Teaching English through culture

Abstract

We can create and preserve cultures every day in our classrooms. This experimental project tested the effectiveness of integrating cultural components in an after-school language learning classroom to provide opportunities for cross-cultural awareness and to use English as a means to explore cultural facts. Using authentic texts, audios and videos, this course motivated the students to use the four basic language skills to understand the exact meaning of culture, traditions, international cuisine, art, gestures, language families, the concept of time, and stereotypes. The course also included fun games, pair and group discussions, role plays, a foreign guest speaker and a live cooking show. In addition, the students explored about different cultures and created projects using several online tools like VoiceThread and Google Docs. The mixed method research showed the impact of this course using qualitative and quantitative data from pre- and post-questionnaires and qualitative data from the semi-structured interviews with the students. The project was piloted with the upper-intermediate level students at the Experimental English Classes (EEC) and the originally set goals and outcomes were attained. The design project’s overall effectiveness was assessed by corroborating the answers of the pre and post surveys.