C. Herron, S. Dubreil, S. Cole, and C.

Corrie

Using Instructional Video to Teach

Culture to Beginning Foreign
Language Students
Carol Herron
Sbastien Dubreil
Emory University

Steven P. Cole
Research Design Associates

Cathleen Corrie
Emory University

ABSTRACT
This investigation examines whether foreign language (FL) students learn
cultural information embedded in videos. Fifty beginning French students
participated. They viewed eight targeted videos as part of their multimedia-based curriculum. A pretest and a posttest assessed long-term gains in
overall cultural knowledge and in the learning of little c culture (practices) and big C culture (products). Eight postvideo tests measured shortterm retention of culture in each of the eight videos. Oral dialogues tested
students ability to interact culturally appropriately in a communicative
setting. A questionnaire analyzed student perceptions of cultural learning.
From pre- to posttesting, results indicated a significant gain in overall
cultural knowledge. Posttest scores were significantly higher than pretest
scores. Pretest and posttest scores were significantly higher for little c
than for big C. On the postvideo tests, measuring short-term retention
of culture, there was no significant difference between types of culture
retained. Regarding oral performance, students performed culturally appropriately more than 60% of the time. Students perceived that the videos contained more little than big C culture and that they learned more
little c. Results support using video an effective technological tool for
presenting culture in the FL classroom.
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KEYWORDS
Video, Culture, Beginning Foreign Language Students, Assessment of Technology, Classroom Research

INTRODUCTION
Cultural awareness has made its way to the core of educators concerns
in all disciplines. The 1998 American Educational Research Association
(AERA) conference in San Diego, CA was entitled Citizenship and Diversity in Multicultural Society. Foreign language (FL) teachers are certainly not indifferent to this trend. The same year, the American Council
on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) annual meeting gathered
under the title Winds of Change, and presenters devoted sessions to the
cultural dimension of the FL classroom. In fact, FL classes may present a
unique potential for strengthening intercultural education by teaching not
only the language but also the culture in which it is embedded (Singerman,
1996). Learning about another culture is a fundamental goal in the FL
classroom. Two performance guidelines, the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines (1986) for adult language users and the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines (1998) for K-12 learners include sections on cultural competence as
well as linguistic performance. Lange (1999, p. 57) affirms that language
cannot be taught without cultural content.
Video has been touted as a fruitful source for teaching culture as it
presents students with an image of living, vibrant people (Shrum & Glisan,
1994, p. 249). Martinez-Gibson (1998) points out that todays students
are part of the television era and that they are therefore more visually
oriented. These assertions suggest that video could facilitate students learning of a foreign culture. However, very little classroom research documents that FL video actually enhances the teaching of a foreign culture.
The current research attempts to fill this void by investigating how much
and what kind of culture beginning French students learn from a videobased curriculum.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Official FL guidelines regarding the teaching of culture give specific
criteria for instructional goals. A professional consensus regarding what
students should know about culture as a result of their FL study was reached
with the publication of Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Preparing for the 21st Century (1996). While the first goal emphasizes standards
for communication, the second goal stresses the importance of learning
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about both cultural practices and products. Cultural practices refer to
patterns of behavior, or what to do, where, and when. Cultural products
may be tangible (e.g., a sculpture) or intangible (e.g., a system of education) (Lafayette, 1996). Cultural practices reflect what theorists often label as little c culture and cultural products as big C culture (see Brooks,
1968; Seelye, 1994). Along these lines, the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) developed criteria to teach culture effectively in the
classroom. The AATF Commission stressed that both categories of culture be evaluated: the assessment of knowledge (cognitive skills) should
include aspects of life (small c) and civilization (large C), but these
should be evaluated as distinct features (AATF National Commission on
Cultural Competence, 1996, p. 76).
As noted above, video appears to be an excellent use of technology to
convey contemporary cultural information using the target language. It
provides immediate access to images and to native speakers of the target
language for students for whom that access could be otherwise limited.
Vogely (1998, p.74) supports this notion and emphasizes that some neuroscientists (Fiske & Taylor, 1984; Nisbett & Ross, 1980) found that visual images have the most powerful influence on learners behavior, even
though the visual input is not necessarily the focus of the activity. Alalou
and Chamberlain (1999) argue that in relation to its value as a source of
linguistic and cultural information, video is underutilized.
However, this positive view of using video to teach culture is not unanimously shared. It could be that the first time students watch a video, the
processing of syntactic information could place such a high cognitive demand on the students that they are unable to process any other kind of
information (e.g., cultural information). This processing problem is one
of the major tenets of the capacity theory of text comprehension (Just &
Carpenter, 1992). According to this theory, it may be overly optimistic to
think that first semester French students will be able simultaneously to
process both the linguistic and the cultural information from an authentic
video.
In addition to video being underutilized, its effectiveness in teaching
about a foreign culture remains largely unexamined. Two studies with fifth
graders in a Foreign Language in Elementary Schools (FLES) program
investigated the effectiveness of video as an advance organizer to a related
written passage (Herron & Hanley, 1992; Hanley, Herron, & Cole, 1995).
Results indicated that video did in fact facilitate the retention of cultural
information in the subsequent written passage. Martinez-Gibson (1998)
attempted to assess FL students ability to observe cultural differences
between the target and the native culture as presented in television commercials. Her study showed evidence that the addition of pre- and
postviewing activities focusing on the discussion of cultural issues seemed
to enable the students to recognize cultural information from the foreign
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language commercial. Kitajima and Lyman-Hager (1998) suggested that
students were able to apprehend cultural information while watching a
video. In their study, students were invited to reflect on the cultural elements they saw in a one-minute-long, silent video on Japanese roads by
stopping the video and saying what they noticed.
More recently, Herron, Corrie, Cole, & Dubreil (1999) specifically addressed the effectiveness of using an instructional video series to teach
both little c culture and big C culture to second semester French students. Following the AATF Commission guidelines stating that little c
and big C culture should be assessed separately, the Herron et al. design
(1999) allowed for two measures of little c and big C culture: a pre/
posttest (at the beginning and at the end of the semester, respectively) and
postvideo viewing tests (immediately following each video). Three sections of a second semester French course participated in the study. Ten
targeted videos from the instructional program French in Action (FiA,
Capretz, 1994) contained all the cultural information tested on the pretest. At the end of the semester, the investigators administered a posttest
(identical to the pretest) to all three sections of the course. Regarding the
main effect of video on cultural knowledge over time, posttest scores (regardless of culture type) were significantly higher than pretest scores.
Regarding the kind of culture learned, students scored significantly higher
on little c items than big C items on both the pretest and posttest.
Throughout the semester, the investigators also administered tests to the
students immediately after viewing each weekly video. Test items pertained
to cultural information embedded in the videos. Students did significantly
better on little c items than on big C items on the postvideo quizzes.
Finally, that study assessed students perceptions of how much culture
was presented in the videos and how much of that amount they thought
they had learned. Students thought that more little c than big C culture was presented. They also thought that they had learned more little
c than big C from the video. The investigators concluded that the
video-based curriculum did effectively teach cultural information, in particular, patterns of behavior.

RATIONALE FOR THE CURRENT STUDY

This study addresses unanswered issues concerning the effectiveness of
using video-based materials to teach culture to FL students. First, the
present research is designed to determine whether first semester students
of French, that is, students with no or virtually no prior experience in
French, improve their overall cultural knowledge from viewing French
videos. Previous research did not address the effectiveness of video to
teach culture to novice learners. Second, the present study examines
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whether beginning French students retain more little c culture than big
C culture from the FiA video-based curriculum (described in detail below). The investigators expected students to recall more little c than big
C on the pre/posttest and the postvideo quizzes (based on evidence from
the Herron et al. study, 1999). However, the differences in the studies
samples, especially regarding participants previous background in French,
did not allow for the formulation of a definite directional hypothesis in
favor of either type of culture. Third, this study investigates students ability to respond orally to a dramatic, culturally authentic situation, that is, a
situation that contains a cultural crisis. A cultural crisis is an encounter
between a native speaker and a foreigner in which there is a potential for
a cross-cultural misunderstanding because, as Caroll (1990, p. 3) has
pointed out, As soon as there is contact with another culture, there is
potential for conflict. Herron et al. (1999) concluded their research with
the hope that future studies would include an assessment of students oral
performance of cultural knowledge. The present study responds to their
call by investigating FL students ability to transfer cultural information
from a video to a real life situation. Finally, this study assesses students
perceptions of how much little c and big C culture is presented in the
FiA videos and how much they thought they learned over the course of the
semester. Perhaps novice learners of French concentrate more on the aesthetic details of big C culture embedded in the videos than on the anthropological aspects of little c culture since high-brow culture is what
they are expecting to learn in a college foreign language classroom. Or
perhaps, similar to the Herron et al. (1999) findings, novice learners of
French think that they learn more from the videos about the patterns of
daily living in France than they do about French artistic and institutional
endeavors. The current study again explores the relation between student
perceptions and actual learning.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The purpose of this study is to investigate the following research questions:
1. Does beginning French students overall knowledge of French
culture improve over the course of one semester when exposed
to a video-based curriculum?
2. Do beginning French students retain more little c or big C
culture when exposed to culture embedded in a video-based
curriculum?
3. Is there a significant difference for beginning French students
between the short-term retention of little c and big C culture immediately after watching each video?
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4. Are beginning students able to respond orally in a foreign language in a culturally appropriate manner when they face a cultural situation referred to in the narrative of the instructional
videos?
5. What are beginning students perceptions of how much little
c and big C culture is presented in the videos they watch,
and what are their perceptions of how much of that cultural
information is learned?

METHODOLOGY
Participants

Participants in the study were 50 students (18 males [36%] and 32

females [64%]) enrolled in four sections of a 15-week, first-semester French
course at a mid-size private university. Four different teachers were teaching the four sections; only one was a native speaker of the language. Classes
were taught the same days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday). Of the
50 participants, 19 were freshmen (38%), 9 were sophomores (18%), 7
were juniors (14%), 9 were seniors (18%), 5 were graduate students
(10%), and 1 was an alumnus who graduated the previous Spring (2%).
Twenty-nine students (58%) never had French before while 21 (42%)
had taken between one and five semesters (M = 2.10, SD = .92) of French
prior to the class. No student had previously been exposed to FiA. Twelve
students (24%) had no previous background in another foreign language
(all of them however were among the 21 students who reported having
taken French classes before). Thirty-eight students (76%) had experience
in another foreign language (9 of them also had experience in French).
Forty-five out of 50 students provided information on whether or not they
had previously traveled to France. Of these 45, 28 (62%) reported that
they had never visited France before. Of the 17 (38%) that reported prior
travel to France, 8 went for a week or less and 9 went for a duration of
two to four weeks.

General Classroom Procedures

The FiA package was the instructional program for all four sections. FiA
uses a planned immersion approach to teaching foreign languages. In other
words, students are plunged into the French language through a storyline
that, though scripted, exposes them to both authentic language and authentic situations. The language spoken by the actors proceeds at a normal pace, but the care with which the script has been written reveals a
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logically sequenced way of teaching the language. Beyond merely teaching
the language, one of the strengths of FiA is its staging of authentic cultural
situations whereby students can witness how native speakers of French
interact within their own cultural world. Traditional grammatical exercises are relegated to workbook activities completed outside of class with
the assistance of an audiotape. In class, in addition to viewing and discussing the FiA videos, students are involved in communicative oral and
small-group activities including role-playing and contextualized structural
drills. Weekly quizzes are administered to assess students knowledge of
the weekly video and principal linguistic structures.

Target Videos

The study included eight target videos: videos 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
and 15 (listed both in the order in which they appear in the FiA series and
in which they were taught). During the fall semester, four classes participated in the experiment. Each class watched the same video on the same
day.

Teaching Procedures

All four sections followed the same procedure: the video of the week
was shown in class on the same day without interruption. That viewing
was the first time all students in the four sections saw the new video. The
teachers provided no introductory remarks about the video. The students
watched the 10-minute teleplay in its entirety and did not take notes while
watching. After this initial viewing, no further discussion took place during that particular class session about the video. Following this initial inclass viewing, students were free to watch the videos outside of class in
the language laboratory. The following week, teachers also replayed the
video in class, intervening to check comprehension, before the weekly
quiz.

Testing Procedures: Pre- and Posttests

To assess the effect of video on cultural knowledge over time, all students in the four classes took a multiple-choice pretest at the beginning of
the semester, prior to watching the first of the target videos. At the end of
the semester, after the last of the target videos was shown, an identical
posttest was administered. The teachers informed the students that neither the pretest nor the posttest would count toward their final grade in
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the class. Of the 16 items on the pre/posttest, 8 tested little c cultural
knowledge, and 8 tested big C cultural knowledge. The pre/posttest
was constructed based on the cultural information contained in the target
videos watched over the course of the semester. Five grammatical items
were added at the end of the pretest/posttest to serve as distracters.
This pre/posttest design follows the pattern of a testing project by Seelye
(1968) designed to assess biculturation of Americans in Latin America. In
Seelyes project, test items reflected two major categories: the first contained the items that are associated with the ability to function in a society (little c culture) and the second one items that measure knowledge
not overtly associated with functioning in a society (big C). Questions
that are based on abstract or implicit patterns of which the native is not
aware and erudite academic knowledge are placed in the big C category (cited in Seelye, 1994, pp. 216-217). In the current study, little c
culture and big C culture had to be operationally defined to build the
questions. Little c questions pertained to the ability to function in a
society (e.g.., communication in a cultural context, social patterns, and
conventions); big C questions reflected situations with social institutions (e.g., education, government, transportation, religion), history, geography, national products, literature and fine arts.
When constructing the current pre/posttest, the validity of each cultural pattern or information was documented with three independent
sources, as suggested by Seelye (1994). All three experts were natives of
France and could therefore be considered well grounded in the target culture. Once the test had been designed, correction was completely objective. (For multiple choice pretesting of cultural information, see Seelye,
1994, p.219.)
Each pre/posttest item consisted of a stem and four possible responses.
All of the information on which students were tested could be found in
videos 8 through 15. Below are four sample items, two for little c and
two for big C. The correct answers are starred. (See the complete pre/
posttest in Appendix A.)
1. What city is at the very western extremity of France?
a. Bordeaux.
b. Brest. *
c. Paris.
d. Brittany.

(Big C)

2. What do French children usually do around 4:00 p.m.?

a. Eat a snack. *
b. Play cards.
c. Take a shower.
d. Surf the Internet.

(Little c)

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3. What are sailors traditionally wearing in case of bad weather?
(Little c)
a. Overalls.
b. A black raincoat.
c. A beret.
d. A yellow slicker. *
4. Why is Pierre Cardin famous?
a. He is a painter.
b. He is a writer.
c. He is a fashion designer. *
d. He is a film director.

(Big C)

SCORING OF PRE/POSTTEST

Each test item was worth 1 point; incorrect answers received 0 points,
and correct answers 1 point. A participants pre/posttest score was computed by dividing the total number of points awarded by the total number
of points possible. Beside the total score, the little c score and the big
C score were calculated by the same process. The pretest and the posttest
were scored in the same manner. Three judges blindly scored students
responses on the pre- and posttests to establish interjudge accuracy. All
three judges scored all pre- and posttests. The interjudge accuracy was
100% on the pretest and 99.8% on the posttest. Once the scoring errors
were identified, the data were corrected.

RELIABILITY OF PRE/POSTTEST

To assess the reliability of the pre/posttest instrument, a reliability sample

was constituted. This sample consisted of 39 students enrolled in two
sections of a first semester Italian class. The reliability sample took the
test (pre/posttest) three times. Since these students were not enrolled in a
French class, no grammatical distracters were included in the test. The
reliability sample took the test for the first time (T1) two weeks after the
French students pretest, and the second time (T2) ten days later. The goal
in this test/retest procedure was to control for possible sequencing effects
(Sprinthall, 1997). Finally the reliability sample took the test a third time
(T3) a week after the French students took their posttest.
All three tests were blindly scored by two judges following the same
procedures as the pre/posttest. Interjudge accuracy was 100%. Means
and standard deviations for all three tests are presented in Table 1.

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Table 1
Reliability SampleTest Performance, Means (and Standard Deviations)
for T1-T3
T1
T2
T3
Little c
0.53 (0.24)
0.45 (0.26)
0.52 (0.24)
Big C
0.34 (0.19)
0.31 (0.22)
0.32 (0.20)

Even though information was collected on 39 students for the reliability

sample, 28 actually provided information on each element of the procedure. For reasons of reliability, and even though the results did not differ
with respect to the sample size used, the investigator chose to only use
these 28 students in the final data analysis. Test performance did not increase from T1 to T2 or from T2 to T3 for little c or big C, indicating
that scores were not biased by reuse of the same test instrument.
Pearson correlation coefficients between T1, T2, and T3 for total, little
c, and big C scores are presented in Table 2.
Table 2
Reliability SamplePearson Correlation Coefficients (n = 28)
Test
T1
T2
T3
T1

.28
.54**
T1
c2

.16
.35+
3
C

.40*
.63***
T2

T
c
C

.61**
.58***
.56**

Notes. 1 All items, 2 Little c items, and 3 Big C items.

*
p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001, + p < .10
For this time frame of the main study (T1-T3), the correlations for total
and big C scores were statistically significant and there was a marginal
significance for little c. These results indicate good consistency of the
pre/posttest instrument from the beginning to the end of the semester.

Testing Procedures: Postvideo Viewing Tests

To assess the short-term effect on the acquisition of cultural knowledge,

students in all four classes took the same test immediately after viewing
the new video for the week. This test was a written test and took the form
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tions. The test items could be answered correctly only from information
found in the teleplay of the video. Each class had a total of eight postvideo
tests. Each student answered a total of four questions for each video, two
of them testing little c culture, the remaining two testing big C culture. For example, the postvideo test for video 8 is found below. The correct answer is starred.
Video 8Postvideo Viewing Test.
Multiple Choice
Please circle the letter of the correct answer below.
1. Who is called Monsieur de Cro-Magnon? (big C)
a. A famous general.
b. A president.
c. A prehistoric man. *
d. A famous statue.
2. How would a childs birth typically be announced in France?
(little c)
a. Parents would send birth cards. *
b. French people do not announce births in their families.
c. The parents of the new child would telephone friends.
d. It would be announced in church.
Short Answer
Please answer the questions below in English, as completely as possible.
3. When French people talk about la Guerre de 40 the War of 40,
to what are they referring? (big C)
4. What outdoor game from the South of France do French people
like to play on a sunny afternoon? (little c)
The teachers handed out the postvideo viewing test immediately after
the class had finished watching the video of the week. They asked students to write their answers on the test sheets. All questions were in English, and students wrote their answers in English so as not to confound
their cultural knowledge with their skills in writing in the foreign language. Since all participants received the same treatment, this was a completely within-subject experimental design.

SCORING OF POSTVIDEO VIEWING TEST

Each category of culture (little c and big C) received a separate

score that was computed by adding the total number of points awarded
for each correct answer and dividing the total points awarded by the total
number of points possible. For example, a participant who answered corVolume 17 Number 3

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rectly one question in each cultural category received a score of 0.50 for
little c and the same score for big C. A student who correctly answered both questions on little c and none on big C received a score
of 1.00 for little c and 0.00 as a big C score.
Each postvideo quiz was blindly scored by two judges to establish
interjudge reliability. Both judges scored all postvideo quizzes. The
interjudge accuracy (for the multiple-choice items) was 100%. The
interjudge reliability (for the short answer questions) was 90.7%. Once
the mistakes were identified, both judges discussed the correction criteria
to identify the source of their disagreement. Based on this discussion, the
criteria were refined and made more explicit. Then the postvideo quizzes
were integrally rescored according to the new criteria and the appropriate
changes were made in the data used for analysis.

Testing Procedure: Oral Cultural Assimilator

At the end of the semester, students were put in a one-on-one cultural

situation to which they were asked to react in French in a culturally appropriate manner. This oral test borrowed its form from the concept of
the cultural assimilator. The technique of the cultural assimilator was developed by psychologists to facilitate adjustment to another culture (Fiedler,
Mitchell & Triandis, 1971). The traditional cultural assimilator places a
foreigner into a situation involving target cultural behavior. Each situation or episode gives a description of a critical incident of cross-cultural
interaction that is usually a common occurrence, for example, a situation
that Americans might find puzzling and that they might misinterpret or
misunderstand, although that situation would be rather unequivocal for
people possessing sufficient knowledge of the culture. After reading the
episode, subjects write down what they think went wrong in the episode
with which they have been presented.
Please note that for the purpose of this investigation, the original format
of the cultural assimilator was slightly modified. In this study, the assimilator was in a foreign language. It was not a multiple-choice but an openended item in which there was only one correct answer. The student and
the teacher acted out a role-playing situation in the form of a short dialogue (two to three sentences) written in French. The cultural assimilator
was set up so that one sentence was pronounced by the student. This
sentence contained a blank space. The student had to fill in the blank with
the (only) culturally appropriate answer in the given situation. The level
of French used in the construction of the investigator-made dialogues took
into account the vocabulary and grammatical structures studied in first
semester French. (See sample assimilators in Appendix B.) Below is an
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sioned by Levno (1977) and incorporating the design modifications (oral
and in French) described above. In this example, the student would play
the native speaker and the teacher would be the foreigner.
Native Speaker:

Tiens, Robert. Est-ce que tu veux voir la Joconde?

Say, Robert, do you want to see the Mona Lisa?
Foreigner:
Daccord. Samedi 15h00. Rendez-vous lArc de
Triomphe.
OK. Saturday at 3 PM. Meet at the Arc de
Triomphe.
Native Speaker: Impossible! Parce que la Joconde __________.
Impossible! Because the Mona Lisa __________.
If students were to complete this dialog, they should produce the following response:
Native Speaker: Impossible! Parce que la Joconde est au Louvre. is
in the Louvre
A set of two questions per category of culture (little c and big C),
that is, a total of four questions, was constructed and each student answered all of them. The cultural information contained in these dialogs
can be found in the targeted FiA videos. The test was taken at the end of
the semester. Students went individually into the room where their respective instructors were sitting. The instructors handed out a sheet with
the four dialogs to the students. They then proceeded to read the introductory paragraph and then immediately began the testing. Due to logistical constraints, the assimilator was not administered to one of the four
sections, and only 31 scores could be collected. However, analyses comparing all four sections on the other major study measures revealed no
performance differences by section.
Each cultural pattern or information was checked by two natives of
France and one nonnative speaker (one of the instructors), therefore three
persons, as suggested by Seelye (1994). Moreover, each assimilator was
pretested by two natives of France.

SCORING OF ORAL CULTURAL ASSIMILATOR

Each answer to the four cultural assimilator questions was worth 1 point.
A grid of criteria was constituted for each question, regarding what constituted a right answer. An answer was either totally correct (1 point) or
totally incorrect (0 points). Thus, for both types of culture, each participant received a score between 0 and 2 points. Each category of culture
(little c and big C) received a separate score that was computed by
adding the total number of students across categories of exposure. For
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example, a participant who made one correct utterance in each cultural
category received a score 1.00 for little c and the same score for big C.
A student who made two correct utterances in little c and zero in big
C received a score of 2.00 for little c and 0.00 as a big C score.
The instructors recorded students answers so that a second judge could
score it blindly. Both judges scored all the oral tests and interjudge reliability was thus established (97.5%). Once the mistakes were identified,
the discrepant items were rescored.

Testing Procedures: Cultural Questionnaire

At the end of the semester, all students answered a cultural questionnaire. (See the sample culture questionnaire in Appendix C.) At the top of
the questionnaire students found a definition of little c and big C culture to guide them in answering the questions. The questionnaire included
open-ended questions asking students for comments about the presentation of Culture/culture in FiA and comments about their learning of Culture/culture from this method. It also questioned the students about their
perceptions of the learning of culture as well as their perception on how
much culture they thought was presented in their class through FiA. Finally, students answered questions regarding whether they had previous
experiences in France or previous exposure to FiA (and, if so, under what
circumstances) so as to cross reference this information with that obtained
at the beginning of the semester on the general information sheet. Students were also asked for possible exposure to French or other cultures
and languages through noneducational settings (e.g., family members,
friends, or an extensive stay in another country). Out of 45 students who
provided information regarding exposure to a foreign (i.e., nonAmerican)
culture, 9 (20.0%) reported having been exposed to French through family or friends, and 14 (31.1%) reported having been significantly exposed
to another culture through study programs, family, travel, or work.

SCORING OF QUESTIONNAIRE

All questionnaires were blindly scored by a second judge to establish

interjudge reliability. Interjudge accuracy was 97.5%, and interjudge reliability was 93.9%. Once mistakes were identified, those questionnaire
items were rescored. With respect to the treatment of the open-ended
questions, the criteria to code the data were made more explicit and the
questionnaire rescored according to the new criteria.

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RESULTS
An initial set of analyses was conducted to assess possible differences
between class sections with regard to the main study variables. Chi-square
tests for independence were used to assess possible differences between
class sections for demographic variables. The sections did not differ in
their composition with regard to gender, university status, or background.
No student had ever been exposed to French in Action. A series of oneway analyses of variance (ANOVA) was conducted between sections for
student outcome on the pretest scores (total score, big C culture, and
little c culture), posttest scores (id.), cumulative postvideo quizzes (id.),
and cultural assimilators (id.). There were no significant section differences for student performance (p < .05).

Item Analysis

Prior to assessing the research questions, a set of analyses was conducted to assess item difficulties for the little c and big C items separately. Analyses were conducted for the pretest, postvideo quizzes, and
the assimilator items. To evaluate possible item difficulty between mean
scores for the pretest, t-tests for independent samples were conducted.
There was initially a significant difference between the mean difficulty for
little c (M = .57, SD = .17) and big C (M = .31, SD = .22) items, t (14)
= -2.60, p <. 05. Items that had a difficulty superior to 90% or inferior to
10% were removed (i.e., items number 1big C, number 4little c,
and item number 14little c). A second t-test for independent samples
was conducted on the remaining 13 items and there was no statistically
significant difference between little c items (M = .49, SD = .11) and big
C items (M = .34, SD = .21), t (11) = -1.52, p = .16. Means and standard
deviations for the pre- and posttest (after correction) are presented in
Table 3.
Table 3
French 101 StudentsPre- and Posttest Means (and Standard Deviations)
by Type of Culture
Pretest
Posttest
Little c
0.48 (0.20)
0.85 (0.19)
0.66 (0.20)
Big C
0.33 (0.20)
0.57 (0.22)
0.45 (0.20)
Total

0.40 (0.20)

0.71 (0.19)

To evaluate possible item difficulty between mean scores for the postvideo
quizzes, t-tests for independent samples were conducted. There was initially a statistically nonsignificant trend for the difference between the
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mean difficulty for little c (M = .67, SD = .24)and big C (M = .55, SD
= .23) items, t (30) = -1.53, p = .14. According to the same criteria, three
items were removed (i.e., question number 2 on postvideo quiz 10 and
question 2 on postvideo quiz 12little c, and question number 4 on
postvideo 12big C). A second t-test for independent samples was conducted for the remaining 29 items and there was no statistically significant difference between little c items (M = .62, SD = .22) and big C
items (M = .58, SD = .19), t (27) = -.60, p = .56. Means and standard
deviations for the 8 postvideo quizzes and for the total postvideo scores
are presented in Table 4 below.
To evaluate possible item difficulty between mean scores for the assimilators, a t-test for independent samples was conducted. There was no statistically significant difference between little c items (M = .58, SD =
.23) and big C items (M = .50, SD = .21), t (2) = -.37, p = .75.
After removing the necessary items from the respective tests as a result
of the item difficulty analyses, pre- and posttest as well as postvideo quizzes scores (total and for each type of culture) were recalculated and a new
data base was constituted for the remaining analyses.

Results: Research Questions

To assess changes in overall cultural knowledge over the course of the

semester (research question 1) and to assess possible difference in longterm learning of little c and big C culture (research question 2), a two
(pre, post) X two (type of culture) repeated measures ANOVA was conducted. Regarding the main effect of video on cultural knowledge over
time, posttest scores (regardless of culture type) (M = 0.71, SD = 0.19)
were statistically significantly higher than pretest scores (M = 0.40, SD =
0.20), F (1,44) = 149.74, p < .001. With respect to the main effect of
culture type, little c scores (regardless of pre- or posttest) (M = 0.66, SD
= 0.20) were statistically significantly higher than big C scores (M =
0.45, SD = 0.20), F (1,44) = 74.48, p < .001. The increase in mean little
c scores from pretest to posttest (0.37) was higher than the increase for
big C scores (0.20) and the culture X time interaction effect was statistically significant, F (1,44) = 8.49, p < .01. Little c scores were significantly higher than big C scores at pretest, t ( 44) = -4.13, p < .001 and
at posttest, t ( 44) = -8.38, p < .001. Posttest scores were significantly
higher than pretest scores for little c (t (44) = -10.39, p < .001) and for
big C (t (44 )= -7.16, p < .001) (see Table 3).
To allow for comparison between this study and the Herron et al. study
(1999), a power analysis was conducted. Effect sizes for the interaction
effects were calculated for each study: 2.71 for first semester French (n =
45) and 1.36 for second semester French (n = 38). According to Cohen
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(1988, pp. 284-288), effect sizes above .40 for ANOVAs are considered
large effects. Although the first semester effect size was larger than the
second semester effect size, both studies produced interactions with very
large effect sizes. With alpha = .05, the power of each ANOVA to test the
null hypothesis of no interaction effect was greater than .90. These power
estimates were similar to those for the results of the Herron et al. study.
Thus, we believe that the sample sizes for both studies were sufficient to
test our hypotheses in a scientifically valid manner.
To evaluate the association between pre- and posttest performance,
Pearson product-moment correlations were conducted between pretest
and posttest scores (little c, big C, and total scores). The correlation
was moderate but statistically significant for big C, r (43) = .38, p < .05.
Students who scored higher on the pretest also scored higher on the posttest
on the big C items. The correlation for little c was not statistically
significant, r (43) = .20, p = .18.
To assess the association between types of culture performance on the
pre- and the posttest separately, Pearson product-moment correlations were
conducted within each test. There was a statistically significant correlation between little c and big C scores on the posttest, r (43) = .30, p <
.05. This correlation indicated that students who scored high on little c
items also scored high on big C items at posttest.
To assess possible differences in short-term retention of little c and
big C types of culture (research question 3), a series of t-tests for paired
samples was conducted. Only the 42 students that took at least six of the
possible eight post video quizzes were included in these analyses. For
postvideo quiz 10, one has to keep in mind that one item (question 2) was
removed and therefore the t-test bears only on one item for little c. By
the same token, since two questions (numbers 2 and 4, respectively little
c and big C) were removed from postvideo quiz 12, both little c and
big C scores were computed from solely one item. For the total postvideo
scores, the total little c scores (M = 0.59, SD = 0.15) were not statistically significantly different from the total big C (M = 0.60, SD = 0.17),
t (40) = 0.49, p = .63 (see Table 4).

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Table 4
French 101 StudentsPostvideo Quizzes, Means (and Standard Deviations) by type of culture
Little c
Big C
Test
08
0.23 (0.25)
0.59 (0.36)***
09
0.59 (0.40)
0.56 (0.37)
10
0.91 (0.28)
0.74 (0.31)*
11
0.40 (0.36)
0.51 (0.31)
12
0.64 (0.49)
0.61 (0.54)
13
0.57 (0.43)
0.63 (0.55)
14
0.71 (0.29)
0.51 (0.35)**
15
0.71 (0.25)
0.53 (0.36)**
Total

0.59 (0.15)

0.60 (0.17)

*p < .05.
**p < .01.
***p <.001.
Means and standard deviations for the assimilator are presented in Table
5. With respect to the oral component of the study (research question 4),
a t-test for paired samples was conducted to assess the difference in ability
between types of culture. There was no statistically significant difference
between little c scores (M = 1.23, SD = .76) and big C scores (M =
1.13, SD = .76) in students ability to produce a culturally appropriate
utterance (see Table 5).
Table 5
French 101 StudentsAssimilator Means (and Standard Deviations) by
Type of Culture
Little c
Big C
Assimilator
1.23 (0.76)
1.13 (0.76)
1.18 (0.54)
To evaluate the association between the performance on the assimilator
and other performances, Pearson product-moment correlations were conducted. There was a statistically significant correlation between students
performance on the assimilator and their total postvideo quiz score, r (24)
= .54, p < .01. Students who received a high score on the assimilators
tended to receive a high total score on the postvideo tests. There was no
statistically significant correlation between performance on the assimilator and either pretest scores (r (28) = .11, p = .56) or posttest scores (r
(28) = -.06, p = .75).
Regarding students perceptions (research question 5), 64.5 % thought
that a lot or a vast amount of little c culture was presented in the videos
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while 60.0% of the students thought that a lot or a vast amount of big C
culture was presented. Moreover, while 35.6% of the students believed
that they learned a lot or a vast amount of little c culture throughout the
semester, only 2.2% of the students believed that they learned a lot or a
vast amount of big C culture. To test these differences between type of
culture presented and type of culture learned, t-tests for paired samples
were conducted. Students believed that more little c culture (M = 3.64,
SD = .80) was presented than big C culture (M = 2.71, SD = .79), t (45)
= -6.85, p < .001. Likewise, students believed that they learned more little
c culture (M = 3.18, SD = .98) than big C culture (M = 2.67, SD =
.81), t (45) = -6.28, p < .001.
Part of the information collected from students pertained to previous
exposure to French, previous traveling experience to France, and previous
exposure to a foreign culture. To assess the possible association between
an affirmative answer to any of these questions and performance on the
various tests, Pearson product-moment correlations were conducted between a dichotomous measure (0 = no, 1 = yes) of each of these questions
and the various test measures. With respect to previous background in
French, the variable was recoded into baggage (0 = no background, 1 =
some background). There was a statistically significant negative correlation between previous background in French and the big C score on the
assimilator, r (29) = -.49, p < .01. In other words, students that had previous background in French scored lower on the big C items of the assimilator. There was a statistically non-significant negative trend between previous background in French and performance on the big C postvideo
quizzes, r (42) = -.23, p = .14. Students who had previously taken French
tended to score lower on the big C items of the postvideo quizzes. There
was no other statistically significant correlation between previous background in French and other performance measures. With respect to previous trips to France, there were significant correlations with the total
postvideo score, r (40) = .38, p < .05 and with pretest big C scores, r
(46) = .30, p < .05. In each case, trips to France were associated with
higher scores.

ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
Question 1: Does beginning French students overall knowledge of French
culture improve over the course of one semester when exposed to a videobased curriculum?
The findings of the present study suggest that first semester students of
French can improve their general cultural knowledge over the course of a
semester through exposure to an instructional video series. At the beginning of the semester, students took a pretest on cultural information to
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which they were exposed via the videos during the semester. At the end of
the study, they took the same test (posttest) and scored statistically significantly higher on both types of culture. These results confirm the expectation that viewing videos, as a part of the FiA curriculum, improves students knowledge over the course of one semester. They are also consistent with what Herron et al. (1999) found with second semester students
of French.
Question 2: Do beginning French students retain more little c or big
C culture when exposed to culture embedded in a video-based curriculum?
Keeping the little c and big C distinction in mind, there was a statistically significant increase in knowledge of both categories of culture over
the course of the semester. Furthermore, the gain in little c knowledge
was significantly larger than the gain in big C knowledge. This result
could be explained by the fact that over time, patterns of living and daily
habits, which are by definition recurrent, are more likely to leave an imprint on beginning students whose linguistic abilities are limited. In other
words, while processing the linguistic component of the video, beginning
students appear less likely to process punctual information (typically big
C culture) than they are to process information that is presented as patterns of living (typically little c culture). Little c scores were from the
onset statistically significantly higher than big C scores, which was still
the case at the posttest stage. This finding suggests that students initial
knowledge of a foreign cultures daily habits of living and social patterns
is better than their knowledge of that cultures achievement and institutions. Since there is no relationship between either previous visits to France
or previous background in French and test performance, it is difficult to
formulate an hypothesis as to the origin of this initial discrepancy between little and big C. It is possible that the world is becoming a smaller
place and that students are becoming more aware of other cultures, or
perhaps they function on stereotypes, preconceptions, and others accounts
of trips to France that they may have heard about. Big C knowledge is
typically factual information that is either known or not. If a student does
not know the answer to a big C question, guessing is most likely going
to be a random process. However, if a student does not know the answer
to a little c item, a kind of educated guess may be possible (through
common sense, awareness, etc.). It also may be that students are more
interested in little c information because they can relate to it more easily. The issue of knowing how to behave in a foreign country may seem
more relevant to students because it presents a definite, more immediate
utility. In case they envision travel to or study/work in the foreign country,
the importance of active, cross-cultural communication is crucial since it
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ture. Finally, little c culture is a bigger part of students daily lives than
big C culture since they most likely go to shopping malls, restaurants, or
friends houses more often than they go to museums or look at a historical/geographical atlas. These conclusions can be supported by the correlational analysis. Whereas there was a statistically significant positive correlation between students pre- and posttest scores on big C culture,
there was no significance with respect to little c culture. This result
suggests that students who brought more initial big C knowledge kept
that edge; those who knew more big C at pretest tended also to know
more big C at posttest, regardless of whether or not there is a difference
in gain. However, viewing videos seemed to equalize first semester students knowledge regarding daily habits and social patterns of living, regardless of their initial score.
The finding that the first semester students learned significantly more
little c than big C does not support previous results of the Herron et
al. study (1999) with second semester students. Some light can be shed
on this discrepancy if we consider the gain between pre- and posttest for
each type of culture across both studies. We notice that in the first semester study little c increased by 78.7% and big C by 64.7%. These numbers were respectively 52.0% (c) and 49.2% (C) for the second semester study. Absolute gains for big C, however, are nearly identical
(.22 in the first semester study and .24 in the second semester study) and
the difference in relative value is due to a lower score for big C on the
pretest on the part of the first semester students. Moreover, from these
investigators classroom experiences and psychological research
(Woodworth & Schlosberg, 1960), it has been documented that learning
curves are characterized by a negative acceleration (students learn at a
decreasing pace). This slowing of learning appears exemplified here since
the second semester students seem to have learned little c culture at a
slower pace than their first semester counterparts. Consequently, for the
second semester students the discrepancy between little c and big C
decreases over time. This deceleration of learning is a possible explanation of the finding that, for the first semester students, the gain in little c
knowledge was significantly larger than the gain in big C knowledge
over time, while for second semester students, this was not the case.
Question 3: Is there a significant difference for beginning French students
between the short-term retention of little c and big C culture immediately after watching each video?
Regarding short-term retention, the postvideo quizzes did not yield a
consistent difference in favor of either type of culture. This latter result
contradicts what Herron et al. (1999) found. Since the investigators controlled for item difficulty, this discrepancy between long and short-term
retention is not to be attributed to instruments being weighted in favor of
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one type of culture. Instead, it could be attributed to linguistic ability. The
first semester students had virtually no background in French, and none
of them had been exposed to FiA before. In the Herron et al. study (1999),
68% of the students had taken first semester and were familiar with the
FiA curriculum, the characters in the video, and the way the characters
speak; the remaining 32% had taken between one and four years of French.
In the current research, the first semester students lack of background in
French and of familiarity with FiA might have hindered their short-term
retention of cultural information in the videos, regardless of the kind of
culture. Being better equipped linguistically, the second semester students
might have been able to pay more attention to the finer details of cultural
information embedded in the videos for both types of culture, with a significant edge in favor of little c. Thus, it is possible that while first semester students might be limited in their linguistic ability to process cultural information from videos, bearing out the capacity theory of text comprehension (see Just & Carpenter, 1992), the second semester students
increased linguistic ability allowed them to process more cultural information.
Question 4: Are beginning French students able to respond orally in a
foreign language in a culturally appropriate manner when they face a
cultural situation referred to in the narrative, instructional videos?
Even though there was no statistically significant difference between
students performances on little c and big C for the cultural assimilator, it is noticeable that students correctly answered 60% of the assimilator questions. Given the assimilators position at the very end of the testing apparatus and given the finding that students scored higher on little
c items than big C items on the posttest, it could have been expected
that students would score higher on little c than big C items on the
culture assimilator. This, however, was not the case. Students linguistic
limitations in spoken French could explain why there was no statistically
significant difference between little c and big C culture on the assimilator. On the posttest, students did not have to struggle with the language
since all the questions were in English. In the assimilator, however, students were asked to understand an utterance in the FL and then to respond to it using the FL in an appropriate manner. The assimilators called
forth a multifaceted linguistic processing: listening/reading comprehension, building a linguistically correct utterance, and replying orally with
no opportunity to negotiate meaning with the interlocutor. Thus, it would
not be surprising that if under those conditions, the difficulty of all four
items was equivalent for students, regardless of type of culture. Moreover,
the fact that there were only two items per type of culture on the assimilator may also be a factor that limits the reliability of the results obtained
with that instrument.
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With respect to students previous background in French, correlations
were statistically nonsignificant between previous background and all of
the measures of performance except the big C score on the assimilator.
In fact, background and big C assimilator scores were negatively correlated. One possible interpretation of these results could be that students
previous exposure to French did not focus on cultural acquisition, and,
when it did, oral activities did not emphasize cultural achievements of a
society.
By way of contrast, the factor having previously visited France tended
somewhat to enhance students performance on the big C questions of
the assimilator. This correlational tendency could be attributed to the notion that students who had traveled to France had actually viewed big C
institutions such as museums and other historical and political artifacts.
Question 5: What are beginning French students perceptions of how much
little c and big C culture is presented in the videos they watch, and
how much of that cultural information do they learn?
There was evidence that students perceived that they had been exposed
to more little c than big C culture. Students believed that more little
c culture than big C culture was presented in FiA and that they learned
more little c than big C. This finding supports the questionnaire results in the Herron et al. (1999) research. For students, video seems to
have a propensity to emphasize cultural patterns of living in the FL classroom in a realistic, lively manner. In other words, the intrinsic quality of
video (a mixture of linguistic and visual material) appears to facilitate
students apprehension of cultural elements, especially at the level of social patterns of living. Video-based materials not only carry the potential
to enhance students language skills (especially speaking and listening),
but they also provide students with enriched cultural input which we hope
will prepare them to interact with native speakers in a wide range of cultural situations.
CONCLUSION
Overall, the above comparisons between the previous Herron et al. research (1999) and the current investigation revealed many interesting findings. It is important to note, however, that a truly scientific comparison of
these two studies is not possible because they are based on different
samples, videos, instruments, and classes taught by different teachers.
Keeping this reservation in mind, we would like to posit a few general
observations in favor of using video technology to teach culture. First,
both first and second semester students exposed to FL video increased
their overall cultural knowledge of the target country over the course of a
semester. Second, on pretests and posttests, both groups of students scored
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significantly higher on little c items than on big C items. Third, at the
end of the semester, both groups of students believed that they had learned
more little c than big C from the videos. Therefore, in tandem, the
studies support the use of video to teach culture to first year French students with a tendency for video to enhance the instruction of little c
knowledge.
Finally it is important to address the limitations of the current study.
The issue of the little c/big C distinction can be viewed both as a
delimitation and a limitation of this project. This dichotomous definition
of culture certainly needs to be addressed for further research. In the current study, it was a conscious choice on the part of the investigator to keep
the little c/big C distinction and yet to relate it to the types of culture
outlined by the national standards (products and practices). Two reasons
motivated this choice: first, this study aimed at pursuing the previous work
by Herron et al. (1999), which required keeping a similar definition; and,
second, the dichotomy seems appropriate to test the acquisition of cultural knowledge in the form of cultural information. The investigators
stress, however, that the unanswered issue of how to assess student understanding of the meaning behind the cultural practices and products of
a society remains a challenge for future research (see Kramsch, 1993 for a
discussion on the processes and subjectivity of culture).
Other limitations of the study point out areas for further research. The
current experiment is limited in that only one type of video, namely a
narrative, scripted (although authentic), instructional video, as opposed
to documentaries, film excerpts, etc., was used. The use of various genres
of video is a topic for future research. Researchers could also investigate
the teaching of culture through video to advanced students since most FL
departments offer classes based on film. The current investigators did not
assess what cultural stereotypes students held about either French or
American culture. Future investigations could explore the relation of student-held cultural stereotypes to their learning of foreign culture. Also,
the study did not address the question of whether the learning of cultural
information enhances language acquisition. The relationship between these
two types of learning could be the focal point of additional studies. Finally, further inquiries could envision a longitudinal design to follow one
group of students through first and second semester. Assessing students
oral cultural proficiency at the end of both semesters would most likely
offer valuable results.
Beginning French students exposure to a video-based instructional program demonstrated improved cultural knowledge over the course of the
semester. We hope that our findings will encourage FL teachers to use
video to teach culture. We also urge other researchers to continue classroom research on the relation between technology and this critical national goal.
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APPENDIX A

French 101Sample Pre/Posttest items and answers

(The correct answer is starred. Little c and big C categories are indicated in parentheses.)

This semester, we are going to learn a lot about France and the French
language through the French in Action series. Before we go any further,
we would like to find out what you already know. Read the following
items and circle the answer that you find most appropriate. There is only
one possible answer to each item.
I. La France
1. What is the MLF? (big C)
a. A political party.
b. A union.
c. A feminist organization. *
d. A student organization.
2. When French children say Tonton, to whom do they refer? (little
c)
a. A parent.
b. Their uncle. *
c. A close friend.
d. An ancestor.
3. What is the name of the region on the Western side of France? (C)
a. Provence.
b. Burgundy.
c. Alsace.
d. Brittany. *
4. What do French people typically eat for a midday snack? (c)
a. Pastries. *
b. Chips and dip.
c. Nuts.
d. Candies.
5. On a vacation, if it rains, French people would probably (c)
a. surf the Internet.
b. go to the movies. *
c. chat on the phone.
d. drive around to see sites.
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6. Eric Rohmer is a famous French (C)
a. sculptor.
b. painter.
c. musician.
d. director. *
7. A favorite place for French people to sit and read is (c)
a. a subway station.
b. a restaurant.
c. a park. *
d. a shopping center.
8. Lanvin and Givenchy are examples of (C)
a. clothing design houses. *
b. vineyards.
c. interior design houses.
d. filmmakers.
9. What would French students do that Americans probably would not?
(c)
a. Dance all night.
b. study all night in the library.
c. go to a caf.
d. go on strike. *
10. La Sorbonne is located (C)
a. on the Right Bank.
b. on the outskirts of Paris.
c. in the Latin Quarter. *
d. in the Cit Universitaire.
11. A waiter in a nice caf of the Latin Quarter would typically wear
(c)
a. black pants, a white shirt, a vest, and a bow-tie. *
b. black pants, a shirt, and a beret.
c. an all black outfit.
d. a casual outfit.
12. Courchevel is a famous French (C)
a. lake.
b. resort. *
c. monument.
d. river.

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13. What government building is located close to the Sorbonne? (C)
a- The Presidential Palace.
b- The American Embassy.
c- The Ministry of Economics and Finance.
d- The Senate. *
14. A typical place to write a postcard in France would be (c)
a- at the post office.
b- on the terrace of a caf. *
c- in the subway.
d- in a stationary store.
15. In France, where can you buy stamps? (c)
a. At the drugstore.
b. At a gas station.
c. In a bar.
d. In a cigarette and tobacco shop. *
16. Which religious building in Paris has a white domed ceiling? (C)
a. Notre-Dame.
b. The Opra Garnier.
c. Saint-Germain-des-Prs.
d. The Sacr-Cur in Montmartre. *

II. Le Franais.
1. Nous allons __________ le franais.
a. tudie
b. tudier *
c. tudions
d. tudiez
2. Cest lhistoire dune jeune fille __________.
a. franaise *
b. amricain
c. franaises
d. franais
3. Les Brsiliens __________ portugais.
a. parler
b. parlons
c. parlent *
d. parlez

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4. Dans mon appartement jai __________ mais je nai pas __________
a. lordinateur / la tlvison
b. un ordinateur / une tlvision
c. un ordinateur / de tlvision *
d. dordinateur / une tlvision
5. Vous, __________ la vido!
a. regarder
b. regardons
c. regarde
d. regardez *

APPENDIX B
French 101Cultural Assimilator
A Vous la Parole
In the following four scenes, you are asked to perform orally one of the
two parts. The scene always takes place between two characters and you
enact one of the two. Before each scene, you are provided with some information about the context in which the scene takes place. In the part
that you will play, there is a blank that you are supposed to fill in as you
speak.
This does not count toward your final grade. It is merely a means for us
to know how well you would be able to interact in an authentic conversation in French.
Scene 1: LOffice du Tourisme. (Big C)
This scene takes place in the tourism office in Paris. An American tourist
enters the office to inquire about possible attractions. You play the
employees part and your instructor plays the tourists part.
Tourist:

Employee:
Tourist:
(Tourist:

Employee:
Tourist:
422

Quand jtais jeune, je visitais souvent le Louvre. Cette

fois-ci, je veux voir un autre muse. Lequel proposezvous?
Je propose
.
Mais oui. a cest une bonne ide.
When I was young, I often visited the Louvre. This
time, I want to see another museum. Which one do
you suggest?
I suggest
.
But of course. That is a good idea.)
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C. Herron, S. Dubreil, S. Cole, and C. Corrie

Scene 2: En vacances. (Little c)
This scene takes place between two young people, during a summer vacation. John, an American high school student is visiting Pierre, a French
teenager. You are Pierre and your instructor is John.
John:
Pierre:
John:
(John:
Pierre:
John:

Il pleut et je ne veux plus jouer aux portraits. A quel

autre jeu franais peut-on jouer?
Jai une ide. Jouons
.
Oh oui. Daccord.
Its raining and I dont want to play the portrait game
anymore. What other French game can we play?
I have an idea. Lets play
.
Oh yes. OK.)

Scene 3: A lAgence de Voyage. (Big C)

This scene takes place in a travel agency in Paris. A traveler comes in to
ask about tickets. You are the travel agent and your instructor is the tourist.
Traveler:
Agent:
Traveler:
(Traveler:
Agent:
Traveler:

Je veux aller Atlanta mais je veux prendre une

compagnie arienne franaise. Que suggrez-vous?
Prenez
.
Daccord, je vais prendre un billet.
I want to go to Atlanta but I want to take a French
airline company. What do you suggest?
Take
.
OK, I will take a ticket.)

Scene 4: Rencontre. (Little c)

This scene takes place at Emory University. Professor Pierre Capretz is
visiting. Having used French in Action, you have been invited to meet him
for the first time. This is finally happening. You are yourself and your
instructor is Professor Capretz.
Professeur Capretz: Bonjour jeune homme/fille.
You:
Bonjour Professeur Capretz.
Professeur Capretz: Trs bien, merci.
(Professor Capretz: Hello young man/lady.
You:
Hello Professor Capretz.
Professor Capretz: Very well, thank you.)

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Using Instructional Video to Teach Culture

APPENDIX C
French 101Sample Culture Questionnaire.

Name:
One aspect of learning French is learning about French culture. Some of
that culture we hear about in history classes and textbooks: this involves
knowledge of French institutions (educational, political, etc.), of geography and the environment, of history, and of literature and the arts. Such
aspects of French civilization fall into the category of big C culture.
For example, a question about big C culture might ask, Name a wine
region of France, or What biblical scene is depicted on the front door of
Chartres cathedral? However, a definition of culture also includes aspects of lifestyle. More specifically, this little c culture includes knowledge of daily patterns of living (social patterns and habits, values, and
conventions). For example, a little c culture question might ask, What
do the French typically eat with red wine? or Where do French people
typically go for a quick meal?
We would like to hear your opinion of how well French in Action teaches
both kinds of culture. More particularly, we would like to know your opinion on both how well culture was presented in the videos, and how well
you have learned this material.
1. In Fr 102, how much big C culture was presented in the videos?
1
virtually
none

2
a little

3
a moderate
amount

4
a lot

5
a vast
amount

2. In Fr 102, how much little c culture was presented in the videos?

1
virtually
none

2
a little

3
a moderate
amount

4
a lot

5
a vast
amount

3. In Fr 102, how much big C culture do you think you learned from
the videos?
1
virtually
none

424

2
a little

3
a moderate
amount

4
a lot

5
a vast
amount

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C. Herron, S. Dubreil, S. Cole, and C. Corrie

4. In Fr 102, how much little c culture do you think you learned from
the videos?
1
virtually
none

2
a little

3
a moderate
amount

4
a lot

5
a vast
amount

5. Other comments regarding the presentation of Culture/culture in

French in Action?

6. Other comments regarding the learning of Culture/culture from French

in Action?

7. Have you ever been to France?

8. If so, how long and under what circumstances?

9. Prior to your coming to Emory, had you ever been exposed to French
in Action?

10. If so, under what circumstances?

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Using Instructional Video to Teach Culture

REFERENCES
Alalou, A., & Chamberlain, E. (1999). Using students expectations and perceived
needs to rethink pedagogy and curriculum: A case study. Foreign Language Annals 32, 27-44.
American Association of Teachers of French National Commission on Cultural
Competence. (1996). In A. J. Singerman (Ed.), Acquiring cross-cultural
competence. Four stages for students of French. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. (1986). Proficiency guidelines. Yonkers, NY: ACTFL.
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. (1998). Proficiency guidelines for K-12 learners. Yonkers, NY: ACTFL.
Brooks, N. D. (1968). Language and language learning: Theory and practice. New
York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Capretz, P. J. (1994). French in action (2nd ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press.
Carroll, R. (1990). Cultural misunderstandings (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum.
Fiedler, F. E., Mitchell, T., & Triandis , H. (1971). The culture assimilator: An
approach to cross-cultural training. Journal of Applied Psychology, 55,
95-102. [ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 042 343]
Fiske, S. T., & Taylor, S. E. (1984). Social cognition. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Hanley, J. E. B., Herron, C., & Cole, S. P. (1995). Using video as an advance organizer to a written passage in the FLES classroom. Modern Language
Journal, 79, 57-66.
Herron, C., & Hanley, J. E. B. (1992). Using video to introduce children to a foreign culture. Foreign Language Annals, 25, 419-426.
Herron, C., Corrie, C., Cole, S. P., & Dubreil, S. (1999). The effectiveness of a
video-based curriculum in teaching culture. Modern Language Journal,
83, 518-533.
Just, M., & Carpenter, P.A. (1992). A capacity theory of comprehension: Individual
differences in working memory. Psychological Review, 99, 122-149.
Kitajima, R., & Lyman-Hager, M. A. (1998). Theory-driven use of digital video in
foreign language instruction. CALICO Journal, 16 (1), 37-48.
Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Lafayette, R.C. (Ed.). (1996). National standardsA catalyst for reform.
Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company & American Council on
the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

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Lange, D. L. (1999). Planning for using the new national culture standards. In J.
Phillips & R. M. Terry (Eds.), Foreign language standards: Linking research, theories, and practices (pp. 57-120). Lincolnwood, IL: National
Textbook Company & American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
Levno, A. W., & Snyder, B. (Eds.). (1977). Rencontres culturellesCross-cultural
mini-dramas. Skokie, IL: National Textbook Company.
Martinez-Gibson. E. A. (l998). A study on cultural awareness through commercials and writing. Foreign Language Annals, 31, 115-139.
Nisbett, R. W., & Ross, L. D. (1980). Human inference: Strategies and shortcomings of social judgement. Englewood Cliffs, NY: Prentice-Hall.
Seelye, H. N. (1968). Measuring the ability to function cross-culturally. In H. N.
Seelye (Ed.), A handbook on Latin America for teachers (pp. 334-343).
Springfield, IL: Office of Education. [ERIC Document Reproduction
Service No. ED 027 797].
Seelye, N. H. (1994). Teaching culture: Strategies for intercultural communication.
Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.
Shrum, J. L., & Glisan, E. W. (1994). Teachers handbook. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Singerman, A. J. (Ed.), (1996). Acquiring cross-cultural competence: Four stages
for students of French (pp. 1-6). Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook
Company.
Sprinthall, R. C. (1997). Basic statistical analysis (5th ed.). Needham Heights, MA:
Allyn & Bacon.
Standards for foreign language learning: Preparing for the 21st century. (1996).
Yonkers, NY: Standards for Foreign Language Learning Project.
Vogely, A. J. (1998). Listening comprehension anxiety: Students reported sources
and solutions. Foreign Language Annals, 31, 67-80.
Woodworth, R. S., & Schlosberg, H. (1960). Experimental psychology. New York:
Henry Holt and Company.

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AUTHORS BIODATA
Carol Herron is a Professor of French at Emory University. She is the
recipient of the Arthur M. Blank/National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Chair in French. She is the Director of the
French Language Program and the Emory Summer Study Abroad Program in Paris, France. She also directs the joint doctoral program in French/
Educational Studies. Her research focuses on the acquisition of a foreign
language and more specifically on how technology can facilitate learning.
Her articles appear in such publications as The Modern Language Journal, The French Review, Foreign Language Annals, and Studies in Second
Language Acquisition.
Sbastien Dubreil is a graduate student in the joint doctoral program in
French and Educational Studies at Emory University. His research interests include foreign language acquisition, with an emphasis on the use of
technology (e.g., interactive video) in the FL classroom, as well as issues
of culture (definition, assessment, classroom applications) in FL teaching.
He has published in The Modern Language Journal and has presented his
research on culture at the 1999 ACTFL conference in Dallas, TX.
Steven P. Cole is Director of Research at Research Design Associates,
Inc., Yorktown Hts., NY, and he is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at Emory University. He earned a Masters Degree in
Developmental Psychology from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Human Experimental Psychology from Emory University. His research interests include perceptual and memory processes, research design, and statistics. His articles appear in such journals as The Modern Language Journal, The French Review, Journal of Social Psychology, and Perceptual and
Motor Skills.
Cathleen Corrie is a graduate student at Emory University. She is a Deans
Scholar and is pursuing a Ph.D. in sixteenth-century French literature.
Her research interests include the work of Marguerite de Navarre and
foreign language acquisition, in particular the use of technology in the
classroom. Her articles appear in The French Review and The Modern
Language Journal and she has presented on empirical classroom research
at the 1998 ACTFL Conference in Chicago, IL.

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C. Herron, S. Dubreil, S. Cole, and C. Corrie

AUTHORS ADDRESSES
Carol Herron
Department of French and Italian
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322
Phone: 404/727-7944
Fax:
404/727-4579
E-mail: cherron@emory.edu
Sbastien Dubreil
Department of French and Italian
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322
Phone: 404/727-6431
Fax:
404/727-4579
E-mail: sdubrei@emory.edu
Steven P. Cole
Research Design Associates
721 E. Ponce de Leon Avenue
Decatur, GA 30030
Phone: 914/962-0610
Fax:
914/962-4716
E-mail: spc@cloud9.net
Cathleen Corrie
Department of French and Italian
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322
Phone: 404/727-6431
Fax:
404/727-4579
E-mail: ccorrie@emory.edu

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CALICO 2000

Using Instructional Video to Teach Culture

May 30-June 3, 2000

CALICO

CALICO

THE UNIVERSITY OF A
RIZONA
TUCSON ARIZONA

Tuesday-Wednesday

May 30-31

Preconference Workshops

Thursday-Saturday

June 1-3

Plenary Sessions, Presentations, Exhibits, Luncheon, Courseware Showcase, SIG Meetings,

Banquet

Register on-line at

www.calico.org/calico00.html
Early (before May 1)
Member
Nonmember
K-12 or Community College
Saturday only

with luncheon & banquet

$175
$200
$125

no luncheon or banquet
$165
$190
$115
$50

Regular (after May 1)

Member
Nonmember
K-12 or Community College
Saturday only

$200
$225
$150

On-site
Member
Nonmember
K-12 or Community College
Saturday only

$225
$250
$175

$190
$215
$140
$55
$215
$240
$165
$60

The conference hotel for CALICO 2000 is the Tucson Marriott University Park
next to the main gate of the University of Arizona. Make your reservation no later
than April 30, 2000 (504/792-4100). Less expensive residence hall rooms on
campus are also available. The residence hall room reservation form is included
in the CALICO 2000 registration materials. For more information, visit CALICOs
web site.

CALICO Phone: 512/245-1417 Fax: 512/245-9089

E-mail: info@calico.org Web: www.calico.org
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CALICO Journal