learn that generalizations about an entire group are usually inappropriate.

Robinson (31) offers a cautionary note to those who present information that attempts to counter a belief. The learner may perceive the new information based on prior knowledge and expectations, seeing what he expects to see. The teacher needs to draw the learner’s attention to those aspects of the stimulus which counter the belief. It is also commonly recognized that an


individual will make an exception for a belief rather than change the belief. Patience and per- sistence are necessary teacher qualities.

Behaving in a Way That Is Inconsistent with One’s Attitudes

Modifving ethnocentric tendencies. After discussing a particular cultural difference, brainstorm advantages of each way of perceiving the world. Then assign students “sides” and have them debate which behavior is most advantage- ous. Possible topics might include mealtimes, dating customs, and the treatment of the elder- ly. After the debate, discuss how there will be advantages and disadvantages to every culture- bound behavior (Heusinkveld, 17).

Direct Exposure Improving attitudes. Invite foreign exchange

students and other representatives of the target culture to talk to the class. Determine in advance what information the students are interested in learning from the guest. Then have students discuss the topic before the visit to help them recognize their current beliefs and knowledge and determine appropriate questions. For example, if students are interested in the target culture’s school system, divide students into groups of two to first practice describing their own educational system in order to prepare meaningful questions. Then have students determine specific questions for the visitor, based on their discus- sions. Help students phrase their questions in a nonjudgmental manner. Discuss the students’ chosen topics with the guest in order to help him or her feel more prepared for the visit.

%ke field trips to foreign films, museum ex- hibits, musical concerts that represent the culture being studied. Discuss in advance the cultural similarities and differences you wish your students to observe. Preparation for this activity assumes that the teacher will preview the film (exhibit, etc.) to determine appropriate guidance for the students.

There are differing views on presenting the culture learner with both differences and similarities. Robinson (31) believes that perceived differences are divisive, whereas similarities will bring two cultures together and improve at-

titudes. Hoopes (19) believes that it is the ability to recognize and appreciate differences that will increase the level of acculturation.

Conclusion Teaching for cultural understanding is a for-

midable task. The language teacher must understand that just as language learning is a process, so too is culture learning. Facts, ar- tifacts, textbook vignettes and slide shows will not, by themselves, assure that language students reach beyond the first level (that of stereotypes and disbelief) of cross-cultural understanding. Students’ participation and emotional involvement in the culture-learning process are necessary first steps to acculturation. The lessons, methods and sources discussed in this article may, to a small degree, help teachers prepare their students for the difficult but rewarding journey that lies ahead.

NOTES 1 This finding was not reported in the dissertation but was a part of the data collected for the dissertation study. liventy-two percent ofthe students’ total scores on an attitude test battery were below 236, which represented neutral responses on a seven-point Likert scale. 2 A general sociological defition of culture is recom- mended: culture is the “knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, needs and motivations” that shape an individual’s ability to adapt to the physical and cultural setting where he lives (Inkeles, 21, p. 616).

I am grateful to Keith W. Bromley for his conceptual and editorial assistance, and to the two anonymous reviewers, whose comments and suggestions helped me to clarify my position.

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IN MEMORIAM

ACTFL mourns the recent death of Tracy David Terrell, Full Professor of Spanish at the University of California, San Diego. In addition to his well-known research on language acquisition, Dr. Terrell was actively involved in materials and textbook development. He co-authored some of the most innovative texts in the profession, texts which not only proved widely successful, but broke ground for innova- tions by others as well.

Dr. Terrell was a prominent figure among foreign language educators, active at meetings and conferences, and generous with his time. His habit of fostering warm, personal relationships was well known to his friends and to those he worked with professionally. He will be missed.

The College Division of McGraw-Hill, Inc., has established the Tracy David Terrell Excellence in Teaching Award. Dr. Terrell also requested that donations be made to local AIDS societies.

ACTFL extends its deepest sympathy to Dr. Terrell’s family, friends, and colleagues. His energy, spirit, and insights live on in the materials he created and in his other contributions to-foreign language education.

preparing students for meaningful culture learning

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