Teaching American Classroom Culture to Korean ESL Students Using Contrastive or Noncontrastive Video Presentations

This study was conducted to answer a research question: “Is a contrastive cultural presentation more effective than a noncontrastive cultural presentation in helping the students understand the target culture?” Twenty four Korean subjects were taught fifteen Arnerican classroom cultural points, through contrastive or noncontrastive video formats. A t-test was run to see the differences in the subjects’ perception of understanding between the contrastive and noncontrastive presentati6ns. The results showed that a contrastive cultural presentation was more effective than a noncontrastive cultural presentation in helping students understand a target cultural point. In spite of some limitations to this study, the findings can be informative to ESL teachers who want to teach American cultural points to their students. The results can also serve as a helpful guide to people who are interested in developing cultural video materials aimed at teaching cross-cultural differences.

Thesis Author: Kim, Seong-Soo

Year Completed: 1994

Thesis Chair: Lynn Henrichsen