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Rountable: Examining Cultural Goals in Southeast Asian Language Instruction - Sponsored by the Council of Teachers of Southeast Asian Languages
Organizer and Chair: Irma Peņa, University of California, Berkeley
Moderator: Teresita Ramos, COTSEAL
Discussants: Thi Bich Huyen Phan, University of Wisconsin,Madison; Amelia J.R. Liwe, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Michitake Aso, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Ruth Mabanglo, University of Hawaii, Manoa
Culture often takes the backseat in language teaching. With the diaspora of native speakers of Southeast Asian languages in the U.S., and large presence of heritage students in many of our classrooms, it behooves us to find a balanced representation of the target culture in our classes and to seek to integrate cultural goals in our syllabi. Culture is more than universal statements of facts about a people's way of life. These only trivialize its rich native culture and undermine opportunities for cultural understanding. The teaching of culture is more than giving recycled lectures from semester to semester. It is a thoughtful and dynamic act involving the interplay among three substantive elements innate in our language classes, namely: the textbook's treatment of culture, the student's attitudes toward the target culture, and the teacher's own cultural biases and knowledge. The Discussants will examine "what's out there" in their specific languages, and consider their teaching of culture in terms of which culture? whose? and according to whom? and invite the rest of us to examine what culture we re‑present in class.