Volume: 20  Number: 1  Page: 1–19  doi:10.2167/lcc323.0

The Use of Culture Portfolio Project in a Korean Culture Classroom: Evaluating Stereotypes and Enhancing Cross-Cultural Awareness

Andrew Sangpil Byon East Asian Studies, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY 12222, USA

This paper investigates a case of designing, implementing, and evaluating a semester-long culture portfolio project in a Korean culture class in an American university setting. The paper addresses the following four issues: (1) How does the project help the students gain insights into a particular aspect of Korean culture and encourage them to evaluate their own stereotypical impressions of Korean culture? (2) How does the project raise students' cross-cultural awareness? (3) Does the project increase students' interest to study Korean language? (4) What are the pedagogical implications of the project? Students' written (e.g. pre- and post-project questionnaires) and spoken reports (e.g. classroom presentation) are used for qualitative analysis. The results of the analysis indicate that the project assists the students in gaining insights into a particular aspect of the Korean culture, by modifying their own stereotypical impressions of the target culture and people. The project helps the students to be aware of their own culture learning, recognise the impacts their own first language perspectives have on learning the target culture, and thereby assist them in developing open attitudes toward the target culture. In addition, the positive culture learning experience in return increases students' interest in studying the target language.

Keywords: cross-cultural awareness, culture learning, Korean language and culture, portfolio projects, stereotypes

© 2007 A.S.Byon

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