Chapter 2 Literature review
3.2 IECT Instruction and Material Development
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could help facilitate and stimulate Patrick’s English learning interest and attitude by integrating the cultural components into English learning. Jennifer expressed keen interest in the suggestion and after further discussion and more information from her about Patrick’s English proficiency, the researcher obtained her approval and she was in agreement with having Patrick participate in a four-month private tutorial session (dated from April 22, 2014 to August 15, 2014). Additionally, Patrick’s younger sister, Patricia, a seven-year-old first grader, also joined the entire tutorial session and engaged in the learning with Patrick together.
3.2 IECT Instruction and Material Development
The following section will introduce the designing principles, contents and activities, and teaching procedures employed in the IECT instruction.
3.2.1 Designing Principles
The researcher mainly adopted intercultural and cultural-specific perspectives as the guiding principles in the design of the cultural contents. As mentioned before, an intercultural perspective emphasizes “the encounter or interplay of cultures, including attempts to deal with, understand and recognize each other” (Risager, 1998, p.244), and therefore, the contents of the curriculum adopted different
countries as the cultural information sources and included divergent cultural themes to allow the two young learners to compare the cultures with each other. In doing so, the researcher hoped this cross-cultural understanding strategy would not only raise their cross-cultural awareness, but also enhance their English learning motivation and attitude.
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3.2.2 Contents and Activities
Regarding the contents of the material, the researcher adopted the contents and themes derived from grade 1 and grade 2 L1 Han Lin Mandarin textbooks (a textbook that is approved by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan and is widely used in public elementary schools). Two main reasons are behind the researcher’s decision to derive the cultural learning contents from the L1 Mandarin textbook. First, as suggested by several researchers, culture instruction should include the content relevant and
familiar to the learners (see Arries, 1994; Tsai, 2002). They also argue that it is vital to ensure the students to have the parallel understanding between the native and the target cultures. Hence, by teaching students the cultural issues that they have already learned in L1, the researcher can ensure that students would already have the prior knowledge of the cultural content to be taught in English, and the extended cultural learning through English may further strengthen the students’ culture awareness on both the native and target culture. Second, as mentioned previously, the relationship between language and culture is analogous to two sides of the same coin; they are inseparable and deeply embedded with each other. Therefore, an English curriculum that is developed based on the content from the learners’ mother tongue
curriculum—a system that generally involves the exploration of varying levels of native culture, such as its values, beliefs, and behaviors—could help raise learners’
intercultural awareness on both the native and target cultures at a more conscious level. Table 1 summarizes the cultural themes and general objectives of each lesson.
As for the activities used to realize the teaching objectives, the researcher designed various activities suitable for young learners, such as role plays, games, songs, stories, coloring, and other relevant activities commonly seen in the TPR (Total physical Response) methodology. They were used in different units to motivate the
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learners and to build their learning via these activities.
Table 1 Cultural Lesson themes and Learning Objectives ` Lesson and
cultural theme
General Learning objectives
1. Greetings Know different types of greetings that exist in the world.
Understand greeting people being a polite behavior
Recall and state different types of greetings.
Understand different functions of “hello” and
“good-bye”.
Know how to greet in various ways.
Be able to perform natural and appropriate greeting in English.
2. Animal sounds and languages
Compare the differences between the words used to describe different animal sounds in the world.
Understand the fact that animal sounds can be described differently in different languages.
3. School rules (School life)
Recall and state school rules.
Compare and contrast common school rules in both the Western (American and British) and Chinese classrooms.
Understand the cultural fact that students at most American public schools usually wear casual outfits to school. Jeans, t-shirts, flip flops, are very common.
Understand the cultural facts that asking questions is not only allowed, but expected in most American classes.
Understand the basic characteristics of a global citizen (show respect and be responsible).
4. Kids and their toys around the world
Know seven continents.
Develop the concept of “otherness” through understanding kids from different parts of the
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Learn to cherish and love what one has because there are always kids who have less or who belong to the have-nots.
5. Ride a bike
understand the virtue of “never give up” is highly valued in both Western and Chinese cultures.
6. Reading is fun (cultural story)
Know African environment (fruits and animals).
Be able to understand not everyone lives under the same conditions (i.e., understand there are different types of houses, ways of dress, etc.).
7. The Sun and the moon
(cultural story)
Compare and contrast the differences and similarities between the Korean myth and
Taiwanese aboriginal myth about the origin of the sun and the moon.
Understand general cultural facts about Korea, such as geographic location, food, and sport.
8. Fun games around the world
Know and compare different games played by children around the world.
Understand general cultural facts about the UK and Brazil in terms of geographic location, food, and sport.
9. World’s favorite Food
(interesting cultural matters)
Know some of world’s favorite foods.
Know some of the most popular foods in Taiwan.
10. Chinese New Year & Christmas (custom and festival )
Understand certain Chinese New Year and Christmas traditions and customs.
Compare and contrast the two festivals in terms of cultural facts, practices, and perspectives.
Know how to express holiday greetings appropriately.
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3.2.3 Teaching procedures
The teaching session lasted for about four months and there were two sixty- minute sessions each week. For the beginning of each lesson, the learners were asked to read the text from one lesson of the Mandarin textbook. The researcher then asked the learners what the text was about and then introduced the culture learning content.
For example, in the first lesson “Greetings,” after the students read the Chinese text (see Appendix A for all the relevant Chinese texts in the Mandarin textbook), the researcher then asked the questions like “What do you say to your mommy and daddy in the morning?,” “Why do we greet to people?,” “How do people greet in Taiwan?,” and “What do we say and what gesture do we use?” After the learners answered, the researcher then told them that people in other cultures also greet but they may greet differently. It was therefore important for them to learn how to greet in different countries in the following class. Subsequently, the researcher would introduce some key words and sentences for the lesson. After the learners were familiar with the target vocabulary, the researcher then used different sources of materials, such as storybooks, video clips, and pictures associated with the cultural theme to enhance the learning content. Each lesson contained some cultural
comparative activities in which the learners needed to write or to draw the differences between different cultural facts on the comparison chart. The learners were also encouraged to discuss or to give comments in Chinese. During the
instruction, the researcher mainly spoke English but would also use Chinese to give some comments about the culture issues. Appendix B is the lesson plan of lesson one “Greetings,” which demonstrated how the researcher taught the lesson in a step-by-step manner. Other lessons were also carried out in a similar fashion in which every lesson plan includes teaching objectives, targeted words, sentence
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patterns, and teaching procedures.
3.2.4 Validity of the Material
After designing the materials, the researcher gave the lesson plans to one native English speaker and a peer debriefer to examine the “correctness, appropriateness, and meaningfulness” (Ormord, 1999, P. 158) of the matching content. They were also asked to verify whether the designed materials correspond to cultural teaching
principles. The researcher then made modifications based on their comments and suggestions. Finally, to ensure the teaching quality of the instruction, the researcher revised the teaching contents repeatedly and constantly based on the learners’
feedbacks reflected on the feedback sheets (see Appendix C) and also based on problems observed by the researcher herself in the class.