The purpose of this study was to develop a multicultural English lesson plan with language and culture combined in order to support teaching and learning for cultural education in the English subject in the age of multiculture and globalization. The s...
The purpose of this study was to develop a multicultural English lesson plan with language and culture combined in order to support teaching and learning for cultural education in the English subject in the age of multiculture and globalization. The study also aimed to inform the students of cultural diversity by dealing with the various cultures of English speaking and non-English speaking countries and giving lessons emphasizing core multicultural values such as equality, human rights, diversity, and respect and ultimately to help them develop multicultural sensitivity and qualities of global citizens. To achieve this purpose, the following research questions were set up: First, how do the current middle school students think about other cultures? Second, what do the students think of cultural education in the English curriculum and what kind of the content and ways are they want to learn? Third, how can the multicultural English lesson plan develop on the basis of the students' comments and suggestions of previous studies?
In order to respond to the questions above, the investigator took a survey with 126 middle school students in Seoul with a focus on the perception of and openness to other cultures, need for cultural education, and the areas of interest and concern in cultural education in the English subject. With reference to the results of surveys and previous research, three type of lesson plans are developed and the investigator proceeded with the class on a small scale by utilizing one of the lesson plans.
Findings of the investigation are as follows: First, overall, the students showed an open-minded attitude and particularly the students from multicultural families and those that had lived oversea showed more open-minded experiences. It was found that there were prejudices about various cultures and recognition related to the existence of prominent positions among cultures; especially, they showed superiority in their own cultures and western cultures while the likability about Southeastern Asians and immigrant workers was low.
Second, concerning the English subject, the findings about the necessity of culture education also showed that a number of students felt that it was necessary to study culture in the English speaking as well as non-English speaking countries and learn about nonverbal factors including facial expression, body language, behavior, etc.
Third, for active and autonomous learning environments, this study investigated the preferred areas of interest and concern of students, who are the main agents of education, in the culture education in English subjects, and its findings were as follows: In findings about countries which they wanted to know more about, they preferred to know about countries in the order of Europe, English speaking countries including the United States, Northeast Asia, South America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Concerning the interests in culture, the majority of the students showed interests in life style, art, and people, and they also showed an interest in the order of environment, history, social issue, politics, and religion. In the aspect of the preferred learning media, they answered in the order of animation, drama, and song. In learning activities, they preferred English games, English songs, English village experiences, and native speaker classes.
Based on these findings, by referring to the items that students wanted to learn about and previous research proposals, 6 cultural areas, 3 cultural topics, and 5 learning media were selected. Topics of the less plans were selected from the list the student preferred and in reference to the previous studies, teaching methods, content construction and questions etc. were reflected in 3 types of lesson plans. The content of lesson plan 1 was constructed to help the students think about themselves and have no prejudice on immigrant women and the students from multicultural homes, using related animations. Lesson plan 2 focused on learning American school culture though an American juvenile drama and discussions on the topic, bullying and discrimination, which was shown in the drama. Lesson plan 3 was formed to help the students understand the cultural diversity through various art works and covered multicultural sensitivity through indirect cultural experiences.
Among these three lesson plans, Lesson plan 3 was conducted in small groups and evaluated by the students. The students' opinions and a couple of recommendations are as follows: First, the culture and English in the class should be balanced properly not to be one-sided. In the meanwhile, the teacher should consider the level of the students and proceed the class. In this prior study, the investigator asked in English first and then spoke in Korean again by using bilingual approach in the light of the level of middle school students. This approach was effective to understand content and English learning of the class. Second, the students preferred dynamic materials rather than pictures and paintings which were used in the prior study. Thus, dynamic materials were recommended in the cultural class in order to arouse students' interest.
Based on the findings of this study mentioned above, a couple of recommendations are proposed to support multicultural English lessons for future middle school students.
First, in a multicultural English lesson, teachers need to help students reduce negative stereotypes by repeating the positive descriptions about social minority groups and cultural areas where the students showed their prejudices. Second, it is necessary to have a space where the in-service teachers can easily share lesson plans and teaching materials. Third, to improve the students' multicultural value formation and multicultural sensitivity, it is necessary to continuously provide them with a multicultural education that focuses on respect and concept and the value of understanding other cultures. Fourth, for effective multicultural education, it is important to encourage the learners to have various direct or indirect experiences so they would not only simply learn cultural knowledge but also emotionally feel it by themselves and change their perception about it.
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