We all know that language and culture are intermingled in such a way that you can’t be successful in one without the other.
In a recent blog post on tesol.org, Elena Shvidko describes an activity that allows students to learn about important cultural items, like people, places, events, and things, while practicing English.
Here’s a summary of how Shvidko organizes the activity:
- Prepare small pieces of paper with one cultural item written on each piece.
- Allow students to pick one item.
- As homework, ask students to talk to at least two people from the local culture (Americans, in this case) to collect
information on their cultural item - Have students write a definition paragraph describing the item.
Some of the examples that she provides as cultural items are: Taco Bell, Robin Williams, American football, tailgating, NASA, and so on. You can use cultural items from the local or national community.
While Shvidko puts emphasis on using this information as a writing activity, it could very easily turn into Listening and Speaking practice. It can also easily be adapted for students at different proficiency levels.
Click here to read the entire blog post on tesol.org.
Learning about American culture is imperative for our students to succeed in this country, and this seems like a great opportunity!
Try it out! If you use this in your classroom, please leave a comment or email us to tell us how it worked for you!