Teaching culture in the 21st century
language classroom
Abstract
The paper presents an overview of the research on teaching culture and describes
effective pedagogical practices that can be integrated into the second language
curriculum. Particularly, this overview tries to advance an approach for teaching
culture and language through the theoretical construct of the 3Ps (Products,
Practices, Perspectives), combined with an inquiry-based teaching approach
utilizing instructional technology. This approach promotes student motivation
and engagement that can help overcome past issues of stereotyping and lack of
intercultural awareness. The authors summarize the research articles illustrating
how teachers successfully integrate digital media together with inquiry learning
into instruction to create a rich and meaningful environment in which students
interact with authentic data and build their own understanding of a foreign culture’s
products, practices, and perspectives. In addition, the authors review the articles
that describe more traditional methods of teaching culture and demonstrate how
they can be enhanced with technology.