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TitleAre You Interested in Culture? The Limiting Nature of Using Learner Interests as a Vehicle for Engagement
SourceCASLS Topic of the Week
Body

By Stephanie Knight, CASLS Assistant Director

Culture is both critical and slippery content in language classrooms. This dual nature of culture exists due to a variety of complex variables that can be distilled into the disconnect between what is overt (food, flags, and festivals), and what is more nuanced (perceptions, belief systems, positive and negative facing acts). As a result, the work of a language educator is not unlike the work of a paleontologist; he or she generally knows what the dinosaur looks like at a glance (food, flags, festivals), but also has to pay attention to how and why the smaller components of the dinosaur (the more nuanced or subtle representations of culture) work and fit together.

This important work becomes a complex endeavor when one considers the meaningful engagement of learners. On the surface, overt cultural phenomena (see: food) are engaging for students. These overt phenomena are easy to incorporate into lessons and are almost universally interesting. However, when we as educators use learners’ interests as a vehicle for building engagement, we risk missing opportunities for in-depth and long-term, rather than superficial and fleeting, engagement. In other words, we risk promoting culture at a consumptive, rather than at an interactive and/or participatory level.

So how do we integrate instruction about culture at a profound level that transcends consumption? One, perhaps obvious, way is to craft mechanisms for target culture community participation (participation in target culture social media groups, place-based language learning, or even pen pal communication). Another approach is to apply the tenets of concept-based learning to instruction and lesson design.

Concept-based learning shifts learning from single subject areas and focuses on big ideas that are universal and transdisciplinary. This shift is small but meaningful; the learner is not a vessel to be filled with information, but rather an active participant and contributor to the learning environment; since concepts are universal, learners come to the table with something to contribute before they are ever taught any content.

Consider a world language class for example. A common content-specific language function to to teach is personal descriptions. Oftentimes, teachers tie this content to learner interests by first teaching the learners the appropriate syntax in the target language and then asking the learners to share a little about themselves with the classroom. This exploration may even involve cultural phenomena or artifacts (I like paella / Me gusta la paella).

Now, consider a world language classroom where learners are tasked with exploring the concept of identity and learn the appropriate structures to convey personal descriptions as part of that exploration. Learning is prompted by exploring various target-language profiles on social media sites. These profiles provide examples of appropriate syntax and word choice, but they also provide learners with the opportunity to think about how one’s identity is (mis)represented by (social) media. This is a salient consideration with relevance in history (e.g., the lens provided to historical facts by the historians who document them), to biology classes (e.g., genetic makeup), and to math classes (e.g., learners engage in statistical analysis and compare individual survey results to overall results). Furthermore, as learners ponder this question of identity as they deconstruct the social media sites, they are likely to gain awareness of subtle cultural nuances (e.g, common social media conventions) and build appreciation for the fact that language and culture are inextricably intertwined.

Concept-based learning involves a true shift to a learner-centered paradigm, and as such, it cannot be easily accomplished overnight. This week’s Activity of the Week provides offers a series of steps to realize the social media activity explained in this article.

Please check out these resources related to Concept-Based Learning and Instruction!

Erikson, H.L. (2012). Concept-based teaching and learning. IB position paper. Retrieved from  http://www.ibmidatlantic.org/Concept_Based_Teaching_Learning.

Erikson, H. L., Lanning, Lanning, L., & French, R. (2017). Concept-based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Publishing.

Murphy, A. (No Date). A quick guide to concept-based learning and curriculum. Rubicon International. Retrieved from https://www.rubicon.com/concept-based-learning-curriculum/.

Publishdate2018-09-17 02:15:02