This document discusses different aspects of culture and identity. It defines personal, gender, social, cultural, and ethnic identities. Personal identity is shaped by individual traits and experiences. Gender identity includes societal roles for men and women. Social identity involves group memberships. Cultural identity is tied to one's background and influences how strong identity is and how one interacts with other cultures. Ethnic identity involves one's racial or national background. The document provides tips for teachers to help students explore these different identities through activities and discussions.

1. CULTURE AND IDENTITY
Maryam Bolouri

2. Some Questions:
 What makes you the person you are?
 How has your Iranian culture influenced your
ID?
 Do you think of yourself as an individual or
more of a member of the Iranian community?

3. ID shaped by:
1) Family life and upbringing
2) Gender
3) Social, cultural and ethnic groups which we
are a part

4. Teacher’s duty:
 Include activities about culture and ID
 Help students gain insights into their ID by
reflecting on their
 lives and family
 environment
 Beliefs
Caution: some students may feel uncomfortable
talking about these issues they may feel
threatened living in a new culture

5. How to explore culture and ID:
6 tips for teachers
1) Explore personal ID
2) Explore gender ID and roles
3) Build awareness of social ID and roles
4) Recognize differences among cultural IDs
5) Identify cultures as individualistic or collectivistic
6) Show how ethnic ID influence social ID

6. Different IDs
 We have different roles in society
 We belong to different groups
 So we have different IDs such as
 Personal ID
 Gender ID
 Social ID
 Cultural ID
 Ethnic ID

7. Ting-Toomey Categorization
(1999)
 Sense of self
 Self image
 2 types of personal ID:
1. primary: with an ongoing impact on our lives
It includes personal, gender, cultural, ethnic IDs.
They are interconnected with the culture and
becomes evident when you live abroad.
2. secondary: changeable, situation oriented,

8. 1) Personal ID
 It exists in each human being and influence the
life of us and others.
 It is central to “who we are”.
 It influences the way we interact with others.
 It defines us and makes us unique from others
in our in-groups

9. Ting-Toomey definition
(1999)
 The sentiments and information in individuals
regarding their self images which are linked to
their personalities, drives, goals, and values.
 It has direct effect on our self concept (the
mental image we have of ourselves)

10. Personal ID includes many factors
 It is shaped by
 personal traits
 experiences
 Background
 Age: different status in collectivistic and
individualistic cultures
 Social class: determined similarly by income,
occupation, education, family, possessions, manner
of speaking, attitudes and beliefs but different
structure across cultures
 religion: it gives us a sense of place in the universe
and ideas about how the universe is organized.
 Social role models

11. Personal ID and lg learning
It may lead to threats to personal ID.
foe example:
Mispronunciation or different writing styles
from the target culture may cause learners to
be embarrassed or failure in academic
achievements.

12. Teacher’s duty:
 Help learners explore their personal ID
 Must be sure that they have a good sense and
feel for their ID and willing to explore it
 It is best to avoid activities that require learners
to share intimate knowledge or may feel
awkward sharing some aspects of their IDs
 How: questionnaire, discussions, journaling,
writing assessment, discussion of essays…

13. 2) Gender ID
 The specific roles that societies expect men and
women to fulfill
 It comprises:
 person’s own gender identification or
psychological traits
 society’s conceptualization of gender roles or
social responsibilities that are appropriate for
males or females
e.g. giving your opinions forcefully is appropriate
for men but aggressive for women in U.S

14. Hofstede (1980): gender
roles in highly masculine
culture (clear distinction)
men women
 Strong
 Aggressive
 Focused on success
 Direct in speech
 Reserved
 Gentle
 Concerned with
quality of life
 Less direct in speech

15. Gender ID and lg learning
 It should not be assumed that the commonly
accepted roles of our culture will be identical
in another culture and sometimes the change
is not desirable.
 Teachers must help learners explore the
gender ID by discussing their views
 Use the media to mirror the commonly
accepted cultural attitudes

16. 3) Social ID
 It includes the things we have in common with
others in our cultural group
 How others see us
 Shared self concept, concerns with other
members in our in-groups
 It is linked to the social roles we play in societies,
organizations or any in groups that we share
commonalities

17. Socialization
 As we grow older we view ourselves as
members of our families and then develop
our interests we expand our group
membership.
 With each cultural group we add to our social
ID by learning about the traditions, lg,
religion…
 We identify with different groups, form our
self concept and mold our social ID

18. Social aspect of cultures
 It is an inherent component of a culture
 It includes
1. formal rules and behavior
2. Social rules: cultural expectations of how
people in a social position are to behave
e.g. appropriate roles of a teacher, parent, Dr,
judge… are defined by their own characteristics
and behaviors .
Degree of formality, hierarchy , forms of address in
western and eastern cultures differ.

19. Social ID and lg learning
Teachers must
 call attention to the multiple groups students
belong
 Examine learners’ social roles
 Have students act out different role plays
based on different social IDs

20. 4) Cultural ID
 It is shaped by our cultural background
 It is tied to our social, gender, personal IDs
 If the perception of cultural ID is positive, when you
are abroad, you are eager to reveal it as it is a
prominent place but when it is negative you tend
to avoid it in your international integrations
 It has 2 dimensions that influence our contact with
others:
1. The strength of our identification
2. The content of our identities (things connected
with cultural ID)

21. A key element:
individualistic or collectivistic
culture
Individualistic culture (US) Collectivistic culture (Japan)
 Strong identification with
culture means to value
1. Freedom
2. Pleasure
3. Social recognition
4. independence
 Strong identification with
culture means to value
1. Self-sacrifice
2. Harmony
3. traditions

22. It is hard to define it
 We can not associate specific cultural practices and
interactions with particular groups.
 We live in open societies and there are no fixed
boundaries for social groups.
 People exhibit multiple IDs and there is no one-to-
one relationship btw lg and cultural ID
 Although this the case when cultural ID is
threatened people attach importance to
maintaining their lg and it is the most sensitive
indicator of the relationship btw people and a given
social group

23. A related construct: social distance
H.D.Brown 1999
“cognitive and affective proximity of 2 cultures
which come into contact within an individual”
Distance means the degree of difference
Similar: Canadians and western Europeans
Dissimilar: Chinese and Canadians
The greater the distance the more difficulty for
learning the lg
1. Actual social distance: difficult to measure
2. Perceived social distance: learner’s perception of
the relation btw 1st and 2nd cultures

24. Cultural ID and lg learning
 Teachers must help learners
1. Build an awareness of social distances
2. Differentiate btw various cultural IDs to rescue
themselves from pitfalls
3. Offer a variety of reflection activities about how to
avoid cultural mishaps
4. Read about historical development of a culture
5. Examine the correct cultural practices as
portrayed in films, books…

25. nature of the culture (Hofstede,
2002):
 Individualism values:
1. Individuals
2. Immediate families
3. Autonomy
4. Low power distance
index (PDI) which
minimizes the social
and class inequalities
e.g. US, Australia, Britain,
Canada, Hungary,
New Zealand, Italy
 Collectivism values:
1. The well being, needs
and benefit of the
groups
2. High PDI which value
hierarchy, different
levels of equality
e.g. Pakistan, Colombia,
Malaysia, Russia, west
African countries

26. Cultural ID and lg learning
 It influences the way students learn (learning
style) or habitual patterns of mental functioning
and dealing with new info
 Learners from Collectivistic cultures prefer group
work and cooperation over individual work and
competition in contrast to learners from
individualistic cultures
 Teachers can bring reading about how to
identify different natures of cultures
 Teachers can ask learners think of expressions,
proverbs… that illustrate this issue

27. 5) Ethnic ID
 It is our racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic or
cultural background.
 It influences all facets of our lives from lg to
customs to rituals, to values, and beyond.
 We automatically compartmentalize people.
 We consciously or unconsciously place ethnic labels
on people and categorize them based on cultural,
social, physical, or other characteristic
 Once we classify ourselves as members of an ethnic
group, categorize the others as non-members

28. Assimilationist or Pluralistic
point of view to ethnicity
Assimilationist suggests
Give up yr former culture
Take on new ID
Before world war II
A vast melting pot
 Pluralistic suggests
It may or may not be
displayed.
Sometimes it is a
disadvantage or an
asset
A salad bowl

29. 2 dimensions of ethnic ID
1. The strength of ethnic ID:
strong among African-Americans and Asian-
Americans yet weak among European and
Americans
2.The content of ethnic ID: national heritage,
collectivistic or individualistic

30. Ethnic ID and lg learning
Teachers must analyze films which are excellent
tool to look at situ objectively
This activity is less threatening than examining
their own lives

31. Conclusion
 Identity is a key element to define:
 Who we are
 How we see ourselves as individual and the
way we interact with others in 1st and 2nd
cultures
 Our sense of ID is rooted on the nature of our
1st culture: individualistic or collectivistic