IDEAS HOW TO PROMOTE MULTICULTURAL ASPECT IN TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Rapid changes in our increasingly interdependent contemporary Europe means that the way foreign languages are taught also is changing. Because of growing  ethnic,  cultural,  racial  language diversity  religious diversity in the world students of the 21st century must be prepared to function effectively. They need new cultural:  knowledge  attitudes  skills to become multicultural citizen

teacher’s role Also teacher’s role in the 21st century has changed. His responsibilities have become wider and now consist of providing students with basic language skills teaching students cultural competence which includes :  Cultural knowledge  cultural awareness  cultural sensitivity

Cultural Knowledge Cultural Knowledge: Familiarization with selected cultural history, values, belief systems, and behaviors Cultural Awareness Cultural Awareness: Developing sensitivity and understanding of another ethnic group and its attitudes and values. Cultural awareness must be supplemented with cultural knowledge. Cultural Sensitivity Cultural Sensitivity: Acknowledging cultural differences and similarities

textbookspositive Multicultural aspect influences also the writing of textbooks. Teachers point out the following positive trends about contemporary text-books:  an increase in attempts to include intercultural activities  a large range of accents and voices which provides good listening practice and

negative negative trends:  stereotypical and tourism-oriented representation of the target culture  focus on language form and the neglect of intercultural communication  Anglo-centric focus of course-books

suggestions The following suggestions can be mentioned:  Omit and replace material if the cultural content is inappropriate  Adapt topics and activities to suit the cultural goals of a lesson  Add material, either in the form of texts or exercise if there is insufficient coverage of the topic  Use special intercultural communication textbooks to increase intercultural understanding  Produce a guidebook, poster or webpage for visitors to their town, country or region.  Read articles or extracts from books, newspapers, magazines or websites written by people who have visited the students’ town, country or region.

 Familiarize students with sources of information about the target culture.  The non-native teacher has a valuable role to play  Using story-line method  Using drama

drama Using drama is a perfect way to promote developing cross cultural links. It involves series of elements:  a real situation,  a real problem,  its solution,  background,  emotions,  underlying reality.

In Grobiņa gymnasium we have been practising drama as a method of raising our students’ cross-cultural awareness for many years. To provide a realistic background of the country where the action takes place the students gather:  geographical information  historical information  current affairs in the country  personal details of characters  culture (literature, art, music, language, traditions)

 In 2000 when theatre playing started short sketches were shown in English.  Then the students made the first attempt to write their own plays.  In 2003 plays were staged already in 3 languages - English, German and Russian and 4 authors participated in the young playwrights’ competition.

In 2005 a further innovative aspect was added to the project and it became an international cooperation of 5 European schools. A play in English called “One Day Principal” was written, translated and staged in 5 national languages. Later the play was staged in English with international actors from the above mentioned 5 European countries. The languages used were English, German, Russian, French, Romanian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Turkish and Italian.

We carried out a survey among students about using drama as a method and there are some of the answers:  I am using the words of the play in my daily conversation  learned more English from the play than in the class  I got to know about the French food  Now I know how Scots behave in public,  It is fun

Slide “Our opinion”

young playwrights’ contest. The Theatre day in Grobiņa gymnasium starts with young playwrights’ contest. It has to correspond to the following criteria:  they should be written in a contemporary European language except your mother tongue ( English, German, Russian, French)  the play should contain plenty of conversational interaction  it should have no fewer than 3 parts  the main plot should be fairly simple  the theme must be interesting and amusing

the playwright himself chooses the genre of his play. Genres like crime and detective plays, romance, comedy and domestic dramas work well with groups of mixed proficiency and ability students  It should be either a one-act play or a very short full- length one The next stages are the responsibility of each class:  to choose the play  divide the roles  start rehearsing  think about stage design, costumes, music, etc.  Teachers act as consultants, mentors and advisors

In 2004 Grobiņa gymnasium was awarded Eurolabel for using drama method in language teaching

Playbills

Project photos

DVD no starp lugas

Fragments no 2009.gada lugas

On-line lessons Stage 1 Stage 1 was started in November 2008 as a part of Lifelong Learning Comenius Project. As planned we organised an on-line lesson where the partnerschools learned partner’s language and taught phrases in their own language on the theme „My House and Family”. Such on-line teaching proved very successful and we organised another on-line lesson called „My Hobbies”.

Stage 2 Stage 2 will take place in the school year 2009/10 and will involve practical usage of everyday phrases in foreign languages.  Each school will write a short sketch in their native language called „An Evening in My Family”  Will send it to the partnerschools attaching also the translation in English.  The partnerschools will stage the sketches under the guidance of the students of the original country.  It will be responsibility of each school to help the partners to master thei pronunciation of the language.  The staged sketches will be filmed and shown in each school.

Stage 3 During Stage 3 each school  will continue the sent original play in the given language  the partners will act as written language experts  at the end of the project all the materials will be summarised in a booklet. Project langauges will be – Latvian, Lithuanian, German, Italian, Greek, Turkish and English.

Fragmenti no on-line stundas

Foreign language parties