InterculturalCom: Language & Culture: Cultural Literacy (U5-P3) [VID] Fa13

This is a clip that I edited and posted on YouTube. I use this clip in my Intercultural Communication course to introduce students to the idea of cultural literacy and the role it plays in intercultural communication. 





E.D. Hirsch: education scholar who proposed the idea of cultural literacy. The idea was first introduced in the book Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know.

Cultural Literacy: All U.S. American students should have a commonly shared set of knowledge.

Rationale: Better communication and thus better relations. 

• People w/o a shared cultural literacy have less effective communication. (Heterophily).
• People w/ a shared cultural literacy more effective, efficient communication. (Homophily)

Additional rationale: Many business leaders find young graduates lack good communication skills.


Examples of Things All Americans Should Know 

• 1492 
• 1776 
• Achilles
• Adam & Eve
• Adams, John
• Aesop's Fables
• Ahab, Captain
• Alamo
• Alcott, Louisa May
• Ali, Muhammad Allah
• Allen, Woody
• All roads lead to Rome

This is a somewhat representative sample of his list of 500+.


Video: Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire - lyrics. 


You may also want to see the official music video for the song.

What does this have to do with intercultural communication?
Your task: You are in China and have to teach
An American Culture/English Language class. What would you do?




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See more about me at my web site WilliamHartPhD.com.