TorresBrandon_AppliedLinguistics_Morning_Outsourced.docx

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APPLIED LINGUISTICS

PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING

BRANDON TORRES LOZANO

ARTICLE AUTHOR: H. DOUGLAS BROWN

UNIVERSIDAD DEL TOLIMA

FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIN

LICENCIATURA EN INGLS

IBAGU

2013


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Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. (H. Douglas Brown)

Chapter 7: Sociocultural factors.

Discussion Activities:

1. Brainstorm stereotypes for the people from The USA and from India. The stereotypes can benegative or positive. Where do your choices come from?

Stereotypes Source

USA Fat people, lazy people, half of

population are rednecks,

gun lovers, racists; they

believe they are the most

powerful people of all.

TV programs, internet photos,

and some movies.

India Brown skinned, health

conditions of surrounding

area: bad, low opportunities

of becoming successful,

racists.

TV programs (Natgeo).

2. The Culture Shockis described in four successive stages of culture acquisition (p.195).Try to findone example of each in the movie or in your own past experiences in languages classrooms. How

does it affect us as language teachers? How can we help our student to overcome these

phenomena from the language classroom?

Past Experiences

Stage 1 When first semester started. Everyone knew

how to talk a bit or a lot of English, and with

the instructions from the teacher, classes were

felt like talking to English-speaking people.

Stage 2 With the studying of idiomatic expressions, the

sensation of estrangement was obtained from

trying to understand their meaning according

to the comparison of their culture and ours.

Stage 3 Not achieved.

Stage 4 Not achieved.

Example from the movie

Stage 1 He got surprised of seeing all those people

waiting for the arrivals, persuading Mr. Todd to

take a cab (and as a consequence he felt

overwhelmed).

Stage 2 Cultural differences: Frustration of bad

behaving according to Indian culture (right

hand to take things).Support of a fellow countryman: McDonnells


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instead of McDonalds; he had a chat about

being in another culture.

Stage 3 Mr. Todd was covered by colored powder in

the Festival of Colors. At the beginning he got

upset, but after throwing a water balloon he

starts to enjoy the festival.Stage 4 Acceptance and adaptation: Mr. Todd was

invited to a dinner by a behind of the wall

person.

Self-confidence in the new person: Mr. Todd

observed Mr. Dave eating the same food he

bought at the beginning, making him laughing.

How does it affect us as language teachers?

The process of culture shock may give fear to students or may make them to acquire bad

attitudes towards the language, language learning process and target culture. Those attitudes

can affect in negative manners the overall development of the language learning process by not-

accepting the differences cultures have, the different ways of perceiving the world and life and

finally the use in context of the language.

As language teachers, our labour is to organize specific activities that enhance empathy, self-

confidence and knowledge towards the target culture.

How can we help our student to overcome these phenomena from the language classroom?

The help we can give to students are related with empathy, understanding the self, cultureunderstanding, and enlarging language boundaries.

As empathy understood as placing ourselves in the others shoes, activities can be aimed

towards that idea: Understand other points of perceiving world according to culture.

According to the objective, a comparison between the self in culture and another person in

another culture can be done in order to acquire key elements to understand how rich a language

and culture can be.

3. Mention some of the biggest culture differences between America and India, presented in themovie, what were the reactions of the people towards those differences, and how they got over

them.

a. When Mr. Todd tried to take a cab he was surrounded by dozens of people persuading him to

select any of them as a driver. He reacted by going to a person standing alone and taking his cab,

which was a bike cab.

b. Mr. Todd was accustomed to grab food with his left handbut after he was told to grab food

instead with the right hand and, as a consequence, he got surprised by the explanation he was

given. The only thing he could do was to grab food with his right hand.


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c. After watching that leftovers are given to peopleby placing the dash over the wall, Mr. Todd

decides to give his leftovers to the people behind the wall instead of throwing the leftover to the

trash can.

d. The Ashas arranged marriagesurprised Mr. Todd due to the lack of love involved. A solution

was found, calling their relationship Holiday in Goa.

4. Mention specific activities that we can implement in our classrooms to prepare our students tounderstand cultural differences and learn to deal with the culture shock.

1. Empathy enhancement: This activity makes students to explain what other students feel. The

activity is developed in pairs of students (student A and student B). Student A gives a word (and

adjective) to student B who has to explain what student A feels according to that word and what

he or she sees from student A.

2. Culture mimic: After students have acquired knowledge of some cultures, a situation is given

to being acted. They must express what they feel and perceive as if they were people from that

culture.

3. After having acted culture situations, they are asked to give opinions on what would happen if

they go to a new culture. Then culture shock is explained.

5. The rapid growth of English as an International Language (EIL) of Communication has created adiscussion about the status of English and its varieties, what we now call World Englishes.

Considering this, how can we recognize the legitimacy of a variety of English? For example

English in India is a legitimate variety of English, but does not represent the British culture. (Also

to be discussed in class)

According to what was seen in the movie, in order to recognize the legitimacy of a variety of

English, it has to be used not just in small fields of the context (such as politics, education,

among others), but in the culture itself.

The variety of English used as L1 or even L2 goes beyond specific purposes of usage to specific

fields; it involves the whole community and culture, making English a communicative-purposed

language.

As seen in the movie, English is used for almost everything (selling products, giving instructions

of the train schedules, communicating idea, among others).

http://www.outsourcedthemovie.com/

Outsourced

2006 Film

Outsourced is a romantic comedy film, directed by John Jeffcoat, released in

2006.

Initial release:September 28, 2007 (USA)

Director: John Jeffcoat

Running time:103 minutes

Music composed by:BC Smith

Genres: Indie film, Romance Film, Romantic comedy, Workplace Comedy, Drama,Comedy film
http://www.outsourcedthemovie.com/http://www.outsourcedthemovie.com/http://www.outsourcedthemovie.com/

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