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Language, Culture, and Perception: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

The tool Language, Culture, and Perception: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis comes with a complete lesson plan for talking through each of the videos and applying the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. In the particular context of the class in which we talked about sorting, this could have made a nice follow up to talk about how each of their languages reinforces the way that they categorize objects, ideas, and even people. I especially like this particular activity because it asks viewers to either watch the movie Arrival or to watch one of the many YouTube videos about Arrival, along with a popular TED talk by Lera Boroditsky. 

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Experiential Tools for Answering: Why Do All of the ______ Kids Stick Together?

In a previous position, I used to get this question a lot: "Why do all of the ______ kids stick together?" Domestic students would ask it about specific nationalities. International students would ask it about students from the US. One particular time stands out, when an English language and culture class asked their instructor why all the Americans stick together, why it was so hard to make American friends, etc. She asked me to come and address them. 

The first exercise in this collection--Language Envelopes--is how I jumpstarted the conversation with that particular class. The rest of the collection contains experiential activities that I wish we had had time to work through that day. I share them in hopes that, if you are asked the same question, you will find them useful.

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Annette Benson