June Rose Garrott, Ph.D.

International Student Advisor

P.O. Box 97381, Baylor University

Waco, Texas 76798-7381

Tel.: (254) 710-1461; E-mail: June_Rose_Garrott@Baylor.edu

1. Introducing Cultural Values

Using a Cultural Values survey, plan a class period in which students first complete the survey anonymously without having previously discussed the survey. If possible, translate the survey into students’ first language. Collect the responses and then encourage students to express their opinions on the exercise. Ask, “Did you understand all the phrases?” “If not, which items did you find confusing?” “Why?”; “Which phrases do you find most interesting?” “Why?”

2. Student Results

Next class meeting, or soon, distribute blank surveys again, for the sake of reference, and inform students of the results you found when you tallied their responses, pointing out any places in which the answers of women differ significantly from the answers of men. Encourage students to discuss different items from the survey with each other, first in English or another language and finally in English. The object of such discussion is to generate authentic exchange of ideas and opinions. Always go beyond “What?” to “Why?”

3. For In-Class Composition

Ask students to choose any phrase, or any item, from the survey they would like to write a paragraph or more about, depending on the students’ levels of writing proficiency. For example, a student who chooses #20 Patriotism might attempt to define the abstract word in personal terms or tell about a recent movie or television program that portrays the concept effectively or comment on whether he or she believes that patriotism is, or is not, so important as it used to be, etc. Another student, who chooses #34 Being conservative, might distinguish (with examples) positive and negative aspects of conservatism.

4. For In Class Discussion

Select any one, or a very few, of the phrases and ask the group to “brain-storm” regarding a definition. For example, for #39 Respect for tradition, what are some of the ways a person can show respect? Are some ways more appropriate at one time than at another? If so, why? Ask for examples of appropriateness and inappropriateness. Ask students whether they think their parents would view the chosen topic the same way the students view it. Again, “Why?” or “Why not?” If teachers will (a) pose questions, (b) allow students to chat among themselves in English or another language before finally responding in English, and (c) remain silent until begin to respond, students will speak, when they realize that the teacher and their classmates are genuinely interested in hearing their opinions. Though a variety of opinions will be expressed, all should be respected. Teachers can suggest ways that students can disagree without being disagreeable.

5. For Out-of-Class Research

Distribute three or four blank cultural value surveys to each student, asking them to conduct interviews with family or friends of different, occupations, and interests. Ask students to identify the interviewees to some degree, such as “ a middle-aged woman who works in the schools cafeteria? or “my grandfather” or “my boyfriend’s roommate” or “the mother in my host family”, etc. If you teach outside the U.S., you might want to make this project a holiday assignment, with instructions for students to interview family members or acquaintances from different generations. They will then be compare their own rating for a certain item with other people’s ratings of the same item, and they will be intrigued both by the similarities and by the differences they find. Students fortunate enough to have older persons to interview can ask them which of the cultural values that person thinks were prized highly in the past but are not so highly prized now – and why. This research can be carried out in the students’ and interviewees’ language of choice; students can make notes in their language of choice and later report in English – orally and/or in written form.

Serendipity: numbers of students have thanked me later for making this kind of assignment, and I have received written notes from parents telling me how much they have appreciated the project, that their offspring’s questions led to family discussions that they had never had before. Intercultural communication can lead to interpersonal communication and intergenerational communication.

6. Other Possibilities

The Cultural Value survey was developed several years ago by a panel of scholars and experts in the fields of philosophy, sociology, and psychology to reflect their concept of traditional values in a certain region of the world. As such, this particular survey may not strike students in other parts of the world as especially pertinent. Students are experts, too, regarding their own and their region’s cultural values.

1. Ask students in a homogeneous class to consider, research, discuss, and design a survey reflecting a specific number of traditional values for their specific society. Later, they can rate items on the new survey in the same way they rated items on the attached one and subsequently use the new survey in ways similar to those suggested above.
2. Ask each student in a class where several countries are represented to list a specific number of traditional values prized in their home countries. Later, give students a chance to compare their lists and discover to what extent persons in different countries may, or may not, hold certain values in common. They might be motivated to try, as a class project, to design a “one-size-fits-all” survey of contemporary cultural values, rather than one of traditional values.