#ACTFL19 Cuy for Interculturality
I’m an interculturality novice, and frankly a bit of a cultural schlub. I have puzzled over the ACTFL interculturality standards, struggled to grasp the concept or point of pragmatics at previous trainings, and have offended at least one host by not greeting everyone when and how I should. Honestly, I struggle with appropriate protocols among in-laws and lifelong friends.
My main goal at #ACTFL19 was to just gather as much as I could about interculturality to finally start making heads or tails of what I should be doing and how with my students, and there were three main presentations that helped me sort out where I could start:
- Using Video to Help Students Develop Intercultural Communicative Competence with Rana Abdul-Aziz
- Authentic Resources for Proficiency, Interculturality, and Social Justice with Stacey Johnson, Dorie Perugini, and LJ Randolph
- Let’s Talk: Comparing Cultures in the Novice Classroom with Nea Baker, Cora Hofstetter, and Cassie Krawckyk Shulman
Develop Intercultural Communicative Competence
As slow as we think we’re going, novices always need us to go slower. So this slow-down was precisely what I needed:
Seeing the video of Abdul-Aziz’s students passing around a stuffed animal to demonstrate how they would greet different types of people physically A) underscored how awkward I am about knowing when/how to hug, handshake, etc. even in my own culture, B) modeled an IMPECCABLE way to make students feel comfortable and safe while preparing them for new situations, and C) got my wheels WHIRRING.
Here’s where the cuy comes in.
I may rely on generous friends and family to tolerate my greeting idiosyncrasies, regardless of culture, but I know one product (even easier than a practice) that never fails to hook my novices: FOOD. Especially ceviche and cuy.
In the third session on the list, presenters would echo my drive to evoke an emotional response from students, and few things do that better than raw tentacles and a grilled guinea pig on a stick. I have exploited that particular visceral moment since my first taste of cuy a couple of years back. But it’s how Abdul-Aziz structured the response that MAY propel me to intercultural intermediate:
This is going to add a WHOLE new level to the Visitor Video unit that perhaps FINALLY makes it truly Intercultural!
Proficiency, Interculturality, and Social Justice
I KNEW this panel was going to be a wealth of insight. First, Dorie invited us to re-examine the authentic resources we use or are thinking of using. I mean, Siempre Bruja got me through a REALLY rough week personally last year, but just incorporating an Afro-Colombian character does not mean that representation is taking place.
Stacey also broke down the process of how we–including students!–can process authentic texts on different levels. Sometimes, we can just sip from our own bowls, but sometimes, we need to soak in what we’re observing, wade in and explore different aspects of the text.
And it’s not a bad idea to sip, then wade, and go back to sipping! That can allow us to not only interpret the text, but interpret our own feelings, our knee-jerk and personal responses to what we are discovering.
I have long had my students stop and acknowledge the automatic reactions to tentacles or teeth in Peruvian food, but I really like how LJ and Dorie made it a step-by-step process.
And then. Stacey TOTALLY. BLEW. MY. MIND.
PS I have totally used this process already with my kids and will blog about it anon.
Let’s Talk: Comparing Cultures in the Novice Classroom
What I liked best about this presentation was how it tied up ways to bring these big cultural ideas back to proficiency. Some were things I knew and did, some I needed to remember to do, and then one that seemed like a more visual way to frame the authentic text breakdown proposed by the brain-explosion session the day before:
- Use a simple comparison question to evoke strong feelings (i.e. do you want to try Peruvian food?)
- Add novice-low recall type questions to activate essential, personally relevant vocabulary
- In formative written assessment, include key target language phrases to get students writing at upper levels
- In written summative assessment, divide sections with increasingly advanced transition words (e.g. “however,” “nevertheless,” etc.)
But what really got me was the two-color silent debates (we called them chalk talks back in the day). Something as simple as using one color for agreement with the prompt and another for disagreeing just perfectly wrapped up what I could do with students to get them to expand on those reactions, once they’ve paused and perceived them. Using one color to defend the “American” side of a debate and another to take the target culture position, say on special birthday guinea pigs, such a simple and straightforward game changer to scaffold toward more complex writing and thinking.
Oh, and for maximum growth, don’t forget:
Intercultural Intermediacy
I feel now that I have a solid enough foundation to build on when it comes to interculturality. I know I can start of with products, as long as they evoke an emotional response that students can pause and perceive. I have some solid strategies for that perceiving and for meaningful comparison.
I think I’m ready to introduce interculturality.
See the Wakelet for the rest of my Tweeted/Retweeted epiphanies!
