SIT Fields of Study
Contact Us
Phone:
800.336.1616
802.258.3510
TTY:
802.258.3388
Fax:
802.258.3500
PO Box 676, Kipling Road
Brattleboro, VT 05302 USA
Contact us by email.
Exploring Language and Culture: A Practical Approach
March 7-9, 2008
SIT Campus, Brattleboro, Vermont
Instructor: Pat Moran
Culture and language constitute the environment in which international education occurs. In reality, this environment contains a mix of cultures and languages: the institution, the host culture, the curriculum, the learners, the educators, the administrators, and many others. The challenge is to recognize and accurately interpret these many cultural phenomena in order to act and interact appropriately and effectively. Language is the principal tool to these ends.
This workshop provides some practical tools to explore the everyday cultural and linguistic phenomena that international educators encounter in their work. The models and concepts are explained and illustrated through interactive activities such as case studies, critical incidents, interviews, proverb analysis and others.
The models include:
- A Five-Dimensional Model of Culture
There is no shortage of conceptions of culture, and there is no common definition. To be practical, educators need a definition that encompasses the complexity of culture and language yet is simple to understand and to apply. This model presents culture as five interconnected dimensions: products, practices, perspectives, communities, and persons. Language is employed in unique ways for each dimension. - Cultural Knowings
Culture can be viewed as content and as process. Seen this way, the nature of the cultural content is joined to the ways in which this content is learned. This model presents culture as four related learning interactions: Knowing About (gathering cultural information), Knowing How (acquiring cultural behaviors), Knowing Why (discovering cultural explanations), and Knowing Oneself (developing self-awareness). Language is at the center of these interactions. - The Cultural Experience
This model situates the Cultural Knowings within the four stages of the experiential learning cycle: direct participation in experience, description of the experience, interpretation of the experience, and response※the consolidation of insights and articulation of strategies for re-engaging in experience. This model provides a framework for examination of everyday cultural and linguistic encounters. To engage in this cycle requires purposeful use of language. - Language-and-Culture
Although it is possible to separate language from its culture(s), they are best seen as interrelated. The language-and-culture model links language to the five dimensions of culture, to the Cultural Knowings, and to the Cultural Experience. Language, framed within these models, reveals the connections to cultural content and to the process of learning culture.
The Exploring Language and Culture workshop will begin after dinner (7:00 pm) on Friday, March 7 and will conclude at noon on Sunday, March 9, 2008.
Please note that workshop attendees will be responsible for finding their own off-campus accommodations. More information about travel and lodging.
Saturday lunch is included in the workshop cost. For other meals, SIT’s cafeteria will be open to attendees, and there are also a variety of restaurant options nearby.
Register Now for the course.
