Cultura surveys

Based on the Cultura surveys. Adapted from Furstenberg and Levet 2001, we set up 3 types of anonymous survey in google forms to be completed in the mother tongue of the students. They were encouraged to complete these without spending too much time thinking about their answers so that we could collect their instinctive reactions. The results would then be analysed by students who were learning that language and use the information as a basis for discussion about their assumptions of the cultural norms of the country whose language they were studying.

Institution reporting the task:

University of Warwick home page

Language of task instructions:

Other

Target Group:

Any

Level:

Any

References and acknowledgements:

None

Type:

Information exchange

Estimated Duration:

1 session

Topic:

intercultural awareness, stereotypes

Tags:

intercultural learning
stereotypes

Acknowledgements:

Cultura project,
Furstenberg and Levet 2001

Language Configurations:

Intercomprehension

Language(s) that the task can be used in:

Any

Dominant language production:

Writing/reading asynchronous

Target Competences:

Intercultural skills

Specific pedagogical objectives:

Development of students analytical skills

Suggested Communication Tools:

Asynchronous text
Collaborative tools
Real time textchat
Moodle-like

Suggested Resources:

None

Instructions:

The surveys are translated by native speaker tutors so as to ensure that they read well to the students who reply in their mother tongue. Where international students are completing whilst based in Uk or France, they have to declare that they are not mother tongue speakers of that language. All surveys are completed anonymously and the collected data is then shared with learners of that language. For example English speakers complete their survey in English and the results are shared with learners of Englsih to provoke discussions and surface any stereotypes or unexpected differences from their previously held beliefs about speakers of this language.


This approach was also used in the #MexCo virtual exchange which I worked on with Coventry University.


The surveys used dealt with:

word association

sentence completion

situation reactions.


The live survey links were made available through the shared portal (EWC moodle platform) using the conditional feature to ensure that only students based in England could access the surveys in English and French the surveys in French.

Learner Texts:

None

Document related to the task:

None

Criteria for Completion:

None

Comments and suggestions:

None

Author/copyright:

None