The cultural inventory: A student-centered approach to cultural analysis in foreign language programs

It is the position of this study that through the development and implementation of specific methodologies the cultural awareness necessary to demonstrate intercultural communicative competence will be achieved.; Chapter 1 discusses the need of a culture pedagogy for foreign language-culture study which meets the aims of 21st Global-Information-Age learners, and suggests a methodology based in a symbolic-cognitive approach to culture.; Chapters 2 and of this study outline the anthropological and sociological theories used to formulate the research definition of culture utilized to generate the Cultural Inventory. Chapter 3 explores how Melford E. Spiro's “culturally constituted” concept and theory of cultural acquisition are helpful in understanding the semiotic nature cultural phenomena, i.e. their role as sign-vehicles for cultural communication. And, Chapter 4 presents this study's research definition of culture, its content and form, as utilized to develop the Cultural Inventory.; Chapters 5 and 6 of this study outline the semiotic theories used to formulate the Cultural Inventory as a pedagogical tool. Chapter 6 defines the parameters of the “action sequence” as a unit of cultural communication in textual narratives. Chapter 7 of this study presents the Cultural Inventory with filter definitions, explanations and example analysis of the Brother' Grimm “Der Süße Brei”.; The Cultural Inventory, as a semiotic-based method of analysis, presents a symbolic-cognitive theoretical concept and approach to culture. The Cultural Inventory, as a translation tool, provides the analysis process and translation vocabulary necessary to read and discuss texts as cultural communication. As a translation tool, it enables students to process textual data through a battery of theoretical filters created and arranged to facilitate the critical analysis of ideologies existent in primary texts. Utilizing the Cultural Inventory as a translation tool thus enables the student to discuss literary action sequences as cultural communications.