Raising Intercultural Awareness through Songs in Primary School ELT Classroom

Toldi, Julija (author), Burazer, Lara (mentor)

Teaching culture and raising intercultural awareness is a topic that is widely discussed in the ELT community. Despite the recent trend of promoting culture teaching, there is still a lack of research and teaching materials available. Due to the globalization and the need to communicate with different cultures it is necessary that different strategies of teaching culture be implemented. The main objective of this thesis is to see what resources are currently available to help teachers in teaching culture (with songs) and to find out whether using songs in culture teaching is an effective teaching strategy for raising students’ intercultural awareness. In this context, intercultural awareness encompasses students’ understanding of different cultures and an ability to critically evaluate them and compare them to their own without their knowledge being distorted by stereotypes. To test the hypothesis of whether teaching culture by using songs is an effective teaching strategy, the current literature is analyzed, the inclusion of songs in three contemporary coursebook collections is analyzed and some lesson plans that include songs are presented and discussed. Many currently-available articles agree on the importance of teaching culture and raising students’ intercultural awareness. Both CEFR and Slovene curriculum for English discuss teaching culture and ways to raise intercultural awareness, but mainly focus on the European cultures. When it comes to using songs, there seems to be an agreement that they tend to be a great and authentic resource for culture teaching if they are used appropriately. The current coursebooks include songs, however, the potential of many songs is not realized. The lesson plans seem to be, in theory, a great method of raising students’ intercultural awareness. However, further in-classroom research needs to be conducted in order to test these lesson plans.

• Language: English
• Keywords: culture, ELT, intercultural awareness, primary school, songs
• Work type: Master's thesis/paper
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Year: 2021
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-127581
• COBISS.SI-ID: 67342339
• Publication date in RUL: 16.06.2021

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Razvijanje medkulturne ozaveščenosti pri pouku angleščine s pomočjo pesmi v osnovni šoli

Abstract

Poučevanje kulture in razvijanje medkulturne ozaveščenosti je tema, o kateri se v skupnosti, ki se ukvarja s poučevanjem angleščine kot tujega jezika, veliko govori. Navkljub trenutnemu trendu promoviranja poučevanja kulture, je to področje še vedno premalo raziskano, prav tako pa je na voljo premalo gradiv za poučevanje kulture. Zaradi globalizacije in potrebe po komunikaciji z različnimi kulturami je nastala potreba po različnih strategijah poučevanja kulture. Glavni namen magistrskega dela je raziskati, kakšna gradiva, ki bi pomagala učiteljem pri poučevanju kulture (s pomočjo pesmi), so trenutno na voljo in ugotoviti, ali je uporaba pesmi pri poučevanju kulture učinkovita strategija razvijanja medkulturne ozaveščenosti pri učencih. V tem kontekstu medkulturna ozaveščenost obsega zmožnost učencev, da razumejo druge kulture in zmožnost, da te kulture kritično vrednotijo in jih primerjajo s svojo kulturo, ne da bi bilo njihovo védenje popačeno s stereotipi. Da bi preverili hipotezo, ali je poučevanje kulture s pomočjo pesmi dobra strategija poučevanja, smo analizirali literaturo, ki je trenutno na voljo, analizirali pesmi, ki se pojavljajo v treh različnih zbirkah učbenikov in sestavili nekaj učnih priprav, ki vključujejo pesmi. Zadnje smo tudi predstavili in diskutirali. Avtorji sodobnih člankov na to temo se večinoma strinjajo o pomembnosti poučevanja kulture in spodbujanja medkulturne ozaveščenosti. Tako CEFR kot učni načrt za poučevanje angleščine obravnavata poučevanje kulture in načine spodbujanja medkulturne ozaveščenosti, a se predvsem osredotočata na evropske kulture. Ko se govori o uporabi pesmi, opazimo strinjanje, da so odličen in avtentičen material za poučevanje kulture, če so pravilno uporabljene. Nekatere učbenike, ki so trenutno na tržišču, smo analizirali in ugotovili, da sicer vključujejo pesmi, a ostaja potencial uporabe večine le-teh neizkoriščen. Učne priprave, ki so vključene v empiričnem delu, so v teoriji odličen način za spodbujanje medkulturne ozaveščenosti, vseeno pa bi bilo potrebno izvesti raziskavo v fizični učilnici, da bi se te učne priprave tudi preizkusilo.

• Keywords: kultura, poučevanje angleščine kot tujega jezika, medkulturna ozaveščenost, osnovna šola, pesmi