Hello everyone, I hope that you are all well.
I've been reading through the site, but I haven't been able to find anything that relates directly to the subject that I'm interested in. Basically, I'd like to find out more about the subject of teaching culture to children. There are many questions that I would love to have answered, including:
Is teaching about a foreign culture helpful to young learners? If the children are using only L1 wouldn't they be better off with a straight language class?
If you do teach culture, where in the curriculum should it be taught, and how much should there be of it?
What topics are good to talk about?
What kind of activities are there?
What are potential pitfalls of teaching about culture? etc etc
Basically my situation is that I'm asked to teach "culture" to young Japanese learners of English. The children don't have the language ability to do this in L2 (I can speak Japanese) There are no guidelines for what should be taught in the culture part of the curriculum, or indeed what the point of teaching it is. I'm getting slightly fed up of the "we have this in Japan, but not in England" compare and contrast lesson, and am sure there must be a better way!
Any help would be gratefully accepted. Thank you.
- Login or register to post comments
Printer-friendly version
Log in or register
Follow TeachingEnglish
 |
 |
 |
 |
Check this out - it might be of help:
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/autobiogrweb_EN.asp
Here is another link which offers more details:
http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/1643/1/fulltext.pdf
I too have to include culture in my teaching. I work in France with pupils aged from 11 to 15.
The notion of culture is very vague,within the French system it can include daily lives, films, biographies, geography, history, sports, meals of any English speaking country.
Often the cultural aspect is included in the course books but not always or not in a way which pleases me.
I often introduce a topic in L1, to give a few necessary elements of comprehesion then continue having the linguistic objectives fit into the "culture"
For exemple: Quiz based on the geography of English speaking countries. Maps and fact sheets at ENCHANTED LEARNING HOME PAGE
Films or trailers; Oliver Twist, Oliver! - Food, Glorious Food - YouTube Billy Elloit, The Young Victoria, (description, dates, biographies, vocabulary.....imitate) Depending on the age group older films Hitchcock or Chaplin can work very well: cinema vocabulary, movement verbs, listening, ..... what happens next?....
I have had great results with giving them themes to research, the books, magazines and Internet sites prepared in advance, texts or pictures which are of an appropriate level. For example London: monuments, history, people, food, They produce posters and then an oral presentation.
One's own holiday pictures can sometimes be used to create a lesson. I have some recent pictures taken in Colorado which will be used to talk about geography, give descriptions, compare with their own favorite places and so on..
Often there is a huge gap between what I think they know and what they really do know so setting the scene, explaining the context perhaps finding parallels to their own culture, is very important.
Songs from different countries, for me mostly Irish songs, recent or older. I use them for fun, for vocabulary, for pronunciation, for cultural references.
Christmas and St Patrick'sDay are 2 important feasts, perhaps create lessons about cooking for Christmas and there are lots of lesson plans on the net about St Patrick's day St Patricks Day 2011 Flashmob. Central Station, Sydney, Australia. - YouTube
I hope these suggestions are useful and will give you some more ideas.
HI STeve,
I own a language school and cultural center in Sicily, so culture is a big part of our teaching method. What we tend to do with children is have a story time in English with simple stories that can introduce cultural ideas. It works especially when we talk about holidays. For example, I'm American, so I tought my little 4 and 5 year olds about Thanksgiving by using a little story book I found online that talked about Thanksgiving food. It used simple concepts, such as "I like turkey." With the 6 to 10 year olds we talked about Native Americans using stories and art. These are just examples. I use culture year-round and even other national holidays.
It's very difficult to find books discussing the use of culture in YL classrooms, but I really think that it's not that difficult to come up with ideas if we go back and think about what we used to do at school when we were little, especially for the holidays. I am a firm believer that culture and language can't be separated if someone really wants to learn. The sooner you start teaching children about culture, the more culturally-aware they are, which would make for a greater and more tollerant world! I think it gives them the sense of entering another special world with their imagination.
Here is an example I use for students of all ages in India:
Using "please" even for a general request is important in English [ and Western] culture because English doesn't have a different verb form showing respect or politeness eg "Please pass the salt."
Indian languages use the plural verb for politeness "Pass ( with plural marker) the salt." Please is not used. The equivalent of please in Indian languages is very formal and is used only in official or written communication.
Today, cosmopolitan citizens add the Indian equivalent of "just" while making requests in Indian languages because they "miss" using "please" which they have got used to while communicating continuously in English !
This is how, with the language, the student learns an important cultural aspect of communication in English.
I hope to compile a list of such examples quite soon.
Hi,
I came back from colorado a few days ago and i wonder if you could give more details about how you use postcards, etc;
Thank you, c todd
I might put in an idea or two based on a considerable research into uses of English. My research and teaching (English to adults) show that teaching culture should not be rationalised. Topics for discussion must be selected in accord with the age, level and interests of the learners. And so should be their reading. Next in importance is the teacher's proficiency - how good his/her English is, how fair is his/her own familiarity with the culture. The best effect that can be achieved may come from the teacher's speech and behaviour, her spontaneous comments, phrases, corrections or/and jokes, because spontaneous remarks approximate one's natural encounters with the language and culture. But in such a case, the tecaher must be free to comment, to speak and to joke without fear that the learners may feel embarrassment or discomfort, which is the attitude in new democracies claiming too much liberties and comfort for the learners. If the teacher knows much and is an authority whose words are sought by the learners, his/her words stick and spread, and culture does with them. Thank you
It's been a week since I posted in the forum and there have already been so many useful replies- thank you very much. Of course the challenge that I face now is trying to adapt the ideas to my own teaching situation!
I like a lot of the ideas that Imeldamorice and Themeltingpotcatania posted, and some of those I've used already. One thing that I feel that has made it difficult for me to run these kinds of lessons in the past is that, for many reasons, there is a lack of differentiation between foreign countries in Japan- I'm expected to be a "representative foreigner" rather than presenting something from my own culture. I'm English, and have never celebrated Halloween in the American style, but if I try to tell that to anyone it gets treated with disbelief, and I'm still expected to talk about trick or treating! In general I find trying to present culture in a way that is relevant to what actually happens in England, but not so far away from expectations that it becomes non-understandable very difficult- Does anyone have any ideas.
Sulabha Sidhaya- thanks for your ideas. I will try to point out the differences in Japanese and English as and when I can, in accordance with the problems I outlined above.
Finally Debris Ruthanskaite, thanks very much. I think that what you say has a big ring of truth to it. However, any kind of "unedited" discourse that I try to engage in will be way beyond what any of the students that I teach can understand!
Anyway, once again thanks very much. Any deficiencies in ideas that I'll use are entirely my own.
Steve
I've watched the production by Maizatul entitled "The River". She did a great job using all the appropriate elements such as images, sounds and videos. The sequeacing of the images is so nice. I'm sure when using this video while teaching non English speaker students will give them a clearer view on what the poem is all about.
I've done the same project with the same title when i attended the course a week before The Eid but i guess i need to improve on some more interesting elements and editing skills