Welcome to the official website for American Ways: An Introduction to American Culture 4th Edition, a textbook for English as a Second Language (ESL) Learners. View the Book.
Many people today are talking about American values and asking important questions:
- What are American values?
- What is happening to traditional values in the United States today?
- What do Americans believe now?
- Why do immigrants want to come to the United States?
- What values are new immigrants bringing to the country and what effect will this have?
Now in its 4th edition, American Ways has been used all over the world for more than 30 years. It looks at traditional American cultural values, how they developed historically, and how they have affected life in the United States.
Whether you are
- a teacher
- an English language learner who wants to improve vocabulary and listening comprehension
- or someone interested in learning more about American cultural values
this site is for you!
Here’s what we have to offer:
- Audio recordings of all 12 chapters of American Ways
- Blogs that have audio recordings
- Computer analysis of the vocabulary in the readings
- Audio/Video interviews, and a selection of short videos with closed captioning.
- Two sample lesson plans
- Educational resources especially for our Teachers
- The Teacher’s Manual
- Lesson plans for each chapter based on additional authentic readings
- Links to additional educational sites with lesson plans and teacher resources
- Other supplemental materials for every chapter, including audio and video interviews, teaching tips, fun activities, and much more.
Calling all teachers!
Register your email with us, and join us in the Teachers Lounge. You’ll have access to the Teacher’s Manual, and all of these great teacher resources. Right now we have more than a dozen lesson plans and a number of activities to offer, but this is a dynamic site.
Stay tuned because we will be adding new materials, including updates to the book! We will notify you by email when additional materials are available.
1. Audio Recordings
American Ways describes the historical development of six traditional cultural values that have shaped the United States, and how they appear in American society today.
In contrast to most other ESL (English as a Second Language) textbooks, American Ways consists of original material written by the authors; it is not a collection of separate readings by different authors.
For that reason, listening to the audio recordings is like listening to a non-fiction book. It provides a step-by-step explanation of the six American cultural values—
- how the founding fathers wrote the Constitution to protect values such as freedom and equality of opportunity,
- how the early history of the United States shaped and reinforced the six values,
- and how they have manifested themselves in everyday American life.
We invite you to listen to the 12 chapters, read by author Maryanne Datesman.
Chapters 1-5: The historical development of six basic cultural values:
- Individual Freedom and Self-Reliance
- Equality of Opportunity and Competition
- The American Dream and Hard Work
Chapters 6-12: The effect of these cultural values on institutions and everyday life in the United States.
American Ways Audio Recordings
2. Some of the blogs on this website have audio recordings by Maryanne Datesman:
- “Civil Conversation: Finding Common Ground”
- “What do you mean… Culture?”
- Throwback Thursday: “Fast Food 100 Years Ago”
- “Beware of Bumptious Fritterers!”
- “Reflections on 9/11: Timeless, Inevitable Questions about War”
- “Battling the Armyworm for 100 Years”
- “Suffering from Women’s Suffrage”
- “Where am I? Where’s the GPS?”
- “Granny Rhoda: She can bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan”
- “Battles that Have Two Names”
- “Frontier Boy vs. Legendary Grizzly Bear”
- ‘Who’s your gran’daddy? The Origin of the Grandfather Clause”
- “JoAnn (Jodi) Crandall: In Recognition of Her Lifetime Achievement Award from Washington Area Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (WATESOL)”
3. Computer Language Analysis
American Ways is written at the high intermediate to advanced level for English as a Second Language (ESL) students. But what does that mean?
The authors have done a computer analysis of all the chapter readings to examine the vocabulary level.
The analysis looks at how many words are from the first 2,000 most common word families in English, how many are from the Academic Word List (AWL), and how many are not on either list.
The computer language analysis of chapters appears in colors:
- The first 1,000 most common words are blue
- The second 1,000 most common words are green
- The Academic Word List (AWL) words are gold
- The off-list words are red or pink
Students can use this analysis to see if there are any words in blue or green that they should know, but don’t.
Example of color-analyzed text from Chapter 1 of American Ways:
- 90-96% of the vocabulary is from AWL or 2,000 most common words
- 5-7% from AWL
- Less than 10% vocabulary off-list (neither AWL nor 2,000 most common words)
- Vocabulary exercises are based on computer analysis
- AWL words
- Other words important to context of reading and academically useful
- Words from 2,000 most common list generally not used in vocabulary exercises (students should know them)
Here are the complete, color-analyzed text of all 12 chapter readings:
- Chapter 1 Introduction: Understanding the Culture of the United States
- Chapter 2 Traditional American Values and Beliefs
- Chapter 3 The American Religious Heritage
- Chapter 4 The Frontier Heritage
- Chapter 5 The Heritage of Abundance
- Chapter 6 The World of American Business
- Chapter 7 Government and Politics in the United States
- Chapter 8 Ethnic and Racial Diversity in the United States
- Chapter 9 Education in the United States
- Chapter 10 How Americans Spend Their Leisure Time
- Chapter 11 The American Family
- Chapter 12 American Values at the Crossroads
4. Audio and Video Interviews
In addition to the audio recordings and the language analysis of the chapters, there are supplemental materials that relate to chapters and ideas in American Ways. Of particular interest are the audio and video interviews. Some are available now, but many more are planned for the future.
Don Friedman’s Interview
The first interview is an audio conversation with Don Friedman, a political consultant who explains how candidates get people to vote for them. (Use with American Ways Chapter 7)
Andrew Borba’s Interview
A second interview is a video of Director Andrew Borba describing an original performance about the American West given in Chautauqua, NY, in 2014.
This production was an inter-arts collaboration of the Chautauqua Theater Company, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and the departments of Dance, Voice, and Visual Arts. (Use with American Ways Chapters 4 or 10)
Laura’s Interview
In the third interview, a young Japanese-American graduate student reflects on her feelings about cultural identity. There is a transcript to accompany the video. (Use with American Ways Chapters 1 or 8)
Transcript of Laura’s Interview
We’re here with Laura, who’s going to talk to us a little bit about what it’s like to be Japanese-American in the American culture. Tell us a little bit about yourself, Laura.
Well, I’m 23 years old and am currently attending graduate school at American University, and I’m actually from Alabama where my parents still live. My mom is Japanese, and my dad is American, and we moved here from Japan to America when I was about two years old, so I spent most of my life here in America.
So, you were actually born in Japan.
Yes, correct.
And I think you said so then you couldn’t be President.
Yeah, yes, I wasn’t born on American soil, so it doesn’t work.
So let me ask you about how you feel about that. You were just a essentially a baby when you lived in Japan. What’s been your contact with Japan since then?
Well, I’ve gone—when I was younger—my mother and my sister and I would go back and forth every other summer, but until I studied abroad—not last fall, but the fall of 2004—it had been about ten years since I had actually been back. My mom’s side of the family is still in Japan, so my grandparents would come over for big occasions in my sister and my life, but other than that we would just speak on the phone or write letters. It wasn’t every year we would get to see or go back kind of thing.
Did you—when you wrote—did you write in English?
My grandparents only speak Japanese, so I would write in Japanese, not very well, but…
Yes, so you do write, you write…
I write a little, not very much.
Which alphabet do you write in?
I use all three—Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, but I also have the help of a great electronic dictionary, so if I don’t know something I can use that.
Oh…
But it’s usually easier for me to read the first two, Hiragana and Katakana than it is for me to read Kanji, so…
Well, what about speaking Japanese?
I speak Japanese with my mother, for the most part, just everyday conversational Japanese, with my grandparents every so often when I go home, and we call…we call over there.
When you were in Japan, did your Japanese improve a lot?
It… I felt it did improve. I was also studying it at the time, so…and just being immersed in the culture was very helpful. Since then I’ve graduated from undergrad, and I’m no longer pursuing it as a minor, so I haven’t had as much time to study since my…since my current work doesn’t align with that.
What..I asked you before about how you see yourself, whether you see yourself as American, or Japanese-American, Japanese, and how…What culture do you identify most with, if one more than the other?
I…I feel I identify with both, probably more with one rather than the other depending on the situation, and then the context. I tend to look at myself probably more as an American since I’ve spent the majority of my life here, and been exposed much more to American culture. And also, if I was in Japan, or in…around a lot of Japanese people, it would still be…I would still be seen as a foreigner, even if I’m half Japanese ‘cause I wouldn’t be completely Japanese and speaking the same (you know) language with them as well. I’m here in America being an American encompasses so many different things, so…and different ethnicities in people, so I feel more American a lot of the times.
What about your sister? Does she speak Japanese?
She does. She speaks, as well, probably a little bit better…
Do you ever speak Japanese with her, or…
On occasion…
Like maybe a family thing where…
In a family…you know… when we’re around our mom. When we talk on the phone to each other, we usually speak English.
What about your dad?
My dad doesn’t really speak Japanese. He learned a long time ago, and I think he could read it pretty well, but (you know) it wasn’t…it’s something he picked up by living there, and not so much as he became fluent in, I believe.
Was he working in Japan, or…
He did when my mom and my dad lived there for awhile. He worked there as an English teacher.
Oh, as an English teacher. Oh. And what…what about your mother? Did she work outside the home as well?
She worked…once we came back to America, she worked as a translator, and that’s what she still does now. She does patent translation.
Oh…interesting. What would you say is the most Japanese thing about you?
I…I do a lot of Japanese cooking. That’s where I guess probably you’d see it the most. I just enjoy it, and it’s a lot easier than American cooking a lot of the times… I enjoy it, so…
And how did you learn to cook?
Mostly from my mom…some from my grandmother, and then (you know) just recipes…and they…it’s pretty simple, all…everything I do. I only do the simple recipes, so…
Well, sometimes I see you eating with chopsticks.
Yeah…
Do you switch back and forth between them, or…are you more comfortable with chopsticks?
I think that’s just depending on what you’re eating…kind of thing. I do…I do use chopsticks a lot but (you know) fork and knife, probably with more American food I use fork and knife anyways, so…
Do you make any effort to seek out Japanese culture here in the United States? Like look for movies or look for other people who are Japanese-American or are you part of that community?
I haven’t met a lot of Japanese-American people that I can say. I…I guess I don’t really seek it out just for right now, at this time in my life. I’m focused on my graduate work, and that’s kind of taken over, as well as just working and trying to get by. So for me seeking out…events have been more in the arts ‘cause that’s what I’m…I’ve been pursuing in my grad work. In undergrad, I think I was much more open to (you know)… I had conversation partners; I would do…go to different Japanese events. But you’re in that community…in a college community where you have those opportunities. And I’m sure I could find those opportunities now—it’s just…[would] be more difficult to be able to devote the time to something else like having a conversation partner, that I would need to have in order to be able to sustain that. And I know I don’t have that right now. So…
Have you thought about in the future something that you might do, and…and if you have children of your own would you want to expose them to the Japanese culture and their heritage in that way?
I would…I would want them to be exposed, and I feel like that would just happen naturally from my mother and just the…that side of the family that comes into it. I…I don’t know if I would force them to learn the language. I don’t…I think that’s more of a choice on their part, and how much they want to be exposed is more of a choice on their part as well. You know, I can take them into certain contacts, and I can (you know) expose them to certain situations, but how much they want to learn and how much they want to take from it is up to them. So…
OK, well, thank you very much for speaking with us and good luck in your graduate program in…in dance or fine arts, is it?
Arts management.
Arts management—right. OK, well, I hope you’ll be managing some great venue in the future. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
5. Two Sample Lesson Plans
SAMPLE Lesson 1: What do you mean, Culture?
August 21, 2014 by Maryanne Datesman
What do you think of when someone says they are going to talk about the “culture” of a country? Do you think of art, classical music, ballet, and literature? Or do you think about food, hip-hop music, Halloween costumes, and the latest fashion trend?
Well, these are all definitely interesting aspects of culture.
When we started writing about American culture, the first thing we had to decide was where to start. We were using a sociological definition of culture as the way of life of a group of people, developed over time, and passed down from generation to generation. This is a broad definition that really includes every aspect of human life and interaction. Describing all that would be impossible! So, again, where to start?
We started with an iceberg. READ MARYANNE’S FULL BLOG POST
SAMPLE Lesson 1 – Lesson Plan for “What do you mean… Culture?”
Suitable for:
- ESL Advanced Level (Use with American Ways Chapters 1 and 2)
- High School American English
- American History
- American Civics
- Cross Cultural Communication
Note: The Teacher’s Manual with Answer Key Online for American Ways: An Introduction to American Culture, Fourth Edition, has a section discussing teaching American Culture in the Language Classroom.
Have students preview the blog. Ask them to predict what it’s about. Have the students tell you all the things that “culture” can mean and write them on the board.
Introduce Edward Hall’s Cultural Iceberg. Draw an iceberg on the board and label it as follows:
- The part above the water = Behavior
- At the surface of the water = Beliefs
- Under the water (largest part) = Values and Thought Patterns
Here is a good explanation.
Have the students decide where the items written on the board would fit on the iceberg. Ask them why the larger portion of a culture hidden below the surface could cause conflict. Have them scan the blog to find the explanation of Hall’s iceberg and a quote. Mention that a longer quote such as this is in italics, rather than in quotation marks. Have them scan the blog to find the John Zogby quotation.
Play the Shapes Game. (See the Handout, Podcast, and Description of the Shapes Game at the bottom of this page.)
Pre-reading Questions:
- Have you ever felt like an outsider? Why? Describe what happened and how you handled the situation.
- What do you think most Americans believe in? What would you say their values are?
- Which is more troublesome about another culture—the values and beliefs, or the behavior? Why? Which is more important?
Note: The Teacher’s Manual with Answer Key Online for American Ways: An Introduction to American Culture, Fourth Edition, has a section discussing teaching American Culture in the Language Classroom, pp. 1-3.
If you are using American Ways, you may want to have the students do the People Watching exercise on pages 20-21 sometime after the students read the blog.
Questions for Comprehension and Discussion:
- Who is Edward T. Hall?
- The blogger is also one of the authors of American Ways: An Introduction to American Culture. Why does she say that the authors started with an iceberg when they began writing the book?
- Why is it important to understand the beliefs, values, and the thought patterns of a culture?
- The author says these values are “subjective,” largely “unconscious,” and learned “implicitly.” What is the opposite of subjective, unconscious, and implicitly? Restate those concepts in your own words.
- Do you agree with Hall that culture hides more than it reveals and that people often lack a true understanding of their own culture? Why?
- How would getting to know the culture of another country help us better understand our own?
- What does the author say is the “cultural engine” of the United States? What does that mean?
- What are the six basic traditional American values? Where did they come from historically and how are they related?
- Why does the author believe that these values are important?
- What do you think is the difference between moral values and cultural values?
- What is “culture shock”? Have you ever experienced it yourself, or do you know of someone who has? Tell about it.
- What do you think are the most important cultural values of your country? How do these values affect your identity?
- Listen to the Interview with Maryanne Datesman. You can follow along with the transcript of the interview as you listen.
Play the game Baffa Baffa. Click here for a version provided by Education for Peace. Visit their site to find other cultural games.
Here’s another blog and reading about the cultural iceberg.
Here’s another source for Baffa Baffa.
Lesson Plan – Copyright © Maryanne Datesman 2014
SAMPLE Lesson 2: Suffering from Women’s Suffrage
September 25, 2014 by Maryanne Datesman
Trying to persuade women how best to cast their ballots has been going on for a long time. Here’s a story about a husband’s effort to direct his wife and daughters how to vote 100 years ago:
“The Votes He Influenced” The Youth’s Companion, September 24, 1914, p. 500
An Eastern man, who a few years ago moved his business and family to a Western state, recently told an amusing story against himself to a visiting friend.
He is of a decidedly conservative temperament, and before long found himself engaged actively in politics, especially in opposition to woman suffrage; which, however, much to his disgust, his new state adopted. His wife and daughters, who had always passively accepted his views, also lamented their new privilege, which, in deference to the feelings and convictions of the head of the family, they did not at first intend to exercise.
It was he who finally persuaded them to do so. READ MARYANNE’S FULL BLOG POST
SAMPLE Lesson 2 – Maryanne’s Lesson Plan for “Suffering from Women’s Suffrage”
Suitable for:
- ESL Advanced Level (Use with American Ways Chapters 4, 7, 11, and 12)
- High School American English
- American History
Have students preview the blog. Ask them to predict what it’s about.
Point out the use of italics: italics differentiate between the article (quoted) from The Youth’s Companion and the commentary.
Have students work in pairs or small groups to answer questions before and after reading the blog.
Pre-reading Questions:
- What is women’s suffrage? What do you know about suffrage laws?
- Do you vote in elections? How have people tried to influence you to vote?
- Has a family member ever tried to persuade you to vote for a candidate they were supporting? If one of your parents tried to tell you who to vote for, what would you do?
- What attracts you to a political candidate? Do you favor a particular political party?
- What do you think of political ads? What effect do negative ads have?
Before you read the blog, learn more about voting rights in the United States. Use the chart below and scan the reading to find answers to these questions:
- What is the 19th Amendment? When was it passed?
- Were any women permitted to vote before the 19th Amendment?
- In what part of the country are most of the states where women could not vote before the passage of the 19th Amendment?
- Who determined whether or not women could vote—states, or the national government?
http://constitutioncenter.org/timeline/html/cw08_12159.html
If you are using American Ways: An Introduction to American Culture, take a look at the chapter on Government and Politics. Look at the maps on pages 162 and 163 that indicate where people today are most conservative. Compare those maps with the one above. What do you conclude?
Questions for Comprehension and Discussion:
- Was the father opposed to women’s suffrage? Why did he decide to persuade his wife and four daughters to vote?
- How did his wife respond to his efforts to prepare them to vote and educate them about politics?
- How did he learn that his wife and daughters had voted against his candidate?
- The father protests that his wife and daughters should have told him they weren’t going to vote his way. He says there are three things he could have done if he had known. What answer does the wife give for each protest?
- Now that his wife and daughters have voted, what are they going to do in future elections? Why do you think they are planning that?
- How does the blogger make the transition from the story to a discussion of women’s voting rights?
- How many years was this article in Youth’s Companion published before the 19th Amendment was passed? Read about how an amendment is passed.
- What two arguments against the passage of women’s suffrage does the wife mention to her husband? In what part of the country was there the most acceptance of women’s right to vote? In what part was there the least?
- Who got the right to vote first in the United States—African-American men, or all women?
- In 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed, could women vote?
- When did the women’s suffrage movement in the United States begin? Who were two of its most important leaders? As reformers, why did they decide to concentrate on getting voting rights for women?
- How important are women voters today? What evidence is there of that?
- What is the status of women’s voting rights around the world today?
- Make sure you know these words associated with politics: party, cast a ballot, vote, suffrage, politics, politician, candidate, election, polls, campaign literature, eligible to vote
- If you were giving a speech urging a country’s leaders to give voting rights to women, what would you say?
Read more about the Suffrage Movement at the National Women’s History Museum website.
Listen to our podcast “How to get the vote out,” an interview with Don Friedman, a political consultant located in Pittsburg, PA.
Lesson Plan – Copyright © Maryanne K. Datesman 2014
Here is a useful timeline:
Timeline of Women’s Suffrage in the United States
“Women Join the Abolitionist Movement”
“Women Begin to Organize For Their Own Rights”
“Suffrage Movement Divides Over Black vs. Woman Suffrage”
“Civil Disobedience Is Tried”
“Suffrage Activism Enters the 20th Century”
© 1995, Brooks and Gonzalez. The Women’s History Project of Lexington Area National Organization for Women. This timeline may be distributed freely under the following conditions: that the use is not for profit; that it is distributed in complete, unchanged form; that this complete notice is intact and included in the distribution. Contact Margaret Lark Russell at [email protected] for additional information.
Document: Timeline of Women’s Suffrage in the United States
Web URL: http://dpsinfo.com/women/history/timeline.html
Updated: 03/09/2017 02:53:08″
6. Teacher Resources
Resources especially for teachers using American Ways: An Introduction to American Culture, 4th Edition:
- The Teacher’s Manual
- Lesson plans for each chapter based on additional authentic readings
- Links to additional educational sites with lesson plans and teacher resources
- Other supplemental materials for every chapter, including audio and video interviews, teaching tips, fun activities, and much more.
Teacher’s Manual (Three Parts)
If you are using American Ways, you will want to download the Teacher’s Manual. It has three parts:
-
Part 1: HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL
-
Teaching American Culture in the Language Classroom
- Why Include Culture in Language Classes?
- What Culture Should Be Taught?
- What Should Be the Goals of a Culture Class or a Cultural Component?
- Is It Possible to Teach American Culture?
- Getting Started
-
How to Use the Activities in the Text
- Before You Read
- After You Read
- Skill building
- Expand Your Knowledge
- Write About It
- Explore on Your Own
-
-
Part 2: ANSWER KEY FOR STUDENT TEXT (ONLY AVAILABLE TO TEACHERS)
-
Part 3: REPRODUCIBLE ACTIVITY MASTERS
Lesson Plans are available for these Blogs:
- “Civil Conversation: Finding Common Ground”
- “What do you mean… Culture?”
- Throwback Thursday: “Fast Food 100 Years Ago”
- “Beware of Bumptious Fritterers!”
- “Reflections on 9/11: Timeless, Inevitable Questions about War”
- “Battling the Armyworm for 100 Years”
- “Suffering from Women’s Suffrage”
- “Where am I? Where’s the GPS?”
- “Granny Rhoda: She can bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan”
- “Battles that Have Two Names”
- “Frontier Boy vs. Legendary Grizzly Bear”
- “Who’s your gran-daddy? The Origin of the Grandfather Clause”
Here are additional teacher resources for each chapter of American Ways: An Introduction to American Cultures, 4th Edition:
In addition to the audio recording and computer analysis of the reading text for each chapter, there are other resources on the website that you might want to use, including some of the blogs.
All of the suggested blogs below have Maryanne Datesman’s commentaries, audio recordings, and lesson plans (unless indicated otherwise). Most of them can be used in more than one chapter, so you may want to preview them (and their lesson plans) before you decide where to use them:
- “Civil Conversation: Finding Common Ground” (Chapters 2, 12)
- “What do you mean… Culture?” (Chapter 1)
- Throwback Thursday: “Fast Food 100 Years Ago” (Chapters 5, 11)
- “Beware of Bumptious Fritterers!” (Chapters 2, 6)
- “Reflections on 9/11: Timeless, Inevitable Questions about War” (Chapter 3, 12)
- “Battling the Armyworm for 100 Years” (Chapters 5, 10)
- “Suffering from Women’s Suffrage” (Chapters 7, 11)
- “Where am I? Where’s the GPS?” (Chapters 6, 10)
- “Granny Rhoda: She can bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan” (Chapters 4, 11)
- “Battles that Have Two Names” (Chapter 8)
- “Frontier Boy vs. Legendary Grizzly Bear” (Chapters 4, 10)
- ‘Who’s your gran’daddy? The Origin of the Grandfather Clause” (Chapters 7, 8, 9)
