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SECOND. INTEREST IN LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY BY GETTING TO KNOW A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND ITS CULTURE Now that we are aware of the way a FL can act as a barrier for international communication and why learning a FL is necessary in a plurilingual world like ours, I am going to continue developing the second part of this topic. I will begin defining what (2.1.) “what culture is”, then (2.2.) "why culture should be taught”, next I will propose (2.3.) how to incorporate culture in the EFL classroom and (2.4.) how to develop students´ cultural awareness and finally, I will give some (2.5.) practical considerations. 2.1. In relation with “what culture is”, it can be defined as a whole of knowledge, lifestyles and customs of a concrete society in an historical moment. It has been widely recognised that culture and language are interrelated and that language is used as the main medium by means of which culture is expressed. 2.2. “Why culture should be taught?” Generally speaking, foreign language programmes tend to set goals which go beyond learning a language, but on developing socio-cultural competence. Based on this, Cultural awareness and expression Competence is the 7th key competence established in the Spanish curriculum. Therefore, some of the main goals when teaching culture to Primary students are: • To be aware of the existence of different culturally-conditioned behaviours. • To understand that social variables, such as the age, sex or social class also influence the ways in which people speak and behave. • To be aware of conventional behaviour in common situations in the target culture. • To avoid stereotypes in the target language. • To stimulate students´ intellectual curiosity about the target language, • and to encourage empathy towards its people. 2.3. How to incorporate culture in the FL classroom Traditionally, approaches and Methods for teaching a foreign language were centred in the study of grammatical rules, avoiding the study of social and cultural rules and norms or the importance of the language within a specific context. Hymes noticed that communication required that student performed certain functions as well. He argued that being able to communicate required more than linguistic competence; it required communicative competence: “knowing when and how to say what to whom”. Therefore, the socio-cultural factor has been a key factor in this evolution. As a result of the role of language as a social practice, new ways of looking at the teaching of language and culture have been suggested. Let me go on describing them, following Claire Kramsch (1993):  Establishing a sphere of “interculturality”. Understanding a foreign culture implies putting that culture in relation with one´s own culture. To teach culture in the foreign language classroom it is necessary to reflect upon both the English and the Spanish culture.  Teaching culture as an interpersonal process. The conception of language as a social practice implies that meaning depends not only on its linguistic context, but also on the socio-cultural background.  Teaching culture as difference. It is important to teach that differences related to a nationality do not only depend on the culture, but on some other factors as well, such as the age, sex, regional accent or social class.  Crossing disciplinary boundaries. The teaching of English language as well as its culture has to be linked with other disciplines such as anthropology and sociology and not only with grammar. 2.4. Some practical considerations First of all, I am going to consider some procedures within the classroom to develop cultural awareness. The teacher should give the students regular opportunities to: • Come into contact with native speakers of other languages in the students´ country (English club) and abroad (Project Lingua) • Work with authentic materials from the countries of the target language where possible (newspapers, books...) In this regard, J. Peck states that “from the first day, teachers are expected to bring in the class posters, pictures and other realia in order to help students develop a ‘mental image’ of the target culture”; • Consider &discuss similarities and differences between our pupils’ culture and others (historical events, history, geography...). • Identify with the experiences and perspective of other cultures. • Cultural problem solving: teach them how to solve cultural problem in specific situations, for instance, in a restaurant Alongside. Singhal (1998). • Encourage students to use not only verbal communication, but non-verbal one, such as gestures and facial expressions, tactile and smelling sensations, ... typical from the target culture. As Flora Davis stated in her book ‘Non-verbal communication’, body movements, gestures and facial expressions are some ways of conveying emotions and information aside from language. Let´s now concentrate on culture-based activities. The main aim of culture-based activities is to increase students´ awareness and to develop their curiosity towards the target culture and their own, helping them to make comparisons among cultures. These comparisons will enrich our students´ own culture and will make them aware of the diversity among cultures. This diversity should then be understood and respected. The topics which these activities should cover, are related to the children's world, so that they become interested in the new culture. Some topics are going to refer to everyday life situations, including songs, rhymes, stories, special festivals and celebrations or to certain geographical or historical aspects. Let's now consider some social, cultural and geographical aspects to work with the students. Some of them are included within the intercultural block of contents, according to the Decree 61/2022: Firstly, some social aspects to teach our students are: • Learn the appropriate social conventions, courtesy formulas, also called formulaic language and sociolinguistic habits and their use in each situation such as Hi/hello; Goodbye/Bye-bye, Thank you/please. • Education aspects such as uniforms and school subjects; • Food and drink in those countries such as English breakfast and their different eating hours. • Housing for instance the fact that in Britain most people live in houses rather than in flats. • Money and the familiarization with British and American money and with the value of sterling pounds and dollars in euros. • Transport: underground also called the tube in the UK or the subway, in USA. The bus is red in UK and white in USA, and taxis are black (black cabs in UK) and yellow cabs in USA. Some activities to work with social aspects in the English classroom may include making contact with real people, for instance older pupils can be encouraged to interview native speakers, writing to pen friends, performing role-plays or working on recipes, to work food and drink. Secondly, some cultural aspects to teach our students are: • Customs and cultural traditions of English speaking countries (*): festivals such as the Bonfire Night or Thanksgiving. • Music such as rock n´roll songs or blues. • Monuments such as Big Ben or the Statue of Liberty. • Introduction to children's literature in English (stories, poems, rhymes and simple dramatization)(*): ex. William Shakespeare. • History (*) such as Henry the VII and his wives. • Sport and the fact that most of them are English borrowings like football, golf and tennis and also typical British sports which are less popular in Spain such as cricket. Some activities may include using Realia; watching Films, television shows, or looking to web sites, photographs, magazines; learning and singing songs, rhymes, telling stories; learning Proverbs, elaborating projects; celebrating British or American festivals in class, like Halloween, Christmas; taking quizzes on Anglo-Saxon culture, being in touch with a pen pal (i.e. A native speaker child who sends presentations and videos telling interesting facts about his/her culture) as eTwinning is part of the Erasmus+ program. Last, but not least, some relevant geographical aspects to teach our students may be: • the Main English speaking countries: using maps students can locate the main English speaking countries where English is the official language; • Main cities and capitals such as London, New York or Sidney; • Interesting facts about the British weather and its influence on landscapes and lifestyles; • and Population or how different cultures, races and religions coexist. Some activities may include using Maps, to locate countries and important cities; also becoming familiar with flags, making puzzles of Great Britain or the USA by cutting its parts into pieces so that students can join them later and also different types of listenings, for instance, listening to a weather forecast while completing a map. As Abraham J.Peck states “Beginning foreign language students want to feel, touch, smell and see the foreign peoples and not just hear their language”. The focus in the language classroom should be on cultural experience. It is important to highlight the use of ICT in the classroom, as a good way to approach culture. Videos, the interactive whiteboard or the Internet are very motivating as they can make easier for us to get in touch with foreign language contexts.