universidad de magallanes facultad de ciencias … · “the implications of biculturalism and...

UNIVERSIDAD DE MAGALLANES FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS Departamento de Educación

Pedagogía en Inglés

THE IMPLICATIONS OF BICULTURALISM AND BILINGUALISM IN THE

MOTIVATION FOR THE ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH IN THE STUDENTS

OF THE TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAMME AT UNIVERSIDAD DE

MAGALLANES

Trabajo de titulación para optar al título de Profesor de Inglés para Enseñanza Básica y Media

Jeniffer Bernardita Paredes Pardo Cristian Pedro Teiguel Vargas

Mónica Pamela Uribe Paredes

Profesor guía: Rodrigo Sirón R.

Punta Arenas, Chile 2007

“The implications of biculturalism and bilingualism in the motivation for the acquisition of English in the students of the

Teacher Training Programme at Universidad de Magallanes”

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Table of Contents i. - Abstract ............................................................................................... 3 ii . - Introduction....................................................................................... 4 iii . - Objectives......................................................................................... 5 iii.i.i . - General Objective .............................................. 5 iii.i.ii . - Specific Objectives ........................................... 5 iii.ii.i . - General Question .............................................. 6 iii.ii.ii . - Specific Questions........................................... 6 iv . - Theoretical Framework.................................................................... 7 iv.i . -Bilingualism.................................................................. 8 iv.i.i . -What are the advantages of being bilingual? ... 9 iv.ii . - Biculturalism ............................................................ 11 iv.iii . - Culture as a reason for learning English .............. 13 iv.iv . - Biculturalism versus Bilingualism ........................ 14 iv.v . - Motivation................................................................. 17 iv.vi . - Methods ................................................................... 20 iv.vii . - Motivation in Second Language Acquisition....... 28 iv.viii . - Two faces of Educational Motivation .................. 30 iv.ix . - The importance of the acculturation process ...... 35 v . - Field Work ....................................................................................... 37 v.i . - Focus group ............................................................... 38 vi . - Analysis .......................................................................................... 55 vi.i . - Focus group Analysis .............................................. 56 vi.ii . - General Analysis..................................................... 58 vii . - Conclusions and Final Comments .............................................. 67 viii . - Bibliography................................................................................. 71 ix . - Appendix ....................................................................................... 74 x . - Glossary .......................................................................................... 89



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i . - Abstract

Learning a new language involves learning its own culture; therefore

the inclusion of this part is fundamental for second language learners as well

as teachers, in order to have a better outcome of the acquisition of the target

language. Being bilingual not only involves knowing how to speak two

languages, but also coping with the understanding and acquisition of the

target culture, so students of English as a foreign language should see the

picture as a whole, not only acquiring the tongue itself, but also learning the

context in which it is included.

Searching for techniques that a language teacher can apply in order to

teach culture in an English lesson is something that can be very useful and

effective when it comes to proficiency in everything that involves knowing a

foreign language. Including culture teaching in an English lesson is quite a

new approach that modern teachers have been including in their Foreign

Language lessons.

In the following piece of work the concepts of bilingualism and

biculturalism will be identified, described and analysed with a focus on

motivating future teachers to incorporate culture in the ESOL classroom.

Whether it is necessary to include it or not is an issue that has been

debated on and on recently. Nevertheless, techniques which support its

inclusion affirm that working with activities that incorporate it can make

students feel attracted and more familiarised with the target language and it

can also help teachers know more about the students’ interests in other

cultures.



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ii . - Introduction

The topic for the present work has been chosen due to the necessary

and continuous changes in which Education goes through all over the world,

and as future ESOL teachers we cannot be isolated from these modifications.

Moreover, when the field is Language Teaching, it is important to consider the

different implications that have relevant effect on teaching and learning a

second language, which in theory are well-known by the professors and

students, but in the reality they are not fully applied or simply not put into

practice.

Culture is one of the important implications nowadays when teaching

L2, and the motivation for students and for professors to become more aware

of this, is one of the main objectives that are to be set in the Thesis work.

For this reason, it has been included a series of different topics and

terminology that will have further development in the piece of work; books,

journal articles and web pages related to the educational sites were used as

the main resources in this research. Additionally, the opinion of some

students from English Pedagogy from the Magallanes University was

required.



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iii.i.i . - General Objective

- To explore how teachers of English Pedagogy from Magallanes

University can influence the motivation of students in order to acquire a

deeper understanding of both the target language and its culture.

iii.i.ii . - Specific Objectives

- To establish up to what extent the teaching of culture in the ESOL

Teacher training programme at Magallanes University has been a

successful method in the first year English Lessons.

- To find out different methods and techniques that can be applied by

professors to include culture in an English lesson.

- To demonstrate that teaching culture has an important role in an

effective language lesson.

- To look into bilingualism as the understanding and acquisition of the

target culture.

- To explore biculturalism as a new approach for modern teachers.

- To look for techniques that a language teacher can apply in order to

teach culture in an English lesson.



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iii.ii.i . - General Question

- How can professors of teacher training programme at Magallanes

University influence the motivation of students in order to acquire a

deeper understanding of both the target language and its culture?

iii.ii.ii . - Specific questions

- How can professors include culture teaching in an English lesson?

- Does teaching a new language involve teaching its own culture?

- Does being bilingual involve knowing not only two languages but also

the understanding and acquisition of the target culture?

- Biculturalism: a new approach for modern teachers?

- What techniques can a language teacher apply in order to teach

culture in a English lesson?

- How do professors include culture in an English lesson?

- What innovative tools involving culture teaching can be applied in an

English lesson?

- Is culture awareness being provided to first year students of

Magallanes University?



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Theoretical Framework



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iv.i . - Bilingualism

This term has been used by people in many different ways. If you ask

anyone about what this word means, the most probable answer would be “a

person’s ability to speak in two languages”. This might sound simple and

obvious, although some other answers might reflect a little bit more accurately

what bilingualism really means.

If you go to the Internet, you will find some definitions like these ones:

• Being able to communicate effectively in two or more languages, with

more or less the same degree of proficiency.1

• The ability to speak two languages colloquially.2

• The term multilingualism can refer to phenomena regarding an

individual speaker who uses two or more languages, a community of

speakers where two or more languages are used, or between

speakers of different languages.3

All of these definitions point to the ability of a person to communicate in

two languages, although the most notorious quality of being bilingual is that

one not only has to be able to speak in a second language, but also one has

to read, write and effectively understand what the other person’s message

conveys. Making meaning and understand it in the same level seems to be

more accurate for a person to be called bilingual.

1 http://www.finchpark.com/courses/glossary.htm 2 http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=bilingualism 3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilingualism



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iv.i.i . - What are the advantages of being bilingual?

“Learning a second language provides a number of advantages, not

only for the individual, but society itself.

• Communication advantages

• Cultural advantages

• Cognitive Advantage

• Personal Advantages

• Curriculum Advantages”4

What is more, some medical research have demonstrated that being

bilingual “protects our brain” from mental decline5. (BBC) Researchers from

the York University in Canada carried out tests in 104 people between the

ages of 30 and 88 (half from Canada, all monolinguals and half from India, all

bilinguals) and the results showed "the bilinguals were more efficient at all

ages tested and showed a slower rate of decline for some processes with

aging”.6

With the “Reform of the Education” in Chile, there has been an

increment of the hours in which English as a foreign language is being

imparted in schools. Hence, the importance given to the learning of this

second language has also increased the level in which University students

are being taught nowadays. All this makes the employers raise the level of

their possible workers, and being bilingual is indeed a plus when considering

hiring new workers in any area of the professional fields. The future

professionals will surely have developed the following:

4 http://www.ibs.nsw.edu.au/english/bilingualismenglish.htm) 5 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3794479.stm (29 of October, 2007) 6 Dr Ellen Bialystok, York University



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- Conceptual development in two languages

- Transfer of academic skills across two languages

- Collaborative and cooperative learning



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iv.ii . - Biculturalism

“In order to be aware of and show reciprocal respect for the

students´ first language and first culture background, all ‘native’

teachers should study the language of their host communities”. 7

As it was said, The National Centre for Cultural Competence

postulates that culture is related to the behaviour, beliefs, customs, ways of

interacting and languages from a particular society, and in general, that is the

general view people have for the term. But what happens with “biculturalism”?

Is it the same as culture?

A. Davidson Dunton and Claude Couture comment biculturalism in The

Canadian Encyclopedia (Davidson Dunton & Couture). They mention that this

term became known in 1963 during an appointment of the Royal Commission

on “Bilingualism and Biculturalism”. The commission concluded that this word

referred to two cultures “living” together, as in the case of Canada with

English and French. The idea of biculturalism appeared because countries

such as Canada, New Zealand and South Africa have a population formed by

people from different cultures. In the case of Canada, the country counts with

Francophone and Anglophone inhabitants, New Zealand is composed by

Māori and Pākehā people, and South Africa is home for white South Africans

and Boers.

It is believed that the term biculturalism was adopted because of two

main reasons:

7 Hill, 2003



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- There are certain places, like Canada, New Zealand and

South Africa, that have people from different parts of the globe,

and thus, with different cultures.

- Biculturalism was the result of conflicts between indigenous

people from a place and its colonisers.

In the case of the members of the mentioned Royal Commission in

Canada, they noticed that people who had a determinate culture also wanted

to be part from the one they were living in. In other words, people wanted to

maintain their roots, but also acquire a new one, and in that way

“biculturalism” came into being.

According to A. Eytan8 from the Geneva University Hospitals,

Department of Psychiatry in Geneva, Switzerland, biculturalism is also

associated to globalisation. During this “process” most people tend to acquire

some general global characteristics. They maintain theirs, but they also get

related to others. That process has a positive and a negative aspect; it helps

them become more familiar with other countries’ cultures, but it also makes

them feel a little “confused” about their own roots.

8 http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/184/4/362-a#REF2



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iv. iii . - Culture as a reason for learning English

It has been proved that “They (people) learn the language because

they want to know more about the people who speak it, the places where it is

spoken and (in some cases) the writings which it has produced”.9

According to “The Practice of English Language Teaching”, among

many other reasons which include the fact of living in a community where the

target language is spoken and studying English to advance in their

professional lives, culture seems to be essential for people because, in the

majority of the cases, people feel attracted to the traditions and beliefs of the

target language.

This is the theme that inspires our investigation, but this point will be

dealt with later, because this process involves a matter worth considering in

the first place, and that is the necessary key to start learning a second

language, in this case English: motivation.

9The Practice of English Language Teaching, page 2. 2001 (Harmer, 2001)



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iv.iv . - Biculturalism versus Bilingualism Learning a second language has a great impact on the acquisition of

its culture. As it is established by Samovar, Porter and Jain (1981) culture and

communication are impossible to separate because culture not only shows

who is talking to whom, the purpose of the conversation or even how it

begins, but also assists to conclude how people encode information, the

meaning they give to the message, the situations and conditions the

messages are given, because sometimes they may or may not be sent,

perceived or interpreted by certain people. Culture according to the authors is

the base of communication. Without culture it is impossible to understand the

lives of other people and create a connection of people with the messages.

Notwithstanding, the importance of culture and the way it is seen by

individuals is always changing and in constant risk of being lost by society.

Language has a great influence on culture. First of all, as it is

mentioned in the article “Linguistics across Cultures: The Impact of Culture on

Second Language Learning”, language is used to present our ideas and or

thoughts and it depends in environment people are involved how they are

going to be understood; it is also stated that every time that language

increases, the culture changes. For example, it is expressed the following

idea: in the 15th century nice meant foolish, wanton, lascivious, and even

wicked, however nowadays it means being polite, agreeable and pleasing.

This example shows how language can differ from time to time in relation to

historical as well as social conditions. Language can also be affected by

different changes in the environment and the new ideas and beliefs inserted

in the society; for example Allison & Vinning, 1999 say that nowadays people

have new expressions that do not belong to standard English, for instance

“long time no see”, which was translated from Chinese. Some other examples



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are “sushi” and “tofu” that also show up in the American society; people

understand and accept them because they have become part of the “local”.

“Cultural knowledge is crucial in achieving linguistic proficiency,

and the culture of a society can be changed depending upon the

language used”10

According to the situation and circumstances language is settled, it

may change and have a different connotation; it depends on the different

areas it is taken from and also times. For example TV programmes, politics or

even music creates a new way of understanding the messages and a new

meaning of some words and expressions.

In relation to second language learning and the cultural learning the

National standards for Foreign Language Education project (1996) states that

learners cannot truly overcome a new language until they have controlled the

cultural context in which the new language happens, which means that

comprehending a new culture is an important element in acquiring the

success in the second language.

“The perception that teachers have of a student’s culture may

have a positive or negative effect in the learning process of a

second language. To be a second language or bilingual teacher,

cultural perception and intercultural training is very important”.11

Bilingualism is closely related to biculturalism, because when learning

a second language it is very important to be in a way engaged with the new

culture, and as it has been established before, traditions and beliefs of the

10 Linguistics across Cultures: The Impact of Culture on Second Language Learning, Ming-Mu Kuo 11Linguistics across Cultures: The Impact of Culture on Second Language Learning. Stevick, 1982



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other culture are of great relevance when people are starting to learn the new

language and also throughout the process of learning it.



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iv.v . - Motivation

Motivation is the key to invite people to learn a new language and thus,

get involved in its culture. As teachers, when we think of our students, we can

remember that, in the majority of the cases, the students who do much better

in the class are those who are strongly motivated. This internal incentive that

encourages people to reach a goal, in this case learning English, is absolutely

fundamental if we really want to get involved in the target language and its

background, as “The Practice of English Language Teaching” postulates.

These learners identify two different kinds of goals: short-term goals and long-

term goals. To teach students who have long-term goals should be easier

than to teach those with short-term goals. Those learners with long-term

goals can be motivated because they want to communicate with native

speakers in the future or, maybe, because they want to be part of an English-

speaker community, for example. Those with short-term goals can be more

difficult to stimulate because they may be just interested in passing a subject.

Consequently and according to these facts, there exist different kinds of

motivation. We will distinguish between extrinsic motivation and intrinsic

motivation. Extrinsic motivation involves all those aspects outside the

classroom; on the opposite, intrinsic motivation is related to issues inside the

classroom.

We also differentiate between different kinds of extrinsic motivation

which are integrative motivation and instrumental motivation. Integrative

motivation is related to the student’s wish to be part of the target language

culture or know as much as he or she can about it. Instrumental motivation is

connected to the student’s wish to succeed in his or her job and get a good

position in it.



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“While it is reasonable to suppose that many adult

learners have some degree of extrinsic motivation (…), many

students bring no extrinsic motivation to the classroom. They

may even have negative feelings about language learning. For

them what happens in the classroom will be of vital importance

in determining their attitude to the language (…)”.12

In intrinsic motivation, we will also distinguish different factors that

influence it, and these are physical conditions, method, the teacher and

success.

The physical conditions in the classroom are incredibly important for

the learners’ motivation. The position of the board, the decoration of the

classroom and the quantity of students in it are features that have a strong

effect on their enthusiasm to learn. It is in this instance when the teacher’s

role becomes vital to change the de-motivation situation and use adequate

methods with the students. It is said that this is one of the most difficult areas

to be sure of because, according to “The Practice of English Language

Teaching”, sadly, there is no evidence that certain methods are better than

others. Every teacher and every class are different so whereas one method

can work for one it can be totally useless for the other, and while one can

have a positive effect the other can bring a negative result with their

motivation. Nevertheless, it is the teacher’s work to try out different

techniques in order to fight against de-motivation.

“The student’s confidence in the method is largely in the

hands of the most important factor affecting intrinsic motivation,

the teacher”.13

12 The Practice of English Language Teaching , page 4. 2001 13 The Practice of English Language Teaching, page 5. 2001



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The teacher is said to be fundamental in the student’s process of

learning. Not only the methods he uses will be decisive but also the attitude

he has with his students. According to a study carried by Denis Gerard, what

students mostly appreciate of a teacher is the sympathy he shows for his

students. Apart from all those aspects related to the teacher’s ability of

competence, the teacher’s personality is also significant for learners. That is

why we as teachers have to try to create a comfortable and pleasing

environment for them to learn and develop themselves.

The last factor mentioned previously was success. This is also an

imperative part of the student’s motivation. Whether the teacher sets high

challenge or low challenge activities can be equally de-motivating. When

tasks are too complicated, learners can feel frustrated. They may think it is

not worth working on a task because no matter how much they try to make

their best, they will not succeed anyway. The same happens when activities

are too easy for students. They will feel uninspired because nothing seems to

be necessary to work on. It is important to recognize the level of our students

in order to set adequate challenges in accordance with their abilities.



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iv.vi . - Methods

This investigation is committed to find different methods which can help

ESOL teachers to add culture to the classroom. But, is it important and really

necessary to add culture to the target language class?

According to Dale L. Lange some teachers think it is not and they point

out some of the reasons:

- There is no time to introduce culture.

- Students from elementary levels are not prepared to learn about

different realities.

- The teachers themselves do not know much about other cultures.

This has been a matter of conflict for a long time; however,

contemporary teachers are expected to add culture into the classroom.

Even though it is said that the learning of the target language is of

paramount importance and the learning of culture goes after it, because

students need to learn the language first to then comprehend the culture, and

not vice versa, the social sciences have come up with an innovative point of

view. They say that culture is composed by the beliefs, values and behaviour

that people from a given place share, and the National Center for Cultural

Competence defines it as an integrated issue formed by beliefs, customs,

ways of interacting, courtesies and languages, among others. They also

highlight the ability of transmitting those features to next generations.

Their definition places language and culture as one, because culture is

transmitted through language and, what is more, even the structure a

language has and the manners in which it is used say something about it.



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Brian Cullen from The Nagoya Institute of Technology and Kazuyoshi

Sato from The Nagoya College of Foreign Studies in Nagoya, Japan worked

on a research named “Practical Techniques for Teaching Culture in the EFL

Classroom”. They base their investigation on the researcher Omaggio-Hadley

who recognises that, for most teachers, culture is important to take into

account but, unfortunately, because of the lack of time or the uncertainty of

not knowing what aspect from culture to take, this is commonly left aside.

Notwithstanding these reasons, some other investigators present several

techniques which can help teachers to add culture in the classroom. Oxford

uses the term “cultural texture” to refer to different features in culture. He says

that we need to distinguish between three factors to get to involve our

students in the target language culture: information sources, activity-types

and selling-points. (Cullen & Sato, 2000) Information sources include all those

resources which can help teachers to investigate determinate aspects of

culture, such as TV, Internet, photographs and newspapers, among others.

The activity-types represent a fundamental part at the moment of

deciding in which ways we as teachers want to insert certain aspects of

culture. He enumerates several activities which can be useful in the

classroom. Quizzes are said to be one of the most helpful activities to

introduce culture. Oxford says it is not necessary to create a complex quiz but

just add some general parts of the culture of a country. The students will be

so interested in getting the right answers that they will not notice how they are

getting particular facts about it. If we ask students to “notice” we will also get

satisfactory results. But, what noticing refers to? Oxford says that when we

present a certain material to a student such as a video or a photograph they

will immediately “notice” the differences or similarities between the foreign

culture and theirs. This is also a useful technique to familiarise learners to

other cultures. Asking our students to search for information is also



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recommendable. Teachers can tell them to look for general facts of a culture

and then, expose what they learnt to their classmates. This is an activity to

perceive what the interests that learners have in relation to different cultures

are.

The last aspect that Oxford mentioned was selling-points. When he

talks about this factor he refers to the specific part that the teacher wishes to

take from a culture. He suggests teachers not to focus just on “nice” aspects

of a culture but in different points of view. He asks teachers to “sell” diverse

sides of culture.

Oxford also gives teachers some tips to take into consideration. He

highlights the fact that we cannot intend to cover every aspect of a culture

because that would be absolutely impossible. He says it is important to

concentrate on general features because, in that way, we are leaving the door

open for our students to search for more. He also points out the importance of

not only discussing about a culture, but he asks teachers to focus on activities

which have a certain goal and that will be more useful for students. He says

that, commonly, discussions do not have a specific aim and it is useless at

the moment of introducing a topic. He declares that discussions should come

up just when the occasion arises. Finally, he calls teachers to be enthusiastic

and present culture in a fun and exciting way in order that students can get

interested in the class. We as teachers also have to think as our students

because something can be really interesting for us but not for our students.

We must try to take the most attractive parts of culture and, in that way,

learners will engage in the class.

Yen-Lin Chou from The University of Southern California, USA,

presents an interesting theory called “Compliments: Integrating Cultural

Values into Oral English Classes”. This researcher designed a course based



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on this theory and which is focused on the learning of culture and the practice

of speaking skills. The main goal is to make students perceive differences or

similarities through activities centred on cultural expressions such as

compliments and responses. (Chou, 2004)

Chou poses that, according to Manes, compliments and responses are

seen as a form of the values that people from a specific culture have. The

investigator also mentions activities which, apart from being useful to add

culture in the classroom are helpful for learners to practise speaking and get

to communicate through the target language. These activities are group

discussion, role play and oral presentation. According to Graves, group

discussions are an instance for students to get a diversity of opinions, ideas

and points of view from their classmates.

Maria A. Kodotchigova from Tomsk State University in Russia

mentions in her paper called “Role Play in Teaching Culture: Six Quick Steps

for Classroom Implementation” that role play activities let students experience

and, in that way, notice cultural differences or similarities. (Kodotchigova,

2002) Finally, oral presentations help them to practise their speaking skills.

Kodotchigova also states in her paper that language and culture are

absolutely related so “language cannot be taught without culture”. She

declares she “will use the term ãrole playä to determine a teaching technique

in which the students are asked to identify with the given familiar or non-

familiar roles and to interact with the other role characters within the given

sociocultural situation”. Role play activities are incredibly useful to learn new

expressions and vocabulary. She refers to six steps to practise role play and

teach language and culture.



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The first step she mentions is “A Situation for a Role Play”. According

to Livingstone, it is essential to have the students’ necessities in mind. It is

advisable to ask them about their interests because in that way the activity

will be more useful and interesting for them. A good idea is to ask them for

suggestions of situations or make them choose from a list. These can be

taken from sources such as movies or books, because they present a variety

of role play situations.

The second talks about “Role Play Design”. Livingstone says that at

the moment of preparing the role play situation, the level of the students must

be taken into consideration. It is sometimes necessary to adapt the script to

the students’ characteristics.

She identifies the third step as “Linguistic Preparation”. As Livingstone

proposes, once the students have their role play chosen, they need to check

the vocabulary they will need to use according to it. Sciartilli suggests

teachers to introduce any new vocabulary at the beginning of the activity. He

recommends asking the students what expressions they would need to use in

the situation given in the role play. They may come up with ideas and the

educator might write useful expressions on the board for them to feel more

confident.

The fourth is referred to as “Factual Preparation”. At this point the

students are given the information related to the role they will have to play.

She calls the fifth step “Assigning the Roles”. It is recommended to

have the roles already prepared before giving them to the students. At the

moment of choosing the “script” for the activity it is also suggested to have the

students’ abilities and personalities in mind. Finally, when presenting the play,

it is important for the teachers to listen to the students’ mistakes to check



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them later, NOT at the moment of the role play because the students may feel

dejected.

And finally, the sixth step is called “Follow-up”. Livingstone postulates

that after the play, it is not recommended for the teacher to make the students

notice of their mistakes because they will be happy about the activity and

correcting them would just discourage them. It is better to ask for the

students’ opinions about the play and accept all comments.

This researcher also refers directly to the incorporation of culture in

role play activities. She mentions Tomalin and Stempleski who highly

recommend role play activities to introduce culture. Even though these

investigators support this kind of activities, Byram and Felming advise us of

the disadvantages of teaching a culture other than ours through role play.

They state that these activities may make the students create a stereotype

and finally, it could lead to “cultural conflicts”. Nevertheless, role play is a

great instance for students to become familiarised with the target language

culture.

Ferit Kilickaya from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey

focused one of his papers on “Authentic Materials and Cultural Content in

EFL Classrooms” (Kilickaya, 2004). He refers to the advantages and

disadvantages of using this kind of material with the students:

- It presents authentic cultural data.

- It makes the students familiarize with real language.

- It is a creative way of introducing the target language and its

culture.



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But even though there may be benefits, there are also some difficulties

which are worth considering:

- As authentic material, it may present more complex vocabulary

or expressions for the students to understand.

In this moment, the teacher must decide at what level he or she can

introduce authentic material in the classroom. Would it be the same for pre-

intermediate or advanced learners to work with this material?

Guariento & Morley say that advanced learners would be able to work

with authentic material because they already master a good variety of

vocabulary; in the case of students from lower levels, this sort of materials

may bring them a feeling of frustration because they will notice they lack

many lexical items. Nonetheless, Chavez affirms this does not mean they

cannot use authentic material. It is true that they would need more support

from the teacher such as for listening or reading activities, but the students

will like being in contact with real English material.

Martinez mentions that a good way of dealing with the problems a

beginner learner can face is asking just for the general idea from a listening

activity or a text. He also says that with these activities, the students will feel

motivated to read and look for information of their own interest. Matsuta

recommends the use of traditional or popular songs the learners like to

generate a non-threatening environment.

After dealing with these situations, Kilickaya refers to the cultural

content an authentic material might have. McKay states that the inclusion of

culture in the material will promote the motivation in them, but would it be

possible? Some students declare that they are not interested in the culture of



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the target language but it is believed that they may “be afraid” of realising that

its culture might be different from theirs.

Kilickaya admits he believes in the importance of adding a cultural

content to the material to use because it “is a key to effective teaching and

learning a language” always considering the adequate techniques to carry the

activity out. Kilickaya poses that “Successful language learning requires

language users to know that culture underlying language in order to get the

meaning across.” Tseng also recognizes that learning about the target

language culture helps learners to have a broader view of the world.

Stuart and Nocon mention that knowing about other’s culture facilitate

students to learn more about the particular linguistic “codes” a definite society

may use. Finally, Shanahan declares that learning about culture does not

consist of memorising facts, but of making students feel interested in learning

another culture, and thus its language.

Kilickaya confesses there are a huge variety of methods to introduce

culture in the classroom, but the first point teachers must consider is creating

a comfortable environment for students to discuss about their own culture and

then, find similarities or differences between theirs and the target language’s.

As Oxford and Kodotchigova also mentioned, it is strongly suggested that the

use of activities such as culture quizzes, role play or dramatizations,

discussions and audiovisual material such as videos or DVDs are quite

effective. Newspapers are also highly recommended because they contain

certain evidence of life in the societies we want to know more about.



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iv.vii . - Motivation plays an important part in Second Language Acquisition. Gardner, as many other authors, expresses that motivation contributes

to the second language acquisition, and describes it as the learner’s

orientation with the view to learning a Second Language. Gardner in his

socio- educational investigation states that motivation can be divided into two

basic categories: integrative and instrumental motivation.

Before knowing about motivation in second language it is necessary to

know about the motivation that speakers have when learning their first

language, as Mowrer ((1982, cited in Gardner’s work) 1950, cited in Larson-

Freeman and Long 1994) expresses the success of a kid when learning the

first language could be accredited to the desire to obtain the family unit and

later the wider language community. Therefore, the success of learning a

second language can be attributed to the motivation and fulfilment the

speakers achieved in the first language?

As Gardner states motivation depends on a combination and variability

of different factors that affect learners’ success. That means that the Second

Language Acquisition depends on the environment that the speaker is being

exposed to, and also the appreciation they have about the other language as

well as its culture. Gardner (1982) also based his investigation on language

acquisition in a structured classroom setting rather than a natural

environment, where speakers were learning a Second Language, so his work

was focused on a foreign language classroom.

It is important to emphasize the impact of learning a Second Language

in a monocultural setting, like Britain, where the beliefs and perspective they

have about other languages and cultures can be easily observed, and where



29

many believe that it is not necessary to learn another language and only a

minority should incorporate and become proficient in the foremost language

of the country. Some other countries such as Canada, a bilingual and

bicultural country, are often encouraged within society to the learning of a

new language, and also the culture that is involved.

The learning of a new language requires a social environment that

allows the speakers to feel comfortable with what they are learning, and get

involved with the variability that this language brings with it. It can be shown in

different environments for the speakers, where they might learn the language

in a formal or informal setting but in both the variables of situational anxiety

and motivation are thought to affect in the same way.

The importance of motivation is based on three fundamental elements,

according to Gardner investigation (1982), effort, desire and affect. These

three are of great importance for the learning of a new language. Effort refers

to the time that learner spends in studying the language, desire demonstrates

how much the learner wants to become proficient in the language, and finally

affect testifies the learner’s emotional reactions with consideration to the

language study.



30

iv.viii . - Two faces of Educational Motivation

Many teachers have found that people study different languages

because they have a special motivation to learn them, consequently

unmotivated students can hardly develop their skills in the Second Language.

The Modern Language Journal refers to Language Learning

Motivation: Expanding the theoretical Framework with the following questions:

“Why is Bill Studying Spanish? Why does Mary Ellen want to learn English in

China? What is the reason for Mary’s interest and effort in Japanese? Why

does Louise work so hard at learning Russian?...” The answer to these

questions, according to the article, is strongly directed to Motivation, because

this determines the extent of effective personal involvement in the Second

Language learning. (Lybeck, 2002)

Students who admire a language because they like the people who

speak that language are thought to be part of an Integrative Motivation; so,

what happens with those who learn a language because they want to get

something practical or concrete from the second language?

Here is exposed what was mentioned before, Integrative and

Instrumental motivation (Gardner & Lambert, 1972). Therefore, the answer is

that the integrative motivation includes everything that a language brings with

it, and from the first moment a person wants to become part of this language

is because he or she really feels attracted to the language as a whole, comes

the desire to become bicultural and bilingual; and those who wish to get

something useful from the language, as a higher status, apply for a job,

university and so forth are part of the instrumental motivation.



31

It is significant to mention that both terms are of great importance to

the success of Second Language learning, however as many authors have

expressed the integrative motivation has been found to maintain long-term

success when learning a Second Language (Taylor, Meynard and Rheault

1977; Ellis 1997; Crookes et al 1991).

In formal setting, it is more common to find integrative motivation rather

than instrumental, and it could be due to the beliefs and values a person

expresses when learning L2. Nevertheless, instrumental motivation can prove

to be successful when the learner has no opportunity to interact with the First

Language, so has no chance to interact with the members of the target group.

On the contrary, the Modern Language Journal, establishes that apart

from integrative and instrumental motivation there are those that do not focus

their attention on the culture of the language or the usage they are going to

give knowing the language, but they have other reasons for studying it, such

as receiving intellectual motivation, seeking personal challenge, enjoying

friends, and so forth.

Subsequently, what happens with those learners that are studying to

become ESOL teachers at university and practice instrumental motivation?

Are they aware of the cultural exchange they are living and also the

biculturalism they have to project to them and to the coming students as well?

The problem for many L2 educators is that the skills they have

developed during their career could be frustrated because what they really

wanted was a useful second language and they may have no opportunity to

practice it, as Morrow claims that many English teachers, in non English

speaking countries, have poor listening skills, which means that relying on



32

their vocabulary and grammatical understanding of the language is almost

impossible, and students do not get much from that education.

Research studies (Bacon, 1995; Bloch, 1996; Bruner, 1996; Hendon,

1980; Pesola, 1991; Ramirez & Hall, 1990; Seelye, 1994; Spinelli & Siskin,

1992) have emphasized the importance of integrating language and culture

for the language to be learned appropriately.

Emphasizing the same point that Language without culture or culture

without language can only create a misunderstanding or miscommunication

between the foreign and native speakers, it is relevant to know that the

motivation a person has towards the language can help him to get as much

from it.

The understanding of a language for a foreign speaker not only entails

linguistics, but it also brings with it a series of other factors that help the

acquisition of L2, such as discourse competence, linguistic competence,

sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence, which are stated by

Canale & Swain (1980), Hymes (1972), and Savignon (1983), and some other

terms were added in 1995 by Celce-Murcia, Zoltanand Thrurrell and they use

the term sociocultural competence instead of sociolinguistics competence

Competence is defined by Cook (1999) as whatever the native

speakers own, and he also claims that any native speaker can epitomize all

native speakers, as well as kids, with very few exclusions, succeed in the

acquisition of their first language over the same period of time they become

native speakers.

“Social cultural competence; Language and culture are closely

tied to one another and have a profound influence on both verbal and



33

non-verbal communication. For example, the significance of the length

of a pause or a change in tone depends on and can vary by culture”.14

Furnham (1993) expresses the situation of what would happen to a

non- native speaker (NNS) that appears in an alien culture which is strongly

different to his own culture and who is short of socio-cultural knowledge? He

is in a position with certain collateral social inadequacy. So, what might

happen later with the cultural exchange is almost impossible to know, as well

as all the reactions that may occur between the non- native speaker and the

native speakers. It is important to highlight that the culture can be transferred

from the native culture the possibilities of the differences and similarities

cannot be guessed.

For that reason, socio-cultural competence in the classroom is of great

importance for the educational process of learning a Second Language. Some

sources such as Handford, (2002; Vegas Puente 1997) establish that to

understand English as a second language in an ESL classroom, it is

important to incorporate programmes and planning that involve teachers and

students within the topic of socio-cultural competence.

The idea of socio-cultural competence is not that students abandon

their own culture but that they choose what to do with it; they can always have

the opportunity to work in both cultures and understand in a better way the

Second Language they are being exposed to.

“Pavlenko and Lantolf (2000) argue that traditional models of second

language acquisition account for the way we acquire lexical, phonological and

grammatical units of knowledge, but that in order to understand language use

14 Chun, 1998



34

in context, and therefore the pervasiveness of culture in communication, a

model which accounts for learning as participation is necessary.”15

It is not impossible to realize about the lack of efficiency that education

can have when teaching a Second Language; teachers many times are not

given the proper preparation to help the students to get involved in the new

culture, or if they are given the adequate preparation they do not have

enough materials and resources to work properly with students in the Second

Language.

In a common ESOL classroom students may develop different skills

that could help them to communicate with native speakers of the Second

Language, but as it has been mentioned before many times, is necessary to

incorporate good strategies that may help them to interact with the exposed

culture.

ESOL Teachers need to work on different methods for the learning of

the language, and as in any other science or study it is necessary to walk

together with the new research findings and even technology; that for

instance may help students to communicate with speakers of the target

language.

15 Mike Handford, Nottingham Circular 17, 2002



35

iv.ix . - The importance of the acculturation process

The process in which integrants of a cultural group adopt the beliefs,

values and behaviours of another group is called Acculturation; this process

mainly affects smaller groups adopting themselves to much dominant and

bigger communities. Notwithstanding, the controlling community may also

acquire the normal systems of the minority group16.

“Schumann’s acculturation Theory as presented The

Pidginization Process: A model for Second Language

Acquisition (1978) predicts that the degree of a learner’s

success in the Second Language (L2) acquisition depends upon

the learner’s degree of acculturation”.17

The success in learning a second language depends on the relation

and importance given to the target language as well as its culture and in

addition that Schumann (1980) says that one general aspect of the process of

acculturation depends on the learning of the target language and the relation

with the target group.

In Schumann’s theory there are two categories in relation to

Acculturation, Social and Psychological distance. Social distance regards the

individual as a member of a social group which is associated with other social

group whose integrants speak another language meanwhile psychological

distance regards the person as him or herself (Schumann 1978, p. 77).

16 http://www.rice.edu/projects/HispanicHealth/Acculturation.html 17(Modern Language Journal, Cultural Identification and Second Language Pronunciation of Americans in Norway, Karen Lybeck, 2002 page 174)



36

The author refers to psychological factors to be subordinated to social

factors since acculturation will become dependent on psychological changes

when a group is in the middle of the continuity between a high and low

distanced of social situations. (1980)

The creation of social groups and the division of the minority groups

may generate various changes in the acculturation process which means that

are not only an ethical or linguistic matter.

The author of the article points out an important fact about the study of

a language and the way in which it affects L2 learners; it refers to how most of

time students are tested on the morphological and communicative

competence skills rather than L2 pronunciation, which is important as well,

though Guiona (1972) claims that the importance of pronunciation is closely

related to Learners’ identity and it is more likely to be affected by

acculturation.

The process of acculturation can be simultaneous; it means that it can

affect the target culture plus the L2 group, in its manners, attitudes and

motivation so that it may also influence the learning of the language

development, in addition these groups tend to assimilate different habits and

they also present changes in language preference.



37

Field Work



38

v.i . - Focus Group Date: October 31st, 2007

Time: From 16:37 to 18:02

Place: The American Corner, Magallanes University

Participants are given the general objective of the meeting as well as

the introduction.

Cristian: The general objective of our thesis is the following:

“To explore how ESOL teacher trainers from Magallanes University can

influence the motivation of students in order to acquire a deeper

understanding of both the target language and its culture”

Researchers: Monica Uribe 5th year, working on thesis

Cristian Teiguel 5th year, working on thesis

Jeniffer Paredes 5th year, working on thesis

Participants: Sebastian Alvarez 1st year

David Solsona 2nd year

Tania Soto 2nd year

Valentina Amigo 2nd year

Vanessa Soto 2nd year

Rodrigo Pontes Postgraduate in Teaching, student from Australia



39

Introduction to the meeting:

Cristian: Biculturalism v/s Bilingualism and how teachers motivate students,

ESOL, future ESOL teachers, how are they motivated here at University? The

way we learn English and the future way we are going to teach English.

We have got twelve questions for you to give suggestions and opinions

related to the topic.

(The main idea is to have a natural conversation with the participants)

Firstly, I want you to tell me about your real experience with English.

For example tourism. Have you ever spoken with a native speaker here?

Have you ever travelled overseas? Things like that. Who wants to start?

For example, as you all know we went to Australia; we stayed there for

six months. Well I don’t know, the experience was incredible.

Jeniffer, what can you say?

Jeniffer: I was thinking about that too, like before the experience of going

abroad and like now how things have changed; but before when we started

teaching English and everything and we did not have people who we could

practice with. It really helps if you have the chance to talk to a native speaker,

you do develop your language skills.

Monica: The idea is to discuss the relationship between the culture and

English. For example the first question says “why do you think it’s important to

be bilingual?”



40

Cristian: In our own context, why are we learning English and why did you

want to become bilingual?

Jeniffer: Because, first you don’t think about how important is to be bilingual. I

believe that there is a certain moment in our education when you realize “oh,

I’m bilingual and I can communicate with any person in the world” because

almost everyone speaks English. It is important to know when you are

bilingual and that you can really communicate with different people and learn

a lot from them, culture and other things.

Why do you want to be bilingual? Monica: Why did you start studying English?

Tania: I think that it’s important to know a language and to communicate in

case you meet someone who doesn’t live here; for example, as we all know

Punta Arenas is a city full of tourism, in summer and… you know.

David: Just because I like it…I don’t know; may it’s because I didn’t have the

opportunity of having teachers of English when I was at primary and high

school, they weren’t so good. Everything I learnt before started at the

University was because I was really interested in the language, so that was

the reason, because I wanted to change things.

Monica: And what about you, your name was?

Valentina: I’m Valentina, and I’m studying this because I wanted to be a

teacher, but English was in a second place. I think I didn’t realize that I was

becoming bilingual.



41

I think it’s important about what she said (points at Jeniffer) having the

opportunity of communicating with people from every part of the world.

Monica: And you? (Points at Sebastian)

Sebastian: First of all, sorry for my basic English.

Everyone: No…that’s ok

Sebastian: I’m studying this because I love it, and because it’s the business

language. The globalisation, the world today is a connected world and all

people speak English. We need English to have conversations and things like

that, all the world.

Vanessa: I’m studying English because I really like it, and as my classmates

say it’s important or it’s interesting to communicate with people from other

countries and cultures.

Rodrigo: I agree hundred percent with you (Points at Sebastian) the way

world is heading is a necessity, and I think depends in business world,

teachers, the field you do. English has become a real important element in

people’s lives. Not everyone, again depends on the works you do, the way

the world is heading is important.

Monica: Did some of you feel attracted to any culture? For example, people

may feel attracted to the American culture, some others to British culture.

They may tend to speak or acquire the accent.

Cristian: Did you feel particularly attracted to the accent or to the culture,

because these are two different things.



42

Tania: I think that both things, because accent is related to the culture.

David: I think that if you want to learn a language, in this case English, you

have to get involved with the culture, so I believe both terms are connected.

Cristian: Ok… I’ve got a question. How many different countries that speak

English you know? Apart from the already known.

Some of them: UK… New Zealand, South Africa… India… Malaysia.

Cristian: Ok… that’s good, you know it.

Monica: Another question. In what way people learn a language?

Tania: Listening, I think it’s important because you learn a language by

listening to it, you get use to it.

David: Personal, listening is very important but also it’s very important to

practice; you have to learn to put the words. Listening is very important when

learning a language but you also need to practice. If you don’t have the

opportunity to talk with someone of other countries you are not going to

get…to be able…to get proficient.

Valentina: I think you can learn better when you are a kid.

Cristian: Yeah, when you’re like a sponge, you acquire…acquire.

So, is it a wall that we are in 1st year? We are 18, 19 some of us are 20

perhaps and we start learning English here at University. Do you think that it’s

even harder to start at this age, at this stage?



43

Tania: In my case I didn’t have English classes at school, for me it was a

challenge, and when…I see my classmates that are learning here, from ones

that already know it’s a very big difference in terms of pronunciation and

grammar everything.

David: I think it doesn’t only depend on your knowledge but also the ability

because some of us may have more abilities for something, and some others

have skills for other things.

Vanessa: In my case I think that is very important to communicate with your

classmates.

Mónica: Ok… I guess you know about the four… well, five skills. You

mentioned it some people are more skilful in a way but we’ve got five skills…

speaking listening, writing, reading…well and learning vocabulary. Do you

think we should learn all of them to become more proficient in English or in

any other language? Which ones do you think is or are more important?

David: I think that speaking and listening are more important; because once

you start speaking you can start writing.

Tania: For example, when you learn the first language, in this case Spanish,

by listening and you repeat what the other says.

Cristian: Ok… let’s recall the process…when we are babies, what do we learn

first?

David: we start babbling. Imitating sounds



44

Cristian: So, we start listening, and then repeating and then

producing…ok…What is bilingualism for you? What is to be bilingual? What

does it mean?

Tania: To have the skill to speak two languages.

Sebastian: I think that’s to speak two or more languages.

Rodrigo: In my case, I think it’s the ability to speak two languages in a

proficient way, and everything is connected, in a way…let’s say you have to

speak you don’t need to be perfect.

Cristian: The integration of the skills.

Rodrigo: Yeah…that’s right…

Jeniffer: Ok…some author… some books say that to become bilingual you

need to acquire to get the four skills. So, let’s put in context… we as Spanish

speakers we need to have the different skills we need to write and read, we

need to be part of the society… I’m not saying that we’re not part of the

society, for example to work to communicate with people we need to connect

the skills, have the four skills, the same in English to become bilingual, or in

any other language we have to integrate the four skills.

Monica: For example here at University, in what ways would you like to learn

English?

David: think that one important thing the laboratory lacks of is Laboratories,

you know… like practicing listening and oral skills, I think that’s important

because the way the University has the career curriculum is very good.



45

Valentina: I would like to talk with English Native speakers, and I think it’s the

most…important…

Monica: So, you say that practicing speaking is the most important?

Valentina: Yeah… that’s what I think.

David: Well… the other skills are already included in the curriculum so I think

that it’s more important to practice speaking, they are not very developed in

the curriculum…here. They don’t have the potential they should have…

Tania: Yeah… I think you have seen it too, because in the way… for example

everyone knows how to write or read, but when talking… they don’t have the

experience of listening to real English.

Monica: Which is very different… because you know?.... it was very difficult

for us… when we were in Australia. We spoke English… well we speak, and it

was really hard to understand everything at the first time, because we weren’t

used to listen to real English. When listening to the radio it was really hard

and we tried to concentrate and we said… ok this time I really have to

understand… but then it was getting easier every time.

Cristian: And we had a good level… and every time you are getting better, the

level is increasing every year.

Jeniffer: Ii was hard even when we went buying something and we were just

pointing at things… or just saying yeah… yeah.



46

Cristian: And it wasn’t because we didn’t know how to speak but that

everything was different, the accent was different, new vocabulary, the words

everything.

If I had to go back to first year, I will tell my teachers or I would do it to myself,

practice listening…listening. Watch those movies…but don’t read at the

subtitles, listen to music to real English, but…listen…listen.

Sebastian: But not only to American or British accent but to different accents.

Rodrigo: And even a native speaker, let’s say Australian who goes to England

or South Africa they still have problems with understanding… you know what I

mean?

So, it doesn’t just happen to you, let’s say… it even happens to native

speakers… so do not leave it into you.

Cristian: (Points at Rodrigo) once you told me that if an Australian goes to

Canada it was difficult to communicate.

Rodrigo: Yeah… as anyone it’s hard to communicate… but you can be very

polite in your own language even though having some differences in

pronunciation and vocabulary.

Cristian: Ok…let’s think of Mexican, people from Spain…

Rodrigo: Yeah…if you go to Spain you’ll have troubles with communicating,

though it’s your mother tongue… well at first I guess you’ll feel strange.

David: For example there was a channel, Spanish channel… where they were

speaking and I could understand a thing of what they were saying.



47

Monica: Again the question…in what way would you like to learn English?

Sebastian: Talking to native speakers

Cristian: Watching movies, without reading the subtitles…

David: Sometimes with the subtitles in English, and TV series.

Cristian: But we have to be very careful with that… because TV series are not

that real it’s a script…it’s a script… they miss lots of slang and common words

that can be used… they are not that real.

Monica: At least you wouldn’t use those words or even the expressions.

Cristian: So, we have movies, speaking, and music...music. What about

working with tourism? Put yourselves in the class with the teachers, we

say all the time…oh this is so boring…

David: I think that a good idea would be that if you speak Spanish in the class

should be penalized, because every time that we have to speak in English we

don’t do it.

Cristian: Are you conscious of what you’re saying in English? Like every

word, let’s say what to say and how to say it.

Rodrigo: What people are thinking. You know what I mean?...sometimes I

think that you’re too worried about what people are going to say… if you say

something wrong or if you make any mistakes.



48

Tania: I think that it’s the same lack of practice that we have… because if we

speak more we will have more training and feel less embarrassed when

talking to a native speaker.

Cristian: Would it be like our culture…like the Chilean culture that pretends?

Because I’m ninety percent sure that every time that we speak we try to find

the better words to speak.

Jeniffer: I always think about that, because every time that we speak…I mean

in Spanish we make a lot of mistakes, we use bad words and mix

everything… tenses and people still understand us because it’s our language,

and when we speak English we are so worried that we have to say everything

in a correct way because we believe that they are not going to understand.

David: I think it is because we have been taught like that, teachers teach us

not to make mistakes, and so we are afraid of speaking.

Cristian: It might be because the fact that we are going to be ESOL teachers

who need to know rules, but what most of the people don’t know… is that it

doesn’t matter they way you speak, the way you use words…because the

main purpose is to communicate, to convey meaning….

Monica: It is different… because we’re studying to teach English… we need

to know grammar, and it’s the same when someone whose mother tongue

isn’t Spanish and studies to be a teacher of the language is going to know

more than we do about grammar and everything, because we speak it and

know it because is our mother tongue.



49

Jeniffer: For example, if someone asks some words, sometimes you don’t

know how to explain them, but if they ask them in English it’s easier because

it’s what we are studying.

Sebastian: Spanish teachers teach us a lot of grammar but we never use it.

Valentina: Sometimes we can’t communicate because of the lack of

vocabulary.

(Five minutes break)

Monica: What do you think teachers lack of when teaching the language?

Tania: More speaking and listening activities.

David: Or some of them are always correcting you. That’s one of the things

that make you feel afraid of speaking.

Cristian: They make you feel embarrassed, which is not good.

Tania: They make you not wanna speak, I don’t know…for example in my

case I think, “am I speaking well or not? Is right that that this year my level is

good?”

Mónica: Would you do the same in the future with you students. Would you let

them speak?... Depends in what you’re teaching, in the level.

Rodrigo: I think that correction is ok, but there is such ways in which you have

to say it… you know what I mean? The worst thing is to embarrass someone,



50

particularly when you’re learning a language... I don’t know…it’s my point of

view.

Cristian: Can we come up with some ways that we could correct, for example,

that you say something which is wrong… I don’t know…may be rephrase it. .

For example, if you say “She don’t speak…” yeah… she doesn’t speak.

Monica: For example asking everyone to give their opinion and at the end

telling them the mistakes, but not personally.

Tania: But the idea is not only to correct the word.

Cristian: Do teachers still so that here?

David: Yes…a lot…a lot.

Rodrigo: But what is the level… I mean the level of the teachers?

Tania: Yeah… it is very good.

(The group agrees)

Monica: Now we just have one question left. Name some fun activities to

learn English.

Cristian: That you have had, or that you might come up with.

Tania: In my case, Playing with cards… learning vocabulary…For example

I’ve got a card with a lamp and I have to describe it and the rest has to guess.



51

David: Look for lyrics, singing, acting, and performing.

Rodrigo: I think that acting is a good way for learning English. In my case it

was a different way to learn English, I went to Australia and I was inserted in

the culture… so I don’t remember having fun activities to learn the language,

not in the way that you do it here.

Monica: I like vocabulary games… for example in one minute you have to find

many words in English. Brain storm… quick games. We can adapt games.

In general terms, games, songs, writing.

Cristian: Not all people like games, not all people like singing or writing.

Monica: An extra question. What are the old fashion things when it comes to

teach English? May be at school or… at University.

Tania: Listening and repeating, listening at the tapes, the old ones.

Cristian: Those are good for testing not for teaching.

Monica: And how do you think here teachers relate language and culture? Do

you think they do it or…?

Tania: Some teachers do it.

Rodrigo: But how can you incorporate culture? What you mean? Like

accent…

Cristian: Yeah...culture includes accent, words in terms of the language.



52

Jeniffer: I think we were thinking about culture in teaching English…but as a

whole in general.

Cristian: Let’s say we have a couple of subjects…we have literature,

American literature, British…culture… but those are teachers of history but

not culture itself. Like costumes…food and everything.

Rodrigo: I think that to teach the culture you have to know the culture, you

have to live it, you have to experience it….all those kinds of things that you

have to live and you have to pass them on. You just can’t learn the culture

you have to live it yourself…I don’t know it’s my personal point of view.

Cristian: So, is it necessary then to learn a culture to learn a language?

Rodrigo: Not necessarily, because… that’s way I’ve been asking about your

teachers… have they been overseas? To learn the culture not just to know

about it but experience it. I think that to bring the culture into the classroom is

pretty cool.

Cristian: The problem is that teachers don’t share their experiences and say

America is such and such…even though they have been there.

Tania: May be there are some teachers that do share their experiences with

students.

Cristian: Though sometimes it’s a pity that students don’t take advantage of

our experience…there are many things that we would like to share… but we,

as students are always complaining and do not take the opportunity to learn

new things.



53

Here have come many volunteers from overseas and we never take

the chance as a career to go and work with them, they haven’t come to the

University, either.

David: But why they haven’t come to the University? It would be a good

opportunity to share.

Jeniffer: But it’s always the same people that participates, no one never goes

to the activities that the career organises. You see…and we are always

complaining.

Tania: And when it’s the time to make a change we don’t do it. For example

when they take people from other countries they say ask questions, but they

don’t do it…I mean… We don’t.

David: I don’t know why everyone is so afraid of asking questions.

Tania: May be they think that the foreign speaker, the native speaker is going

to make fun of them.

Rodrigo: I don’t think so…the foreign speaker would be the last one who

would ever make fun… of you...it’s your class itself that makes fun. A native

speaker would never make fun. I’m hundred percent sure, it’s the fear that

you create.

Cristian: Do you think we should learn culture?

David: Yeah… it would be interesting.

Cristian: It’s another approach.



54

Rodrigo: If I ask… how do you describe the Australian culture, how would you

do that?

Cristian: I would make a comparison with our culture, because they know this

one. And at least we were living in another place for six months so we can

say what we saw and the things they have and the ones that we have. For

example, values respect… environment there are many things, but we also

have values that can share as Chilean culture.

David: Once we had a class that was related to culture it was “cultural shock”

and the teacher showed us some pictures and talked about that place. It was

a good class.

I think it would be a good idea of bringing the volunteers to talk to us

and share some information because we don’t have much opportunity to talk

among ourselves because we feel ashamed.

Cristian: Any final suggestion? Has it been productive today?

(The group agrees)

So, that would be it. Thank you very much for coming

End of Session: 18:02



55

Analysis



56

vi.i . - Focus Group

Participants highlight that teachers were not so good when they

(participants) were studying at primary and secondary, putting this argument

as one of the main reasons that would lead future ESOL professors change

things and help new generations learning the language.

The students feel motivated because they like language and the fact of

them becoming bilingual makes them feel even more eager to learn L2. Apart

from this, they also want to improve education in Chile, by including new

techniques that bring the best out of their future learners and eliminating the

“old-fashioned work” that some teachers still do nowadays. In addition to this,

students also think about the fact of communicating with people from all over

the world that speak English, opening doors to new opportunities for future

development and self-improvement regarding the language.

Participants mentioned the term “globalisation” and how important is to

be bilingual; they make reference that English has become the greatest

language when communicating with different people and they think it is

necessary to know about diverse cultures, the way world is heading and how

people are managing the language, how they learn it and use it.

The participants declare that both “Culture and language are

connected”. If you learn and then teach a language, you need to be based in

a certain culture so that there is a context and not only this, they also state

that even though it is easier to learn a language when you are kid students at

their age can still learn and get proficiency when learning the new language.

They also make reference to the special abilities that some students may



57

have and that they can learn without difficulty some things than other

students.

So far, we encountered that most of the variables that were mentioned

in the theoretical framework are already familiar with the students that study

English at the University of Magallanes. Even though, as all this theory has

not been practiced in real life context, they only have the motivation and will

to take over all these problems in their labour future. They refer to the way

how they were taught the language and things that they would and would not

like to do in the future, proposing some activities that are certainly not new,

but even so not put into practice.

The participants really want to communicate with native speakers and

learn more vocabulary as well as pronunciation, but not giving too much

importance to grammar.



58

vi.ii . - General Analysis

In general, it is believed that teachers need to look for adequate

techniques in order to motivate students. It is important for teachers, if

they want to do a good job, to look for new methods, to talk with their

students, to find out their interests and needs in order to motivate them

learn the language. Motivation is an essential issue to take into

account. It is our job to invite our students to learn and improve

themselves, but how?

First of all, the disposition the educator has is absolutely

important because students can notice everything in the environment.

As it was dealt during the development of this investigation, there are

several methods which can help them find new ideas to encourage

them get interested in the target language and its culture. The students

that participated during the focus group mentioned listening and

speaking activities as the most important areas to reinforce, and in fact,

as mentioned before, speaking and listening activities are the ones

able to help learners to improve their English and, combined with other

tasks, become familiar with the culture.

Teachers need to find attractive activities which can make

students feel interested in learning the language and thus its culture.

Some activities mentioned in the research were role play, discussions

and the use of authentic material, either texts, videos or others which

will assist them in practising the majority, if not, all of the skills. Those

kinds of resources would be necessary if we as teachers want them to

be better and take advantage of their learning capacity.



59

There is not excuse to not working with diverse techniques,

because as we have realised during the development of this

investigation, we can create varied, different and interesting activities

no matter the level of our students. The key is just to adapt activities

and material to the needs of the class.

Nevertheless, it will never be absolutely sure whether activities

will work or not because people and classes are always different, but

actually that is what makes the work of a teacher so fascinating. You

never know what would happen, but you have to try as many methods

as you can because that is what makes a class attractive and that is

what makes teachers know their students’ necessities and interests.

However, it is needed to avoid those activities which, according

to the students themselves, are “boring” and helpless, such as “listen

and repeat”. What students need is to be part of the language and use

it. Most of the time, it gets necessary to remember the importance of

English and the reasons to teach it. Teachers must be reminded that

English is basically used to communicate. Then why making our

students work with “old-fashioned” tasks that the only thing they obtain

is getting them bored of it? The challenge is to motivate them, and

there are several methods presented in this research as well as

opinions given by the students themselves.

Then, what happens with culture in the classroom? Well, even

though this research presents a huge variety of activities and methods

proposed by researches who, as well as us, are committed to find new

techniques, it is important to consider that creativity is the answer to do

it. As it was mentioned, educators can mix listening or speaking

activities with a given aspect of culture for example. They can ask



60

students to investigate because apart from encouraging them to be

autonomous, the teacher will know more about their likes. Different

activities may be adapted according to the students’ level, and in the

case of beginners, it is important for learners to count on their teacher’s

support and guidance.

In the following paragraphs the researchers will be analysing some of

the information that led them to the whole process of the final results.

Being bilingual brings many different advantages in different

areas such as the cultural, social and cognitive aspects, it also helps

with people’s self-esteem, especially when you are bilingual at an early

stage (childhood) when kids are building their personalities. It also

opens the door to other cultures and helps to understand and

appreciate people from other countries, building international

communities, friends, families and even colleagues. It gives a head

start in language requirements for University in Chile. Depending on

the career the student is going to follow; nowadays most of the original

materials and resources are in English, therefore knowing the

language would give a plus when studying and developing in these

professional areas. At the same time, being bilingual has a positive

effect on intellectual growth, enriching and enhancing mental

development. As some research has proved, knowing two languages

help our brain to constantly work and hence it prevents its

“malfunction” or failure in the last years of our lives.

Referring to curricular advantages, it increases job opportunities

in many careers where knowing another language is a real asset. In

our national context, thanks to the Reform of the Education and the

development of the English Language Programmes, it is almost a must



61

to learn the language so that in the future, all the professionals can

have better performance in each of the working areas.

It also gives the ability to communicate with business people in

English speaking countries, opening many doors to foreign products

from the more developed countries. Now, it is important to motivate the

practice of the English language in schools where little children attend,

because it leaves students with more flexibility in thinking, greater

sensitivity to language, and a better ear for listening, hence improving

the more natural understanding of this foreign language.

To become bilingual people have to be exposed to real context;

the best example would be going to a foreign country and practice it by

yourself with native speakers of the tongue. People do not speak a

language until they really communicate something and reverse; if

people understand the message, then you are communicating.

Knowing isolated words, having a good pronunciation or grammar,

does not make anyone bilingual, even though they are the basic steps

in order to become one. Unfortunately our context does not make

travelling an easy task to do, due to our geographical location and our

neighbouring fellow countries. Therefore, in our own reality, bringing

native English speakers would be the closest to real useful context in

order to prove how prepared we are with the language. Although it is

not completely effective in comparison to being inserted in an English

Speaking country, it reduces the impact that causes the face-to-face

practice of the language.

Globalisation is the key term when referring to the great

expansion of the English language around the world. People need to

communicate with one another for several reasons: to do business, to

travel, to call or visit their families living in other countries or simply just



62

because they want to learn other languages as a hobby. Most of the

times we have to use English to achieve our purposes, in view of the

fact that this language has become sort of a single internationally

means of communication used by everyone, everywhere.

English has become the Lingua Franca of the world despite the

fact that the largest country in terms of population is China. Even

though, United States, England, Australia, Canada and other large

powerful countries dominate the huge market that involves all the

countries in the world have as their main language English. Apart from

this, technology plays an important role when uniting the world. Internet

is the best example of how the globe converses nowadays. Businesses

have e-mails, blogs, their own Web Pages and almost all these sites

have their own English version so that everybody around the world has

the possibility to see what they have to offer.

In relation of suggestion for acquiring the new language,

students always have new and better ideas when learning it, they want

to get the best of their abilities and help changing the way they have

been taught before. For example students from the University of

Magallanes state that they are learning English because they like it and

mainly because they want to change the Chilean education of English

by giving ideas of learning the language through more interactive

activities that might help students to communicate and learn the

language in a more interesting way.

Most of the time students get bored with the activities that are

provided in the classroom and it is important to give emphasis to the

development of all the skills and the interests of the students. However,

it is not the same for those learners that are studying to become ESOL

teachers, because the motivation is already within their studies and



63

they need to learn the language as a whole, which means learning

grammar, phonetics, culture, intonation as well as a great vocabulary.

This does not mean that they cannot have interesting and fun activities

in their education process, but they need to study more and get really

involved with the language and its culture. Therefore, it is of great

relevance to have interactive activities, but there always has to be a

balance having in mind the connection of the skills as well as the

participation of the students with the language in a deep context.

The activities that are mentioned by the students make

reference to the development of the listening skills. Unfortunately few

opportunities does the university provide so the problem is that

students do not listen to real English very often. Therefore, they do not

feel prepared to interact with native speakers.

A second language can be taught in many different ways, as

any other subject, the important issue is to see the interest of the

students as well as the motivation provided by the teacher. Activities

such as talking to native speakers and listening to real English are

some of the tasks that the English Career at the University of

Magallanes lacks of, and learners really need to interact with people

that speak the language in a appropriate way so they can get use to

communicate which means understanding and giving good messages

in English to native as well as non native speakers.

The learning of a new language helps you to communicate and

have a wider connection with the rest of the world. Therefore, students

have many stimuli to learn a new language, especially those learners

that are studying to become ESOL teachers, because they have a

notion of the advantages that this language may bring.



64

As it was mentioned above, students are motivated to study the

language because they want to make a difference and improve the

way in which English is or was taught. Many interesting programmes

have been incorporated in the English career curriculum, so that,

students really feel engaged and they participate with more enthusiasm

in the classes; it is also an excellent opportunity to motivate high

school students to join the career and learn the language.

Future ESOL teachers already have the motivation when they

start studying English at University. Nevertheless, what happens within

the time? Are they still so motivated to continue studying the

language?

Through the time students may get bored of the activities and

the dynamic that the teachers of University as well as infrastructure

supply, or they just lose motivation for the language. Therefore,

motivation not only relies on the teacher’s enthusiasm but also the

initiative of the students for learning the language, because they need

to learn every time more and more about the language and everything

it brings with it. So, ESOL teachers have the endless task of learning

the language and also its culture. For example, there is always the

opportunity to watch the news and movies, because as it was

established by the students in the focus group, it is very difficult to

acquire a culture if you are not part of it, so if an ESOL teacher cannot

be part of the culture of the language being studied they have to find

the way to connect everything and be prepared to teach their students

the culture.

Starting learning a new language depends on the motivation

that the students have, for example learners may not like the language.

As a result, they will never understand or even practise it. However, as



65

it has been stated above, future ESOL teachers already have the

motivation, consequently the methods and techniques they used to

learn the language are easier to describe, and in a way it is simpler for

them to acquire the language as well as the culture.

Some of the students mentioned that they acquired the

language by listening to different songs and also by watching movies.

Those are very good and efficient resources to learn the language, but

to learn it and to be proficient requires hard work because language

demands developing the four skills in addition to vocabulary. ESOL

teachers must demonstrate that they can communicate with native

speakers as well as giving meaningful messages to the listener.

Therefore, the activities learners used at the beginning to acquire the

new language have to be developed and they must be more

challenging as time goes by.

Students mentioned that to learn a second language, first you

need to speak it and also comprehend it; it means that you have to

develop your listening skills and from then on one can start developing

new skills such as reading and writing.

It is common to see that there are some students that spend

many years trying to acquire a proficient level of English and for some

others it is easier and they can communicate in a very short time in the

target language with native speakers; according to our research, we

could deduce that everything depends on the ability a person has

when learning the new language, it is also important to consider the

effort that this person makes in the work of learning a language.

Some students declared that L2 learning might be easier when

you start practicing in the earlier stages. However, according to our

research, we could realize that there is no age for learning the



66

language, it is obvious that it might be a bit easier for younger people

but at University it is still a very good age to acquire the language.

We can see that when students start studying at the University

they have many differences referring to level of English and teachers

can actually see a great contrast among students’ language skills

making the professors’ tasks even more difficult to carry out. Even

though, the more complex tasks can be successfully achieved if the

students are properly motivated, regardless their differences in level of

English, skills and their own personal goals. The professors must

address all the different variables to have a successful learning

environment.

When learning a new language students are provided with

different activities that help them understanding the new language, but

sometimes the problem is to know how to encourage students to

participate and interact among themselves. Teachers at University may

bring activities that are related to the development of speaking skills,

which students themselves say they lack of, but they refuse to

participate in the class due to several reasons. For example, they feel

ashamed of making mistakes in front of their classmates when

speaking, hence they do not take advantage of the activity. Therefore,

the activities must be directed towards creating a proper or suitable

environment so that the students can have an effective lesson, both

learning and enjoying, when developing any of the skills.



67

Conclusions and Final Comments



68

vii . – Conclusions and Final Comments It can be concluded, taking into consideration our own experience and

through the investigations and field work, that some learners are motivated by

a fascination with a particular country and therefore they begin to learn the

language spoken in that country. In this case we would definitely teach the

culture of that country as it is also of interest to the students. Nevertheless,

this too poses some problems. For instance, what should be done when the

language is spoken in many countries (as in the case of English) and the

culture changes from place to place? Here, a more general approach must

prevail at the expense of teaching culture.

Apart from the reason above, we must consider the fact that other

learners study for professional reasons; they need the language in order to

find employment. In this case it is highly important to teach the culture which

corresponds to the target language. For example, if business English is being

taught, the students also need to know business etiquette and style. This

could be called the culture of the target language.

Now, How can ESOL teachers include culture teaching in an English

lesson? We have to say that this depends if the teacher is a native speaker or

not. If the teacher IS a native speaker then the cultural indoctrination of the

students happens almost by accident, i.e. pronunciation, word stress, linking,

weak forms, register and collocation are all influenced by culture. Therefore,

these cultural particulars are taught in a very natural way by the native

speaker. Native speakers have an advantage because they look from within

a culture towards the outside. Non-native speakers will always look from the

outside in, for this reason it is very important the use of authentic materials,

being an imperative for teaching culture. If the teacher is not a native speaker

this process becomes more difficult. The culture can be more easily



69

accessed by a non-native speaker if the individual has spent time living

abroad (obviously in a country where the target language is spoken).

To finish with the conclusions we must state that being bilingual

involves knowing not only two languages, but also the understanding and

acquisition of the target culture. Even though, at the same time it makes us

think that true bilingualism is almost impossible. Culture and language are

inseparable - they are practically synonyms - otherwise all English speaking

countries would speak the same "brand" of English, and it certainly does not

happen.

Not only does geography affect language, but time also affects a

nation's language; a true bilingual needs regular contact with both target

languages in the relevant cultures, a language will evolve with the culture with

the passing of time.

Is biculturalism a new approach for modern teachers? Perhaps for

some people is an ideal situation, but the reality tells us that not always this is

possible. Apart from the financial and social implications of straddling two

cultures there is the L1 and C1 issue. We will never be as American as we

are Chilean - this will never change even if we lived the rest of our lives in

New York.

However, using as much authentic material as possible will definitely

become a closer step teaching culture, but if you are trying to teach Australian

culture, the authentic material obviously needs to come from Australia,

otherwise it is not going to teach Australian culture. This is good in theory,

but in practice, it could prove a very intensive and expensive resource. We as

ESOL teachers need to get the students listening to the pronunciation, stress,

intonation, weak forms, linking of the target language. We cannot go past



70

realia – again the real resources are the best. Bring in “Aussie stuff” if you're

teaching “Aussie culture”. Play “Yankee” songs as listening exercises when

teaching American English. If a native speaker is not teaching, find a native

speaker and bring them into the class. As ESOL teachers we must move the

students toward the “real English” and that is approaching them to the

corresponding culture.



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viii. - Bibliography

• ACTFL. (s.f.). About us: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign

Languages. Retrieved September 23, 2007, from ACTFL:

http://www.discoverlanguages.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3652

• BBC. (s.f.). About us: BBC Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved

October 23, 2007, from BBC Web site:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3794479.stm

• Chou, Y.-L. (2004). Compliments: Integrating Cultural Values Into Oral

English Classes. The Internet TESL Journal .

• Courses, I.-t.-I. T. (2006). About us: I-to-I TEFL Corporation. Retrieved

December 3, 2007, from I-to-I TEFL Web Site:

http://www.onlinetefl.com/about-tefl/glossary.html

• Cullen, B., & Sato, K. (2000). Practical Techniques for Teaching

Culture in the EFL Classroom. The Internet TESL Journal.

• Handford, M. (2002). About us: Notiingham.ac.uk. Retrieved November

4, 2007, de Nottingham Linguistic Circular:

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/nlc/handford.pdf

• Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching (3rd

Edition ed.). The UK: Longman Handbooks for Language Teaching.

• Kilickaya, F. (2004). Authentic Materials and Cultural Content in EFL

Classrooms. The Internet TESL Journal .



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• Kodotchigova, M. A. (2002). Role Play in Teaching Culture: Six Quick

Steps for Classroom Implementation. The Internet TESL Journal .

• Lange, D. L. (1998). The Teaching of Culture in Foreign Language

Courses.

• Lanternfish. (2007). About us: ESL teachers in Asia and North America

Group. Retrieved December 4, 2007, from Lanternfish Web Site:

http://bogglesworldesl.com/glossary.htm

• Lybeck, K. (2002). Cultural Identification and Second Language

Pronunciation of Americans in Norway. Modern Language Journal ,

174.

• Norris-Holt, J. (2001). Motivation as a Contributing Factor in Second

Language Acquisition. The Internet TESL Journal .

• Ming- Mu kou (1999) Linguistics across cultures: The impact of culture

in second language learning.

• Organization, I. T. (2007). About us: Teach English as a

Second/Foreign Language Organisation. Retrieved December 3, 2007,

from Teach English as a Second/Foreign Language Web Site:

http://www.teflcertificatecourses.com/tefl-articles/eflteaching-

terminology.html

• Schumann. (2002). Cultural Identification and Second Language

Pronunciation of Americans in Norway. Modern Language , 174.

• Sultan, T., & Servet, C. (2007). Integrating Culture Into EFL Texts and

Classrooms. Research on Youth and Language , 26-33.



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Appendix



74

ix . - Appendix

The unit plan presented here is geared towards English language

learners studying at the upper intermediate and advanced levels. These

lesson plans and activities are aimed to serve as templates for practitioners to

either directly apply in their classrooms or adapt to the appropriate needs and

proficiency levels of their students. (Sultan & Servet, 2007)

Lesson Plans Three Sample Lesson Plans to Teach American Holidays1

Lesson 1: Thanksgiving (50 Minutes) Materials Needed: Pictures (of Turkey, turkey and Thanksgiving celebrations

in the U.S.), Thanksgiving greeting cards, timeline of American Thanksgiving

holiday, Thanksgiving recipes from “Crocker, B. (2001). Betty Crocker’s

cookbook (9th edition). Foster City, CA: IDG Books” (Pages 62, 132, 298 and

417), a metric conversion guide, a poem: “Being Thankful” by Cath available

at http://www.poetspassion.com/mypoem.htm?C=3252, pens/pencils.

Lesson Objectives: At the end of the lesson:

1) The students will have learned “Thanksgiving” and will be able to name at

least two/three American customs attached to it,

2) The students will have expanded their collaborative learning skills through

pair and group work,



75

3) The students will be able to use advanced thinking skills such as

evaluation, synthesis, and analysis, and

4) The students will be able to check their abilities at getting their points

across in speaking and writing, and at comprehension in reading and

listening.

Cultural Context: The students go to the United States for a semester to

study at a language school there to develop their language skills. At the same

time, they have to work part-time at a restaurant to pay for their expenses.

They have been staying with an American family.

Sequence of Activities Warm-up (5 minutes) The teacher asks the students what ‘Turkey’ means? S/he further questions

the students about whether it makes a meaning change or not if ‘T’ is not

capitalized and written in small caps. The teacher, then, shows some ‘Turkey’

and ‘turkey’ pictures to illustrate the difference between these two terms. The

teacher asks the students if they know what ‘turkey day’ means; if they think it

is a special day in Turkey or a holiday related to turkeys. Later, the teacher

shows some pictures from Thanksgiving celebrations and makes it explicit to

the students that it is a holiday celebrated in the United States., when

Americans have turkey as the traditional meal of the day. Then, the class

discusses what they are thankful for, to whom, when and/or where. The

teacher shows a poem, “Being Thankful,” to the students on an overhead

projector and reads it aloud.



76

Activity 1: Info Gap “Timeline of American Thanksgiving Holiday” (15

minutes)

The teacher tells the students to suppose that they are taking an

American culture class at a language school in the States. They will have a

test tomorrow on a timeline of the American Thanksgiving holiday. They took

some notes in class when the teacher was talking about the topic, but they

are missing some information which they have to complete from their

classmates’ notes to study for the test. An information gap activity is

commenced. Each student is given a sheet showing the timeline of the

American Thanksgiving holiday with some information missing. They are

asked to move freely in the class to talk to one another in the target language

to complete their sheets. They are advised to refuse to answer the questions

if they think they have not been asked in a polite manner.

To make the activity more challenging, more than 5 or 6 different

sheets are produced, which makes it necessary for each student to talk to at

least 5 or 6 students. Since most of the students have different information on

their pages, it is not likely that the students will ask the same and/or simple

questions such as “What’s missing in number 2?” They have to use different

question words and types as well as tenses and structures. The teacher

models what the students are expected to do by interacting with two different

students:

E.g.1) “Hi Murat, how are you? / Can you tell me who resumed the tradition in

1863? / Thanks” (The teacher is missing the subject of the sentence in his/her

sheet: “1863: _______________ resumed the tradition in 1863”)

E.g.2) “Hi Serpil, how’s it going? / I will be glad if you could tell me when the

Pilgrims and Native Americans enjoyed a harvest feast in Plymouth / I

appreciate that. (The teacher is missing the time/year of the event in his/her



77

sheet: “___________: Pilgrims and Native Americans enjoyed a harvest feast

in Plymouth…” When the majority of the students are done, they are asked to

compare their sheets with their classmates in groups of four to see if the

information in the sheets is the same.

Activity 2: Jigsaw “Thanksgiving Dinner” (15 minutes)

The same students taking an American culture class also work at a

chain restaurant in the United States part-time, and they will be preparing

Thanksgiving specials for their customers today. Before they can do so, they

should review some Thanksgiving recipes from a cookbook. A jigsaw activity

is introduced: The students are assigned to teams and each team member is

given a recipe for one part of the dinner (Main dish: turkey with lemon rice;

bread: corn bread; salad: creamy potato salad; dessert: pumpkin pie) to be

experts of these specific dishes. Each student is also given a ‘metric

conversion guide’ since Turkish and American measurement and weight units

are different. After the students skim the recipe they have been given, each

group will have an expert for each food planned. They are free to take notes

(6 min). Then, all experts for a particular food meet to discuss their

understanding of the food (3 min). Once every expert within each expert

group is comfortable with the information, the teams meet again and each

team member shares their knowledge with their team. (6 min)

Activity 3: Making a List of the Ingredients (5 minutes)

For health purposes, some customers might want to know what the

ingredients are for each of these foods. For this reason, the students are

asked to make a list of the ingredients. Then, as the teacher reads aloud the

ingredients from the recipe book, the students check to see if they got them



78

right. This activity serves to see how well the experts were able to share

information with their teams.

Activity 4: Writing a Thanksgiving Greeting Card (10 minutes)

It was a hectic day for the students: an American culture lesson and a

busy day at work (at the restaurant). They still have something to do. Their

host family is waiting for them to be home for a Thanksgiving dinner together.

A Thanksgiving card would be a good way to show their appreciation and to

give them thanks.

The students will be given a chance to pick from a variety of genuine

Thanksgiving cards the teacher has brought to the classroom. Then, they will

be asked to be as specific as possible when thanking their host family for

what they have done so far (6 min). After this, they will read their cards to their classmates in pairs and get some

ideas and comments (4 min).

Activity 5: Homework/Extension

The teacher tells the students that Santa Claus will be visiting their

class in the next lesson. S/he wants them to read the texts ‘Who is Santa?”

and “What is Christmas” before they come to the next class. The students are

already curious to meet Santa.

Evaluation Criteria: The main criterion is the students’ participation in the

activities. Taking an active role in the implementation of activities is a must.

Questions (true/false, comprehension, etc.) and required tasks (role-plays,

writing, etc.) during the activities will help the teacher to offer ongoing



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feedback and will also provide the opportunity to vigorously evaluate the

students.

Lesson 2: Christmas (50 Minutes)

Materials Needed: Santa Claus costume, Christmas story (from Bible), a

stuffed animal (a dog in Santa’s costume), pictures about Christmas (from

“Parish, P. (1986). Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia. New York, NY:

Greenwillow Books”), name tags/cards, tapes/post-it notes, board and

highlighter, online texts at

http://www.theholidayspot.com/christmas/history/index.htm, sample

department store pictures (from “Harris, T., & Rowe, A. (1995). Exploring

English 2. White Plains, NY: Longman”), actual bank checks, store catalogs,

valid coupons (for stores), Christmas greeting cards (with addressed

envelopes), overhead projector, online texts at

http://wilstar.com/holidays/newyear.htm.


1) The students will have learned about “Christmas” and will be able to name

at least two/three American customs attached to it;

2) The students will have learned how to ask for and give information politely;

3) The students will learn some basics about shopping in the United States

such as ‘redeeming coupons’ and ‘writing checks’;


pair and group work; and


across in speaking and writing, and at comprehension in reading and

listening.



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Cultural Context: The students are continuing their stay in the States.

Together with other international friends at school, they go to church as they

are curious to know what it is like. Next, they go to a happy hour organized by

their school. After the happy hour, they decide to go to a department store all

together to shop for Christmas. After all of this fun time, they have to go home

and do their assignment for their American Culture class.

Sequence of Activities

Warm-up (5 minutes)

The teacher comes to class in a Santa Claus costume. He tells the

students that he has been visiting all of the classrooms in the world before

Christmas. He asks them what they know about him and Christmas. He then

asks who Jesus Christ is and what Bible is about. He facilitates the discussion

with some sample pictures about Christmas.

Activity 1: Story-Telling (15 minutes)

The students are supposed to be at a church service in the United

States and the topic is Christ and Christmas. They have to be quiet and listen

to it carefully. If they do not hear or understand something, they should kindly

ask the teacher or a classmate. Santa tells the students that he will be

bringing them to a church service in the States with his reindeers. He will tell

a Christmas story from the Bible and they will understand the real meaning of

Christmas. He also tells the students that the language of the Bible or the

sound system at the church can make it difficult for them to hear or

understand the sentences. For that reason, after each sentence he will stop



81

for a minute and throw the stuffed animal (a dog in a Santa costume) to ask in

a polite manner for the repetition of the whole sentence or specific information

in the sentence. Then, whoever is passed the stuffed animal will answer the

question. If s/he does not know the answer, s/he should pass it to another

student. Although not expected, in case a few students cannot answer, the

teacher will read the same sentence again. This will provide ongoing

feedback and self-evaluation for the students. In addition, as Santa tells the

story, he will make use of illustrations to make the meaning of unknown words

clear (10 min). The teacher models what the students are to do before the story-telling

takes place: He utters a sample sentence like “We will celebrate Christmas

soon” and asks the class:

‘Could you please tell me what you have heard?’ or ‘Can you repeat the

sentence, please?’

‘Could you tell me what will we celebrate soon?’(1 min) At the end of the activity, the students will be asked some basic questions to

check their understanding (4 min).

Activity 2: Christmas Party (10 minutes)

The students are invited to a Christmas party. After the service is done,

they go there for some fun. They do not know any of the people there. They

will introduce themselves, as well as try to get to know others. Each student

will be assigned a name, which has something to with Christmas (Santa,

Christmas Tree, Mistletoe, Poinsettia: Christmas Flower, Christmas Rose,

Reindeer, Christmas Star, Holy: Christmas Green, the Glastonbury Thorn).

Each student will be given a paragraph or two explaining the characteristics of

only their name and what made this name important. After they read the

information given to them, the party will start. Their names (tags/cards) will be

stuck to their foreheads (with tape or post-it notes) so that others can see who



82

they are. The teacher states that all students should try to talk to as many

different people as possible. Since there will be students who are assigned

the same names, the teacher warns them to avoid talking to people with the

same names on their forehead. The main aim is to try to get to know new

people! They will not only keep talking about themselves, but should also ask

questions and listen to others to get to know them better. Interpersonal

relationships are emphasized, so the teacher recommends that the students

approach others in a kind way (5 minutes). The teacher models what the students are supposed to do and starts

the party. After 10 minutes, the party ends. The students are asked what they

have learned about others. The teacher puts everyone’s name on the board,

and the students take turns listing at least one thing under anyone’s name

they have interacted with (5 minutes).

Activity 3: Role Play “Paying for Christmas Shopping” (15 minutes)

After the party, the students decide to go to a department store to buy

Christmas gifts for friends and family. The teacher asks the students if they

like giving and receiving gifts. S/he tells the students that they will go

Christmas shopping at a department store since this is one of the customs.

The teacher asks the students what they think a department store is. To help

the students understand better, the teacher shows the students several

pictures from a department store (furniture, house-wares and appliances,

men’s and women’s apparel and cosmetics) and finally shows a department

store picture showing all of these different sections. Then, the teacher gives

some examples of famous department stores from the students’ countries

such as Gima, Migros and Beğendik (3 min). The teacher gives some basics

about shopping in the United States. The teacher explains the use of coupons

and how to write a check and (where the put the name, date, etc) with the

help of a sample check s/he will shows the students using an overhead



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projector. The teacher tells the students about coupons, which help people to

get discounts when purchasing items.

The teacher mentions to the students that paying in cash is not

common in the United States and that they should write checks or pay by

credit card (3 min). Later, the students are distributed catalogues from a

department store, as well as coupons and checks. First, they are asked to

think about what they want to buy and what coupons they want to redeem for

these items. Then, they will role-play the shopping activity in pairs by taking

the roles of the customer and cashier. The teacher wants the students to be

creative and ask as many questions as they need to for various things. She

reminds them that they have to be kind and ask politely. (2 min) The teacher models what s/he expects the students to do by using

puppets and playing both roles:

A: “Hi, how’re you?”

B: “Great, thanks! What can I help you with today?”

A: “I would like to pay for this fragrance and watch”

B: “Ok, your total is $25.”

A: “Can I redeem this coupon?”

B: “Sure! Your new total is $20. Are you going to pay by credit card or write a

check?”

A: “I will write a check. (S/he writes it) Here you go.”

B: “Thank you. Anything else today?”

A: “No, thank you!”

B: “Do you want the receipt in the bag?”

A: Yes, please. Thank you! Have a nice day!”

B: “You too!” (1 min) Finally, 3 or 4 pairs are encouraged to role-play in front of the class.

They are free to look at their notes (6 min).



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Activity 4: Writing a Christmas Greeting Card (5 minutes)

It is time for the students to go home and do their assignment for their

American Culture class. They are supposed to write a letter to Santa Claus.

The teacher tells the students to imagine that they have to write a

Christmas greeting for Santa as an assignment for the American Culture

class they are taking at a language school in the United States. S/he reminds

the students that Santa would like them to be good boys and girls and to use

polite questions to ask for what they want as a gift for Christmas. S/he then

distributes the greeting cards and addressed envelopes, and tells the

students that s/he will be collecting them to mail to Santa’s address:

Santa Claus, Christmas Cottage, Ho-ho Lane, North Pole

Activity 5: Homework/Extension:

The teacher tells the students that New Year’s is coming and they will

be learning about an American New Year’s. S/he asks the students to visit

http://wilstar.com/holidays/newyear.htm to get a general idea of why people

celebrate the coming of a new year



Questions (true/false, comprehension, etc.) or required tasks (role-plays,

writing, etc.) during the activities will help the teacher to constantly evaluate

the students’ progress and to provide prompt feedback.



85

Lesson 3: New Year’s (50 Minutes) Materials Needed: Pictures of New Year’s celebrations in the United States,

an authentic letter (with a stamped envelope) from an American (Jennifer), a

piece of paper, note cards


1) The students will have learned about New Year’s and will be able to name

at least two or three American customs attached to it;

2) The students will be able to use advanced thinking skills such as

evaluation, synthesis, and analysis;

3) The students will have learned how to ask for and give information politely;


pair and group work; and


across in speaking and writing, and in comprehension in reading and

listening.

Cultural Context: The students come back to Turkey to spend the New

Year’s with their family and friends. A few days later, they receive a letter from

one of their American friends in the United States. They should write this

friend back before they meet their friends at a café.

Sequence of Activities

Warm-up (5 minutes)

The teacher asks the students what they have discovered in the

readings about New Year’s. Then, the students discuss what “new year”

means to them. The teacher shows the students some pictures of New Year’s

and its celebrations in the United States, and asks the students where they

think these pictures are from and why.



86

Activity 1: Reading a Letter (15 minutes)

The students are back home in Turkey to spend New Year’s with their

families. They have made many American friends during their stay in the

United States and one of their friends has sent them a letter for New Year’s.

The teacher tells the students to read the letter they have has just

received from their friend living in the United States. Before they start reading

(silent), they have to guess the answers to a true/false exercise (2 min). Then, they can read and see if they have the correct answers. It is not

anticipated that the students will have difficulty in understanding the letter

since their friend gave the meanings of the unknown words in parentheses as

s/he knew that they would not know some words (7 min). When the students

are done, they are going to give answers to a set of questions about the

letter. As they try to find answers, they are free to scan through the text (6 min).

Activity 2: Writing a Letter (15 minutes)

The students should send a reply to their friend’s letter. The students

are put in pairs to discuss how Turkish people celebrate the New Year before

they are asked to write a response to Jennifer’s letter (2 min). The teacher tells them that the letter should be at least 2-3 paragraphs

long and it should provide information about how Turkish people celebrate the

New Year with examples. The students are advised to write their letters on a

separate piece of paper since they will randomly exchange the letters with

their classmates when they are done (3 min). Each student will evaluate their partner’s letter in regard to the criteria

given by the teacher in advance: “Does it give examples of at least two/three

things Turkish people do for fun on New Year’s Eve and/or day?; Does it talk



87

about any special food Turkish people eat for New Year’s?; Are there any

examples of special occasions which take place on New Year’s, such as

religious events, games, parades and television programmes?’; Is the tone of

the letter friendly? (Can you see language functions such as greeting,

thanking and farewell?)” (5 min) The students are then encouraged to share what they have read. The

students report the class on their classmates’ letters; what they have found to

be interesting, if they have learned something new, etc. (5 min).

Activity 3: Meeting with Friends (15 minutes)

After they write the letter and mail it, the students will meet their

friends, who they have not seen for a few months. They will want to know

about the United States and the differences between Turkish and American

cultures. The main topic of interest in the conversation will be holiday

customs. The teacher tells the students to discuss in groups of four what New

Year’s customs they have in Turkey, as well as Turkish cultures (4 min). Next, each group is given a note card with an American New Year’s

custom on it. They are asked to compare and contrast this custom to theirs in

their groups: Is it similar, same or totally different? In what ways? (6 min) One

person from each group will report on what they have discussed in their

groups (5 min).

Activity 4: Homework/Extension:

The students are asked to do a project work or portfolio in any style

and format to present what they have learned from the unit. They are given

some ideas: For instance, they can design a newspaper or a holiday guide for

tourists. They are encouraged to synthesize the information passed on to

them through the study of the unit and to be as creative as possible. Pair or



88

group work is promoted, but individual projects are accepted as well. This will

be a cultivating activity for the students and will make up some portion of the

total evaluation and assessment.



Questions (true/false, comprehension, etc.) or required tasks (role-plays,

writing, etc.) during the activities will assist the teacher in assessing the

students and providing feedback.



89

x . - Glossary

The following glossary includes a compilation of terminology used in

the TESOL world and the terms were used and mentioned in the Thesis work

presented. 18

Academic language: language used in the learning of academic subject

matter in formal schooling context; aspects of language strongly associated

with literacy and academic achievement, including specific academic terms or

technical language, and speech registers related to each field of study.

Accent: This can mean word stress - control has the accent on the second

syllable but we use it to mean the pronunciation used by some speakers - a

regional or class accent.

Acculturation: The process of adapting to a new culture. This involves

understanding different systems of thought, beliefs, emotions, and

communication systems. Acculturation is an important concept for

understanding S.L.A., since successful learning is more likely when learners

succeed in acculturating.

Acquisition: A term used to describe language being absorbed without

conscious effort; i.e. the way children pick up their mother tongue. Language

acquisition is often contrasted with language learning. The internalization of

rules and formulas which are then used to communicate in the L2. For some

researchers, such as Krashen, 'acquisition' is unconscious and spontaneous,

and 'learning' is conscious, developing through formal study. 18http://www.onlinetefl.com/about-tefl/glossary.html http://bogglesworldesl.com/glossary.htm http://www.teflcertificatecourses.com/tefl-articles/eflteaching-terminology.html



90

Aids to Teaching: (a) Visual: Blackboard, whiteboard, overhead projector,

realia, posters, wall charts, flipcharts, maps, plans, flashcards, word cards,

puppets. (b) Electronic: Tape recorder, TV or video player, computer, CD

Rom, language laboratory.

Applied Linguistics: The study of the relationship between theory and

practice. The main emphasis is usually on language teaching, but can also be

applied to translation, lexicology, among others.

Aptitude: The specific ability a learner has for learning a second language.

This is separate from intelligence.

Assessment standards: Statements that establish guidelines for evaluating

student performance and attainment of content standards; often include

philosophical statements of good assessment practice (see performance

standards).

Attitudes: Learners possess sets of beliefs about language learning, target

culture, culture, teacher, learning tasks, etc. These beliefs are referred to as

attitudes. They influence learning in a number of ways

Authentic Language: Real or natural language, as used by native speakers

of a language in real-life contexts; not artificial or contrived for purposes of

learning grammatical forms or vocabulary.

Authentic Materials: Unscripted materials or those which have not been

specially written for classroom use, though they may have been edited.

Examples include newspaper texts and TV broadcasts.

Biculturalism: Near native like knowledge of two cultures; includes the ability

to respond effectively to the different demands of these two cultures.



91

Bilingual instruction: Provision of instruction in school settings through the

medium of two languages, a native and a second language; the proportion of

the instructional day delivered in each language varies by the type of the

bilingual education programme in which instruction is offered and the goals of

said programme.

Bilingualism: Being able to communicate effectively in two or more

languages, with more or less the same degree of proficiency.

Body language: The gestures and mannerisms by which a person

communicates with others.

Cognate: Cognates are words from different languages which are related

historically; for example, English bath - German bad or English yoke - Hindi

yoga. Beware of False Friends however.

Collocation: The tendency for words to occur regularly with others: sit/chair,

house/garage.

Communication Strategies: Strategies for using L2 knowledge. These are

used when learners do not have the correct language for the concept they

wish to express. Thus they use strategies such as paraphrase and mime: See

learner strategies and production strategies.

Communicative Approaches: Approaches to language teaching which aim

to help learners to develop communicative competence (i.e., the ability to use

the language effectively for communication). A weak communicative

approach includes overt teaching of language forms and functions in order to

help learners to develop the ability to use them for communication. A strong

communicative approach relies on providing learners with experience of using

language as the main means of learning to use the language. In such as

approach, learners, for example, talk to learn rather than learn to talk.



92

Communicative Competence: The ability to use the language effectively for

communication. Gaining such competence involves acquiring both

sociolinguistic and linguistic knowledge (or, in other words, developing the

ability to use the language accurately, appropriately, and effectively).

Communicative Functions: Purposes for which language is used; includes

three broad functions: communicative, integrative, and expressive; where

language aids the transmission of information, aids affiliation and belonging to

a particular social group, and allows the display of individual feelings, ideas,

and personality.

Communicative Language Teaching: An approach concerned with the

needs of students to communicate outside the classroom; teaching

techniques reflect this in the choice of language content and materials, with

emphasis on role play, pair and group work, among others.

Comprehensible Input: When native speakers and teachers speak to L2

learners, they often adjust their speech to make it more comprehensible.

Such comprehensible input may be a necessary condition for acquisition to

occur.

Comprehensible Output: The language produced by the learner (the

'output') may be comprehensible or incomprehensible. The efforts learners

make to be comprehensible may play a part in acquisition.

Content Words: Words with a full meaning of their own; nouns, main verbs

(i.e. not auxiliary or modal verbs), adjectives and many adverbs. Contrasted

with structure words.

Content-based E.S.L.: A model of language education that integrates

language and content instruction in the second language classroom; a

second language learning approach where second language teachers use



93

instructional materials, learning tasks, and classroom techniques from

academic content areas as the vehicle for developing second language,

content, cognitive and study skills.

Context: The 'context' of an utterance can mean: a) 'situational context' - the

situation in which the utterance is produced; b) 'linguistic context' - the

linguistic environment (the surrounding language).

Contextualization: Placing the target language in a realistic setting, so as to

be meaningful to the student.

Cooperative/Collaborative Group: A grouping arrangement in which

positive interdependence and shared responsibility for task completion are

established among group members; the type of organizational structure

encouraging heterogeneous grouping, shared leadership, and social skills

development.

Competence: Ability to function according to the cultural rules of more than

one cultural system; ability to respond in culturally sensitive and appropriate

ways according to the cultural demands of a given situation.

Culture: The sum total of the ways of life of a people; includes norms,

learned behaviour patterns, attitudes, and artefacts; also involves traditions,

habits or customs; how people behave, feel and interact; the means by which

they order and interpret the world; ways of perceiving, relating and

interpreting events based on established social norms; a system of standards

for perceiving, believing, evaluating, and acting.

Dialect: The regional variety of a language, differing from the standard

language, in grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation or idiomatic usage.



94

Direct Method: The most common approach in TEFL, where language is

taught through listening and speaking. There may be little or no explicit

explanation dealing with syntax or grammatical rules, nor translation into the

mother tongue of the student - inductive learning rather than deductive.

Discourse: Unit of language greater than a sentence: language in action or

performance communicatively.

EFL: English as a Foreign Language – English language programmes in

countries where English is not the common or official language. It is used in

American university programmes where international students study English

although the use of the word “foreign” is now avoided in some schools

because of its xenophobic connotations.

ELF: English as Lingua Franca. It is worth noting that ESL and EFL

programmes also differ in the variety of English which is taught; "English" is a

term that can refer to various dialects, including British English, North

American English, and others. Students studying EFL in Hong Kong, for

example, are more likely to learn British English, whereas students in the

Philippines are more likely to learn American English. For this reason, many

teachers of EFL now emphasize teaching English as an international

language (EIL), also known as English as a lingua franca (ELF).

ESL: English as a Second Language – English language programmes in

countries where English is the dominant or official language. Programmes

designed for non-English-speaking immigrants in the USA are ESL

programmes.

ESOL: English to Speakers of Other Languages–a term often used to

describe elementary and secondary English language programmes. It is

sometimes used to distinguish ESL classes within adult basic education

programmes.



95

Feedback: The response learners get when they attempt to communicate.

This can involve correction, acknowledgement, requests for clarification,

backchannel cues (e.g., "hmmm"). Feedback plays an important role in

helping learners to test their ideas about the target language.

Foreign language: A language which is not normally used for communication

in a particular society. Thus English is a foreign language in France and

Spanish is a foreign language in Germany.

Functions: the things people do through language, for example, instructing,

apologizing, complaining. Functional Approach: A course based on a

functional approach would take as its starting point for language

development, what the learner wants to do through language. Common

functions include identifying oneself and giving personal facts about oneself;

expressing moods and emotions.

Globalisation: It is an imprecise term, which is used to define a series of

partially interlinked economic, technological, commercial, political, social and

cultural processes, which have taken shape during the last decades of the

20th century.

Home language: Language(s) spoken in the home by significant others (e.g.,

family members, caregivers) who reside in the child's home; sometimes used

as a synonym for first language, primary language, or native language.

Idiolect: The individual’s language in a given tongue or code (e.g., ‘English’

for a given American user; ‘Spanish’ for a Mexican one).

Idiom: An expression in the usage of a language that has a meaning that

cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements (e.g., raining

cats and dogs).



96

Input: This constitutes the language to which the learner is exposed. It can

be spoken or written. It serves as the data which the learner must use to

determine the rules of the target language.

Interactional tasks: Tasks which promote communication and interaction.

The idea behind this approach is that the primary purpose of speech is the

maintenance of social relationships: See transactional tasks.

Interference: According to behaviourist learning theory, the patterns of the

learner's mother tongue (L1) get in the way of learning the patterns of the L2.

This is referred to as 'interference'.

Intonation: The ways in which the voice pitch rises and falls in speech.

L1: First language / The mother tongue.

L2: A term used to refer to both foreign and second languages: See foreign

language; second language.

Language practice: Activities which involve repetition of the same language

point or skill in an environment which is controlled by the framework of the

activity. The purpose for language production and the language to be

produced are usually predetermined by the task of the teacher. The intention

is not to use the language for communication but to strengthen, through

successful repetition, the ability to manipulate a particular language form or

function. Thus getting all the students in a class who already know each other

repeatedly to ask each other their names would be a practice activity: See

language use.

Language proficiency: The level of competence at which an individual is

able to use language for both basic communicative tasks and academic

purposes.



97

Language use: Activities which involve the production of language in order to

communicate. The purpose of the activity might be predetermined but the

language which is used is determined by the learners. Thus, getting a new

class of learners to walk round and introduce themselves to each other would

be a language use activity, and so would be getting them to complete a story.

Language variety: Variations of a language used by particular groups of

people, includes regional dialects characterized by distinct vocabularies,

speech patterns, grammatical features, and so forth; may also vary by social

group (sociolect) or idiosyncratically for a particular individual (idiolect).

Learning strategies: These account for how learners accumulate new L2

rules and how they automate existing ones. They can be conscious or

subconscious. These contrast with communication strategies and production

strategies, which account for how the learners use their rule systems, rather

than how they acquire them. Learning strategies may include metacognitive

strategies (e.g., planning for learning, monitoring one's own comprehension

and production, evaluating one's performance); cognitive strategies (e.g.,

mental or physical manipulation of the material), or social/affective strategies

(e.g., interacting with another person to assist learning, using self-talk to

persist at a difficult task until resolution).

Learning styles: The way(s) that particular learners prefer to learn a

language. Some have a preference for hearing the language (auditory

learners), some for seeing it written down (visual learners), some for learning

it in discrete bits (analytic learners), some for experiencing it in large chunks

(global or holistic or experiential learners) and many prefer to do something

physical whilst experiencing the language (kinaesthetic learners).



98

Learning: The internalization of rules and formulas which can be used to

communicate in the L2. Krashen uses this term for formal learning in the

classroom.

Lexical item: An item of vocabulary which has a single element of meaning.

It may be a compound or phrase: bookcase, post office, put up with. Some

single words may initiate several lexical items; e.g. letter: a letter of the

alphabet / posting a letter.

Linguistic Competence: A broad term used to describe the totality of a given

individual's language ability; the underlying language system believed to exist

as inferred from an individual's language performance.

Materials adaptation: Making changes to materials in order to improve them

or to make them more suitable for a particular type of learner. Adaptation can

include reducing, adding, omitting, modifying and supplementing. Most

teachers adapt materials every time they use a textbook in order to maximise

the value of the book for their particular learners.

Materials evaluation: The systematic appraisal of the value of materials in

relation to their objectives and to the objectives of the learners using them.

Evaluation can be pre-use and therefore focused on predictions of potential

value. It can be whilst-use and therefore focused on awareness and

description of what the learners are actually doing whilst the materials are

being used. And it can also be post-use and therefore focused on analysis of

what happened as a result of using the materials.

Materials: Anything which is used to help to teach language learners.

Materials can be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette, a CD-

Rom, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on a

whiteboard: anything which presents of informs about the language being

learned.



99

Motivation: This can be defined in terms of the learner's overall goal or

orientation. 'Instrumental' motivation occurs when the learner's goal is

functional (e.g. to get a job or pass an examination), and 'integrative'

motivation occurs when the learner wishes to identify with the culture of the

L2 group. 'Task" motivation is the interest felt by the learner in performing

different learning tasks.

Multilingualism: Ability to speak more than two languages; proficiency in

many languages.

Multi-media materials: Materials which make use of a number of different

media. Often they are available on a CD-Rom which makes use of print,

graphics, video and sound. Usually such materials are interactive and enable

the learner to receive feedback on the written or spoken language which they

produce.

Native language: Primary or first language spoken by an individual: (See

L1).

Pair Work: A process in which students work in pairs for practice or

discussion. particular career (like law or medicine) or for business in general.

Second language: The term is used to refer to a language which is not a

mother tongue but which is used for certain communicative functions in a

society. Thus English is a second language in Nigeria, Sri Lanka and

Singapore. French is a second language in Senegal, Cameroon and Tahiti:

See foreign language.

Target language: This is the language that the learner is attempting to learn.

It comprises the native speaker's grammar.



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TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language – a term that refers to

teacher training programmes in EFL.

TESL: Teaching English as a Second Language, Canada - national

federation of teachers and providers in Canada.

TESL: Teaching English as a Second Language – a term that refers to

teacher training programmes in ESL.

TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages – a term that is

used to distinguish English language teaching as a professional activity that

requires specialized training. Also refers to the teacher examinations

developed by Trinity College London (Cert.TESOL and LTCL.Dip.TESOL).

TESOL: US-based international association of teachers of English as a

second or foreign language. There are regional affiliates and many countries

have their own affiliated associations.

Text: Any scripted or recorded production of a language presented to

learners of that language. A text can be written or spoken and could be, for

example, a poem, a newspaper article, a passage about pollution, a song, a

film, an extract from a novel or a play, a passage written to exemplify the use

of the past perfect, a recorded telephone conversation, a scripted dialogue or

a speech by a politician. Total Physical Response

Method: Developed by Asher, where items are presented in the foreign

language as ‘orders’, ‘commands’ and “instructions” requiring a physical

response from the learner (e.g., ‘opening a window’ or ‘standing up’ after

being asked, linguistically, to carry out such command).

Variability: Language learners vary in the use they make of their linguistic

knowledge. This can be systematic or unsystematic.

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