Film courses are now standard offerings in collegiate world language programs, but instructors have only begun to consider the unique benefits of teaching a television series to engage language learners in meaningful communication. As series have become the entertainment of choice for today's students, educators should consider the opportunities…

This book presents a new and comprehensive framework for the analysis of representations of culture, society and the world in textbooks for foreign and second language learning. The framework is transferable to other kinds of learning materials and to other subjects. The framework distinguishes between five approaches: national studies,…

Culture plays a large but often unnoticeable role in what we teach and how we teach children. We are a country of immense diversity, but in classrooms the dominant European-American culture has become the language of learning.

The nation's classrooms have become more diverse, and children of Hispanic heritage represent a large and an important part of this multicultural mosaic. Events such as the commemoration of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon's historic voyage offer teachers the opportunity to reflect on important events of the past and connect them to students'…

Teaching about China can often be difficult because Chinese culture is very different from the culture of most American students. Students in social studies classes can find it hard to relate to such a distant and unfamiliar country. As China becomes a more and more integral part of the social studies curriculum, teachers must find effective…

The use of songs as audio materials in teaching Turkish as foreign language is an important part of language culture and has an important place in culture. Thus, the transfer of cultural aspects accelerates language learning process. In the light of this view, it becomes necessary to transfer cultural aspects into classroom environment in teaching…

Describes a one-semester course on modern German civilization given at St. Bonaventure University and open to both German majors and others interested in fulfilling general education requirements. Discusses course's topics which include political, social, and economic issues; artistic achievements; and a contrastive analysis of German and American…

Discusses the place of culture in the second language curriculum and describes some techniques and materials which have been developed over the past two decades to teach culture, as well as the kinds of materials that are still needed. (EKN)

A series of videotapes designed for French classroom use are described, and the principles used in the development of these videotapes are outlined. Examples are provided of videotape topics, and instructional strategies are given from the tapes' texts. (MSE)

Describes a course on contemporary French culture that was based almost entirely on Minitel sources of authentic texts created for a French audience. Students were able to examine documents relating to geography, education, government, and daily life and draw their own conclusions about French attitudes and beliefs conveyed through these…

Presents the advantages of using newspapers stored on CD-ROM as a resource for teaching current topics in civilization/culture and current affairs in the foreign- language class. Articles on CD-ROM can be used for vocabulary exercises and comprehension tests, and on-screen text can be altered as desired to create classroom activities. (four…

While the web has become many people?s first sometimes only stop when they are looking for information, for many academics it remains a slightly suspect source. Aside from a limited number of trusted sites created by major players in the media, science, and arts establishments, academics rely on nothing less than peer-reviewed journals,…

Discusses the development and implementation of a series of culture units for use in elementary German courses. Describes a typical unit, which consists of a set of slides with accompanying text, outlining presentation strategies and class activities. Finally, analyzes the results of a course evaluation by students. (MES)

Describes the process by which an authentic document may be integrated into first- and second-year college and high school classes to form a cultural component of foreign language study. A discussion is presented on how linguistic and cultural information can be extracted from these documents to form the grammatical level of students. (Author/VWL)

The Hispanic literature of the American southwest contains valuable materials for the Spanish elementary classroom, leading to positive cultural analysis and enlightening the learners about cultural and historical events of the second language community. The story entitled "El camello que se perdio" ("The Camel Who Got Lost")…