Pelican Family

by

Bruno Jactat


1. Objectives and Overview

Activity Overview:

In this activity, participants attend a welcoming ceremony in a simulated foreign culture. The Pelican family (a man and two women) greet the participants in silence. The guests are expected to do as the hosts do and not speak. After the ceremony, participants will share their impressions and try to understand the underlying workings and motives of this particular culture. The final part, which reveals the origins and thus true nature of this culture, actually serves to unveil the workings of the minds of the participants when faced with an unknown cultural environment.

General Learning Objectives:

  • to compel participants to discover the ethnocentric views they might have on other cultures and which create judgments and labeling

Specific Learning Objectives (optional):

Keywords:

ethnocentrism, intercultural awareness, surface culture, deep culture, experiential activity

2. Activity Context

Activity context description

This activity can be applied in any Intercultural Communication training or SLA training in which the discussion of ethnocentric views is desirable or needed. Since it requires a minimum ability to reflect on one own’s assumptions and judgements during a foreign situation, I suggest it should be applied to participants of High School level and up.

Students

Suggested range of students:
8
10
15
20
30
Do students need to use a second language?
Yes
What is the second language?
The material instructions are written in English, but any other L2 is possible if the teacher translates rules & materials to the target language.
Level(s) in target language:
Intermediate | CEFR B1 | IELTS 3.5-4.5 |TOEIC 500-700
Advanced-Intermediate | CEFR B2/C1 | IELTS 5.0-6.5 | TOEIC 700-900
Advanced | CEFR C1 / C2 | IELTS 7.0 + | TOEIC 900+
  • These levels are approximations 
Comments

If used under a SLA context, the above minimum level requirements are relevant (See Appendix). However, this activity can also be carried out in L1 when the objective is to trigger reflections on ethnocentrism, judgements and assumptions. In the latter case, all activity instructions and handouts should be translated into the target language.

3: Activity Duration

Estimated duration (multiple ranges possible):
1 - 1.5 hours
How many sessions?
1
Any homework?
No

4. Download PDF

PDF document Jactat, B. - Pelican Family (ICLE AI #2).pdf



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