Culture Learning

Culture Learning in Language Education:
A Review of the Literature
R. Michael Paige, Helen Jorstad,
Laura Siaya, Francine Klein, Jeanette Colby
INTRODUCTION
This paper examines the theoretical and research literatures pertaining to culture learning in language education programs. The topic of teaching and learning culture has been a matter of considerable interest to language educators and much has been written about the role of culture in foreign language instruction over the past four decades. For insightful analyses see Morain,
1986; Grittner, 1990; Bragaw, 1991; Moore, 1991; Byram and Morgan, 1994. Most importantly, in recent years various professional associations have made significant efforts to establish culture learning standards (Standards, 1996; AATF, 1995). Yet, to date, there have been few critical reviews of the literature. In certain respects this is not surprising because culture learning is not exclusively the domain of language educators. On the contrary, the field is highly interdisciplinary in nature; contributions to the knowledge base have come from psychology, linguistics, anthropology, education, intercultural communication, and elsewhere. Moreover, anthropologists, intercultural communication scholars, and psychologists, in particular, have studied cultural phenomena quite apart from their relationship to language learning. The review confirmed what we expected: a substantial amount of important writing on culture learning exists, much of which is completely unrelated to language education.
The rationale for conducting this review of the literature was to determine if studies existed which could:
1) support and/or challenge current language education practices regarding the teaching of culture,
2) provide guidance to language educators on effective culture teaching methods,
3) suggest ways to conceptualize culture in the language education context,
4) suggest ways to assess culture learning, and,
5) indicate which

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