1. Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
Certificate IV TESOL
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
10317NAT
Session 1
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2. Welcome to About us: We are a new school, established late 2015
Subsidiary of Melbourne City Institute of Education (MCIE)
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3. Three things I do as a teacher whenever I walk into a new classroom:
Let my students get to know me
Let my students get to know each other
Explore expectations
I usually do these three things through warm up activities – Lets get it started!!
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4. Let’s get down to business…
Draw on your own experience of being in a classroom (whether that be a language classroom, university or high school experience) and tell me about the qualities or characteristics of the following:
A bad teacher
An excellent teacher
Who do you want to be? How will you achieve this?
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5. In this session, we will look at:
Our own culture
Others’ cultures
definitions and theories of culture
Cultural diversity in the ESL classroom
Stereotyping and the effects
Cultural concepts embedded in language
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6. Discussion What is culture? What does “culture” include?
What are some cultures you know?
What stands out to you about them?
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7. Defining culture
Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
(Tylor, E, quoted in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1983, p. 657)
Discuss: Do you agree with this statement? Is it similar to what you had discussed with your group? Can you add anything to it?
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8. SKINS OF AN ONION (Hofstede 1991)
The ‘cultural onion’ has two main layers: practices and values.
Values represent the deepest manifestation of culture.
The layer of practices has three skins: symbols, heroes and rituals.
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9. SKINS OF AN ONION (Hofstede 1991)
Practices
‘Symbols’ constitute the first, outer level or practices. These are the most superficial of the three types as they can change most easily. They are signs used by a particular group to communicate meaning. Examples of such signs are words, idioms, objects, gestures, clothes, brand names, hair style, pictures, flags, status symbols, which carry a particular meaning recognized by the members of one culture.
Discuss:
Can you think of any symbols that refer to your particular culture?
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10. SKINS OF AN ONION (Hofstede 1991)
Practices
‘Heroes’ provide culture-specific role models that posses characteristics that are highly prized in a culture. They can be alive, dead, real, or imaginary. Examples of heroes include sport, music, or movie stars, politicians and historical people (e.g. Martin Luther King), cartoon heroes, heroes from books (e.g. Harry Potter), people from one’s family (e.g. one’s own grandfather or mother)
Discuss:
What are the relevant heroes in your culture? Why?
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11. SKINS OF AN ONION (Hofstede 1991)
Practices
‘Rituals’ characterise each context of interaction. They are conventionalized behaviour patterns present in particular situations. Examples of rituals include culture-specific modes of address, ways of expressions in small talk, greetings, farewells, letter writing, church services, meetings, ways of agreeing and disagreeing, telephone conversations, and so on.
Discuss:
What are some of the rituals practised in your culture?
Values - the core of culture
People in specific cultures hold similar beliefs and values about certain truths and actualities. The culture in which a person is raised provides a mental framework for interpreting and making meanings.
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12. SKINS OF AN ONION (Hofstede 1991)
Values - the core of culture
Members of the same cultural group share assumptions based on basic concepts and ideas of reality which influences their outlook on what is good, what is moral, what is proper and what is right.
Beliefs and assumptions that are self-evident and values that are held in high esteem in one culture, may not be seen as desirable, or even acceptable in other cultures.
Members of different cultures interpret events according to different perspectives. They assign different meanings to social roles, and have different codes of individual and group behaviours, and make different judgments about the appropriateness of social actions.
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13. CULTURAL DIVERSITY
As an English language teacher, it is important that we consider cultural and language similarities and differences between ourselves and our students, and between the students themselves.
At the same time, however, we must not be too quick to ‘culturally tag’ students according to their particular racial, ethnic, or national background.
We should be looking at each student as a specific individual rather than just a representation of a larger group.
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14. Group Discussion
What are the risks of tagging students in our classroom?
What difficulties may teachers face with cultural representations in an ESL classroom?
How do you think teachers may deal with these difficulties?
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15. Group Discussion
A difficulty that may have come up in your discussion is that of STEREOTYPING:
Stereotyping involves overgeneralising and oversimplifying the characteristics of a group of people. Stereotypes maybe harmless generalizations such as those about Germans being punctual and orderly, or Koreans and Japanese being hardworking and polite, but may also be negative, such as Muslims being fanatical or Poles being arrogant. These stereotypes tend to be perpetuated through the popular media.
Discuss and exemplify from own experience the concept of stereotype. How may this concept impact on ESL/EFL classroom? (my example – Brazil)
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16. Cultural concepts embedded in language
Idioms – most English-speaking nations share some common idioms, and idioms can be understood between nations.
Discuss: Can you think of any idioms? What do they mean? Are they translated? E.g Once bitten, twice shy (English – Portuguese)
Para-linguistic aspects of communication – tone of voice, intonation, pitch and stress
Non- linguistic aspects of communication – body language, gestures, personal space boundaries, facial expressions
Discuss: What are some examples of para-linguistic or non-linguistic communication in your culture?
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17. TASK
Complete Task 1.3 a - d
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18. Thank you