CHAT in EFL: Communicative Humanistic Acculturation Techniques

This paper introduces the concept of communicative humanistic acculturation teaching techniques and presents examples of activities used in university English-as-a-Second-Language classes in South Korea. The activities elicited the aid of students in the roles of advisor, facilitator, and counselor to the teacher in his ongoing struggle to cope with adjustment to living in Korea. Some of the activities included a gift ranking activity (helping the teacher determine what kinds of gifts to buy for his Korean-born fiancee's family), a meeting future in-laws role play, reaction to a video of the teacher's trip to his fiancee's home and neighborhood in Japan, and an essay writing activity in which students created short essays comparing and contrasting themselves to a sibling or close friend. These activities enhanced learners' acquisition of English by: (1) providing realistic, purposeful communicative encounters that motivated students to express themselves; (2) establishing a personal relationship between students and the foreign teacher; and, by extension (3) fostering positive attitudes toward the language, culture, and people of the United States. An appendix includes the teacher's autobiographical dictation used in one class activity. (Author/SM)