Promoting Openness toward Culture Learning: Ethnographic Interviews for Students of Spanish

Although learning to understand another culture is often mentioned as a benefit of foreign language learning, merely studying a foreign language does not automatically produce cross–cultural understanding. Many students study a language only to fulfill requirements and see culture learning as a nonessential element of the curriculum. This article explains how conducting ethnographic interviews can promote openness toward culture learning. Following a brief review of the culture learning process and of attitudinal theory, the article reports on a study that replicated Robinson–Stuart and Nocon's (1996) San Diego State study in a Midwestern setting. Thirty–five college students from 2 second–year Spanish classes were introduced to ethnographic interviewing skills and assigned to interview a native speaker of Spanish. As in the previous study, the results showed that the interviews positively affected students’ attitudes toward the target language and its speakers as well as their desire to learn Spanish.