Violeta Ramsay, Linfield College professor of Spanish, will present “Culture and the Global World: Educating the Citizen of the 21st Century” Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m. in 201 Riley Hall at Linfield.
Ramsay will discuss her research on learning and teaching culture and global awareness. She will also describe how this research is important to the curriculum and quality of programs abroad, the preparation of students going abroad, the achievements of language majors, the cultural components of college courses and more.
“Global awareness has become a critical focus of academic programs and the mission of higher education institutions,” Ramsay said. “We know that the 21st Century world requires individuals with skills that enable them to deal with cultural difference.”
Ramsay’s research shows that the globalized world requires individuals who are able to not only work with people of different cultural backgrounds, but who can confront difference or diversity in any context to make ethical and informed decisions when cultural aspects are at stake. Recent research in the field of language acquisition connects to the acquisition of cultural proficiency.
“Research indicates that humans acquire the ability to deal with difference — ethnic or any other type — in developmental stages; each higher or more developed stage offers broader skills in dealing with difference,” Ramsay added. “Individuals react to difference according to the stage they have reached, and this has broad ramifications for the world of the 21st Century.”
Her lecture will describe the cultural aptitudes that each of those stages allow, as well as some of those ramifications.
A native of Mexico, Ramsay has been part of the Linfield faculty since 1990 and specializes in theoretical linguistics. Her main research interests include second language acquisition and the development of cultural competency. In addition, Ramsay has published research related to the evaluation of study abroad programs and the development of language acquisition stages. She is co-director of Linfield’s Language in Motion (LiM) program, which promotes language and culture in McMinnville schools. Ramsay also leads study abroad programs to Oaxaca, Mexico.
The lecture is free and open to the public. The Linfield College faculty lecture series offers one presentation each month by a member of the Linfield faculty. For more information, call 503-883-2409.
