Saturday 8:30 - 9:20 AM
Rose, Olympic ParkTel
Panning for Gold: Informant Interviews & Writing Projects
Nicholas Lambert
Toyo University, Japan
Students often have superficial understandings of their own and other
Asian cultures. EFL learning materials - even those with an intercultural
focus - do not necessarily address this problem, since they have a tendency
to emphasize English-speaking cultures. An ethnographic approach, via the
use of informant interviews (e.g., of the elderly, foreigners, people in
specialized professions), can help to improve cultural awareness without
neglecting language learning goals.
In this workshop, the presenter will outline a writing course designed
entirely around interview data collection and analysis. Techniques for
interviewing, transcription and data analysis will be discussed, and samples
of student writing projects (cross-cultural essays, personality profiles,
cultural vignettes, feature articles, oral histories, scripts and screenplays)
will be shown. In addition, participants will have an opportunity
to try out a couple of the classroom activities in the workshop. |