Title: Cultural Iceberg

Title: Cultural Iceberg

Goals: (1) help students understand how their cultures affect their and others’ perceptions and behavior (2) raise student awareness of your classroom’s culture to help avoid culture-based misunderstandings
Description: Draw an iceberg on the board. Divide it into three sections with top section the one “above water”. Title the three sections from top to bottom: surface culture, sub-surface culture, and deep culture. Have groups of students identify examples of each level of culture. Provide some explanation and examples to help them get started: Surface culture is what we can see (e.g. food, clothing, traditions); sub-surface culture is the rule system that influences behavior as manifested in body language, eye contact, and the concept of time; and deep culture the values and attitudes we are not even aware of (e.g. our notions of friendship, gender roles, and cleanliness).
Elicit and discuss the groups’ “findings”.
Ask and discuss how these levels of culture may be manifested in a diverse college classroom and course, in general. What are some misunderstandings that can occur? Finally, discuss the culture of your classroom and course. / Strengths: Students become more cognizant of the possible underlying causes of their classmates’ and professors’ behaviors, expectations, communication styles, etc.
Challenges: Even in a discussion designed to raise cultural awareness, students may make remarks critical of other cultures. Thus, it’s important to tell students to be respectful of other cultures in their discussions.
Participant Level: GR, WC
Class Time: M, L
When: B
Adapted by:
Prof. Ray Gonzales
Montgomery College
from Beyond Culture*

Code Legend:

Participant Level: WC (Whole Class); GR (Groups); P (Pairs); I (Individual Students)

Prep / Class / Results Analysis Time: S (Short); M (Medium); L (Long)

When to Use During Semester: B (Beginning); M (Middle); E (End); A (Any time)

*Beyond Culture by Edward T. Hall, Anchor Press, 1976 in Frank, Jerrold, “Raising

Cultural Awareness in the English Language Classroom,” English Teaching Forum,

No. 4, 2013.