Background
In this FAD I have chosen to focus on teaching culture in the English speaking world.
According to the National Curriculum for English cultural knowledge is an essential part of what the pupils need to focus on. They have to gain knowledge of what culture is and how it varies in different parts of the English speaking world and how it varies within each country (e.g. England and the USA).
Research questions
I will be investigating:
· How can culture be defined? Various cultural expressions.
· The cultural meeting? 3rd person perspective, interdependency and fixpoints
· Why is it people who meet and not cultures?
· Cultural self-understanding and cultural pre-understanding. What does it mean?
· Ideas for teaching culture to my pupils. They need to be able to master oral, written and listening skills regarding intercultural competences when leaving school.
Theory
Culture is everywhere around us. If you keep an open mind when meeting other people or if you put yourself in the 3rd person perspective you will benefit from the cultural relations you have. Claire Kramsch has got challenging ideas how to work with the pupil’s curiosity about signs, codes and finding meaning.
Karen Risager’s theory on knowledge (competence, theory and routines), attitude (towards other cultures, both their own and other people’s), and behavior (how you interact with other people and cultures) will be included in this section.
Apart from the two mentioned above I will include “Klædt på til verden” (Farr, Rohde and Smidt), various power points shown and notes taken in class.
Discussion
In this section I will investigate whether a culture can be said to be static or dynamic. Cultural meetings in integration and assimilation.
I will go into depth with the different aspects of culture such as language, education, traditions, history, religion, values, arts and food using material from Lene Dyson from CFU.
In practice
I will explain the main methodology when setting the aims for my teaching (making my lesson plan). I will incorporate Bruner’s, Vigotsky’s and/or Piaget’s theory on teaching into my plan for teaching the intercultural competences in class. If possible I will give examples from one of my own placement periods. I will find tasks and activities which supplement my lesson plan.
List of references
Lynne Cameron, Teaching Languages to Young Learners, 2009
Farr, Rohde og Smidt, Klædt på til verden, 2009
Power Point on EFL teaching with a cultural dimension, Lene Dyson, CFU, 2010.
Power Point on Teaching Intercultural Competences and Semiotics, Lilian Rohde, 2010.
Fælles Mål Engelsk 2009.
Various notes and copies from our English classes.
