4. Discussion
Please login to the Google group, and
find the appropriate discussion thread (by
name).
Respondto the prompt, read your
classmates’ responses, and discuss.
goo.gl/9jhy9
5. Key terms
Culture (capital C): literature, art, music
culture (lower-case c) people’s attitudes,
beliefs, values. Identifies groups. (groups
are permeable – we belong to many
groups….)
6. Culture in LL
Cultural descriptions can fall into being
essentialist and reductive (Holliday, Hyde
& Kullman, 2010).
Reductive – reduced culture to simple
causes.
Essentialist – see handout
7. Discussion
Thinkof a time you have learned about
another language or culture. What were
some of the elements of essentialist
descriptions of the culture?
How did your views of the
language/culture change as you
became more familiar with the
community?
9. Cultural representations
Whatcan we see in textbooks/teaching
materials?
Whatcan we get through online
materials?
What do we gain through interacting with
individuals?
10. Online cultures
Online communities not the same as an
in-person community or cultural group.
Learners may (or may not) feel
comfortable using social tools (e.g.,
forums, CMC, etc.)
Teachers create artificial approximation
of inter-cultural exchange or allow
learners to explore?
11. Activity
Develop (in pairs) a teaching activity that
can help learners understand an area of
the target culture(s) from a non-
essentialist point of view.
Use either online materials or CMC or a
combination to help facilitate the activity.
Post on your blog.
