Framework

http://nadabs.tripod.com/culture/

I came across this aritical from aprevious education course, and I find it very useful. This article speaks about how a framework for building a cultural understanding is based on process skills and it includes both factual and socio-linguistc content. I found the four dimensions interesting.
1. Convention: Students need to reconize and understand how people in a given culture
typically behave in common, everyday situations.
2. Connotation: Students need to know the significant meanings that are associated with
words.
3. Conditioning: Students need to know that people act in a manner consistent with their
cultural frame of reference, and that all people respond in culturally conditioned ways to
basic human needs.
4. Comprehension: Students need the skills of analysis, hypothesis formation, and tolerance
ambiguity.
These four dimensions are so true, and not only for students but for adults to. I think sometimes we forget that typically someone might act or do something different because of their culture and we end up judging them instead of trying to learn why.