Learner Outcomes

1. Learners will demonstrate ability to converse about their native culture in the target language

o describing their own experiences & opinions

o eliciting and reacting to those of their group members

o situating these into the larger context of their native culture(s)

o stating what they understand about sports in the target culture and what questions they have that would lead to further understanding

2. Learners will be able to make comparisons between their native culture and their understanding of the target culture, with concrete examples and clearly distinguishing conjecture from opinion, experience and data by using conversational markers such as 'according to statistics', 'in my experience', 'in my opinion', etc.

3. Learners will be able to complete these tasks with pronunciation clear enough to be easily understood by a sympathetic listener unaccustomed to interacting with foreigners.

4. Learners will know how to record and upload podcasts onto their wikispace page. (note: only 3 of the 26 students in the US class know how)

How this project has been influenced by the week's readings

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"Teaching Culture: Perspectives in Practice" by Patrick Moran

Moran breaks down cultural experiences into "Four Knowings": knowing about, knowing how, knowing why, knowing oneself. Faced with this, I looked more closely at my plan to see whether I was covering all of these bases, and by doing so created a fuller, more thoughtful plan. Here is how each of the "Four Knowings" is covered:

1. Knowing about/description: students will be describing their own culture through the focus on sports and learning more about sports in China, learning how to describe the college entrance process, attitudes towards sports in secondary schools in both countries

2. Knowing how/participation: students will be practicing how to engage in a discussion where personal experiences and viewpoints are shared, and listening to how this is done in the TL (something I was less conscious of needing to teach initially)

3. Knowing why/interpretation: students will learn why their counterparts in China have few serious extracurricular activities and how they view the lifestyle of US students

4. Knowing oneself/response--I will conclude this project with a journal component in the class moodle, allowing students to examine their views at the end on sports in both countries and the related tacit and explicit culture revealed, how they felt about the exchange, what perceptions might have changed, what strategies they employed and how useful they were.

Moran adds two dimensions of culture to the three that those of us accustomed to the National Standards usually work with: Communities & People. I was more conscious to add questions that would lead students to consider these in there responses. An influence which cannot be seen from just looking at the wiki is that I will have students engage in an exercise from Chapter 3 whereby in class we examine a cultural aspect of sports in the US and then China throughout the five dimensions, and then seek to form statements that show links between them. Small groups will then repeat this exercise with their chosen topic.

Similarly influencing classwork leading into the recording of podcasts, Moran gives sample lists of functions based on Bloom's Taxonomy and Carol Orwig (1999) from which I drew the following to consciously work on preparing students to do in their podcasted discussions: socializing, establishing/ maintaining relationships, influencing others, giving/responding to feedback, arguing (among others). I will also consciously reflect on equipping my students with both the "language of description" and the "language of interpretation" rather than teaching these things ad hoc when students clamor for them.

Finally, in Chapter 7 Moran presents three points of view on culture, suggesting that using all three will lead to a more realistic and wholistic view of the native and target cultures. While I believe students and I would likely have worked from these three, there is so much value in the teacher at least explicitly guiding discussion so that all three are fully covered. With the Interpretive View (focused on the individuals, emphasizing emic views, all perspectives of community members are valid) we can reconcile the different views of participating American and Chinese students; with the Conflict View (groups are in conflict vying for influence, control, subgroups in conflict with core culture, looking at how they perceive selves in relation to other groups, etc) we will examine different views within one culture; and with the Functionalist View (generally etic, assuming a culture can be generalized about, seeking to identify broad national culture perspectives) we will seek to reach some general conclusions.

I anticipate for other units on culture I will draw from yet more of Chapters 1-7 in Moran; in this project I find that I will be able to explicitly make use of good practices, and present a more well-rounded approach to examining how culture is reflected in sports.