Culture Shock and its impacts on L2 acquisition

• Culture Shock

• and its impacts on L2 acquisition

• Kristin Dowrey
• Gary Bleedorn II

Introduction

• What is Culture shock?
• Why is it a problem for educators?
• What are some strategies for minimizing the effects of culture shock?

Culture Shock is:

• The term, culture shock, was introduced for the first time in 1958 by Kalervo Oberg. Today we understand culture shock as a reaction people experience when faced with cultural realities that differ from their own personal expectations and norms.

Oberg’s Stages

• 1. Honeymoon/Tourist Stage.
• 2.Culture shock/rejection
• 3. Recovery
• 4. Adjustment/Acculturation

Contributing factors

• Ethnocentrism
• Tendency to stereotype
• Low levels of similarities in beliefs, values, norms, and attitudes
• Misinterpretations of behaviors and intentions of the other cultural group
• Motivations for/ traumas associated with traveling to the new culture

Causes:

• Unfamiliarity with the new culture and surroundings
• Inability to effectively use or understand new language and cultural symbols
• Discrepancies between the demands of new situations and the resources for dealing with them
• Cognitive fatigue

Culture Shock is Manifested:

• Mentally
• Emotionally
• Physically

Symptoms

• Difficulty in focusing and processing/retaining new information
• Small aches, pains, and new allergies.
• Sleeping too much or too little.
• Feeling sad, depressed, vulnerable, powerless.
• Decreased confidence, increased apathy
• Developing stereotypes of the dominant culture

Potential Problems for Educators

• Raising Krashen’s affective filter
• High Anxiety
• Low Motivation
• Low Self-confidence
• Misinterpretation of culture shock side effects as products of learning disabilities
• Physical effects that result in frequent absences

More problems

• Housing problems
• Economic problems
• Nutrition problems
• Health problems
• Transportation

Cultural Awareness of Communication

• Everything that occurs with in school involves communication
• Communication through oral and written symbols
• Communication through non verbal symbols

How to Combat Culture Shock As a Teacher

• Create a comfortable and accepting environment in the classroom
• Don’t make assumptions
• Get to know your students and their unique situations
• Don’t give up on a student

Bibliography

• Berry, J W. (1970) Marginality, stress and ethnic identification in an acculturated aboriginal community. Journal of cross Cultural Psychology, 1. 239-252
• DeCapua, Andrea and Wintergerst Ann. 2004 Crossing Cultures in the Language Classroom. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press,.
• Furnham, Adrian and Bochner, Stephen.(1986) Culture Shock: Psychological reactions to Unfamiliar Environments University Press Cambridge London, New York
• Guanipa, Carmen. "CULTURE SHOCK". Dept. of Counseling and School Psychology. 11/24/2008 .
• Lynch, Elanor and Hanson, Marci. Developing Cross-Cultural Competence. Baltimore: Paul Brookes Publishing Co., 1998.
• Lysgaard, S. (1955). Adjustment in a foreign society: Norwegian fullbrite grantees visiting the united states. International Social Science Bulletin 7, 45-51.
• The U-Curve of Adjustment. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from Culture Shock: 2 Web site: http://www.international.umd.edu/studyabroad/990