The "Self" in American Cultural Characteristics-Using Comic Strips to Teach Cultural Concepts in the EFL Classroom

Abstract

Among American value orientations, the ”self” is a salient American value that is given much stress. This appears to differ considerably from most societies in the world where family is likely to command much more attention. Discussions of value orientation of other societies provide the best guidance for understanding and adapting to their cultural patterns. A clear understanding of other cultures is one of the explicit goals of any foreign language teaching. Language and culture are in close relationship: the development of language skills gives access to another culture and culture shapes the development and use of language. Comic strips, as a means of teaching a foreign language and culture, have often been overlooked by teachers. As a matter of fact, everyone knows the cliche ”A picture is worth a thousand words.” Comic strips can be used in numerous ways to teach the four skills-listening, speaking, reading, and writing-as well as culture. The present paper will first explore the ”self” of American cultural characteristics. Then comic strips collected for this purpose will be shown to explain the essence of the American value of the ”self”. Ideas and examples of how to teach language and culture utilizing comic strips will be provided.