The Internet TESL
Journal
Compliments:
Integrating Cultural Values into Oral English Classes
Chou, Yen-Lin
yenlinch [at] usc.edu
The University of Southern California (Los Angeles, California, USA)
Compliments can be viewed as an
expression of certain cultural values (Manes, 1983). Therefore,
integrating the teaching of the cultural values of the compliments in
the language classroom provides students with opportunities to learn
not only the language (English) but also the cultural differences.
Moreover, the role play activity, group discussion, and oral
presentation are utilized in the language classroom in order to improve
students' speaking competence, especially the communicative ability.
While the students are engaging in the activities, it is attainable for
the teacher to assess whether the students achieve the objectives or
not as well as evaluate each
student's speaking competence.
Introduction
In order to increase
international students'
consciousness of the cultural differences, improve the speaking
competence, and
develop the understanding of distinct cultural norms and values from
their countries
(Manes, 1983), the instruction of the expression of cultural values
(compliments and responses) and the reinforcement of the speaking skill
are
incorporated in the language classroom.
The design of the
course aims to help international students
have better
awareness of how western people express compliments in English and
assist
students in understanding that different cultural meaning and messages
exist in
the expressions and responses to the compliments from cultures to
cultures
(Manes, 1983). Moreover, in order to improve students' speaking
competence,
especially the communicative ability, the group discussion, role play
activity,
and oral presentation are employed in the language classroom. Students
can obtain a variety
of opinions from their partners while participating in the group
discussion (Graves, 2000); By
means of the role play activity, "students can experience cultural
values and
awareness because it gives an opportunity to be emotionally involved in
cross-cultural learning and reflect upon cultural differences"
(Kodotchigova,
p.5, 2002). Through engaging in the oral presentation, students have
more
opportunities to practice their English speaking skills.
Moreover, applying the
use of the observation and reflection cards is
effective for the language teacher to assess if the students achieve
the objectives and obtain
the knowledge of the classroom content. Therefore, the details of
how
to apply the observation and reflection cards in the classroom are
illustrated
in the article as well.
Goal
Students will increase the cross-cultural consciousness and develop the
English speaking ability.
Objectives
- Choose the appropriate vocabulary and sentences in English for
expressing and responding to compliments.
- Increase the English speaking competence, particularly the
conversational skill in expressing compliments and responding to the
compliments.
- Identify the existence of different cultural values and
messages in complimenting and responding to the compliments from
American
culture to the culture of his/her own home country.
Class Profile
Students' Profiles
The course is an intensive English course that is designed for an
intermediate level class. The total amount of time the students spend
attending classes is two hours per week.
Class Time (each class)
2 hours
Preparation Time
10 minutes
Materials and Equipment
- Tape recorder with taped dialogues and
conversations (the expressions of the compliments and the responses to
the compliments among Americans)
- Handout guideline with common vocabulary and
sentences used by Americans when expressing compliments and
responding to the compliments
- Cue cards with thorough
instruction of the role play activity
Weekly Classes Procedure
Week 1 (Class 1)
- The teacher hands out the handout with common
vocabulary
and sentences used by Americans when expressing compliments and
responding to compliments.
- The teacher explains how western people use the vocabulary
and sentences in order to express compliments and respond to
compliments. The teacher also clarifies when the best situation for
using those vocabularies and sentences to express compliments and
respond to the compliments is.
- The teacher asks students if they have experiences hearing other
people giving compliments on their personal appearances, such as their
clothes, their work and other things. The teacher asks some volunteers
to tell their
experiences
to the whole class.
Week 2 (Class 2)
- The class listens to numerous
segments of taped conversations. The content of the conversations is
the expressions of compliments and the responses to the compliments
among native speakers.
- The teacher divides the students into
several small groups consisting of four students. Students
in
each group have a group discussion (see Appendix A).
Week 3 (Class 3)
- After the group discussion, the
teacher asks the students to find a partner. When the students
finish
forming pairs, each pair of students begins the role
play activity (see Appendix B).
- When
the role play activity is completed, each pair of students demonstrates
their role
play activities in front of the class.
Evaluation
In order to assess if students successfully achieve the objectives, the
teacher applies the observation and reflection cards (see below) in the
language
classroom.
The group discussions enable students to cooperate with each other and
to
pay attention to various opinions when other students express their
opinions. Meanwhile, the teacher can observe how individual student
participate in the discussion (Graves, 2000). The observation can be
considered an effective instrument in the course. Because most of
the students come from other countries, the students do not feel
overwhelmed and anxious when the teacher "silently" assesses students'
performances. Through observing, the teacher can judge students'
interests and learning preferences (Graves, 2000). When observing the
group discussions, the teacher can fill out the following sheet.
Student's
Name:
Understand the different expressions and cultural
meanings of the compliments (responses) in American culture and the
culture of his/her home country:
Perfect, Good, Satisfactory,
Improvement Required
Student's performance and learning preference participation in the
discussions:
Active, Average,
Reluctant
Any
interesting idea brought up:
Comments:
|
The role play activity is employed in order to assess if students
absorb the classroom content and to evaluate each student's speaking
ability. The use of role play activities can be regarded as an on-going
and
communicative assessment tool (Kodotchigova, 2002). While students
engage in the role play activity, the teacher observes each group of
students and fills out the following sheet (Lambert, 2003).
Student's
Name:
Use the appropriate vocabularies and sentences in
English to express compliments in the role play:
Perfect, Good,
Satisfactory, Improvement Required
Choose the proper vocabularies
and sentences in English to respond to the compliments in the
role
play:
Perfect, Good, Satisfactory, Improvement
Required
Student's Speaking Ability:
Fluency: Perfect, Good, Satisfactory,
Improvement Required
Accuracy: Perfect, Good, Satisfactory, Improvement
Required
Pronunciation: Perfect, Good, Satisfactory, Improvement
Required
Communicative skill: Perfect, Good, Satisfactory,
Improvement Required
Mistakes made in the role play:
Feedback:
|
The reflection cards are employed in the course as well. Each student
has to answer the questions on the reflection
card at the end of every class. Students can write down their reactions
to the content of the class, give some suggestions to the teacher, and
express the new ideas they acquire during the classroom activities. The
reflection card is illustrated as follow:
|
REFLECTING On OUR DAY and
EXPRESSING
YOUR OPIOIONS
Please answer those
following questions HONESTLY.
1. What did you learn from today's
class?
2. Please give the teacher some suggestions (There is no
punishment if you criticize the teacher, so, relax, speak up what
you
want to say).
3. Did you like today's classroom
activities? If so, why? If not, why?
|
Appendix
A
Description of the Group Discussion
Before the group discussion, the class
listens to numerous segments of taped conversations and the content of
the conversations is the expressions of compliments and the responses
to the compliments among native speakers. Next, the teacher
divides the students into several small groups consisting of four
students.
Students in each group have to discuss questions, such as "How do you
compliment other people in your home country?" and "Compare the
compliments you use in your home country with the compliments you
observe from the taped conversations. Are there any similarities
or any
differences?"
Appendix
B
Description of the Role Play Activity:
The teacher asks students to find a partner.
After students form a group, the teacher hands out the cue cards.
Each pair of students have both cue card X and cue card Y (adopted from
the role play activity, Kodotchigova, 2002).
Cue Card X
You are an international student
from another country:
Imagine your
American friend invites you to visit his/her new house.
- Greet your
American friend and compliment his/her house.
- What would you say
to your American friend when he/she dresses up?
|
Cue Card Y
You are an
American:
Imagine you invite your friend from another
country to visit your new house.
- Greet your friend and respond to
your friend's praises.
- How would you respond to your friend when
he/she compliments your clothes?
|
Students in each group have two roles: American
and international student.
Students have to follow the instruction on the cue cards and interact
with each
other (Kodotchigova, 2002). Each student must take turns and practice
complimenting and responding to the compliments in the role play
activity. When
the role play activity is completed, the teacher asks each pair of
students
to demonstrate their role play activities
in front
of the class.
References
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Washington: National Education Association
- Brown, H. (2003). Teaching by
principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy.
(2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education
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Language Courses: A Guide For Teachers. Boston: Heinle & Heinle
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Thinking: How much of You Is You. Retrieved October 13, 2004, from http://iteslj.org/Lesson/Jones-Howmuch.html
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(2002). Preparing EFL Learners for Oral Presentations. Retrieved October
12, 2004, from http://iteslj.org/Lessons/King-PublicSpeaking.
html
- Kodotchigova, M. A. (2002). Role Play
in Teaching Culture: Six Quick Steps for Classroom Implementation.
Retrieved November 4, 2004 from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kodotchigova-RolePlay.html
- Lambert, I. (2003). Recording Speaking
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http://iteslj.org/Articles/Lambert-SpeakingTests.html
- Manes, J. (1983).
Compliments: A mirror of cultural values. In N. Wolfson and E. Judd
(Eds.), Sociolinguistics and Language Acquisition (pp. 82-95).
Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
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Working with Objectives. Mountain View: Harry K. Wong Publications
The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. X, No. 12, December 2004
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