View Content #25319

By Christopher Daradics, CASLS Language Technician

This activity illustrates how cultural frames and mental models shape our awareness and understanding of the world around us. By comparing insider and outsider interpretations of a cultural artifact, students will have the opportunity to encounter and reflect on the way that cultural affiliation and exposure shapes their point of view and interpretation of the world.

Objectives:

• Students will be able to identify how a cultural artifact relates to everyday life, personal experience, and cultural norms.
• Students will be able to explain how a cultural artifact relates to various cultural perspectives.
• Students will be able to discuss or illustrate how cultural frames shape how they see and interpret the world.

Mode: Interculturality

Materials needed:

1. A culturally significant artifact from the target culture. Ideally students will be presented with an object whose function is difficult to discern. In other words, pick an artifact your students will have a difficult time imagining in use within the target culture.
2. The attached worksheet.

Procedure:

1. Have students read through the worksheet and/or explain the activity.
2. Present students with your chosen mysterious cultural artifact.
3. In Column A students record their own interpretation of the artifact.
4. In Column B students record a cultural informant’s perspective on the artifact.
5. Students (or instructor) choose one of the follow-up extension activities.