Preparing students to present culture in the FL classroom - KJO Łódź lesson sequences

The British Studies Syllabus at the Kolegium Języków Obcych in Łódź has as one of its objectives: “to give an understanding of what a culturally-aware and culturally-skilled language teacher is”, and as another “… a focus on … methodological approaches to using culture in the language classroom”. To achieve these aims, and to prepare students to present ‘culture’ in their future language classrooms (as many will become teachers), in the second semester they undertake a Lesson Sequence project.

 

The Lesson Sequence project is part of the first year course (most students are aged 19-22), is introduced in March and, from a students’ perspective, passes through the stages outlined below to be completed in June in time for the final zaliczenie. It involves 60-70 students each year.

Ø       Phase 1 - Choosing the theme (end Mar)

Ø       Phase 2 - Gathering ideas (Apl)

Ø       Phase 3 - Putting together draft sequences (Apl- May)

Ø       Phase 4 - Consultation (May)

Ø       Phase 5 - Handing in (end of May)

 

This project requires the production of three lessons, together with the two homeworks that separate them (a five-stage model). It is done on a single theme and at three language and educational levels:

Ø       ‘beginners’ sequence - equivalent to end of Gimnazjum age 14 - 15

Ø       ‘intermediate’ sequence - equivalent to new 2^nd year Liceum age 16 - 17

Ø       ‘advanced’ sequence - equivalent to pre-Matura age 18 - 19

 

Sequence stages     A                   B                       C                     D                E 

                           ‘opening’                       main culture lesson                    ‘closing’

                             ------------ 1^st homework  -------------------- 2^nd homework ------------------

 

Further details and explanations are given in Lesson/ Homework activity sequence, most of which are direct extracts from the handout given to the students. This handout has the double function of introducing the work that must be done and also to introduce a variety of elementary aspects of the methodology of culture in language teaching - each year the project is evaluated and developed from the experience and work of previous students. They have already completed an individual investigatory intercultural project and are familiar with the issues surrounding the finding and using of sources as well as project presentation - see Culture Projects for College Students.

 

The methodological background to both this project and the activities the students are expected to produce, is an emphasis on such areas as learner autonomy, task-based learning and communicative approaches with learners being involved as active cultural beings. This Lesson Sequence project is itself an extended and extensive example of these approaches. See the appendix below for a more detailed list.

 

Rationale

The ‘motto’ of the British Studies course at Łódź is Explore culture - Explore language. The value of culture in the FL classroom is measured by its role in extending the understanding of language and the ability of learners to appropriately use it. Throughout the emphasis is on awareness and skills, and the context of English as an international language (EIL) which is felt to be the primary FL context of the future. The intercultural competences to successfully operate in such a world are its primary goal.

 

The aim of the Lesson Sequence project is to raise awareness of these issues and introduce the skills needed to put culture successfully in the FL classroom in that light. As in all projects the primary value is firmly set in the process rather than the final product - learning by doing - it is the thinking and working through of ideas individually that matters. The product is not ignored however and in all cases the final work must include workable ideas reflecting contemporary intercultural approaches which could later be adapted for their own classrooms.

 

There are a number of supplementary aims:

• to widen the students’ horizons on how culture can be used to strengthen language teaching
• to show how college courses in culture can have direct relevance in the school classroom
• to provide a ‘product’ which will drive a ‘process’ that will draw together all the awareness and skills which the course has been developing, as well as providing a final assessment
• to introduce the values of research and its presentation of value later in their diploma works
• to provide practice at the intercultural approaches given prominence in the new MEN guidelines along with an increased emphasis on skills and the importance of using FLT for wider cross-curricular ends. Thus some of the kinds of activities and skills students may (probably?) need for the new Matura

 

Overall project methodology

From a teacher’s perspective the following values are seen as defining the nature of project work:

Ø       process is central - the product is there primarily to drive and direct the process

Ø       it cannot be completed without need for pausing, reflecting and decision-making

Ø       the outcome cannot be known in advance

Ø       supervision is essential

Ø       it cannot be exclusively controlled by the teacher

Ø       it must have long-term value beyond the final product both in content and method

Without these conditions being fulfilled the value of any project is seriously undermined. The Lesson Sequence project is designed to fulfil each of these aims.

 

The approach is self-developing and an example of both teachers and students being able to develop simultaneously by working alongside one another. The teacher’s role being to provide the structure and the experience to enable the students to develop awareness of the issues involved in putting ‘culture’ into the FL classroom and the skills to enable them to do so.

 

Teacher approach

This is not an easy project to implement from a teacher’s perspective so here is a discussion of the approach which has developed as a result of experience through several years in teacher training colleges.

 

Preparation

Gathering sources that may be of value to students, especially original material and images can be very useful. It is not only that students cannot find sources but often they do not know how or where to look for them. Anticipating timings and potential problems is vital, as is the preparation of explanatory handouts and lists of ideas.

 

Opening sessions

The students must know where they are going, how to get there and what you are valuing and looking to credit with high marks. This requires handouts devoted to making everything as clear as possible. See Lesson/ Homework activity sequence for what the students are given. There are two sessions:

• One session (90 mins) is given to a detailed running through and discussion of the project with examples of previous year’s work available to give students the idea of what is expected (and also what to avoid). This is extremely important in enabling the students to picture how their work might develop.
• A further session in April is given to a discussion, with examples, of many kinds of activities appropriate to each of the five stages of the sequence. There had been a discussion and handout on sources: their nature, where to find them and how to evaluate them, in the first semester and this is now supplemented by this extensive list of activities many based on ideas worked out with students in previous years.

 

Approach to ‘everyday’ British Studies sessions

As this is a demanding and complex project, and as the students are methodologically inexperienced, the approach during the second semester is to introduce each activity of the British Studies course itself as a method which the students themselves could use in their future classrooms. Thus each activity in each session has the double function with both a content and methodological outcome e.g. the possibilities opened up by the use of a video clip or a newspaper article. Otherwise discussion is largely kept out to avoid swamping the course. Brief updates from the students and encouragements are given at the end of each session, as well as access to previous year’s work, to try to maintain some momentum.

 

Consultations

The consultation is the key stage for both student and teacher, and essential for a number of reasons:

Ø       time given in sessions has to be limited to achieve the other aims of the course

Ø       it emphasises to the students the primary value of ‘process’

Ø       it can be used to teach method through the student’s own examples

Ø       problems with the appropriacy and level of activities can be headed off saving time

Ø       activity ideas can be negotiated

Ø       unattributed activities can be identified and the students required to adapt them

In addition:

Ø       feedback thus happens during the project and not after when it would be too late

Ø       an awareness of the student’s own understanding and contribution

Ø       to ensure the project is acceptably complete in all its stages in time for a zaliczenie

 

Summary sheets and presentation guidelines

Before the final handing in students are given checklists on what should have been done as reminders. The summary sheet is like the ‘map’ of a coursebook - though here it serves to oblige the student to reflect on what has been done in terms of cultural methodology, and also to check they have covered a sufficient range of activities. There is usually a final brief supervising check of the work before the student prepares the final copy. Below is what they are given:

 

“Your final project will have … - some presentation ideas

Please word process if possible and have it on a disc too

Ø       A title page + your name

Ø       An evaluation - your opportunity to be subjective and to note what you have learned (this should be placed after your title page - it is important for your final mark as it shows the process of learning)

Ø       Summary/ cover sheets (like the ‘map’ of a coursebook) for each of the three sequences - you will be given a template

Ø       Three clearly labelled sequences - with the 5 stages clearly marked (each may include several activities) - each stage on a separate sheet

Ø       Each activity will ideally:

o        be clearly labelled with the same title as on the cover sheet

o        include: materials needed

o        outline description + maybe approx timings

o        have teacher’s notes and comments

Ø       If the activity is not yours but based on someone else’s - make a proper reference (likewise pictures/ diagrams/ texts etc)

Link to appendices if materials are to be found there - copies of reading passages, tapescripts, images + anything else too bulky for the sequence itself”

 

Assessment

The guidelines are given to the students when the project is introduced and again in summary form just before the handing in. It is essential that the students know what the teacher values and will mark in advance so they can direct their energies, and it is essential that the teacher makes sure the assessment delivers the overall aims of the lesson sequence. An element of impression marking is inevitable. Below is what the students are given:

 

“All three sequences must be present and complete before assessment can take place. Assessment is initially based on the summary sheets and the evaluation. The evaluation reveals and emphasises the process and reflects the consultation (which is essential).

 

Assessment values

The following are looked for:

Ø       the assessment checklist well covered

Ø       a final product which provides a workable set of activities for its target learners

Ø       original and imaginative ideas

Ø       the sequences all lead to growth in learners’ cultural awareness, skills and understanding

Ø       awareness of the value and nature of culture in language learning - and how to manage it in the classroom

Ø       quality over quantity - a small number of appropriate high quality activities

Ø       technical appropriateness e.g. language, layout and labelling of sections, page numbering etc (meaning following instructions)

Ø       completeness - all sequences/ all summary/ cover sheets

 

You will not be assessed on superficial appearance (do not over-decorate), or English unless it is very bad or careless, at this level a high standard is taken for granted. Your English should not be what you would find unacceptable in your learners. If your level of English is unacceptable - no zaliczenie. Originality and effective activities are most important however if I have to give a lot of input to make the sequences work that will be taken into account too.”

 

Evaluation

The Lesson/ Homework activity sequence guidelines for students are the main evaluatory document as they have been assembled from previous years’ experience. There are so many aspects to any project, let alone one as complex as this, that an overall evaluation is not possible - rather an evaluation of the relative achievements of the various sections.

 

The emphasis has to be on the ‘macro’, with the sum being seen as greater than the parts, the learning being in the process with much of it taking effect in the longer-term. Projects have the great advantage in that they imprint themselves very strongly (like trips or literature) and so can be recalled and re-evaluated relatively easily by students in the light of subsequent experience. Practical methodologists have noticed for example that the students often bring up the experience two years later in third year discussions.

 

Student evaluation

The evaluations themselves are usually very individual and typically comment on the unexpected learning and understanding gained through doing the project. Raising awareness is a crucial aspect including the raising of questions through experience which may not be resolved until later. Students are regularly surprised at what they are capable of if pushed and have the satisfaction of that achievement as well as something they can take away with them for future use.

 

Limitations

There are limitations of course - it is really too early (the second year would be better). The input from the teacher has to be high as a consequence. Some students have considerable problems in judging level of material and timings, and the quality of language often reveals the struggles they are having grammatically and lexically in their practical English.

 

Presentation

Presentation is usually in a written folder although increasingly electronic means are being used - a rapidly increasing trend. Another method could be an oral presentation in the form of a practice lesson with the rest of the class - however there is insufficient time and it would emphasise rather the individual task over the sequence, and the idea of sequencing is a fundamental value of the project. Knowledge that the final works can be displayed acts as a motivator for the quality of content, language and appearance, and some sequences are in fact displayed in the college corridors.

 

Exams

Presently there is no exam in the course but if there was it would include a problem-solving component where the student had to design (and justify) materials and activities for a specific theme from given sources.

 

Final points

If the most vital points from all those above were to be identified they would be:

Ø       the use of models of the final product

Ø       consultations

Ø       persistence and belief on the part of the teacher

 

Appendix - methodological emphases (broad loose areas only)

These are both for the project itself and for the activities students design

·         intercultural (therefore no single culture/ country - a position taken ‘between’/ ‘inter’)

• communicative approaches
• how to ‘produce’ your own culture as well as ‘receive’ that of another

·         cultural outcomes (therefore everyday language outcomes are put to one side)

• outcomes involving awareness, skills and understanding (see separate handout)
• culture/ language issues
• use of original sources (‘authentic’ materials)

·         problem-‘solving’ (therefore not primarily knowledge accumulating)

• investigatory/ exploratory
• task-based learning
• critical thinking
• project work - with the process being as important as the product (like here)

·         awareness- and skill-centred (therefore not content-centred)

• experiencing/ interpreting/ practising/ reflecting
• longer-term goals

·         teacher/ learners working alongside to common goals (therefore not teacher-centred)

• learner-based/ -centred teaching
• individualised learning
• learning by doing - learner autonomy

 

The learners are being taken into account and involved as active cultural beings - for example their roots, current situations, interests, aspirations and future realities - with their own considerable store of valued knowledge and attitudes (not only of Poland but of the UK). The teacher too will be a learner.