Nowadays it is not enough for a teacher of foreign language to just teach students the target
language. In modern world we often encounter intolerance and rasism. It is important that
teachers start developing cultural sensitivity from early ages and for teachers to introduce
different cultures and differences among them to their students. Teachers are mostly aware of
this problem, but when it comes to teaching culture they encounter a number of issues,
regarding the use of materials and choosing an appropriate approach. Teaching through stories
dates back to a time before the writing was even invented. People used stories to transfer their
knowledge and information. Stories are a very effective teaching tool because they open a
whole new world to young students. Stories can create a safe environment for students and
can also help to motivate them for foreign language learning. Through stories children can
also acquire knowledge and informations about different cultures. Teachers can use storybased
approach to shed a positive light on multiculturalism and tolerance. The aim of the
action research was to research the use of storybooks at primary English level to address
interculturalism. There were 17 students of a language learning institution, aged 8-10 that
participated in my research. They are in their second year of learning English. The research
was conducted during 7 lessons in March and April, 2019. We obtained the answers to the
research questions on the basis of triangulation of techniques and resources, namely
questionnaires, observations and interviews. Before conducting the lessons, the students filled
out a questionnaire. For the story-based approach I chose two stories (Whoever you are and
Something Else). After each individual lesson I filled out a self-evaluation questionnaire, after
the lessons we conducted a short interwiev with the students and compared them with the
informations we gathered before the lessons in the questionnaires. The results of the research
show that the main goal was achieved – we managed to develop a positive attitude towards
story-based approach to address interculturalism.
|