Culture bound - Culture free Responsibility: Learning a language / understanding the culture Topics and possible consequences. Culture bound or culture free? Is the choice possible? You have to choose…

Domains which allow both CULTURE- BOUND and CULTURE-FREE treatments FOOD AND DIET SPORT AND GAMES EDUCATION AND SCHOOL SYSTEMS TRAVELLING ENTERTAINMENT FASHION AND ADVERTISING HUMOUR AND WIT ENVIRONMENT WORK MONEY AND TRADE POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS STEREOTYPES MYTHS OF FOUNDATION UTOPIA, ANTI-UTOPIA AND APOCALYPSE CLOTHES AND FASHION COLONIALISM AND POST- COLONIALISM RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS SCIENCE THE LAW SYSTEM MASS MEDIA AND WWW WAR INDUSTRY/IES WELFARE AND CHARITY WOMEN’S QUESTION

The mentioned subjects have the advantage of: being relevant to contemporary life (= you can start from today’s situation, also for motivational purposes, and then go back in time); keeping language, culture and literature tied together; allowing treatment both from the British and American viewpoints (the two main Standard varieties spoken by Italian teachers); promoting interdisciplinary action (in as much as they either are typically English or present a typically English version to be compared with other cultures); allowing different linguistic approaches (text/discourse analysis; corpora studies; history of language; key-words); favouring selection for different school specialisation, both in terms of choice of subject and in terms of syllabus materials designing; being so wide as to be treated in a restricted form (from one unit to one module to one year plan) or in its total complexity.

BUT… Question of elementary level. Question of your audience. Question of method suited to the class.

Italian FOOD.

ENGLISH HABITS

He is English…

MasculineFeminineYoung RamSheepLamb BoarSowPiglet CockerelHenChicken Culture free?

Spaghetti Noodles VS. CULTURE BOUND?

CULTURE AND SOCIETY