Cultural Products and Practices Leading to Cultural Perspectives: Practical Applications

Abstract

Incorporating cultural products and practices is a standard part of most foreign language courses. Achieving the final learning goal, perspectives, presents more of a challenge. Yet, perspectives are the gateway to students being able to advance their intercultural development. This paper will show how instructors can gain an understanding of alternate methodologies to teach the target culture and help students make personal connections through reflection on their own experience. A background in cultural humility and cultural competence informs foreign language assignments for culture acquisition. Templates of assignments are recommended that support instructors to personalize assignments that incorporate reflection and alignment of cognitive domains. Sample activities are offered that scaffold student reflection on cultural products and practices to achieve a more nuanced perspective of the target culture as well as potential assessments of these critical thinking questions.