Featured Article

Several times a year we will feature an article from our collection which could be of particular interest to you in the classroom. Each will have a brief introduction outlining its content with suggested ideas for its use.

Our new article is:

Some reflections on materials design for British Cultural Studies
Alan Pulverness

These were the conclusions of a conference summing up many ways in which culture in FLT is currently developing and provides not only a review of methods but is very stimulating and challenging.

Alan’s conclusions were

In one sense, the weekend was inconclusive – no all-purpose guidelines were negotiated; no universal template was devised. But behind all the apparent diversity, there was a high degree of commonality at the levels of principles, processes and policies:

principles – materials presented or described pursuing the same kinds of objectives and the same kinds of outcomes

processes – the use of authentic resources and the acquisition of skills rather than the accumulation of information

policies – student-centredness, open-ended methodologies, iterative cycles of preparation-trialling-revision

Other articles by Alan can be found in our Culture in FLT - Background Reader section

Advertisements for language and cultural learning by Simon Gill

He writes:

However well-equipped the circumstances a teacher works in may be, there is, it seems, always room for more in the way of resources. I know so many teachers who, like me, are afflicted with what can only be described as a mild form of kleptomania, and it is for them, principally, that this paper is written. In it I would like to share my enthusiasm for advertisements as a tool for language and cultural learning.

He goes on to discuss a wide variety of advertisements and consider why they are of value and how they can be used in class. Some sample activities and links to a few websites relevant to the theme are also given.

So, some ideas for using any advertising realia (not just of English but also of Polish or maybe of other origin) that you either already have or might pick up, and happy hunting for those who like what they find in the article.