American English as Cultural Expression: Designing a New Course in Linguistic Analysis of Culture for EFL Undergraduates in Japan :American English as Cultural Expression: Designing a New Course in Linguistic Analysis of Culture for EFL Undergraduates in Japan Laura Gibbons EESL 614 April 27, 2009


American English as Cultural Expression :American English as Cultural Expression Patrick Rosenkjar Temple University Japan in Tokyo, Japan Asked to design an upper-division linguistics course for American Studies


Course Goals :Course Goals Enable students to understand American culture through examining how American use language to express themselves and accomplish social purposes Provide students with specific tools for understanding cultural values and assumptions Pragmatics and conversation analysis


Assumptions :Assumptions Students learn by doing By applying theory, students gain insights into data and assess usefulness of theories Needs to be linguistically rigorous while recognizing on-going language development needs


Curricular Context :Curricular Context Temple University Japan Branch campus of Temple University Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Student body mostly nonnative speakers of English American university, so instruction is in English Students often interested in cultures, both American and Japanese American Studies Themes include biography and work, culture, place, diversity, and change Aims to have balance and variety among disciplines such as anthropology, music, political science, and communication and media arts


Course Design Process :Course Design Process Listing topics to include in syllabus Finding materials to serve two purposes Provide needed theory about language analysis Provide sample texts to apply the theoretical concepts Determining criteria Changes made according to student response


What Didn’t Work :What Didn’t Work Wierzbicka’s theory of key words and natural semantic metalanguage Students found it difficult to master use of natural semantic language Yamada’s theories of the aims and needs in conversation (comparing Japanese and English) Students understood generalizations, but could not find instances in which these generalizations were not applicable Reinforcing cultural stereotyping rather than providing tools for understanding


What Worked :What Worked Lakoff and Johnson’s theory of metaphors Metaphors reflect how people think Study of conversation analysis and pragmatics Close analysis of several oral texts Northern Exposure episodes Watching Steel Magnolias


Evaluation of Course :Evaluation of Course Course rated by student questionnaire Having a clear notion of the purpose of the course early on helped greatly in planning Topics and materials that students find interesting are essential to success Essential to learn from the process and be willing to modify based upon student feedback