English Through Holiday Celebrations!

Abstract

The role of culture plays a significant role in foreign language learning teaching. According to Krasner (1999) communication is not successfully achieved with linguistic competence alone because culture is included in all communicative activities. Encouraging an awareness of our cultural diversity in the language classroom is an invaluable part of developing L2 communicative competence. Considering the importance of culture in language learning, my Portfolio is a Theme-Based conversation book, the theme being the culture surrounding holidays in various English speaking countries. The target students are Koreans studying in an English conversation class in a private institute; they are mixed gender young adults, mostly in college, and are interested in culture and traveling. Based on the ACTFL standards, the students are Intermediate-Low to Intermediate-Mid, and they are highly motivated to learn English in order to go abroad to study or travel. They tend to favor reading and grammar over speaking, listening and writing because they have focused on reading and grammar for national standardized tests. I have chosen this target group of students because I have been teaching this group of intermediate conversation students for the past few years. The needs analysis I did included interviewing and surveying my students about how holidays are celebrated around the world. I found that while they have some knowledge of “Holidays”, the degree of their exposure to culture in English speaking countries is limited. Their lack of exposure to English outside the language classroom has afforded them few opportunities to use the L2 meaningfully, and has resulted in the target learners feeling uneasy about expressing themselves in English. Interestingly, students also noted an interest in being exposed to various English accents since their classes have revolved predominantly around a ‘standard American’ accent, and they are aware, that in their travels they are likely to encounter accents unfamiliar to them. While listening and speaking are the skills of focus in this textbook, reading activity are included to provide background knowledge related to cultural content, and writing tasks are designed to foster co-operative language learning in which students discuss and then write their ideas in groups. They use their writing to scaffold various oral presentations they will give in class. In order to help the target learners develop their fluency in speaking as well as enhance listening skills and strategies, this textbook will provide authentic and meaningful cultural content and activities. The intention is to help learners’ gain confidence and competency in oral communication, and at the same time, increase their exposure to the multicultural diversity of English speaking countries.